superyacht accidents

• Subscribe Now
• Digital Editions

Superyacht crash video shows 77m Go colliding with Caribbean dock

• Superyachts
• Top stories

Footage has emerged of a 235ft superyacht crashing into a luxury Caribbean yacht club’s pier, causing visible damage to both the yacht and the dock.

Onlookers were shocked last week (February 24) when a 235ft (77m) superyacht collided with the dock of Sint Maarten Yacht Club in the Caribbean.

Video footage of the incident shows the extent of the damage – while the pier took the brunt of it, the superyacht’s steel hull didn’t come off unscathed.

Computer malfunction was to blame for the sickening superyacht crash, according to local publication The Daily Herald , which adds that no-one was injured as a result.

Article continues below…

Boat insurance Q&A: Everything you need to know about why premiums are rising

Video: burning superyacht filmed in us virgin islands.

Footage has emerged of a burning superyacht that caught fire on Tuesday in the US Virgin Islands

The incident took place at around 1015 local time and the newspaper added that an insurer had already been to assess the extent of the damage by the end of the day.

If you think you’re having a bad day at work, spare a thought for the captain and crew who had to explain this situation to their yacht’s owner.

Launched by Turkish yard Turquoise Yachts in 2018, Go features a helipad, gym, jacuzzi, beach club, sauna and hospital as well as a master suite and eight guest cabins styled by London-based studio H2 Yacht Design.

She is run by a crew of up to 18 and her twin 2,575hp Caterpillar 3516C engines give her an estimated top speed of 17 knots.

Revealed: The true cost of running a $3 million superyacht

Pardo gt65 first look: 64 footer with expansive foredeck lounge, how to check your chartplotter’s accuracy, latest videos, parker sorrento yacht tour: 50-knot cruiser with a killer aft cabin, yamarin 80 dc tour: a new direction for the nordic day cruiser, is this the best compact cruiser money can buy aquador 250 ht tour, exclusive tour of this €1.4million cruiser with a stunning teak interior: solaris power 52 coupé.

By SuperyachtNews 03 Mar 2021

Go’s captain discusses St. Maarten collision

Captain simon johnson has spoken to local media about the moments leading up to the incident….

Following the  collision of 77m motoryacht  Go  into a dock in St. Maarten on Wednesday 24 February, 2021, the yacht’s captain has spoken exclusively to The Daily Herald to set the record straight and describe the moments prior to the yacht’s sudden control malfunction during the crucial minutes of the line-up procedure to exit Simpson Bay Lagoon.

According to the report, the yacht’s software failed Captain Simon Johnson at the worst possible moment, leading to his choosing a deliberate impact with the St. Maarten Yacht Club wooden dock to avoid a worse scenario. A second run-in to the dock was then said to be caused by, yet again, a computer miscommunication between the bridge and engine room in a bid to regain control. 

“Johnson confirmed that the yacht’s insurance assessors are progressing well in their survey of all the damage sustained to the boat, which is minimal, and the dock, and are engaged to set things right,” The Daily Herald reports. “The root causes of the malfunction have not yet been definitively identified and an intensive investigation is underway while the yacht remains at Ile de Sol Marina.”

Captain Johnson told the newspaper about the moments leading up to the incident; “We left the dock an hour before and went through all the checks. There was nothing different from the other times we’ve done this exit… Then, when we were about 50 metres away and holding position, the yacht started moving mysteriously forward. There was nothing I seemed to be able to do; all the controls on the bridge were showing normal. I called the engine room and everything was normal down there.” 

With extremely limited control and the yacht approaching the bridge, Johnson said he had to think fast, deciding that the preferred option was to point the bow towards the yacht club dock and beach her gently there, with a crewmember up front to ensure everyone was out of the way.

Johnson added that he is troubled by the incident; “The fact that there were no warning alarms, no lights on board to indicate something was wrong was really scary. I know this yacht so well, yet I had 13 seconds to make a decision before hitting the bridge. The decision I made was one I would make again if faced with the same circumstances.”

He also criticised modern electronics as getting “ridiculously over the top”, with no manual overrides or back-ups if something goes wrong. “Questions have to be asked in this industry about what’s going on; who is building these boats, who is designing them, who is supervising them, and why we aren’t being asked what we (captains) need to operate them,” he said.

The full interview can be read via The Daily Herald here .

Join the discussion

To post comments please Sign in or Register

When commenting please follow our house rules

Click here to become part of The Superyacht Group community, and join us in our mission to make this industry accessible to all, and prosperous for the long-term. We are offering access to the superyacht industry’s most comprehensive and longstanding archive of business-critical information, as well as a comprehensive, real-time superyacht fleet database, for just £10 per month, because we are One Industry with One Mission. Sign up here .

