Silverton Yachts Foredeck Failure -

Only the crew and the insurers know what happened and they may not, may be fighting over that still.

Looks like core to me, where the gel peeled back.

I'm wondering if the total pressure caused the peeling rather than it being a sign of collision. It doesn't look like the result of a collision. Had they run into something the very front of the boat would surely be dented badly. Having a collision on both sides of the boat is difficult. I am thinking once the foredeck broke loose, the delamination happened, water got in, that all he.l just broke loose on the boat. Maybe the visible damage even came from inside out. Once the structural integrity of the boat was destroyed, then no telling what could happen.

Looks a lot like the 63 Bertram that sank off South Carolina a few years back.

In the photos of the sunken Bert, you could clearly see the nice shiny resin underneath where the tabbing separated. Curious to see if something similar happened here.

Yeah and you can make good time on the ICW up that way in that size boat. I ran a lot of the inside down this year on a 50' MY and was making 130-165NM a day on a boat that cruised at 21 knots and we only had 10 hours of daylight total....and mostly running 8.5-9 hours a day.

Perhaps it hit one of those yellow buoys up there! They've been known to peel foredecks right off of 63' Bertrams.

That last picture looks like a wrap type covering is peeling back some here and there. The I looked at the stern.. is there a chunk out of the Port quarter ?

The port quarter looks like another decal of some sort...

Yes they are big skull and cross bones stickers. But the paint above and foward of the skull and cross bones is peeling. I don't think there was any frontal impact. I think the paint peeled off from flexing. The sea state really is not that severe in the photo's, perhaps 3-4' and don't understand why they couldn't have brought the vessel in under it's own power as the hull seems to be floating at normal waterline and the hull seems intact.

To me it looks like the anchor was pushed right into the hull on the bottom left picture, forcing the deck back. I think there was an impact on the pulpit below the rub rail.

It looks like someone got hurt when the "event" occurred and everyone freaked out. If the reports are correct the boat was only a couple of hours away from port and the seas certainly didn't look bad. I think it is another case of the boat being able to handle an event and conditions that the crew couldn't.

Only those onboard know what happened and obviously they aren't talking but it sure looks like they stuffed the bow before discovering they bit off a bit more than they figured on.

It was also the case of one of the three aboard getting injured and having difficulty breathing which is probably time to call for rescue.

Call me cynical but I interpret "difficulty breathing' as having an anxiety attack brought on by being scared witless.

Ok, "Cynical." It could be, but under any circumstances, if you felt your friend, spouse or mate was in respiratory distress, you'd probably call for help. Now, why the remaining two didn't feel they could run it in, I don't know. Perhaps worry about the one having breathing problems. Perhaps completely exhausted from trying to fight it. Perhaps scared. Perhaps the CG encouraged them strongly, felt it was unsafe, based either on the condition of the boat or the remaining crew.

I was wondering where the tow service was. Perhaps they had no tow coverage or insurance. Who knows. But it was certainly within the tow area and within manageable tow conditions.

Broken ribs will also make breathing difficult. I had a crew member break two ribs and we were about 200 NM's from the nearest shore in 8-10' seas. Fortunately he didn't have difficulty breathing, was alert and showed no other signs of distress except a lot of pain. But if one of those broken ribs punctured a lung, it would've created breathing problems and would've called the USCG to air vac him, IF they had the range to do so. I had him lay on his back in the salon and stay there the entire voyage until the following morning when we got in. The Mate and I ran the boat the entire night and maybe only got a couple of hours of sleep each, mainly due to the sea state.

Anyone else notice the foredeck appears to be a separate part from the rest of the deck and superstructure mold? Photos 7 and 9 of the port and stbd sides, you can clearly see the perfect vertical and horizontal lines where it sheared off.