Great Britain III
Designed to sail around the World she was the World's largest trimaran. After some inevitable teething problems she sailed across the Atlantic and back. The size and manoeuvrability were a struggle for Rob James who sailed her for Chay Blyth. Chay capsized her after a collision but rebuilt she was sold and went on to do charters and competed in the 1978 Route du Rhum under the name of Disque d'or II in the hands of Pierre Felhmann. Another transatlantic voyage and racing followed in 1980 in Antigua. Renames Black Condor she was abandoned in the Italian port of Castelliamare where she was used as a floating pontoon and net dryer for local fishermen Eventually after a big refit in Italy in 1984, she was in American ownership destined for charter in the Caribbean back under her original name. It seems she had been structurally altered for luxury and apparently grossly overloaded on her delivery voyage the crew abandoned her after she started filling with water, believing that she was sinking. The last picture below was taken from a Portuguese fishing boat that was taking off the skipper and his delivery crew. She ended up on a beach in Morocco and bits of her may well still be there although other accounts suggest she was rammed by a cargo ship and destroyed after she was abandoned.
The Final voyage of Great Britain III
The following exchange was posted publicly in Facebook by the skipper of the final voyage who abandoned her at sea. I reproduce it translated from French using Google.
The loss of GB III -Facebook Golden Oldies site April 2018
Jacques Louvet
Here's a question I can answer
I was a young 22-year-old skipper at that time. We had been called to join GB III in Minorca after a series of chaotic maritime events due to a totally incompetent captain who had also broken his arm. I found a loaded boat. (The complete move of the owner from St Tropez to St Barth - there was even a motorcycle in the sailboat). The rudder was severely damaged due to a violent heel on the rear.
We rebuilt this saffron and, in the process, doubled several parts of the floats which showed some dodgy crack.
An HB engine well had been cut into the shell inside the rear bumper. The HB engine was inside that bracket. The over boat of the well was ridiculous and there was no waterproof partition between it and the rest of the boat. There was no water partition in this boat. I don't know if this configuration was the original one, but outside of this construction site made in the Iles de Lerin’s, it was quite hers.
GB III loaded like a mule was 100 times too heavy, the rear with that huge saffron was taking way too much load and I guess the heeling, or drilling the well - probably the sum of both - had significantly affected the structural integrity of the entire rear of the GB III's central shell
Although barely crossed Gibraltar, since the wind and especially the wave rose and we got back into the hard, very quickly the bar became hard, the rear did not relieve, once the boat opened we could only find that she was already full to the brim.
I've never seen a boat fill up so quickly - btw in my 35-year career I've never ever seen a boat fill apart from this - No water barrier. Central shell, liaison arm and communicating floats, no waterproof partitions in the floats, the mass was said in less than an hour.
Pumps didn't spread out, batteries submerged first, more VHF, obviously all in the middle of the night otherwise it's less funny. The boat is sunk, the two lifeboats inflated, only the roof was still passing when a Portuguese fishing boat saw our missiles of distress.
Priority to the crew. On the small day the overflow to the fishing boat thanks to the survival was quite dangerous in 3 or 4 meters of waves but in the end everything went well.
That it was not our surprise when we found that once GB III was filled, the bridge was perfectly stabilized. Only the passing mate. We went to get wet and picked up a few long lines of several thousand hooks with our new fishing friends and came back to the area (these extraordinary marine fishermen, had the ability to catch up with the end buoys of their long lines several miles apart in the middle of the ocean . So, GB's mate iii... easy) when the wave calmed down.
But we couldn't do anything more. It makes sense that the wreck could have drifted to the Moroccan coast. I had, for one, heard that a cargo had voluntarily sank it to eliminate a serious hazard to navigation.
It was on December 09, 1984. In the span of a few hours, we exchanged our crossing to the sun for an incredible 12 days of long line fishing on a Portuguese cable carp of Olao and under the authority of an exceptional Captain that I will never forget
Personally, since I continued my career on the water, and I have even, on my spare time, travelled the world on my small trimaran of 45' LETRI with, you doubt, a few small "personal" arrangements in terms of safety aboard, especially in case of rapid boat invasion.
From Thierry FP
Dear Jacques, what an emotion to discover this text and these images. Thank you with all my heart, I just passed them on to my friend Pierre-Yves who has been a skipper of the sort for more than 2 years. These boat stories are incredible. I was talking to my buddy Christian Février about Trick on a return flight from the Rum Route, and he felt the whole story deserved to be told in a book. With your images and your testimony, all things are possible. I will also give you unedited photos. In any case, thank you again and glad that you found a sort that is as high as your dreams. But it's true that the memories of night nav in the Alizé or the first passage to Gibraltar on Trick to climb to Saint-Malo remain dreamy moments among the strongest. Good wind to you and see you very soon. Friendships. 😉
Dear Thierry . Boat stories are always amazing.. I spoke to Pierre Yves about this story about 20 years ago but he must have forgotten since then .. I have other photos at your disposal and will be delighted to see yours and tell you all this in detail. I understand that you are Switzerland, and you have sided with Pierre Felhman. I was one of the 3 French crew members aboard UBS Marlboro in 1987 for the Lorient/St Pierre and Miquelon/Lorient double deck we won .. Let's talk via messenger to exchange our contacts - I make an add request - To finish a small photo of our lovely trimaran LETRI with which we have - with my friend and co-owner Fabrice Maitre - makes a nice tour of the world. Good to you. Jacques Louvet
The last time we left it was at the construction site of the Isles de Lérins, in 1983. He had arrived under sail from Italy, no problem. An American charter company had just bought it back from its owner. It was renovated and even participated in a Nioulargue. In the 90s, we learned that the boat had been abandoned at sea off the Moroccan coast, while it was supposed to be in convoy to the Antilles. This abandonment is still incomprehensible. A Swiss private pilot then learned that he flew over the stranded boat on a Moroccan beach! So far we haven't found it, even by searching on Google Earth...