Mirabella on the rocks

By John Walker / IBI Magazine

Mirabella V, Joe Vittoria's 246ft Ron Holland-designed yacht launched earlier this year is in trouble on the French Riviera.

The much-heralded super sloop, built by Vosper Thornycroft at Southampton, UK, put out an emergency call at 1200 local today requesting assistance from other vessels in the St Jean Cap Ferrat area. She had apparently run onto rocks near the entrance to Beaulieu sur Mer harbour, having dragged her anchor. Winds are reportedly Force 6-7 and Mirabella is on a lee shore.

The 206ft explorer yacht Big Roi and Roman Abramovich's 282ft motor yacht Ecstasea stood by Mirabella from 1300 and have been trying to get lines on her. Big Roi has succeeded twice but on each case the tow has parted, despite Mirabella also running her machinery to assist. On one of the attempts a 40-tonne bollard was pulled out of Big Roi's aft deck. At the time of this report Ecstasea was preparing an attempt at a tow and Mirabella was in the process of passing Spectra lines across.

Female crew aboard the super sloop have just been evacuated, there are reports of oil and debris indicating hull damage and there are now some fears regarding the potential loss of the mast which measures 293ft. It also seems likely that control of the hydraulically-operated keel has been lost and that the keel itself might have dropped, hampering the recovery process.

The nearest deep sea tug is reported to be several hours away.

(16 September 2004)