Wednesday, November 26, 2008CDS Uses Sonar to Find Vessel

Commercial Dive Services uses side scan sonar to find missing vessel

While finishing a Goverment Survey using Side Scan sonar, Commercial Dive Services returned to an area where a vessel owned by The Moorings Charter Company had sunk a few months previous.  The previous search had been called off and despite repeated dives to an average depth of 150 feet on numerous targets the vessel was not located and bad weather halted the search.  This time however with flat seas, CDS decided to take advantage of the calmer conditions  to carry out a search. 

Courtesy of WikipediaThe vessel was promptly pinpointed and a GPS taken at a depth of 171 feet. Brett Fairhead called into work to let the Company know of the success and was excited to finally close this search on the vessel, Chris Juredin and Wayne Palmer dived the located vessel a week later to view first hand the yacht which was sitting upright with all sails up and hatches open.

Both Wayne and Chris stated it was "Ghostly and sent shivers".  Chris also commented "my first thought was to inspect the keel for damage and the hull structure" and together the team carried out a survey of the hull, rigging and other aspects which would make this vessel viable for salvage or not at this depth - using liftbags would be dangerous and the team is currently considering using a crane and barge to do the lift. 

As of print the insurance company have not decided their stance on the vessel and Chris feels that at this depth not much has grown on the hull or various working parts of the vessel, only time will tell when the vessel is to be raised in the near future.