Relief for Kent

As Everest Horizontal is recovered albeit not in great shape

During the Bermuda 1-2 TIm Kent was forced to abandon his Open 50 Everest Horizontal - the boat which took him to second place in the recent Around Alone, when the bulb fell off his keel.

After days of searching in the waters of Bermuda Kent has now located his stricken vessel and is in the process of recovering her. His shore crew sent The Daily Sail this message:

We have fantastic news this morning: Everest Horizontal is alive and well!  We are stretching the 'well' part of this statement, but the boat is recovered and is sitting in a slip in Bermuda. After 40 hours on the water, Everest Horizontal was recovered at 2:00 PM yesterday afternoon, Wednesday, July 2. Tim and the crew returned her to the
dock in the early morning hours today.

Overall, Everest's condition is not as good as we had hoped. When they actually spotted the boat, only the keel was above water. When the boat originally went over, it was as though someone had simply inverted the boat. The large numbers on the bow that read "981" were upside down yet remained out of the water, reading "186."  Those numbers were no longer out of the water. In fact, had the keel not been painted bright orange it would have been nearly impossible to see her.  Everest was designed not to sink though and she did not.

After spotting the keel and arriving at the boat, divers went down to inspect things. The mast was broken in three places and much of the rigging tangled or broken. The entire boat was filled with water, ruining everything including the engine. The sails had spilled out of the sail locker through the open hatch as did everything else in the boat. The wave action over the past few days flushed the boat of any clothing, personal items, electronics, mementos, and the like. There is simply nothing left in Everest Horizontal.

They tied a line around the keel and were able to roll the boat over. They then cut away all the rigging and loose parts, salvaging only a small section of the boom and the mast. They cleared the deck of lines and scrap, tied a line from her bow to the rescue boat, and towed her in. She made it back to Bermuda safely with a rescue boat full of relieved and happy people. Maritime law states "finders keepers" for salvage rights, so a strong sense of relief is shared by all of us in that Tim got to Everest before anyone else.

Despite the fact that Everest Horizontal needs a complete refit and only her hull is in tact, there is a huge sense of relief that she is back in good hands and not adrift in the sea.  As Tim said on a radio interview today, he was thrilled to have Everest back for two reasons. First, the emotional angle of recovering the boat that took him around the world and was his home for a year is tremendous and invaluable. 

The second reason is that Everest is still an asset and with proper attention can go again.  Tim remarked also that you can never stand in the way of determination, a dream, and a goal. That is, after all, what the past year has represented.

Everest and Tim are now resting on the docks in Bermuda, contemplating the next steps.  We owe a huge thank you to all of those that helped pull this off and recover Everest. It is the people that understood the passion and the spirit behind this program that stepped up to help financially, emotionally, with volunteer hours, and overall support. 

The Shore Crew