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Project MANTA - History:
A
small sailing yacht of the type MANTA 19 capsized during a turn
maneuver in September 1999. The cabin of the raised keep yacht
filled with water, and a short time later it sank in the Traunsee.
A four-year old boy very nearly lost his life in the accident; he
was freed from the cables of the sinking yacht in a dramatic
life-and-death struggle in the very last seconds before the vessel
disappeared into the depths. The MANTA yacht that sank was over 20
years old, had been thoroughly overhauled, but was despite this not
especially valuable. As in the case of the SALINA the object of this
project was not the recovery of an object that had the highest
possible value. We regarded it as a learning and development
project. Our entire equipment was perfected and decisively improved
in the course of this task.
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The lost MANTA 19 one year before she sank. The vessel had been
completely overhauled a year before the sinking. In the course
of this the original blue paintwork aft was replaced by a green
paintwork scheme.
On the day of the sinking four adults and a four year old child
were on board. During the course of a turning maneuver the
raised keel yacht capsized in a sudden gust of wind some 650
feet away from the shore. |
One of our
main goals was to achieve a significantly faster project
handling time. The SALINA we had dealt with took us nearly two
and a half years, but in the case of the MANTA project we were
able to cut the recovery time down to a mere two weeks (!) from
start to successful conclusion. We were very proud of this
success and the clear progress we had made in cutting the time
for a recovery.
As a means of meeting the development costs, at least in part,
we had planned from the start to sell the MANTA in the event of
a successful location and recovery. Before starting the search
we purchased the yacht from the then rightful owner at a
relatively low price. This represented a good solution for both
parties to the deal. For the owner, because he was able to
recover at least a part of his loss and for us because the
object we were to search for would now be in our possession and
– were we to prove successful in the recovery attempt – then the
object in our hands would at least have a certain value.
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Technical data:
Overall length:
19,00 ft
Waterline length:
16,50 ft
Overall width:
6,80 ft
Waterline width: 5,65 ft
Interior cabin headroom: 4,15 ft
Mast height: 25,00 ft
Total weight:
1500 lb
Ballast weight: 410 lb
Mainsail area:
18,00 ft²
Jib
area: 17,80 ft² |
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A three-dimensional cutaway drawing of a MANTA 19 class vessel. |
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The
MANTA was considered by both the owner and the public to be lost
without a chance of ever being found again. There was nobody who was
making any effort to locate and raise the vessel. The enormous costs
involved for a project of this kind in the hands of a professional
company were not in a reasonable relationship to the value of the
vessel.
END OF
THE HISTORY SECTION
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