[redgar]

I searched SailNet and didn't find any mention of this fascinating story. If I missed it, please forgive me for my faulty search-fu...

I think the owners (Australians Geoff & Jenny Bradley) are going on 3 years of working hard to get their 89 foot Chris-Craft Anna Marie winched back in the water after Hurricane Dorian tossed it aground in the Abacos back in 2019. Like most sane folks, they planned to flee the path of Dorian as it bore down on the Bahamas, but due to some mechanical problem, they could not and instead anchored out on the back side of Great Abaco Island. When the Category 5 hurricane hit the Bahamas about 23 miles north of their position, they ended up tossed up on shore about 300 feet from the water's edge. The motoryacht with 1/2" aluminum hull sustained little damage besides to their props, but their 44-ton boat was 300 feet ashore in inaccessible scrubland reachable only by dinghy. No practical way to get in heavy equipment to help get that beast back in the water.

Passagemaker had an article about them back in 2019, but I was not able to find any updates...

Surviving Dorian at Anchor​

Back in Australia, Geoff had been a builder and a carpenter, so naturally he devised a plan to jack up the big boat, build a dolly system underneath it, and inch-by-inch attempt to winch it back into the water. They did pretty good at first, getting the boat to within 100 feet of water, but since then they've been bogged down (literally!) and were averaging about 13 feet a month...

Has anyone heard any updates to this story?

Google Maps sat foto shows the boat as described at 26.172489792282168, -77.22484177148172:

​

​

This video on YouTube about their plight appears to be from a year ago and that is the most recent I've been able to find on this story.

Saving The Anna Marie - Passing 200 Feet​

Anybody know what happened to the Anna Marie or have any updates on how things are going with their efforts?

--
Red

 

[Skipper Jer]

Surprised they didn't use air bag rollers like they do for big ships.

 

[capta]

When I was in living in the Tuomotus, the Polynesians moved some pretty big boats using logs as rollers. In this case it might be possible to use logs under the rolling logs as a platform to roll the boat the last 100 feet?
I'm talking about telephone pole type logs, in this case palm trees.

 

[Greenwave2]

probably expensive but why not a lifting helicopter? Honestly have no idea what those things might cost per hour

 

[Skipper Jer]

Don't think a palm tree log would take the weight but a telephone pole log would work and FPL(Florida Power and Light) sells em cheap.

 

[paulk]

probably expensive but why not a lifting helicopter? Honestly have no idea what those things might cost per hour

A big, double-rotor Chinook helicopter can lift 12,000 kg so you'd need at least four of them. Good luck with that. Roller bags would seem to be the easiest to transport, set up, and use, besides being the most certain to obtain desired results. No one has provided any new information on any progress. Perhaps another storm has blown the boat over and sunk it. Perhaps it's now listed as an AirBnB.

 

[redgar]

Jejeje... On the other hand, how much does beach front property go for in the Abacos?

While I am a big fan of "******* engineering" (What is that called in Australian?) it does appear that better rollers would help the effort. Those big ship airbag rollers look impressive!

Here's video of launching big ships with them:

Ship Airbag Launching Compilation​

I too wondered about getting a tow with a construction crane helicopter. That could also help get them into deeper water after getting off the dry.

Digging a channel might not have been too bad (considering 3 years) assuming those rocks could be dealt with. Especially with a sizeable work crew.

Also, I wondered about being able to use long cables or ropes reaching out to tow-boats if they could get close enough. Not sure how close a tug could get, but if you get a flotilla of dinghies pulling in concert? Hmmm...

Going forward, it looks like about 3km to get to the road on the other side of the island. That's a lot of boardwalk to build and then who on the island would have a trailer big enough to haul a 44-ton boat? Although I used to work in the oil patch on the Texas coast and sometimes we'd drive rig equipment over pretty long boardwalk road to get to a drilling site.

--
Red

 

[paulk]

The Google Maps photo in post #1 shows the boat high and dry with no equipment around it, and is copyrighted 2022, so would appear to be recent. Maybe they are waiting for the sea level to rise instead.

 

[redgar]

Hi Paul,

The Google Maps photo in post #1 shows the boat high and dry with no equipment around it, and is copyrighted 2022, so would appear to be recent. Maybe they are waiting for the sea level to rise instead.

