Koh Kraden Wreck?

[Mr. Sunday]

A few buddies and myself will be doing some diving off Koh Lanta in mid Feb and are interested in some wreck diving.

Im trying to find information on the Koh Kraden wreck. Seems there is very little info on the ship. What it is or how it got there. Some report is is a Japanese destroyer sunk in 1944 as well as a British cargo ship.

Anyone have any info on the dive? Experienced it first hand?

Anything would be helpful.

Also if anyone is on Lanta the 9th-16th of Feb and interested in joining us on the Koh Kraden wreck send me a PM. We currently have 3 tech divers going but the depths are recreational (<100)


Cheers,
Ken

 

[divingguru]

Hi Ken,

I actually set up and ran a dive centre very close to Koh Kraden a few years ago. We dived on a wreck a few miles off Kraden, the vis was very bad that day, only a meter or so, the wreck seemed far too small to be a destroyer or even a cargo ship, from what we could see it was a steal boat, and completely covered in fishing nets. There was a lot of moray eels on the super structure and a small amount of soft corals.

As I remember nobody in the area offers trips to the wreck on a regular basis as it is hard to find, quite deep and can be poor vis.

Also, I believe that there is probably another wreck in the area, but again, it would be quite difficult to find.

Good Luck and have a great trip.

 

[Mr. Sunday]

Thanks Divingguru. I have heard there were two wrecks there. Not sure what either actually are or if we will find it. I guess its time for some exploration dives.

Cheers,
Ken

 

[UnderwaterAsia]

Hi Ken,

I dived what we believe to be that wreck last year. For me, it's not a worthy dive site, at least on that day. Bad vis, riping currents, what was left of the wreck had collapsed and it was covered in fishing nets. The vis was so bad and the currents so strong that it was actually quite a dangerous dive with so much knarled and rusty metal around.

Ko Kradan and the other islands nearby are a little too close to the mainland and often suffer from bad visibility, making them less than ideal for diving. In my opinion, if you are looking for new and unexlpored dive sites, you would be better to explore a little further out. There are supposedly other dive sites around Hin Daeng & Hin Muang, for example that may be possible to dive as tech divers.

 

[Mr. Sunday]

Thanks Phil. Thats exactly the kind of info I was looking for.

Cheers