Ketch broke free of mooring and ended up on beach
A ketch has emerged almost unscathed from being torn from its mooring, thrown against a harbour wall and beached in gale force winds.
Iona was moored in St Mawes, Cornwall (pictured) last week, when it ripped free of its mooring and crashed against the harbour wall with no-one aboard.
Just days earlier Chris Whittingham, 47, and Katie Jane Garside had moved their belongings and those of their children, aged 10 years and 10 months, onto the yacht, which they had restored, ahead of three-year worldwide cruise.
After crashing into the harbour wall, storm surges then pushed Iona up the beach.
But remarkably no water breached the hull and no structural damage was caused.
Mr Whittingham said: ‘If she had been holed she would have been a write-off. She’s survived but some more modern boats wouldn’t have and haven’t in the past.
‘It isn’t about the money – she’s our home and as far as we’re concerned she’s irreplaceable so it’s a relief.’
Iona‘s minor scrapes are now being repaired at Falmouth boatyard.