Saturday, January 28, 2006

Oversize Load Ahead

I guess the crew of Brasil 1 thought they were going to sail around the world in the Volvo Ocean Race. Instead the boat is making the 2500 mile trip across Australia from Freemantle to Melbourne by road after she lost her mast 1500 miles off the west coast of Australia.

Yachts and Yachting quotes Charlie Mills the guy responsible for the transport as saying, "I have not transported a boat before but I have transported wind farm blades."

Good luck to him.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not a sight you see everyday... and backing up in that rig must be a bear...

Carol Anne said...

What really boggles my mind is the thought of something like that on a boat ramp! Yeah, I know, they really use a hoist, but still there's that image that popped into my head when I saw the picture.

Pat said...

I guess it's not too much worse than launching an 80-foot houseboat - - except for that darn deep keel.

On the other hand, think of the skill level of the crane operating sticking the mast on the boat ... that must be a high-skill industrial operation. How tall was the mast before the Southern Ocean saw fit to adjust it?

Tillerman said...

The mast of a VO70 is 103 ft above the water. Looks like the (canting) keel was removed before putting the boat on the truck.

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