It’s not every day that Lammermoor locals run into a large, stranded yacht while taking a stroll on the beach, yet this was the case for many when a 27m vessel ran aground on 12 May 2022.
The yacht left nearby Rosslyn Bay Boat Harbour and anchored in Statute Bay, where unfortunately rough conditions saw it drag anchor and drift close to shore. The vessel was towed to deeper water by Yeppoon Coast Guard where it began to take on water and slowly sink.
It eventually grounded on Lammermoor Beach to become the centre of much attention and speculation from locals and the media.
Debris from the vessel, including a tender, mattresses and other items, began washing up on the shoreline. Booms were deployed to mitigate the potential for any oil spill and a notice was issued to the owner to remove it.
The owner failed to respond, so Maritime Safety Queensland stepped in to remove the vessel rather than run the risk of it breaking up and causing further environmental concerns.
Having taken legal ownership of the vessel, they swiftly engaged contractors to begin work on removing it as soon as possible. Lammermoor Beach was temporarily closed to the public during the removal process.
The vessel was too large to remove in one piece. Dismantling it required the use of two 36-tonne excavators with buckets and grabs as well as bobcats, dump trucks and waste skips as shown in the below image.
The first stage involved gutting the vessel from the inside, before removing the cabin from its top half and filling 5 skips with debris.
The next stage involved removing the bottom half of the vessel. This was achieved by cutting it into 2 sections—separating the bow, which was lighter, from the stern containing the engines. Both sections were then removed from the beach, which was thoroughly cleaned.
The operation was completed in 4 days, with the natural environment being the winner.
Just a couple of weeks later another vessel washed up, this time in the intertidal zone on Rainbow Beach within the Great Sandy Marine Park, on the night of 22 June 2022.
Where the previous vessel had been comparatively new and sturdy, this one (a 15m sailing vessel pictured below) had fibreglass already delaminating along its breached hull and was in imminent danger of breaking up in the swells forecast for the following week.
Adding complication, locals and visitors—some at the open invitation of the vessel’s owner—began clambering over the vessel and stripping it of anything useful. This created a clearly unsafe situation that could render the vessel even more vulnerable to changing weather conditions.
Time was of the essence in this case, so Maritime Safety Queensland acted immediately to secure the vessel in place with anchors fore and aft. they also contracted a company to provide security and prevent people from boarding, while they negotiated with the owner to have the vessel removed intact within three days.
When the owner proved unable to do so Maritime Safety Queensland took legal ownership of the vessel and engaged a contractor who successfully removed it on 30 June 2022, following a 6-hour operation.
Once again timely intervention had prevented a popular and pristine beach from being littered with debris from a maritime mishap.
