Ten weeks adrift abandoned and uninsured

Yacht designer Richard Woods’ abandoned catamaran Eclipse has been found by tuna fisherman in the Pacific 1000 miles from Acapulco. She has drifted more than 1100 miles in 10 weeks.

Richard said: ‘Currently we are in negotiations with the fishing agent over a suitable salvage fee. But we already know that it is going to be expensive to refit Eclipse, because as we feared, the tuna fishermen were not the first to find Eclipse. The first salvors took all the electronics, mainsail, boom and who knows what else. So it will cost thousands in materials alone to get it back to a sailable state.’

Richard and girlfriend Jetti Mantzke were airlifted from the cat in storm force conditions (see YM March).