With an LOA of 251’ 8” and a displacement of 1,952 tons, Go was the largest yacht ever built by Turquoise Yachts in Turkey when it was launched in 2018. It had a master suite, eight guest cabins, a helipad, gym, Jacuzzi, beach club, sauna, hospital, elevator, swimming pool with a waterfall and a crew of 18. It also had twin 2,570-hp Cat diesels producing a top speed of 17 knots.
What it did not have at 10:15 one recent morning, was steering or reverse, and it slowly crashed into a dock, and then another dock, at the Sint Maarten Yacht Club in the Caribbean. Simon Johnson, the captain of Go with an unblemished record in his 35 years as a professional captain, said the yacht suffered an unidentified computer failure.
Go is computer driven, with 14 computers on the bridge and two below. Johnson told The Daily Herald the accident occurred after Go left its dock at Ile de Sol Marina on its way out of Simpson Bay Lagoon and he was lining it up to pass under a bridge.
“Then, when we were about 50 meters away and holding position, the yacht started mysteriously forward. There was nothing I seemed to be able to do; all the controls on the bridge we’re showing normal.” He said he had to make a fast decision; he couldn’t hit the bridge or drop the anchor so “I decided to point the bow towards the yacht club dock and beach her gently there.”
Johnson said, “the fact that there were no warning alarms, no lights on board to indicate something was wrong, was really scary.” And he added that modern electronics were “ridiculously over the top,” with no manual overrides or backups in an emergency,
You can see a video of the accident below, and hear one amazed bystander ask, “What’s going on?”
Fortunately, no one was hurt, but Michele Koreweg, the yacht club general manager, told The Daily Herald that “obviously this is a massive loss of income for the club at an already very difficult time.” She said it probably would take two months to get back to normal, depending on whether any pilings would have to be replaced.
Go is worth about $90.5 million and is owned by Hans Peter Wild, 79, a German-born Swiss with a doctorate from the Sorbonne. He owned the largest maker of natural flavors for food and drink in the world, until he sold it to ADM for $2.7 billion in 2014; he now owns the company that makes Capri-Sun children’s drinks. See the video and read more:
https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/captain-of-go-opens-up-on-mega-yacht-s-unexplained-malfunction
