Superyacht Stuck Three Years - Now it's the Keel

by Sail-World Cruising on 11 Jan 2009 For the last few years, Sail-World Cruising has been following the bizarre story of the megayacht Legacy, marooned four miles off Florida's Key West since she was deposited there by Hurricane Wilma in October 2005.

Owner Peter Halmos has stayed close in row of houseboats ever since, trying to free the 160ft, $30million yacht. Finally, just over a year ago, in December 2007, we reported that she was finally being skull dragged across the marine sanctuary, to deeper water. But now she is again unable to return to Tampa for repairs for other reasons.

For a long time it was the authorities who didn't allow the removal of the yacht from the sanctuary. Then it was the bent rudder preventing her movement.

Now it's the keel. Legacy has dropped the keel eight metres (26ft) of retractable centre board, weighing nearly 40 tonnes, and it is stubbornly refusing to be lifted.

'There have been times when Peter almost gave up, and now he is so close to success, it must be a bitter blow, ' said a friend this week.

Halmos's PR man Robert Siegfried has always been adamant that he will not give up: 'Peter Halmos plans to stay there until Legacy is salvaged,' he says of the man who made his fortune in the 1970s after founding SafeCard Services. 'That's his most immediate goal. This has grown into a way of life for him.'

This recovery process which succeeded where others failed included creating a channel in front of Legacy by removing the sandy bottom using an auger and pump. The sand was then relocated aft as the yacht moved forward.

A series of cables connected to her hull ran along the initial path of entry cut in the sea grass (almost a mile long), out to a utility boat, and the Helen B. Legacy was pulled several feet at a time by the utility vessel.

During the process, there was a large sand plume leaching out of the yellow containment boom.

The flotilla of houseboats rafted nearby allows Legacy’s owner and crew to remain close by and keep watch over the recovery, at the same time preventing would-be looters.

It's no doubt good news that the yacht is in deeper water, but after more than three years and who-knows-how-much cost, will she ever get any further?