Here is an amazing "Throwback Thursday" story for you armchair sailors.
J/24 ITA-85 was built in 1982 by J/Boats Italy in La Spezia, the super yacht building capital of Italy just southeast of Genoa.
In September 2017, this particular J/24 sank on Lago di Garda in a huge storm that produced hurricane force winds of 70 knots in nearly an instant...your basic "microburst". It was a wall of water and wind whistling down out of the famous Italian Alps and ripping down the lake with great ferocity.
The fleet of J/24s racing on Lake Garda were caught nearly without any warning. Most of the fleet got knocked down and got their sails down. But, ITA 85 was caught with their mainsail up and their spinnaker flying. Not surprisingly, getting hit by a 70-knot microburst would flatten any boat.
The J/24 went down in over 240 meters (770 feet) of water with its mainsail "flying" and spinnaker still rigged on deck and spinnaker pole on the mast...exactly as it was set before the sinking. Thankfully, the crew was safe and were immediately rescued.
The boat was salvaged by deep-sea recovery specialists using sophisticated sonar and a submersible ROV (remotely operated vehicle).
Here is the YouTube video of that J/24 rescue.
In short, once the boat was found and marked on GPS, the team waited for a calm day to do the rescue effort. The ROV went down with two ropes with large hooks attached. The ROV's articulating arm attached each hook (one to the forestay and another to a rope loop) and slowly pulled the boat to the surface. Once the mast breached the surface, divers attached inflatable bags all around the boat, inflated them to get the deck above water and pumped her out. Soon after, with mainsail still flying, the boat was towed back to the harbor. After a bit of a clean-up, she was good to go again and is still sailing on Lago di Garda! A true "phoenix arising from the ashes"!
According to J/Boats Italy founder Paolo Boido, "Thanks to Bob and Rod Johnstone who designed such a strong and lovely One-Design boat.
Also, thanks to my team at J/Boats Italy who built the boat, so well-built and strong, able to survive the heavy water pressure in depths of more than 240 mt (770 feet). That's about 23 ATM (atmospheres at sea level) or 341 PSI.
Amazingly, there was no damage to the mast, all shrouds were fine, the turnbuckles all worked, so did all the Harken blocks and even the Harken winches! We were shocked there wasn't more damage. It seems the ice-cold fresh water on Garda acted like a "preservative". The owners were so grateful to the salvage team and love sailing their beloved ITA-85 today!"Add to Flipboard Magazine.
J/24 ITA-85 was built in 1982 by J/Boats Italy in La Spezia, the super yacht building capital of Italy just southeast of Genoa.
In September 2017, this particular J/24 sank on Lago di Garda in a huge storm that produced hurricane force winds of 70 knots in nearly an instant...your basic "microburst". It was a wall of water and wind whistling down out of the famous Italian Alps and ripping down the lake with great ferocity.
The fleet of J/24s racing on Lake Garda were caught nearly without any warning. Most of the fleet got knocked down and got their sails down. But, ITA 85 was caught with their mainsail up and their spinnaker flying. Not surprisingly, getting hit by a 70-knot microburst would flatten any boat.
The J/24 went down in over 240 meters (770 feet) of water with its mainsail "flying" and spinnaker still rigged on deck and spinnaker pole on the mast...exactly as it was set before the sinking. Thankfully, the crew was safe and were immediately rescued.
The boat was salvaged by deep-sea recovery specialists using sophisticated sonar and a submersible ROV (remotely operated vehicle).
Here is the YouTube video of that J/24 rescue.
In short, once the boat was found and marked on GPS, the team waited for a calm day to do the rescue effort. The ROV went down with two ropes with large hooks attached. The ROV's articulating arm attached each hook (one to the forestay and another to a rope loop) and slowly pulled the boat to the surface. Once the mast breached the surface, divers attached inflatable bags all around the boat, inflated them to get the deck above water and pumped her out. Soon after, with mainsail still flying, the boat was towed back to the harbor. After a bit of a clean-up, she was good to go again and is still sailing on Lago di Garda! A true "phoenix arising from the ashes"!
According to J/Boats Italy founder Paolo Boido, "Thanks to Bob and Rod Johnstone who designed such a strong and lovely One-Design boat.
Also, thanks to my team at J/Boats Italy who built the boat, so well-built and strong, able to survive the heavy water pressure in depths of more than 240 mt (770 feet). That's about 23 ATM (atmospheres at sea level) or 341 PSI.
Amazingly, there was no damage to the mast, all shrouds were fine, the turnbuckles all worked, so did all the Harken blocks and even the Harken winches! We were shocked there wasn't more damage. It seems the ice-cold fresh water on Garda acted like a "preservative". The owners were so grateful to the salvage team and love sailing their beloved ITA-85 today!"Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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