Haul Out at Phithak Shipyard & Services
The nightmare continues
On the 8th of February, 2019 PSS shipyard in Thailand, dropped Vega twice severely damaging and completely flooding her. The morning of the following day we awoke trapped in a nightmare.
- At low tide the following morning we pumped Vega dry. The damage was extensive. Everything we owned soaked in a mixture of brackish saltwater and diesel fuel.
- Vega has been our home for almost twenty years. She is all we have.
- Physically and psychologically devastated all we could do is watch and hope as a team of PSS carpenters applied plywood and epoxy patches to the port side and ask ourselves why this happened. The reasons soon became clear.
- All 3 wheels broke off the back of the PSS Shipyard trolley. The back of the trolley went down increasing the angle. The shipyard knew this since we watched them salvage the wheels before starting to pull again.
- Clamps holding down both the port and starboard sides bent straight and released the boat. I will let you draw your own conclusions about their state of maintenance and suitability for the job.
- If the clamps had been in good condition, they would have secured the boat from falling over. Even with three wheels missing from the cradle.
- Another bent clamp.
- On the next high tide, PSS shipyard moved the historic vessel Vega from the slipway and tied her alongside an abandoned fishing boat. Two pumps ran non-stop for the next 10 days until there was sufficient water to haul Vega onto the hardstand.
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