“We’ve gained access to an agricultural field through negotiation with the farmer, we’ve got a fantastic machine called a Menzi Muck, which is actually a walking excavator,” Hardin said.
“The machine is going to walk into the canal… and we’re going to create a ramp, and then we’re going to use the same winching system to pull the boats up the ramp.”
He said teams would create a dry dock to get the boats out – this is a basin that can be filled with water to get them afloat again, and then be drained once they are removed.
To do this, they will move existing dams closer to the boats.
Hardin said that the Pacemaker was an easier rescue because it was sitting flat.
“These boats are partially buried, one’s pretty much full of water as well, so there’s additional weight in that,” he said.
“The sand when it’s wet is like quicksand, the stability of the side slopes are a concern as well with a machine operating in there, so we need to dig around the boats to release them before we can pull them out as well.”