60-meter British Flagged Vessel FOX sinks in Thailand

Just got word that the boat is still sitting at the bottom.
Boat won't be lifted untill underwriters have come to terms with regards to responsibility. Very sad situation.

You're kidding! It's still on the bottom!?

No, sorry I was completely mis-informed.
Boat is undergoing repairs at a (different) yard.

Word goes around that the sinking is caused by her being lowered at the slipway at a speed way to slow. Just before the critical point of having enough volume in the water for her to start floating the tug behind her pulled from the aft quarter and this made her take on water.

Sounds plausible to me but this info comes from hearsay so don't hold me accountable.

Sounds like they found the one hand involved, with the least money for lawyers, to make the scapegoat.

Is it just me or is this her... errr floating

Far

Try this...

Far

Marmot, could you share the particulars of this mistake without embarassing anyone? Sounds very interesting.

I wish I could. My employment precludes detailed discussion of specifics for all the same reasons that those type of problems continue to plague the industry - we have to hide our dirty little secrets so as not to embarrass yards, owners, "build captains" and "project managers" or find ourselves involved in lawsuits. This just about guarantees that nothing will change until an owner sues the "build captain" and the yard for collusion or something.

In this particular case a very inexperienced and incompetent individual was appointed by first time-owners to oversee a complex refit at a major yacht facility. This individual was recognized immediately by the facility as being unfit but because of the way the system works, could do nothing. Perhaps it was even to the advantage of the facility to say nothing in any event.

The specific item I referenced was a large machinery component that once installed was an economically permanent fixture ... to replace it would have had enormously costly repercussions in time and money. The facility knew it was wrong to install the machinery, the "build captain" who specified the machiner was either totally oblivious or involved in a scheme which some observers might consider involvement in a less-than-ethical transaction with a supplier.

Fortunately, neither myself or my employer was connected to that boat or project at the time. Our role now is facilitate the owner's future enjoyment of the yacht and minimize the damage as much as possible. At this point no one benefits from making a great deal of noise about the reasons this happened and will continue to happen to others. I just find it frustrating because we cannot promote or sell good oversight by marketing the way the anti-smoking crowd does, we can't get business by showing gory pictures of what happens when good buyers make bad decisions.

The yachting press and the yachting conferences don't devote columns or host panel discussions about this sort of thing, but I have to give credit to Martin for leading this camel's nose to the tent.

A Yard or builder with a good reputation always has the opportunity to refuse the install of a part or make a modification to a yacht. I've seen custom builders on several occasions refuse to do something an owner wants, that didn't effect the safety or operation of the yacht, but was ugly and the yard refused to build the yacht that way or install certain machinery. I think if they take the money and install something they believe shouldn't be installed on that particular yacht, they are just at fault as the dimwit captain and are selling their souls for the cash.

Nice to speak as someone with ages of experience, eh?

Look at it from owner's perspective: he has different people telling him different things, and very rarely he has ready means to differentiate. Not too rare is a case where owner is simply going on a trust basis. Sometimes, that trust is placed well, and sometimes, it isn't. As I wrote earlier (and had a personal experience investigating), unfortunately, no name or price is a 100% guarantee.

Ironically, even the owner is later motivated to keep foul-ups under wraps, because likely sooner then later he'll be reselling the boat and needs to preserve value...

It looks like the boys went to work for the Chinese.

17 MILLION $$ CHINESE LUXURY BOAT SINKS IMMEDIATELY AFTER LAUNCH! - YouTube

I am convinced that only garbage companies with garbage products have their products built in China. Anybody who deals with them should be ashamed. When my wife saw that she was astounded that anybody would launch a boat that way except for a an emergency refloating. I gave her the Chinese response for everything "It saves the customer money".

I am pretty happy with my Mac and my iPhone...

With a $2,000 computer that is antiquated within 2 years and infected with virus' and malware from....,and a $400 phone that is antiquated in one. Good for you. I'm happy for you. I was pretty happy with my $19 phone from Bell that lasted me 20 years.

That would be the phone that needs to be replaced annually and the computer that nobody will warranty past 2 years.AKA: garbage.

I have not seen a virus in my Mac's ever, during almost 25 years. And my iPhone is still working fine after three years. As I said the other day, I'll not replace it with the new one.

I'd ask how much you've spent replacing those computer in 25 years, but with you (as with me) it's a necessary business tool. Apple will be very disappointed with your keeping the i-phone however. They count on everybody "needing" the latest and greatest. My wife told me she wants a new phone the other day. I told her to ask me 6 months after hers stops working. But we digress. So what are the thoughts here about that launching technique (besides it being totally unsuccessful)? Anybody seen a large yacht (even a commercial one) launched using airbag rollers? Last time I saw anything like that , except in a re-floating situation, it was with logs and it was a long time ago. You'd kind of think that any reputable yard would invest in a proper launch system, although that didn't help the Fox much. Sorry folks I believe the Chinese only know one way of doing things, cheap in every sense of the word. They will cut corners at every turn. We buy from them because we gave them the store, and now we pay. The story goes that the native Americans sold Manhattan Island for $24 worth of wampum (pretty shells). I doubt there's one today who doesn't wish their ancestors had just slaughtered every white man who came ashore, were it possible.

Shall we try something new here, to lock this thread for 24 hours...

OK, thread is re-opened and on topic discussions are now welcome!