TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale Salvages M/Y Zorro After Sinking

April 1, 2009

On the morning of Monday, March 23rd TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale Arrived at the scene of an 82' Hatteras enclosed bridge convertible located at a private dock in Ft. Lauderdale; the boat had intense smoke pouring from below decks. Several fire rescue trucks were already on scene along with the vessels crew and numerous repair technicians. The vessel was undergoing a $1,000,000 plus refit and was nearing the point where she would be ready for sea trial. Initial reports state that a fire was sparked after an attempt was made to start the port main engine, subsequently, many gallons of lube oil and diesel fuel burned creating a thick cloud of dark grey smoke throughout the exclusive East Ft. Lauderdale neighborhood. Shortly before noon, the vessel sank at the dock, settling to the bottom with a 30 degree list to port leaving the mezzanine deck awash. Amazingly, most of the fire related damage was confined to the engine room leaving the hull, decks and living spaces virtually intact with the exception of smoke and saltwater damage.

Shortly thereafter, TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale was contracted to perform the salvage operation and they mobilized their Sunken Vessel Recovery Unit to the scene; moments later one of the company's towboats and several salvage personnel also arrived. Salvage Master Kevin Collins dispatched the company's containment boom boat carrying 1600' of hard containment boom. Meanwhile, the crew deployed absorbent boom around the casualty in an effort to quickly mitigate any adverse environmental effects. Once the US Coast Guard Marine Safety team was satisfied with containment efforts, the salvage team worked methodically to stage all of the equipment necessary to undertake the salvage effort. Collins explained, "We included eight 6000lbs. lift bags, two 4000lbs. lift bags, four 4 inch diesel dewatering pumps as well as several gas powered dewatering pumps in our salvage plan. We also had to deal with a tremendous amount of chafe caused by the lifting chine on this particular vessel. We decided to use a combination of chains and hi tensile line to rig our lift bags to ensure each bag was rigged safely and securely, it worked perfectly!"

The salvage team, consisted of nearly a dozen of TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale's salvors, divers and support staff. They rigged each of the bags, positioned the pumps and plugged each of the boats' through hull fittings, portholes and exhaust ports in preparation for refloating and dewatering. After many hours of planning and preparation, Zorro was afloat by mid afternoon on Tuesday 3/24. Once afloat, more permanent patches were affixed to the vessels exhaust ports and approximately 4,000 gallons of diesel fuel were pumped off using vacuum trucks. The vessel was towed to a repair facility using two of TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale's diesel tugs. Two Divers remained on board for the duration of the tow and large dewatering pumps were staged in the event the vessel began to flood in the midst of the long tow up the New River. The vessel was secured alongside the dock at the repair facility early Wednesday morning.

TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale was founded in 1989 and has performed thousands of salvages over the past 20 years. Founder and Senior Salvage Master Larry Acheson was on scene for the entire salvage operation and commented "Our whole team really came together to insure the success of this salvage; I am very proud that we have a crew that routinely does whatever it takes to get the job done. These guys really are the best of the best; their ability to think outside the box and react to an ever changing work environment is really what sets them apart. It is jobs like this that keep me engaged in and excited about the towing and salvage industry; I am looking forward to see what the next 20 years will bring!"

For more information or photos, contact TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale at (954) 783-7821.

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