A friend of Don & Margie , Jean Luc Van Den Heede, has been dismasted a couple of thousand kilometres south of Tasmania. Don has rustled up a volunteer crew to take the Sir Hubert Wilkins and bring him & his yacht "Adrein" back to Hobart for repairs. Jean Luc was in the midst of a challenge to break the record for the fastest single handed circumnavigation non-stop sailing from East to West. The ship will be leaving 9am Tuesday 21st January & is expected to return on Thursday.

This is the plan of operations: We have loaded a 450 metre x 150mm floating tow rope with special bridle made up to fit Adrienc . It is all stowed on our helipad ( we are not taking our helicopter ).If conditions allow we may launch our inflatable and place one of our crew Dave Pryce ( also an around the world sailor) on board with Jean Luc to assist) or we may use a rocket line to pass a light line to Jean Luc then our crew will swim across. If conditions are too bad , Jean Luc will be on his own. We should be able to tow between 5 and 10 knots depending on sea state Jean Luc has done a very good job heading north making our job now very easy. Earlier we thought that he may miss Tasmania by 200 miles so we have been on standby since Monday to go and grab him but tomorrow morning he may be only 50 miles off Tasmania which makes an easier task for us. We had 50 knot winds here yesterday, now 30 knots and tomorrow should be 20 knots so is looking Ok. It is good to be able to assist our friend Jean Luc who we have known since the early BOC events.

Jean Luc was towed back to Hobart..tying up at Princess Wharf at 1800hrs on the 23rd. He did a fantastic job in getting the Adrein up to within 50 miles of the Tasmanian coastline leaving the ship to only have to be away for 24 hours. For the full story, click on the link below.