[MHml] Wrecked trimaran rebuilt in the Bahamas

Thu Oct 26 07:40:06 EST 2006

The Royal Gazette
Hamilton, Bermuda
October 25. 2006
Salvaging a lifelong dream
By Dan Jones

A trimaran that looked set for the wreckers yard has been brought back to life by a Bermuda boatbuilder.
Kirk Ward snapped up the high-speed vessel at a bargain price after its bottom was ripped out when it ran aground in an 
accident in the Bahamas.
Damage was so bad one witness said it looked like the 50ft racing machine had been “attacked by 30 sharks”.
The boat, valued at $600,000 when new, was way out of Captain Ward’s price range before the accident.
But when the previous owner heard it would cost as much as $400,000 to repair, Capt. Ward, who is also a top sailor and 
jazz musician, was able to pick up the “boat of his dreams” for a price that was music to his ears.
Now the vessel has been successfully rebuilt, is undergoing trial runs in the US and is due to visit Bermuda’s shores 
very soon.
Capt. Ward’s wife, Joan, said her husband had been building boats since he was ten. “This is the boat of his childhood 
dreams,” she told The Royal Gazette.
“A high-performance ocean-racing trimaran.”
Mrs. Ward said there were only three prototypes of the boat in the world. “This boat has won many racing awards and has 
completed the Bermuda-Newport race. It can do 350 miles in a day – the speeds it is capable of are incredible.
“It has a great history.”
The boat, now named Three Cheers, ran aground in the Bahamas last June.
“The previous owner wasn’t going fast, but the sun was glaring in his eyes and the water was very shallow,” said Mrs. Ward.
“The whole bottom was ripped out of the main hull.”
Three Cheers – which observers have said looks more like a manta ray than a sailing vessel – was so badly damaged it had 
to be towed 50 miles to the nearest beach, before getting dragged into a Florida boatyard for repairs.
“It looked like it had been attacked by about 30 sharks,” recalled Mrs. Ward.
“There was sand and dirt and mud inside. The yard said it would cost between $300,000 and $400,000 to repair.”
The previous owner – from Colorado – decided to sell up, a decision helped by the fact the boat was not insured as it 
crashed outside US territorial waters.
“He didn’t want a huge bill from the yard, so sold it for a song.”
The mammoth task of getting the vessel back on the high seas was made easier because Capt. Ward, 56, knew the original 
builder, Bill Shuman, and designer, Chris White.
“Kirk knew both these guys so he was the best man to get it back into the water.”
Workers at the Florida yard sited in the exclusive West Palm Beach area wanted the battered boat out of their sight and 
told Capt. Ward that it would take two to three months to rebuild the bottom. But the quick-working team did the job in 
just three weeks. It was then sailed to another repair yard, where Capt. Ward spent two months applying finishing 
touches like painting and installing a new engine and revamping the interior. This winter will be spent testing in the 
Bahamas. The plan is to bring it back to Bermuda in spring, then on to Wales, where Mrs. Ward is busy on her own 
renovation project: a 400-year-old cottage.
In the meantime, Mrs. Ward says her husband is “elated” with his new acquisition.
“Never in our wildest dreams could we have afforded this,” she beamed. “It’s only because of Kirk’s boat-building skills 
that all this happened.”

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Robert S. Conrich, CIArb
Box 666
Anguilla                               bob at eastcaribbean.com
British West Indies                    Tel:     264 497 2505
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