Related news

77m Go crashes into dock in St. Maarten

Reports suggest the yacht lost its steering as it was leaving its berth in Simpson Bay

VIDEO: Enigma on fire in Langkawi

Images shared by a captain in the area showed 75m Enigma on fire in Langkawi, a video has now emerged online

MAIB publishes accident report into Vision and Minx collision

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch looks into the lessons learned from the fatal 2019 incident

Feadship W damaged by fire

The incident occurred in Bahia Mar Marina in Fort Lauderdale

Update: owner of ‘My Song’ seeks compensation for loss of yacht

Peters & May address this latest development following the loss of the yacht from a cargo ship last year

3 years ago

4 years ago

Sign up to the SuperyachtNews Bulletin

Receive unrivalled market intelligence, weekly headlines and the most relevant and insightful journalism directly to your inbox.

Sign up to the SuperyachtNews Bulletin

The superyachtnews app.

Follow us on

Media Pack Request

Please select exactly what you would like to receive from us by ticking the boxes below:

SuperyachtNews.com

Register to comment

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

• What Is Cinema?
• Newsletters

Inside Below Deck Sailing Yacht ’s Crash, and the Dramatic Aftermath

By Julie Miller

Below Deck viewers have survived kitchen fires, nightmare charter guests , dramatic dismissals, drug scandals , and soured romantic relationships. But Monday’s episode of Below Deck Sailing Yacht, “Total Ship Show,” is unprecedented in franchise history, in terms of its sheer disaster quotient. Within the first five minutes of the episode, the Parsifal yacht crashes into a stone dock in high winds, destroying the end of the vessel and totaling Captain Glenn Shephard ’s already-dented ego. (Last week, Parsifal suffered a less serious collision. We hope the sailing yacht is not cursed.) The rest of the episode unravels like a high-paced thriller set aboard an out-of-control luxury yacht.

The villains: the shrill, gluten-free charter guests, who are too self-involved to notice the Parsifal ’s jacked transom door. The dramatic B-plot: the chef screwing up a five-course meal by serving steak after dessert. As if this were not enough action for a single episode, there is also an STD scare that forces an otherwise respectable woman to reckon with an indiscretion.

“It was almost like an embarrassment of riches,” said Below Deck executive producer Courtland Cox, of the chart-topping chaos in Croatia. “It’s amazing that this was all happening, but it’s also difficult to tell all of these stories in an interesting way within a limited amount of time per episode.” Some viewers complained that the season was starting off too smoothly, but Cox trusted the process and knew that such interesting cast members would yield climactic story lines. “With any great narrative structure, you want to have peaks and valleys that eventually crescendo into something interesting…. The yacht crashing, guests being crazy, and Jean-Luc [Cerza Lanaux] being worried about getting an STD, all that stuff is the seasoning.”

Ahead, Cox and Parsifal chief stew Daisy Kelliher take us behind the scenes of Monday’s bombshell episode to answer all of our burning questions—about everything from the crash to the onboard romances, including Dani’s pregnancy announcement.

Executive producer Cox was tucked away in a tiny control room on the Parsifal during both accidents, where he was able to watch what was happening from three different camera vantage points, and hear what was happening from the walkie-talkie dialogue on deck. Cox said that he knew that the Parsifal was going to hit the dock about five seconds before it happened—when first mate Gary King began calling out the shrinking measurements between the yacht and the dock, but the boat, because of the intense wind and swell, kept hurtling toward the dock at full speed. Because of a mechanical error that short-circuited the thrusters, Captain Glenn was not able to propel the vessel in the reverse direction.

As the ship sped toward the dock, the Below Deck producer juggled a contradictory range of concerns: the fear of a captive passenger aboard an out-of-control vessel; worry for his fellow shipmates; heartbreak for Captain Glenn, who was about to bite it in front of multiple cameras; and, conversely, the shark-like instincts of a reality-TV producer keen to capture the chaotic melee in all of its gruesome glory.

“The human part of me, my heart aches for Glenn,” Cox told Vanity Fair. Still, he continued, “My job is to capture what’s actually happening—so we told our camera operators, ‘Stay on Glenn.’ We don’t push right up in his face or get in his way, but the story in the moment was that Glenn hit the dock. How was he going to rectify the situation?”

