Legacy on the Hard

Kevin, that makes sense.. sort of like crawling prone off the quicksand as opposed to standing & sinking.
Something else, though... in order to construct this swimming pool, er, cofferdam, do they not have to get the pool bottom under the ship so that the water doesn't leak out?
Assuming I am all wet, and that the cofferdam idea is viable, can you imagine an outdoor "pool" that rises a dozen feet off the bay bottom and is yaaaaaayyy long that contains all that water.

This will be an artform that dwarfs anything Christo has ever pulled off!

to all you guys---

my name is wes. i just tody joined the forum, so i'm new at this. i live in key west and have been out to the legacy. there ARE armed guards aboard. the reason she is in such shallow water is because of wilmas 8 foot tidal surge. what most people on the mainland don't know is the extent of flooding key west had. my house at the center of the island sits at 6' elevation. i had 2' of saltwater in my house. most of the island flooded. story goes, legacy was anchored in deeper water about 10 miles off. wilma was a very powerful storm. the 8 foot surge picked her up, carried her 5 miles and sat her down in 2-3 of water. it was not just wind that put her there. the nearest deep water is approx 3/4 mile away off her bow. even then, it is a very narrow cut. there are several tight bends that i'm not sure she could make before getting to the main channel. hope this answers some of your questions. i will try to answer any more yhat you have.

Big article in "Vanity Fair" this month on Legacy and her owner.

He came across as arrogant and ignorant:
Did not think a hurricane was a big deal as he could not hear the wind while sitting inside the boat.

According to the article, the anchors came "apart."

Felt like I needed a shower after reading that article....

Is it possible to lift a yacht like that with a heavy-lift helicopter or a sky crane (those funny looking copters with no middle section)? I'm thinking why drag it out and do all that damage when you can lift it out and drop back into deeper water? Any thoughts?

In theory it would be possible, if ya have enough Skycranes hovering/lifting in formation.
In reality you would probably need 50 of them to pull at the same time to lift porky Legacy, too risky as rotorblades would hit cables even using 3 or 4 copters.

What you could do instead: Dismantle the yacht and lift the large pieces away with Skycranes.
Going that route, one could just dump pieces in a barge instead...

Dunno the answer, perhaps wait for the highest tide of the year, airbag the hull, dig a trench for the keel and off she goes.

Or just wait for the next 'cane to blow her back to where she came from....

I flew out over Legacy today and took these pictures. There was no one in sight aboard her. It looks to me like she is going to become a very expenseve piece of yard art.

Thanks for those excellent pics.

And welcome to Yachtforums.com

in earlier photos, there are remenants of the masts there, in your new photos however, they have been removed, she also appears to not be listing anymore, are they attempting to lighten her hull ?
they might be thinking of air-bagging the hull the same way they do to a yacht that has punched through the hull, lift the boat out of the water with a very shallow draft remaining from the bags.

Ditto on that! Welcome to YF, Dalpilot! And thank you.

As I said I saw no one on or around her. That is not to say they didn't have me in their sights. There is still lots of valuable hardware visible on deck.

My guess is she'll grow old right where she is.

if anyone wants to purchase an 80' motor yacht for 2.5 please let me know, i showed the photos of Legacy to my boss this morning and he said "i would be extremely interested in Salvaging that yacht, but i cannot do so until this thing sells"

DALPILOT, do you have GPS coords to where she is laying ??

i found a source that could handle the Airlift on Legacy
www.worldskycat.com

Capable of a 1000 ton lift.

Hi,

Take some time and read all the offers on that site.

Even in Heavy Lift Sky Freight the lift capacity is rated at no more than 220 tons.

The website seems to completely bypass the subject of where the thing would be registered and any mention in the self drive section as to the type of licence required to operate this type of aircraft.

I think it's a smoke and mirrors type thing, the guys behind it are just fishing for some backing to see if they can get this thing up and running.

K1W1, try reading the site yourself, here, this is taken from the index page to the site

"Capable of landing virtually anywhere on land or water without need of ground infrastructure and carrying payloads ranging from 20 to 1,000 tons, the SkyCat hybrid air vehicles offer a uniquely flexible and cost-effective solution to a broad spectrum of market and mission requirements."

this is not something that is as you say "smoke and Mirrors", as i have seen one of these in flight over Long Beach about a year ago.

this is classified as a Lighter than air aircraft, and would require the same licensing as such.

I guess K1W1 is right. The first 20-model will fly end of 2008 at the earliest they say. It can lift 14.5 tonnes and this will not lift Legacy I am afraid...

i must have seen a proto type for it then, i know i've seen one before, or very similar to it, its not a sight easily forgotten

But a few of them in tandem would!

Absolutely! You just need 27 of them. Maybe it would create some problems having all of them organized though, since each covers a surface of 3.300 sqm, totalling 90.000 sqm or 13 football fields...

To build these will also cost some 800 million dollars why it would be better to have three of the bigger size that will cost less than 300 million.

But before this happens I guess the Polar ices has melted away and the raised water level on the oceans will be enough to get Legacy off the hard...

Good thing in a bad thing^^

In my opinion is the best way to excavate a drain and tow Legacy away.

BTW, I've heard that the owner will pay the piper for the nature damage