I think Google has just gotten in the habit of having current year copyright messages on whatever webpage like many places these days (I do that with my company website as well.) The only easy way I've found for figuring out when a Google Maps satellite foto was taken is to look at it in Google Earth. In Google Earth it displays an Imagery Date on the bottom status bar which sometimes can be a bit vague. It appears that the public satellite foto that Google Maps is showing for that area is from right after Hurricane Dorian passed, from Sept 2019 (see where I've circled that in red below):

There used to be another way of figuring out the imagery date by looking at the Google Maps webpage source or the image tiles themselves, but either I don't remember how to figure that out or that trick no longer works.

Jejeje... I think I read they've got a 4 ft draft, and according to a NOAA article on Global Sea Level published a couple months ago, sea level has risen 8-9 inches since 1880. They might be waiting awhile to refloat going that route. I'd bet another storm surge would float them off before their island goes underwater. Maybe if they start digging underneath to get a head start?

--
Red

 

[AndyL]

Google found a Facebook post from March - seems like they were still trying to get it afloat then. I don't use Facebook so no idea how to post it other than the URL below. Maybe someone with Facebook access can find more current info.

https://m.facebook.com/groups/2263487383676073/posts/5323632154328232

 

[Skipper Jer]

Facebook post showed the owner with 2 air bag jacks. Boat is now less than a boat length, 80 feet, from the water.

 

[redgar]

Hi Andy,

Google found a Facebook post from March - seems like they were still trying to get it afloat then.

Great! It sounds like they might almost be back to the water's edge then.

[from Facebook post on March 16, 2022]:​

Geoff Bradley arrived back in the Bahamas from the U.S. this week, bringing with him two new 30-ton airlift jacks, which he believes will speed the process of refloating Anna Marie. The 89-foot motoryacht (built in 1989) is now less than a boat-length away from the water.​

However "a boat-length" and averaging 13 feet a month could still mean it is almost 7 months before the stern feels the waves. Then maybe it gets even harder to get into deep enough water to make it out of there. Home made dredger maybe? DIY Dredge to the rescue...

DIY-Dredge - Dredging by yourself is fun!​

They are planning to use a "heave-against" system once they reach the waterline.

On Facebook Geoff did address using the big airbag rollers...

Using the four-by-16-foot rollers and requiring 6 of them was considered. We quickly worked out the logistics of getting them here, (400 pounds each and heavier when full of air), a big expensive winch that would require huge power to pull 44 tons over half inflated bags (due to keel), at a guess three to four times more frictional resistance than our current set up. So great expense required on large air compressor, winch and generator. You need heavy machinery to go in this direction, or 1,000 Chinese people like we've seen in videos. Two people either side of 60? No chance.​

Maybe soon!

Red

 

[hpeer]

There is a guy with a blog who did a ling article on this, and an update IIRC.

Here is the update

The Bradleys Keep Grinding Away, Just 60 Feet More

Australian Castaways Endure Isolation the 21st Century Way...With Online Learning.

loosecannon.substack.com

 

[Skipper Jer]

Links to articles from Loose Cannon. 29 Months After Hurricane, Grounded Yacht Inches Seaward (Video)

The Bradleys Keep Grinding Away, Just 60 Feet More

Australian Castaways Endure Isolation the 21st Century Way...With Online Learning.

loosecannon.substack.com

 

[paulk]

Wouldn't roller bags still work in shallow water? Just keep rolling until they don't touch bottom any more -- it will be deep enough to float the boat. Imagine if this was a keeled sailboat -- it would have a lot more going on.

 

[AWT2_Sail]

Has anyone thought about dredging out a channel? No clue about how much that would cost…

 

[deniseO30]

Roller bags were also my first thought, for what the expense was for jury-rigging all that stuff they probably could have borrowed or rented the roller bags used under ships

 

[Skipper Jer]

One of the articles mentioned that air roller bags were considered. The bags would only be partially inflated and therefore would impart a large amount of friction requiring a very power winch, cables,pulleys and ground tackle. The roller bag idea was discarded.

 

[VIEXILE]

First thought was Chris Craft never built a boat that big. Turns out it isn't a Chris Craft. The guy's got way more sand than me. I got other things to do.

 

[redgar]

First thought was Chris Craft never built a boat that big. Turns out it isn't a Chris Craft. The guy's got way more sand than me. I got other things to do.

Yeah, I read it was an 82 ft boat and they added 7 foot to the bow. Then I saw that someone had looked up the HIN and it was not listed as a Chris-Craft (I forgot what they figured it was.) I know it is hard to second guess someone on the ground, but I can't imagine it taking this long even using the winches and pulleys as they are. Even if they only averaged 50 cm / day, they would have been at the water's edge in 6 months.

Red