Salvage experts are to carry out a second underwater survey on the Asgard IIto determine if the boat can be raised from the seabed.
Cameras will again be dropped to the seabed 22km off the French coast in the Bay of Biscay to assess how badly the vessel has deteriorated and if it can be saved.
Officials had planned to remotely inspect the vessel before Christmas but were delayed by bad weather.
Delays mean the ship has been lying in 83m of water for four months, although experts are divided on how the structure will hold up.
“It was hoped to have it done by now, but with the time of year and the weather it is always difficult. The main reason for the delay is the weather was atrocious,” a spokesman for the Department of Defence said.
"We are now looking at mid-January. A decision on whether we can go ahead with the raising of the Asgard IIwill only be made on completion of the survey.
“Hopefully a salvage operation could be done within 10 days. Salvors could have the thing up in a day or two.”
The Department has asked Irish-based company Remote Presence to send down cameras on the remotely operated vehicle for half a day to reassess the boat’s condition and make a decision on raising the vessel within days.
The boat, which sank in September off France, is insured by Allianz for €3.8 million, according to the Department of Defence, while salvage could cost around €2 million.
Experts warned the biggest threat to the boat could be from fishing nets getting caught in its masts; at their highest they sit around 25m below the surface.
Twenty-five crew and trainees were rescued by French lifeboats in the early hours of September 11th when the brigantine began taking on water 22km west of Belle-Ile, off the north-west coast of France.
It had been en route to La Rochelle for a maritime festival and routine maintenance.
Salvage experts have viewed video footage of the boat which revealed it is largely intact, sitting upright on the seabed with a significant hole in a five inch plank in the hull.
Investigators believe the boat sank after it struck a semi-submerged metal object.
A Spanish tall ship, Thopaga, sank in the Bay of Biscay 32km away from where the Asgard IIwent down and only a few months earlier.
PA