Looks like the crew of the 100+ Day Break and Le Montrachet were caught with their pants down in a night squall at Big Majors a few days ago. Apparently they were rafted up on a single anchor when winds shifted to the west and dragged causing damage to a number of boats... they lost one tender (sunk) and beaches the other one... Numerous blogs describing the mayhem. Hard to understand how neither crew saw this coming and didn’t take action before it hits. Large squalls don’t come out of nowhere...
So many mistakes. Rafting. Single Anchor. No one on watch. Leaving tenders in the water. Single anchor for two boats. A lot of damage, all easily avoidable.
Many of these boats now take tenders they couldn't get aboard if their lives depended on it. 30', 40' and even bigger! Towed behind when underway and driven by a crew member while the vessel is docking or anchoring. There's even one couple running around where the 150' motor yacht is the residence to the owner of the 87' J boat it accompanies everywhere. I guess the owner sails his very fast, classic sailboat during the day and retires to his motor yacht for dinner prepared by a French chef and a bedroom larger than the all the living quarters on the J boat. Everything in this business is getting bigger and bigger. When I operated "mega-yachts" 160 to 225 feet was a big boat, but to that's just a tender to the "mega-yachts" of today. Sometimes it takes binoculars to tell if that motor vessel out there on the horizon is a cruise ship or a "mega-yacht", and that's no exaggeration.
Obviously the large tenders have to stay in the water but they should have been set on their tow lines or taken to shelter between the Majors.
Just people wholly unprepared. The largest yacht has 2 anchors and only 1 in use. That is a TON of weight and windage sitting on 1 anchor designed to hold just the large yacht. I always prepare well. You see it at marina's also....the people that put 2 weeny unfit fenders out yet have 3 big ones sitting on the bow un-used.....same goes for docklines.