Britannia in dry dock after leak

The Royal Yacht Britannia has arrived at a dry dock several hours later than planned after fire crews were called when it started taking on water while being moved.

The yacht, which is now a tourist attraction in Edinburgh, developed a leak in a door seal yesterday which caused it to tilt on its starboard side.

It has now been moved to a dry dock across the harbour in Leith for repainting after fire crews pumped water from the vessel.

A spokesman said it was pulled by a tug and arrived at about 3.30 p.m. He said Britannia was now securely tied up and an investigation would be carried out into the leak.

He added: “Moving the yacht obviously took longer than expected after suffering a setback but it is now mission complete. It all went smoothly once the water was pumped off the boat and it started to move. So, all’s well that ends well.”

There was not thought to be any damage to the yacht and all its contents had been removed before the move got under way, he added.

Britannia served the Queen for 44 years, carrying her and the royal family on 968 official voyages before being taken out of service in 1997.

In July, the Queen’s grand-daughter Zara Phillips and England rugby star Mike Tindall hosted a pre-wedding party on board the vessel which was attended by Princes William and Harry and the Duchess of Cambridge.

Yesterday was the first time in 14 years the vessel had been moved.

Bob Downie, chief executive of the Royal Yacht Britannia, said: “When we were removing the mooring ropes this morning, the ship moved four degrees to starboard. This meant that new access watertight doors to our pontoons were below the water level. There has been a leak in the seals in those doors which was accentuating the list.”

He said limited shore power meant the fire brigade was called to help pump water off.

Four fire engines and three other fire service vehicles arrived at the scene after the call was made shortly after 11 a.m.

About 20 firefighters pumped water from the vessel to allow it to make the journey to the neighbouring Imperial Dry Dock, also in the Port of Leith, for work to be carried out.

A major part of the work is painting the area of the hull which is below the waterline.

Britannia has to be taken out of the water and into the dry dock to allow that part of the hull to be inspected, treated and then repainted.

It is the first time since the summer of 1998 that it has been done.

Launched in April 1953 at John Brown’s Clydebank Shipyard, Britannia was commissioned for service the following January.

It travelled 1,087,623 nautical miles, calling at more than 600 ports in 135 countries.