Entries about whitsunday magic

Just off the beach at Cannonvale, you can't help but notice this grand old lady, shipwrecked and lying on her side in the sand.

Below is an account from the local paper explaining her demise
Whitsunday Times 31st Jan 2013
Broken-hearted boat owners are picking up the pieces after ex-tropical Cyclone Oswald tore through the Whitsundays last week.

More than 20 boats were beached, sunk or totally destroyed as a result of the far-reaching storm system that started in the Gulf of Carpentaria and continued tracking south, leaving widespread damage to property and flooding in its wake.

Destructive winds and waves hit the Whitsundays in the early hours of Thursday morning when the carnage on the water started.

In Airlie Beach, a couple of boats hit the rocks beside the lagoon.

Whitsunday times 4th March 2013
The once-majestic tall ship Whitsunday Magic has come to an unsightly end off Cannonvale Beach.

The boat ran aground on January 24 when the Whitsunday region was hit by wild winds.

Bob Johnson, who was acting as caretaker on behalf of the vessel's Gold Coast-based owner, said for the first couple of weeks after the storm, Whitsunday Magic had managed to stay afloat.

"We did prepare to get it off but the red tape basically took too long and she lay on her side and filled with water," he said.

A Transport and Main Roads spokesperson said Maritime Safety Queensland had been in discussions with the vessel's owner over the arrangements for the vessel's removal.

"Owners of damaged or sunken vessels are always responsible for the salvage or disposal of their vessels," the spokesperson said.
"[However], Maritime Safety Queensland understands not all owners are able to take immediate action and will work closely with them to help them meet their responsibilities."

Meanwhile, Whitsunday MP Jason Costigan is warning locals and particularly children to stay away from the grounded boat.

"Maritime Safety Queensland is warning sightseers to keep a safe distance and rightly so," Mr Costigan said.

"It's pretty obvious that this vessel is on an uncertain angle and playing on or around the vessel could lead to someone being trapped inside or under the hull, if she were to move," he said.

Whitsunday Magic was once one of the region's premium overnight sailing boats. It originally sank while tied to a Shute Harbour jetty in August 2011. For the past few months it was moored in Pioneer Bay.

Courier Mail 28th December 2013
Almost a year later, the shipwreck remains lying askew off Airlie Beach and has become something of a tourist attraction in its own right while lawyers argue who is responsible for the $250,000 salvage bill.

It's not the first time the 34m ship has hit bottom. The Turkish-built charter boat sank in August 2011 while tied to a Shute Harbour jetty.
She was refurbished and sold to Gold Coast buyer Ian Robert Freeman but its second chance was short-lived.

Mr Freeman has tried to wash his hands of it, with his lawyers telling a Gold Coast court last week that he simply could not afford to move it.

Freeman recently fronted the Southport Magistrates Court after the Department of Transport charged him with failing to remove the ship without reasonable excuse, a crime under the Transport Operations Marine Safety Act that carries a maximum $20,000 fine.
Barrister Marcin Lasinski pleaded Freeman's case, alleging the costly shipwreck had come during troubled times for his client's Gold Coast scrap metal business Coastwide Metals.
He said Freeman had been left financially strapped and asked for a nominal fine of $1000.

After a year in the elements the once proud charter boat is a shell of its former self.

Tourists once paid more than $700 for a luxury three-night stay with air-conditioned rooms, a bar and access to scuba diving and coral reef trips in a smaller glass-bottomed boat.

These days they simply walk out to the wreck at low tide and pose for photos, though it's a pretty muddy beach to walk across!

With the dangers of poisonous cone snails to contend with!

Local hotel worker Sheena said it had become an attraction of a different kind.
"I don't mind it. It adds the view and photographers and tourists like it," she said.

Two years later, the ghostly ship is now covered in barnacles, and falling apart.