Tug towed salvage barge to St. Helier Bay to raise sunken luxury yacht

A 20-man salvage team, including 14 divers, a salvage master, a barge master and a dive master arrived on Jersey in the evening of Dec 17, 2017, and were now co-ordinating the salvage operation for the luxury yacht "P6T2" alongside officers from the Marine Services Team at Jersey Harbours. The "Isa" with a 30-metre heavy lift barge in tow left the port of Antwerp on Dec 16 and expected in the island port on Dec 18. The yacht, which sank in St Aubin’s Bay after striking the Ruaudiere Buoy and was later moved to deeper water off St Brelade’s Bay, still has about 2,000 litres of diesel in its tank. The greatest risk of a fuel leak is during the lifting of the vessel. The salvage operation was due to begin on Dec 19, when the salvage vessels were expected to drop anchor at the scene. The raising of the yacht was due to start on Dec 20 and was expected to take between one and two days. The complex and delicate operation was involving two teams of divers and major assets brought into the Island to assist with the recovery process. This includes a 200-tonne crane and decompression chamber on board the lift barge. For the duration of the operation a maritime exclusion zone was in force, with the western approaches to all commercial and leisure traffic closed as from 8 a.m. on Dec 19. Similarly, a drone exclusion zone will also be in place as from the mornin. Two people were rescued by firefighters on board the service’s inshore rescue boat after the vessel went down within minutes of striking the buoy on the evening of Nov 17. The accident occurred just hours after the RNLI closed the St Helier lifeboat station and took the George Sullivan all-weather lifeboat to Poole following a long-running dispute with the local crew.