In addition to seeing the crash, viewers also witness Captain Glenn’s spirit breaking close up—as the sweet Parsifal pilot realizes, in devastatingly real time, that he has not only incurred thousands of dollars in yacht damages, but has done so with a camera trained on him.

“I probably watched this episode 15 times in various incarnations, and every time I see Glenn’s face in the immediate aftermath of hitting that dock, I still get very emotional,” said Cox. “It’s a catastrophic moment for any yacht captain when you do damage to a boat. It’s the worst possible thing. And I also know that that’s compounded by a factor of a million because there are TV cameras on you.”

Cox has produced 16 seasons’ worth of Below Deck, and called the crash “the second-most intense moment ever on the series.” (The first-most intense was a near-death accident in 2018 during which deckhand Ashton Pienaar was pulled overboard after his ankle was caught in ropes.) “As a producer, it’s amazingly compelling. But as a person onboard, it’s terrifying…. But Glenn is a consummate professional. He didn’t try to deflect or make excuses or try to tap dance his way out of it. He went quickly into crisis mode, damage mode.”

Parsifal chief stew Daisy Kelliher said that watching the crash in the episode was worse than living it, “because I was downstairs when it happened. I have never seen a boat that crashed the dock or been in a boat that crashed the dock.”

By Kara Warner

Speaking about Glenn, Kelliher said, “He was pretty upset at the time, but you quickly calm down. It was an accident, and the main thing is nobody got hurt. It’s like banging your car. You get the insurance sorted. You learn from it. And you move on.”

How quickly did the episode’s events happen in real life?

The unfolded over the course of about 72 hours, according to Cox. “The boat hits the dock, it looks terrible, and Glenn’s like, ‘Well, the guests are getting here in four hours.’… The crew did a great job at kind of compartmentalizing, and putting the dock behind us as these charter guests come on. And the story becomes about J.L.’ s anxiety about the STD, and [chef] Natasha’s anxiety about these guests having crazy demands that are emotionally taxing on the heels of a traumatic event…. It’s exhausting for them.”

What did producers make of another unprecedented plot twist: J.L.’s on-camera concerns about a potential sexually transmitted disease?

This twist surprised even Cox. “I’m a fossil who grew up in the ’70s and ’80s,” said Cox. “What was going through my head was, ‘There’s a very easy way he could have prevented this—by using some kind of protection. If you roll the dice, you kinda gotta accept what happens to you. I’m not a heartless monster TV producer. I don’t want anyone to ever suffer or go through something they have an existential crisis over. In that moment, you’re hoping that it’s at least one of the lesser STDs that is easily treated.”

When did producers discover that Dani was pregnant? (The cast member revealed her pregnancy on Instagram last month.)

“Dani brought it to our attention when we were pretty far into the postproduction process,” said Cox. “Even once Dani found out, I think she kind of wanted to sit with [the news] herself. Then she let us know and said, ‘Hey, just so you know, I’m pregnant.’ We said, ‘Okay, great.’ I left that up to her and how much information she wanted to give us. My first reaction was, ‘That’s fantastic. Congratulations.’ Because she made it clear throughout the season that she wanted a family. The rest of that is for Dani to figure out.”

“I really don’t ask Dani much about it,” added Kelliher in a separate phone call. “I’m very aware that that she probably feels like she’s explaining herself to a lot of people. So I try and respect her privacy. We’ve spoken a little about it, but I figure the less I know the better.”

Do Daisy and Natasha eventually get to a place of mutual understanding and respect?

“I didn’t mind her,” said Kelliher. “On the show it looks like we hated each other. We were very civil with each other, and would laugh and sit with each other. It wasn’t constant arguing—that only came when it was time to serve meals…. At that stage, I had kind of given up, because I had tried everything. She didn’t want my help. She didn’t want to communicate with me…. I’m asking you if you’re serving five courses, you’re telling me no. I could stand here and keep arguing, but I wasn’t going to win in this.… We have a good relationship now. I have respect for her. But that [tension] never changes.”

What is Daisy’s read on the love triangle tensions between Gary, Sydney, and Alli?

“I wish I had been there for some of the conversations [between the three of them], because I don’t think they would have escalated as much,” said Kelliher. “I do think Sydney was pretty intense. I knew she was upset and understood why she was upset. If you’re a girl, it’s embarrassing if somebody chooses someone over you…. But some of the things she said were quite mean to Ali, and I didn’t really like that. If I had been there, that wouldn’t have happened because I wouldn’t have allowed it.”

