New 125 Westport hits dock.

Auto Idle..?
Must be nice.
On the old analog jets we had auto nothing and not really good old days, planes crashed as much or more than now. (Concord crash, FE shut down an engine without being told to do, everybody died.)
Perhaps Auto Idle would have helped..
As for the Westport crunching half a marina: Loss of control, where is the Big Red Handle at all stations that will shut down runaway engines?

So... you ve docked the boat from an aft deck or wing station, lines are secured, do you really go back right away to the pilothouse to shut down the mains? Sometimes yes but not always. Sometimes you may want to let the engines idle a few minutes to cool them down.

If the control system goes haywire, it maybe a few seconds till you can shut down if you re away. Tricky

That boat takes off like a shot and is accelerating , IMMO. That doesn't look like idle rpm to me. Shouldn't somebody hear those motors spooling up? Looks as though the starboard engine had more power. or the rudder was over? Not much time to react that's for sure unless you were right next to a set of controls.

The results of the investigation will maybe change some operating protocols.

It's a long walk/run from the outside deck of a 125' to the helm area in a situation like this. A lot of times it takes 30-60 seconds to figure out what IS going on and then deciding how to react to it.

Agree. unless somebody was right at the control, little chance....

There likely is nothing to release. The cause is known, just not known by anyone here. The responsibility has been accepted. I don't expect any public information to surface.

If it was an equipment malfunction I would hope that someone lets that be known to prevent further incidents - human error I don't care so much, but curious.

I don't know how the law works in Washington State, but the three states I'm most familiar with all have requirements to notify local authorities when involved in a boating accident. A couple of the states have minimum thresholds for reporting, like injury, death or damage over $500. But, at least one of the states requires a report irrespective of damage or injury. Those reports, of course, are all public information.

Surely, because of the significance of the damage here, somebody is investigating, either the Coast Guard, DNR or Local Sheriff if not all three. That information will becomes public, at some point.

Local authorities were notified and were involved from the outset. I may be surprised, but expect their report will have the basic information we already know, not a detailed investigation as to why. Just the what.

One aspect that hasn't been discussed:
Seeing that this marina is in the factories close vicinity, was this new 125 going out for builders trials or had the new owner taken delivery? If she was going on builders trials than a VERY experienced Westport team of techs and company Capt. were aboard and were very familiar with the systems aboard. Had they finished fueling and were getting ready for departure? This certainly could be something as simple as a deckhand dragging a fender fwd. and bumped a control lever on a wing station or better yet, and one that seems to happen frequently on yachts is when the Capt. leaves a weather or wing station active and a deckie places a cover or stows the control station while active and off to the races she goes....

The news article stated that the yacht was on it's way to Fort Lauderdale and owned by Westport. Have to wonder if it was going to Victoria/Nanaimo to be loaded for transport to arrive at the FLIBS?

The owner had not taken delivery. There was a Westport crew of 6. The boat was scheduled to leave Port Angeles within a few days. Holli points out just one more possibility. I think assuming any specific cause at this point is ill advised.

Maybe from different articles? From the link in post #1, Peninsula Daily News:
"The 125-foot yacht was owned by Westport and was getting set to travel Thursday to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for delivery to its new owner, said John Nutter, Port director of properties, marinas and airports."
Just idle speculation, on my part, since I've loaded yachts on ships in both Victoria and Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island. Victoria, Canada, is just across the Straits from Port Angeles.

YouTuber I follow just released this weeks video. He was there and has first hand video of the event. Here's the link