Yacht Serena III sinks off Ft. Lauderdale

2012 build

Build started 2007, Launched 2010, delivered 2012. Steel. Built by Brazilian commercial ship builder. Initially ABS classed, but class dropped.

The speed of the whole affair seems a bit peculiar ... unless a major component of the seawater system instantly failed catastrophically one would think there would have been quite a bit of comms going on telling someone about the problem early on.

Perhaps had they had the overdue survey that caused loss of class, they might have avoided this. Class was suspended 9/28 and withdrawn 12/28 for overdue survey.

The owner is a huge developer and owner of shopping malls.

Built in 2012. If you have access to Twitter there's a good photo of it going out of Port Everglades behind a cruise ship around 4:30PM yesterday. Something went bad in a hurry. Maybe a container?

As to containers, possible, although most speculation is mechanical. Should be noted that there were 25 containers lost in the area off a barge Columbia Elizabeth in December. Oh, and it should be noted also, the operator of the barge, someone we've all heard of related to problems, TOTE Maritime.

That doesn't necessarily mean anything other than the owner decided he had nothing to gain by remaining in class. The cost savings are substantial and the benefits are not always worth the expense and paperwork for a private owner.

When an owner decides to drop class he will (or can) just not schedule a survey and let the term run its course.

I'm just saying that regardless of his reasons the survey might possibly have avoided this sinking if it was a catastrophic failure of the seawater system or something of that magnitude. A survey one month earlier might have detected the potential issue.

That is extremely unlikely.

I know very little about steel ships or yachts, but wouldn't have thought most of them had stabilizers. Guess I just learned something.

""There may have been a possible grounding on the way out of Port Everglades and it wasn’t noticed until they were further offshore,” said Sadowicz"

"Investigators are checking to see if a shaft that attaches from inside the boat to a stabilizer on the bottom may have fallen out."

The Mayday call was clear and to the point.

https://www.dvidshub.net/audio/43012/motor-yacht-serena-iii-mayday-transmission#.VqhEffkrK1t

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2016/01/26/dramatic-rescue-off-lauderdale-after-mega-yacht-sinks/

This is interesting, the first officer makes it sound like there were no high water alarms going off brefore they became aware of the leak.

The first officer also mentions that they may have touch bottom leaving the Bahia Mar area. Which since I believe they draw 11', is possible.

And he mentions flooding in a guest cabin. Which could be the location of a stabilizer.

Yes, makes it sound like the first thing they noticed was the listing. Well, a lot of water in by that time.