Wine bottles, Fiberglass: Divers find yacht debris along Honolua reef

Nov 16, 2023

Reporter

No further savage operation will persist to recover the yacht, according to Save Honolua Coalition.

Debris now litters Honolua bay in the area where the luxury yacht was towed off the rocks.

MAUI COUNTY, Hawaii (KITV4) -- The final resting place of the yacht, known as Nakoa, is now 700 feet below on the ocean floor. That's according to the tugboat operator who spoke with KITV4 and characterized the vessel as taking on water as soon as it was pulled from the rocks.

Nakoa now lies in the middle of the Pailolo Channel, between Molokai and Maui.

The audible struggle to get the luxury yacht Nakoa freed from the rocks of Honolua Bay Sunday before 1 p.m. was followed by immediate signs that the hull of the yacht was filling with water, until it could no longer be towed.

Before that, the sounds of towing lines snapping and the scrape of the hull against the rocks could be heard from afar.

Over three miles back from its final resting place in the channel, at Honolua Bay, chunks of fiberglass now litter the site.

Underwater video taken by a local surfer, @Kaimaterra, shows chunk after chunk on site.

When asked about fiberglass chunks, another surfer Travis Miller, characterized the litter as amounting to, "Hundreds, I would say, like, of this size chunk," the surfer said pointing to a larger section, "probably like 50 to 100."

So is it dangerous to surf here now?

"Definitely. I mean, I wouldn't want to fall in that section right now," Miller said.

Reports of luxury chairs floating in the water and a wine bottle on the ocean floor indicate the yacht still carried a lot of waste. Oil, gas and other chemical fluids were previously airlifted out.

Broken tow straps and deposits of debris now clash with the canopied marine nature preserve that locals revere.

"It's got this beautiful, sheltered walkway through all the old trees and stuff. And so it's really a magical place," a local teacher named Chris said of the debacle, "It's really gotten the entire island mad, and especially West Oahu."

Across the bay, is where a yacht of that tonnage was inappropriately tied in overnight at a mooring dock, according to locals.

"The different local companies that bring out snorkelers or use it for two hours, and that's what it's designed for. And that's even pushing it, right? Because a lot of people aren't even happy with that," Del Fountain told KITV4.

"Moorings is only temporary. In case there's a storm, you can come in here and moor. It's only for a couple hours. It's not overnight. This is not a resort," Alika Boy told KITV4, "Now look, it's our problem now."

In a statement to KITV4, the owner of the yacht says he feels he believes he is not getting a fair shot in the press and that authorities are shutting him down. Now the owner of the yacht says that he wished he could have operated longer in order to recoup costs associated with the operation. He says that will no longer be possible.

The DLNR told KITV4 that a contractor has been notified to clean up the fiberglass debris.

Do you have a story idea? Email news tips to [email protected]

A day after a luxury yacht was found stuck in Maui's Honolua Bay, the boat reportedly began leaking fuel into the water Tuesday morning.

Reporter

Jeremy Lee joined KITV after over a decade & a half in broadcast news from coast to coast on the mainland. Jeremy most recently traveled the country documenting protests & civil unrest.