Grounded sailboat in pieces off Waikiki
COURTESY U.S. COAST GUARD SECTOR HONOLULU
The 49-foot sailing vessel Criterion ran aground near Turtle Canyon with 25 people on board on Sunday.
Salvage of the 49-foot sailing vessel, the Criterion, that ran aground Sunday off Waikiki, did not begin Monday, according to authorities.
Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation Administrator Ed Underwood said today the boat is “currently broken up in pieces.”
“It appears that the owner’s insurance will not cover the boat salvage/wreck removal,” he said in a written statement. “DOBOR staff is currently looking at contracts for boat salvage/removal.”
The Coast Guard said that the waves caused the vessel to start breaking apart Monday morning.
However, the Coast Guard reported the owner is working with two companies to remove the diesel and salvage the vessel.
The owner also has a plan in place to clean the shoreline and to remove all vessel debris, the Coast Guard said in a social media post.
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The Coast Guard said after search and rescue operations were completed Sunday, pollution responders assessed the scene, and found no signs of diesel or petroleum product in the water.
The vessel had about five gallons of diesel on board in a removable container, and an unknown number of marine batteries on board, the Coast Guard said.
Pollution responders confirmed with the owner that the diesel container had not been removed, but “there have been no signs of sheening and no reports of wildlife impacted.”
Initial reports said the Criterion was a 90-foot sailboat, which struck the reef about 500 yards offshore from Fort DeRussy with 30 adults on board.
The Coast Guard said this afternoon that it had dispatched Sunday a small boat to the 49-foot sailboat, which ran aground at about 3 p.m. in the area known as “Turtle Canyon” with 25 people on board.
Ocean Safety, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Honolulu Fire Department and the Department of Land and Natural Resources responded to the grounding.
Honolulu Emergency Services Department spokeswoman Shayne Enright said that after the crash, many on board jumped into the water as the waves crashed into the sailboat. Two Ocean Safety personal watercraft crews, with help from good Samaritans, ferried the people to a boat called the Trident.
The Coast Guard said that the state Office of Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response was notified along with the DLNR.
