440: Charter Lagoon 440 Takes on water and flips

[solecollector]

I'm real interested in hearing what the cause was.

German nationals unharmed as chartered catamaran capsized south west of Seychelles main island - Seychelles News Agency

(Seychelles News Agency) - Efforts are underway to salvage a catamaran that capsized off Cap Lazare in the south-western part of the main Seychelles island of Mahé on Wednesday afternoon, with no casualties.
The Lagoon 440 ‘Zebra Moon’ belonging to the Seychelles fleet of Dream Yacht Charter, which has offices on Mahé as well as on the second most populated island of Praslin, was carrying five people at the time.
Pascal Durand, the manager of Dream Yacht Charter in Seychelles, confirmed to SNA that the five people, who are all German nationals were able to come out unharmed.
According to Durand, the catamaran was heading from the south-western part to the north-western part of Mahé and that the incident was reported at around 2 pm (local time) yesterday.
The Seychelles police, Coast Guards and Maritime Safety Administration (SMSA) were all informed about the incident.
The Director General of the SMSA Captain Joachim Valmont told SNA that they were informed that the five people aboard the vessel had immediately used their dinghy to get off the catamaran within five minutes after they had noticed that it was taking on water and quickly starting to sink.

A picture of the sunken Catamaran. (Greg Berke) Photo License: All Rights Reserved
In an emailed statement to SNA, Durand said that his clients explained to the police that they were all at the helm station upstairs when the boat's electronics suddenly stopped working, soon followed by the engine.
“The skipper decided to go down and noticed when he entered the boat that it was taking on water… they just grabbed the life jackets and decided to put on the water the dinghy…” read the statement.
The five persons then received the help of some local fishermen nearby to get back to shore.
Durand explained that only the front part of the hull was visible when they reached the location about an hour and a half after the incident was reported.
He adds that steps were taken including the setting of mooring lines to ensure that the boat did not drift further away throughout the night considering the sea was a bit rough at the time.
The sunken catamaran was reportedly secured at a distance of about one nautical mile from the shore until this morning when work started to assess the situation and plan the salvage operations.
Dream Yacht Charter, which started operations in the Seychelles in 2001, has over 400 boats operating in over 30 locations worldwide.

The exact cause of the incident is under investigation by the boat charter company.

[Sid at SailAway]

Something's not adding up here. How can she take on water thus adding weight and as an offset, stability as she settles lower in the water, then flip? Yep, need some more details here....

[solecollector]

I wonder if they left an emergency hatch open.

[transmitterdan]

Is it possible the lee hull was foundering and they had too much sail up?

[Bahia]

I wonder how that happened.
It's not that windy here at the moment.
We have maybe 25 knots windspeed tops.
And according to them they were running the engines, so probably sails down.
I will follow up with the matter and will keep you guys posted.

In the meantime a pic from this morning

[monte]

Interesting. I wonder if she will sink or float. Not really floating very high at the moment for sure..

[TOT]

It sounds very strange that it flipped but at least no one was hurt.


SV TOT
Wayne 😃

[colemj]

For all the catamaran haters here - this is how you save money on haulouts for bottom painting.

For all the catamaran lovers here - this is a good lesson about believing that all catamarans are unsinkable and don't need liferafts.

Mark

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by colemj

For all the catamaran haters here - this is how you save money on haulouts for bottom painting.

For all the catamaran lovers here - this is a good lesson about believing that all catamarans are unsinkable and don't need liferafts.

Mark

Certainly agree with you Mark...actually I'm surprised that what little floatation is has left it sits bow high, I hadn't expected that.

[Captain Bill]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

Certainly agree with you Mark...actually I'm surprised that what little floatation is has left it sits bow high, I hadn't expected that.

I would have expected that. All of the heavy stuff is in the stern along with most of the hull openings. The bows are large compartments that trap air. I would be very surprised if most cats would float on an even keel when inverted. Especially ones with their engines behind the rudders.

[TOT]

The key question is whilst taking on water is one thing but what made it flip???


SV TOT
Wayne 😃

[GoingWalkabout]

Originally Posted by TOT

The key question is whilst taking on water is one thing but what made it flip???


SV TOT
Wayne ��

Not that I want to cast doubt on their story but what do you all think of this scenario. They had no idea how to sail. More interested in drinking their German beer than watching the wind and thought they could turn the boat like a car. They flipped it. I know it would take a lot of doing but not impossible. So thinking oh s....... we are in deep trouble here lets say the boat all of a sudden took on water. We jumped ship and climbed aboard the dinky that they freed after the flip. Would explain the picture. All the water rushing in through the salon doors they had left open. Have I been watching to many episodes of Castle, the mystery writer actor or .........? Just asking.

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by colemj

For all the catamaran haters here - this is how you save money on haulouts for bottom painting.

Yeah, you have it on us. Our monos would roll back upright, no time to do the painting.




Perhaps it "flipped" because one hull took on so much water sinking it enough to then causing the other hull to fill. It probably sunk a the rear trapping air in the bow and slowly settled upside down after perhaps some time vertical.

[2Wind]

As i own one of these I have long thought about the "unsinkable" slogan. The forward "air tight compartments" are probably reasonably so provided the drain to the central bilge is not left open and the Lewmar hatches and seals are in good order. The aft/engine "air tight" compartments may be less so. First there is the hatch which I suspect is far from air tight especially if the seal is old. Then there is the leg and the seawater intake - both vulnerabilities. The "watertight" bulkhead that separates this compartment from the aft cabin actually has a non watertight "peep hole" and cap like cover that is "designed" to allow you to direct your fire extinguisher into the engine compartment in the event of a fire. Admittedly it is located highish athe the mattress level and well abover the waterline (when properly afloat) but fundamentally rules out the compartment being "air tight". It should be a transparent screw in inspection fitting, not a press fit cap covering a void.

Still, not sure how taking on water, turns into inverted boat, without sails, wind or sea. The frustrating thing about these events is that the actual investigative finding never get published and you never find out what really happened. It is a bit like a L500 that sunk 50NM off the Queensland coast last year (in moderate weather after sailing half way aronnd the world). There was speculation about insurance fraud and all maner of things, but no facts.

[Foozinator]

Pure speculation:

Left the escape hatch open on a heavily loaded boat. Water flowing in made the already heavy stern heavier. Boat sinks down the stern, eventually enough that the float-y bow is holding the boat up, at which point the water-filled heavy mast drags the top over, and the boat floats chest-up.

A bit of a nit-pick, but they keep saying "sunken". How does that apply when the boat is still breaking the surface of the water?