Push Button Boating

Sept 3, 2024

This past week there were reports of two boating tragedies; one was about a young woman in New Jersey who was boarding a boat driven by her father. She was on a raft and as she boarded up the stern of the boat, she slipped, fell into the water and was killed by the boat propellers. The other story was the sinking of the 50 m (162.5 foot) yacht Bayesian owned by a British tech millionaire.

Bayesian went down at anchor when it was hit by a severe storm.  Giovanni Costantino, chief executive of The Italian Sea Group leads the company that owns Perini Navi, the builder of the sailing superyacht that sank off the coast of Sicily in the early hours of Monday (19 August 2024) said the yacht was “unsinkable” with several water-tight bulkheads but the investigation will likely reveal that the bulkheads were not secured. Bayesian was the family yacht of British entrepreneur Mike Lynch, who has been confirmed dead in the incident.

The vessel had 22 people on board, of whom 15 were rescued, including Briton Charlotte Golunski and her one-year-old daughter Sofia. Most certainly, the yacht would have had a professional crew onboard and they should have been aware of any reports of severe weather and should have secured the yacht in anticipation of the storm.

This will be a situation where there will be an extensive investigation and undoubtedly, a major insurance loss. There could be charges laid depending on what the investigations reveal but here is my point. I feel that people are increasingly open to what I call “push button boating” where new technologies designed to make boating easier and more accessible, are giving boaters the idea that they do not need to pay as much attention, or to have as much education and experience when they go boating.

The heart-breaking story of the father who left the engines running with people boarding from a raft, seems to have backed the boat into his own daughter. There may be much more to the story than we know but boating requires knowledge, skill and caution too.

The crew on Bayesian may have been told to leave the hatches or bulkheads open for some reason but there, I feel the captain, (not the owner) should have been in charge and should have gotten the bulkheads closed.

Technology is great but there is no common-sense button on the market that I know of.

Andy Adams – Editor