"All that was visible was the mast," says astonished neighbour
A 45ft steel yacht sank whilst her owners slept on a boat moored next to her in Penzance Harbour.
YBW reader Sandi Shiret was sleeping on her Westerly Conway Taransay Mhor in the raft directly in front of the unfortunate boat and sent us a photo of the seemingly empty berth. The only visible sign of the steel yacht, after it sank on May 26, is her mast sticking out of the water.
Luckily no one was on board; her owners were living on the neighbouring blue-hulled boat (pictured) while they restored the steel yacht.
“The night was very windy and F8 winds had been forecast overnight,” Shiret said. “We were awoken just before 2am by the sound of rasping metal and looked out expecting to see a bin being blown along the quayside.”
“It took a moment to register that the yacht nearest to the wall in the raft behind ours had sunk. All that was visible was the mast. Fortunately it was quickly established that no one was on board at the time.”
“The suspected cause of the sinking was that a permanently connected hosepipe used to supply a washing machine on board had come adrift and at some point in the night the bilge pump had stopped working. Divers used airbags and pumps to eventually refloat the boat late on the second day.”