“I’ve definitely seen love triangles. I’ve been involved in love triangles. This was intense because it escalated so quickly. I didn’t really get it. I guess maybe we’re all intense people—maybe that’s why you do a TV show about yachting. But I did find the whole thing a bit weird from all sides. I was like, ‘We’ve known each other [for] like three weeks…and don’t even know each others’ last names.’ Settle down.”

Below Deck Sailing Yacht airs on Bravo at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

All products featured on Vanity Fair are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

— A First Look at Leonardo DiCaprio in Killers of the Flower Moon — 15 Summer Movies Worth Returning to Theaters For — Why Evan Peters Needed a Hug After His Big Mare of Easttown Scene — Shadow and Bone Creators Break Down Those Big Book Changes — The Particular Bravery of Elliot Page’s Oprah Interview — Inside the Collapse of the Golden Globes — Watch Justin Theroux Break Down His Career — For the Love of Real Housewives: An Obsession That Never Quits — From the Archive : The Sky’s the Limit for Leonardo DiCaprio — Not a subscriber? Join Vanity Fair to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now.

Moscow Mufti, “Rash Decisions on the Status of Jerusalem Offend the Feelings of Almost Two Billion Muslims around the World”

May 11, Interfax – Head of the Spiritual Assembly of Russian Muslims, Moscow Mufti Albir Krganov, believes that…

Head of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Arrives in Moscow

On 15 May 2018, Patriarch and Catholicos Abune Mathias I of Ethiopia arrived in Russia with an official…

On Other People’s Suffering

A believer does in fact perceive death differently from an atheist. Where an atheist sees a complete and…

“Le monde entier reste silencieux au…

Depuis le 12 décembre 2022, la région de l'Artsakh, où vivent 120…

“The whole world is silent about…

Since December 12, 2022 the region of Artsakh, where 120,000 Armenians live,…

The Importance of Patiently Letting Down…

If there is any virtue that seems completely foreign to our culture…

Developed by Hamburg Church Studio

Design by —

International / UK/Europe

10 dead in moscow metro accident.

Georgy Golukhov, the head of Moscow's health department, had earlier said five people had perished and another 106 had been taken to hospital.

AFP correspondents saw several helicopters and dozens of ambulances at the scene outside Park Pobedy metro station in western Moscow.

"I thought it was the end," one passenger told state television channel Rossiya 24. "We were trapped and only got out through a miracle.

"There were lots of injured," he added. "Various injuries: heads, legs."

Alexei Naryshkin, a presenter on the popular Echo of Moscow radio station, posted a photograph on Twitter of rescue workers carrying a body in a black bag.

"They are laying out the injured. They constantly go down with stretchers. They carry them out. Some are unconscious. Some are moaning with pain," Naryshkin wrote.

Another witness, a young man in a polo shirt, told Life News television: "I got into the carriage and after about 20 seconds, the light went out and the train was just pulled apart. I was just thrown into the centre of the carriage."

"Panic started," he told Life News television.

"We climbed out of the carriages and we saw a blockage, men took hammers and pliers and broke it down and we walked on. The train was smashed, the chassis was just pulled apart."

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin was at the scene and pledged to do everything possible to help the victims.

Golukhov said about 60 ambulances were stationed at the scene, while one seriously injured passenger was evacuated by helicopter.

Television footage showed rescue workers carrying the injured away on stretchers, while paramedics treated some on nearby grass verges.

A spokesman for the emergencies ministry said in televised remarks that the accident happened when a train braked suddenly after a false alarm.

"This is the most serious man-made disaster in the Moscow underground in its entire history," infrastructure analyst Alexei Khazbiyev told AFP.

"It is the most serious accident apart from terrorist attacks."

Opened under Stalin in 1935, Moscow's ornate metro is considered the world's busiest and carries some nine million people every day.

Sport City metro station earns coveted GSAS Platinum Award

3.1mn passengers use Doha Metro, Lusail Tram during Asian Cup group stage

The global authority in superyachting

• NEWSLETTERS
• Yachts Home
• The Superyacht Directory
• Yacht Reports
• Brokerage News
• The largest yachts in the world
• The Register
• Yacht Advice
• Yacht Design
• 12m to 24m yachts
• Monaco Yacht Show
• Builder Directory
• Designer Directory
• Interior Design Directory
• Naval Architect Directory
• Yachts for sale home
• Motor yachts
• Sailing yachts
• Explorer yachts
• Classic yachts
• Sale Broker Directory
• Charter Home
• Yachts for Charter
• Charter Destinations
• Charter Broker Directory
• Destinations Home
• Mediterranean
• South Pacific
• Rest of the World
• Boat Life Home
• Owners' Experiences
• Interiors Suppliers
• Owners' Club
• Captains' Club
• BOAT Showcase
• Boat Presents
• Events Home
• World Superyacht Awards
• Superyacht Design Festival
• Design and Innovation Awards
• Young Designer of the Year Award
• Artistry and Craft Awards
• Explorer Yachts Summit
• Ocean Talks
• The Ocean Awards
• BOAT Connect
• Between the bays
• Golf Invitational
• Boat Pro Home
• Pricing Plan
• Superyacht Insight
• Product Features
• Premium Content
• Testimonials
• Global Order Book
• Tenders & Equipment

