A ten meter Draco flybridge cruiser broke from its swing mooring and ended up sand beached on the morning of 27th May, in Mellieha beach in the North Western part of the Island of Malta. The cause of beaching looks a failure of the swing mooring ropes from the seabed, caused by the moderate Eastern winds of about twenty knots. The flybridge cruiser ended up beached in a sandy part of the beach, with damages being unknown. Swing moorings are popular in Malta in the Summer season, for the reason they are cheaper to a marina mooring and offer lesser distance to the Northern part of the Island. For example Mellieha is protected to most winds with the exceptions of the Eastern quadrant ones, which show up very little in the Summer months.
The Draco in this beaching is the 3400 Opal, presented in late 1990 on the Zircon platform presented earlier on the same year but with a flybridge super structure and different interior. Designed by Hans J. Johnsen the 3400 was and is still today Draco largest ever made model. Johnsen for the 3400 did a deep Vee design with a twenty degrees deadrise, and in the shaft V-drive version as available for the Opal featured shaft tunnels. The Draco 3400 Opal offered a two cabins interior, a shower and a galley, with a saloon on the main deck. Power options was twin Volvo 230hp with stern drives, or V-drive line shaft.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment