Maitland Bay: A luxury 12m Hanse yacht is expected to be salvaged this week
Everyone just assumed it had broken its mooring in Pittwater and washed ashore but the story behind the grounding of this luxury yacht is far more embarrassing.
Central Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from Central Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
It is the question everyone on the northern beaches is desperate to find out.
Who owns the luxury 12-metre Hanse yacht from Pittwater, which ran aground on Maitland Bay beach on the Central Coast last week after it was hit by a sudden southerly change?
The yacht, which would have cost the owners more than $250,000, has become an unlikely tourist attraction for bushwalkers who venture down the Maitland Bay Track to the remote and picturesque beach since it became grounded on Tuesday, October 8.
Most people commenting about the boat on social media assume it had broken its mooring during a storm.
But a Broken Bay Water Police spokesman said the skipper and four adults were on the boat and swimming at the secluded bay when a sudden southerly whipped up.
He said the skipper tried navigate out of the bay but the winds and swell pushed the stricken vessel onto a sandbank where it became stranded.
“Water Police attended due to the conditions,” he said.
“The party involved were walked out of the beach where they were met by local police at the top of the Maitland Bay Track before they were taken to Woy Woy Police Station where further travel arrangements were made.”
He said yacht, believed to be a 2014 Hanse built model, which sells for between $250,000 to $400,000, was owned as part of a boat share syndicate.
He said Water Police would inspect Maitland Bay again this afternoon “to see if it is still there” with its salvage being organised by the insurance company, which was expected to happen some time this week.
Bureau of Meteorology data shows the southerly change on Tuesday last week reached its peak shortly before 2.30pm with gusts up to 46km/h.
This saw temperatures plummet from 24.9 degrees with a slight westerly breeze to 18.9 degrees and a howling south-easterly.
The Water Police spokesman said it was a timely reminder to all boaties “to constantly monitor the weather”.
Located within Bouddi National Park and only accessible by boat or via a 40-minute bushwalk, Maitland Bay was named after the 70m-long, 880 tonne paddle steamer SS Maitland which ran aground nearby on rocks late at night on May 5, 1898.
Twenty-seven people lost their lives in what became one of Australia’s worst maritime disasters.
