Titan Salvage worker David Grecho waits for other cutters to finish making their cuts on the New Carissa on Monday.-World photo by Susan Chambers

The New Carissa is on a slimming regimen.

Titan Salvage’s torches are burning through the 1999 shipwreck like calories on a StairMaster.

By Monday, the torch crews had taken off about 30 percent of weight of the stern and the appearance from the beach on the North Spit has changed dramatically. Much of what people are accustomed to seeing from shore is gone. Monday morning, the salvage crew took off two chunks in quick secession. They were rigged and swung away by Titan’s “Big Red” crane and added to the growing pile of rusty, seawater-smelling pieces on the Karlissa B barge.

“There won’t be as many visible changes in the next week,” Titan Managing Director David Parrot said.

Crews will be working inside the wreck, keeping the part of the hull intact as a breakwater against the waves, so workers can continue to cut. Within the next week, cutters may find they don’t have much left to work on.

Crews are installing anchors for the pullers on the barges in preparation for the next phase. That’s when they will wrench the wreck out of the sand.

“(Pulling) is the last big challenge of the job,” Parrot said. “Breaking it loose from the sand —  it’s not as big a problem as we once thought.”

He said wave action has scoured out a basin around the wreck about 15 to 18 feet deep. While the wreck is sitting on a plug of sand and the portion beneath the water has taken on sand, it is not buried very deeply in it.

Parrot said one of three things could happen within the next week that will put Titan in a position to start pulling:

* There won’t be enough space on the barges to store the pieces coming off the wreck.

* Workmen won’t be able to cut down any farther.

* Or, the pullers will be ready.

Pulling up the wreck will allow crews to get to the engine room and propellor, where about 30 percent of the ship’s weight remains, without having to dive down into the water.