The boat does not block the port of Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique).
But it's blocking the platform.
“L’Etoile de France”, a pretty schooner born in Denmark in 1938, sank on October 29 during storm Céline.
The 40 m long ship, which needed restoration, had been docked in Saint-Nazaire for several years.
During the storm, downpours fell and power outages were recorded.
The electric pumps, necessary to keep the ship afloat, have undoubtedly stopped working.
Today, only the two masts come out of the water, everything else is placed on the bottom.
It is now necessary to refloat the schooner, classified as a boat of heritage interest in 2007.
The association that manages the old rig with absent subscribers
The problem is that the association which manages “L'Étoile de France” now seems absent to subscribers.
The Facebook page has disappeared.
The port of Nantes-Saint-Nazaire soberly indicates that it “has not had any news following the formal notice” to remove the wreck, even after an additional month has been granted to the owners.
The port will now have to “take legal action to be able to move forward on the subject”.
Read alsoSaint-Nazaire reinvents the sailing liner
The town of Saint-Nazaire “is saddened by the loss of the old rigging, a true maritime heritage” but wisely lets the port and the owner make arrangements in what is “a private matter”.
There is no emergency related to port traffic.
But getting out the 200 tons of “L’Étoile de France” promises to be a real challenge.
The boat sank at the pontoon, alongside the underwater base, a place inaccessible to crane trucks.
“We will need divers and a pontoon crane,” says an expert.
And the ship is necessarily fragile, it risks breaking!
»