Last week we ran a video about the $40 million superyacht Yogi. It was less than a year old when it sank in the Aegean, and at more than 195 feet, it was the largest yacht ever to sink. The video asked the obvious question, why did this yacht sink?
Now we have part two of the video, which is an attempt to answer that question, based on the report by French authorities and other reporting. And it’s complicated. You can see the video below.
Yogi was launched at the Proteskan Turquoise yard in Turkey in April, 2011, and it was registered in France. It returned to the factory for some work, including the reseating of the transom door, in October. On Feb. 17, 2012, the yacht was cruising in the Aegean with eight crew on board.
At 0140 the engineer saw that the starboard engine exhaust was overheating. He tried to call the captain on the bridge, but the phone was out of order. He then tried the emergency intercom, but that didn’t work either. He did not have a handheld VHF radio, although there were 14 on board.
The engineer went to the bridge to tell the captain to shut down the engine, but it had already stopped. Then the port engine had the same problem. It shut down automatically.
The autopilot was off and the captain couldn’t start the two steering motors controlling the rudders. At 0238 the rudders were stuck at 30 degrees to starboard, there was flooding aft, the boat was stern-to the waves, dead in the water, and listing dangerously.
At 0420 the captain made a Mayday call, saying he had lost steering and the boat was flooding.
A Greek Coast Guard helicopter arrived and had removed all the crew by 08:30. It reported winds of 30 to 40 knots and seas of 18 to 25 feet. Yogi sank later that day.
So what happened? The French report found that the yacht had been running at 16.4 knots, the engines’ full load. It noted, among other things, that there was a watertight failure with the stern door, and flooding in the beach club and the steering room. There were problems with crew fatigue. And then there was the suicide. See the video here:
