An abnormally high mast and a deck that was too sunken, which reduced the yacht’s stability, are some of the failures pointed out by a group of experts and that contributed to the tragedy.
Just days after a luxury yacht sank off Sicily, killing seven of its occupants, the chief executive of the company that sells the yachts said he was “in disbelief.” At the end of the day, he assured, the vessels sold by The Italian Sea Group are “unsinkable” and have no flaws in their design and construction. Now, more than two months after the tragedy, an investigation into New York Times came to prove the opposite. Despite the storm that hit the yacht on the day of the disaster, the Bayesian had structural flaws that explain why it capsized and sank so quickly.
“This The ship had definite deficiencies that made it vulnerable to what happened.“said Ted Roberts, a naval engineer with 40 years of experience in yacht design, who collaborated in the North American newspaper’s investigation. One of the defects is related to the yacht ballastwhich, instead of being evenly distributed on the bottom of the ship, which would have ensured the best stability, was stacked at the rear of the ship’s hull. Without a proper center of gravity, the boat is more likely to capsize, Roberts said. That is precisely what happened the day the Bayesian system collapsed.
However, the unusual ballast distribution may have been intentional, in order to accommodate another peculiarity of the yacht: the abnormally high mast. The original buyer of the boat, a Dutch businessman, insisted, when he ordered the boat to be built, on having a large mast, which would be taller than any other mast in the world, according to the Italian yacht manufacturer and three people with detailed knowledge of how this ship was built. The decision would force changes to be made to other components of the yacht, to try to give stability to the boat, which generated vulnerabilitiessay the experts.
The CEO of the company that built the luxury yacht that sank in Sicily says that ships like that are “unsinkable bodies”
In addition, the mast of this yacht was made of at least 24 tons of aluminum, instead of carbon fiber, a much lighter and more widely used material. Another defect in the construction of the yacht was the excess air ventswhich ended up allowing the sudden entry of water, causing the yacht, valued at 40 million euros, to sink in a few minutes. The two tall glass doors on one side of the deck also had the same effect, letting in large amounts of water.
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Finally, experts identify a serious failure in the yacht’s own deck, which was too sunkenthat is, at a very low level, which reduced the ship’s buoyancy, accelerating the sinking. What at first glance seem like small defects, which may not seem decisive, end up becoming important when combined, according to experts, compromising the stability of the boat.
“We can look back on it and say they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. No, that’s not true,” argues Roberts (one of the 40 experts interviewed by New York Times). Experts agree that the unexpected ferocity of the storm that hit Bayesian also contributed to the tragedy, but it doesn’t explain everything. Italian investigators are also investigating the actions of the Bayesian’s captain and crew.
In statements to the American newspaper, Giovanni Costantino, general director of the Italian Sea Group, reaffirms that the yacht “was unsinkable” and continues to accuse the crew, accusing them of having made mistakes and “not doing what they should have done.” made.”
Source: Observadora
