Viking Princess Salvage Off Hillsboro Inlet

On a Friday afternoon in Late January, the crew of TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale responded to a Mayday call for a 65’ Viking Princess motor yacht taking on water approximately 12 miles East of Pompano Beach, Florida on the western edge of the Gulfstream. Captain Cole Sisler was first on scene and noted that the boat was clearly heavy in the stern with the bow too high to reach and secure a tow line. The passengers had been evacuated to a Coast Guard boat due to the eminent peril of the yacht. Cole quickly came alongside and secured his towboat to the yacht, climbed aboard with towing hawser in hand and made his way to the bow. He secured the hawser to a bow cleat and quickly returned to his tow boat as the yacht continued to slip further underwater. After securing the hawser to his tow bit, he took the vessel in tow and headed for Hillsboro Inlet. Shortly thereafter, additional assets arrived on scene carrying the necessary crew and pumps to dewater the boat and search for the source of flooding.

The water was chest deep in the engine room by now. Pumps were deployed and divers searched the engine room for the source of flooding but none was found. Moving into the lazzarette, the salvage crew located the incoming seawater. One of the vessels struts had detached from the boat leaving 8 large holes in the hull where the strut had previously been thru bolted. Temporary plugs were placed in the holes and the dewatering process sped up exponentially. In the end, a case that certainly would have ended up with the ultimate loss of the vessel to the depths of the Atlantic became another successful salvage for the crew of TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale! A happy owner took care, custody and control of the vessel to begin repairs after the boat had been rinsed and the machinery had been preserved.