Watch: 59m yacht Idol collides with bridge in Italy

The 58.9 metre motor yacht Idol has been involved in a collision involving a bridge in Pisa, Italy.

The incident occurred yesterday (Tuesday May 31) at 11am local time when the yacht passed below the bridge of the Autostrada Azzurra, which runs over the Pisa canal.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by TheYachtsLife (@theyachtslife)

Idol collided with a bridge that typically has an elevation of 11.8 metres above sea level during low tide. According to eyewitness reports, the yacht attempted to pass during high tide.

The yacht had recently undergone a refit with Pisa-based refit yard Seven Stars, with modifications including a new paint job and modifications to the stern and bow, including the addition of a helipad.

It’s thought that the collision occurred when the yacht left the refit yard en route to open water, as she was being manoeuvred by tug. The location of the refit facilities means that yachts have to travel along the Pisa canal to reach the sea.

The yacht is now in Livorno. The extent of the damage, if any, is not currently known. 

Idol was originally launched in 2007 by Australian shipyard Austal under the name Outback. Her pared-back profile comes from the drawing boards of Sam Sorgiovanni.

More about this yacht

More stories, most popular, from our partners, sponsored listings.

Strange Glow Over Moscow Skies Triggers Panic as Explosions Reported

B right flashes lit up the night sky in southern Moscow in the early hours of Thursday morning, new footage appears to show, following reports of an explosion at an electrical substation on the outskirts of the city.

Video snippets circulating on Russian-language Telegram channels show a series of flashes on the horizon of a cloudy night sky, momentarily turning the sky a number of different colors. In a clip shared by Russian outlet MSK1.ru, smoke can be seen rising from a building during the flashes lighting up the scene.

Newsweek was unable to independently verify the details of the video clips, including when and where it was filmed. The Russian Ministry of Emergency situations has been contacted via email.

Several Russian Telegram accounts said early on Thursday that residents of southern Moscow reported an explosion and a fire breaking out at an electrical substation in the Leninsky district, southeast of central Moscow.

Local authorities in the Leninsky district told Russian outlet RBC that the explosion had happened in the village of Molokovo. "All vital facilities are operating as normal," Leninsky district officials told the outlet.

The incident at the substation in Molokovo took place just before 2 a.m. local time, MSK1.ru reported.

Messages published by the ASTRA Telegram account, run by independent Russian journalists, appear to show residents close to the substation panicking as they question the bright flashes in the sky. One local resident describes seeing the bright light before losing access to electricity, with another calling the incident a "nightmare."

More than 10 villages and towns in the southeast of Moscow lost access to electricity, the ASTRA Telegram account also reported. The town of Lytkarino to the southeast of Moscow, lost electricity, wrote the eastern European-based independent outlet, Meduza.

Outages were reported in the southern Domodedovo area of the city, according to another Russian outlet, as well as power failures in western Moscow. Electricity was then restored to the areas, the Strana.ua outlet reported.

The cause of the reported explosion is not known. A Telegram account aggregating news for the Lytkarino area described the incident as "an ordinary accident at a substation."

The MSK1.ru outlet quoted a local resident who speculated that a drone may have been responsible for the explosion, but no other Russian source reported this as a possible cause.

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Moscow with long-range aerial drones in recent months, including a dramatic wave of strikes in late May.

On Sunday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the region's air defense systems had intercepted an aerial drone over the city of Elektrostal, to the east of Moscow. No damage or casualties were reported, he said.

The previous day, Russian air defenses detected and shot down another drone flying over the Bogorodsky district, northeast of central Moscow, Sobyanin said.

There is currently no evidence that an aerial drone was responsible for the reported overnight explosion at the electrical substation in southern Moscow.

Related Articles

• Russian Soldier Bashes Drone With Shovel After Detonation Failure: Video
• Russia Headed for Disappointment in Battles Along Dnieper River: UK
• Ukraine's Military Receives Good News From Multiple NATO Allies

Start your unlimited Newsweek trial