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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, December 27, 2001

Sailboat washes up on Diamond Head beach

By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer

A sailboat that ran aground on Christmas Eve near the Diamond Head lighthouse is now on a nearby beach, upside down with a smashed hull and snapped mast.

Officials say the sailboat that washed ashore near Diamond Head does not appear to pose an immediate hazard.

Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Someone aboard the 30-foot Lisa Marie Gale called for help on an emergency radio frequency shortly after 5 p.m. Monday, and the Coast Guard cutter Kukui rushed to assist, Lt. Desarae Atnip said.

The water was so shallow and pocked with reefs that neither the cutter nor a smaller rescue craft could reach the sailboat, she said, so the two people aboard dropped anchor and waded ashore unhurt.

But the boat broke loose sometime later and was battered against the reefs before the owner could arrange for a salvage company to retrieve it.

The pounding smashed the vessel's keel, tore a four-foot hole in its starboard hull, then flipped it over and flattened its mast and rigging.

Debris, such as a water tank, hatch cover and cushions, littered the shoreline from Kuilei Cliffs Beach Park to Black Point yesterday as surfers charged the waves and beachcombers poked about the wreckage.

The cause of the accident remains under investigation, Atnip said, but boat owners are virtually always responsible for removing wrecked or sunken vessels. The state Department of Land and Natural Resources oversees such matters and can remove a vessel and bill the owner if the wreck presents a danger.

The department could not immediately say who the vessel's owners are or what would happen next. But Honolulu ocean safety officials inspected the scene yesterday and said the beached wreck did not appear to pose any immediate hazard.

Reach Johnny Brannon at 525-8090 or jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com