Thorfinn Chuuk runs aground pix

[Sarah]

Best wishes to the Thorfinn owner and crew on getting their ship refloated and repaired.







Images above possibly by Reef





Images by PalikirPass

[acelockco]

So what is the story behind that boat?

[Archangel]

Ouch. . . that is going to leave a mark!

[seasnake]

Pretty boat ... ummmm ... I don't think it's supposed to do that ...

[Zero]

Isnt there enough wrecks in Chuuk without adding another one?
Not a good thing as i had friends there the other week and they were less than impressed about the land based operator they used. Boats breaking down constantly was a big issue for them but there were many others as well.

Matt

[reefraff]

So what is the story behind that boat?

I don't know how reliable this is:

The Thorfinn has an engine room filling up with water. It came into Pohnpei and loaded up 70,000 gallons of used oil from PUC and there were not enough pilots to have one come aboard on the way out. A pilot was on each of the two ships leading the way and the Thorfinn was following the two lead ships and went on the reef yesterday…

A tug boat from Adams helped keep it upright during the night but after the high tide at 3a.m.; it was not able to get it off the reef. Adams is standing by now with a barge to pump out the oil if called upon to do so. At this point there is not way to save the ship. It is about one mile from the dock and in my estimation will not hurt anything if it goes down where it is located at the moment.

http://www.micsem.org/forum/comments...&page=1#Item_0

Now it's leaking oil:

[acelockco]

I don't understand how they could not save a beautiful boat like that. I don't think it would be crazy to attach float bags to the entire vessel and float it up off the reef and back to dry dock.

They brought up the largest submarine ever made (the Kirsk) after being deep underwater for over a year.

We floated a school bus (stripped of course) with only 2 huge float bags and 4 smaller ones to set it into a quarry. We did it again this year with a nice size plane (not a little cessna either). It just seems too easy to save, but way too easy to give up.

[Zero]

All takes time and a lot of money. Pohnpei isnt the most populated area around and probably wouldnt even have the resources to do it. Maybe rigging up a heap of 44 gallon drums might save it a bit and give it some time but again its all up to the dollars you can through around.

Matt

[acelockco]

If they have the money to own a boat/ship like that with all of the fancy chase boats and such, I am sure money is not a problem. Also, there is such a thing as insurance that usually covers such an event.

I guess we will see what happens.

Funny, there is someone on the deck playing the guitar. Maybe he should put the guitar down and man the pump...lol.

[Zero]

Can anyone confirm or deny the rumour i heard that the Thorfinn went to the bottom and is unrecoverable?

Matt