Organisers are hoping to refloat one of the spare International One Design sloops for this week’s Argo Group Gold Cup which sank during Hurricane Joaquin.

The Privateer, owned by Michael Richold, sank on its Pitts Bay mooring during the hurricane on Sunday, leaving race organisers with only one spare boat on the eve of tomorrow’s official start to the penultimate event on the annual World Match Racing Tour circuit.

“We have two spare boats but we are now down to one,” said Peter Shrubb, the rear commodore of the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club responsible for international events.

“It was a privately owned boat that was being worked on and readied for the Gold Cup, and unfortunately during Hurricane Joaquin she ended up on the bottom.”

Yesterday’s rough conditions ruled out any attempts to refloat the boat.

“We are making efforts to have her refloated which is difficult at the moment because of the conditions,” Shrubb said. “The seas and wind are still quite high but the plan is to get her up as soon as possible and find out what condition she is in and hopefully there’s not much damage.

“It’s probably unlikely she will be able to sail in the Gold Cup unless we are very lucky and she can be put back in proper condition pretty quickly.”

Most of the overseas teams were scheduled to arrive on Island yesterday ahead of today’s scheduled preparation sessions in Hamilton Harbour while regatta hosts RBYC came through the hurricane unscathed.

“The yacht club [RBYC] didn’t sustain any damage, so the plan is to get the boats in the marina into their slips as soon as we can because tomorrow [today] is the practice day,” Shrubb said.

Tomorrow’s scheduled start of the regatta will go ahead as planned.

“Some of the crews have had to change their travel plans and won’t arrive until Tuesday night,” Andy Cox, the Gold Cup chairman, said. “But we’re still planning to start racing on Wednesday and we’ll adjust the schedule to accommodate any late arrivals.”

The Gold Cup will include 16 teams divided into two qualifying groups of eight.

The top three teams from each group will advance to the quarter-finals while the teams that place fourth to seventh will face off against each other in another round robin to determine the remaining two quarter-finalists.

Ian Williams and Team GAC Pindar, the world match racing champions, are the top ranked team in group one which also includes Johnie Berntsson and Stena Sailing, the defending Gold Cup champions, as well as local hopeful Blythe Walker and Team RenRe.

Bjorn Hansen and Nautiska Racing are the top-ranked team in group two, which also features past Gold Cup winner Taylor Canfield and US Sail One.

Also competing are America’s Cup Challengers Artemis Racing and SoftBank Team Japan.

The Gold Cup will be held from October 6 to 11 in Hamilton Harbour.