Five People Rescued After $8 Million 'Superyacht' Capsizes in Chesapeake Bay

Stacey Ritzen
Thu, August 1, 2024 

A superyacht worth approximately $8 million sank after capsizing in the Chesapeake Bay near Washington, D.C. over the weekend, leading the dramatic rescue of five passengers who were forced to jump overboard.

The incident occurred about a half-mile offshore at the mouth of the West River, when the 122-foot Sanlorenzo motor yacht named "Lovebug" suddenly ran aground just after 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. The Lovebug, which docks at the nearby Annapolis Yacht Club and costs $125,000 per week to charter, was last sold for $7,995,000 in 2021, Boat International reports. The vessel accommodates 11 guests and seven crew and features a sundeck with a small swimming pool and a bar, among other amenities.

Aerial drone footage shows the Lovebug on its starboard side, partially submerged in the water. It reportedly took only minutes for the yacht to sink, while the U.S. Coast Guard rushed to the scene.

Trevor Hardman, who works with Tour Boat Annapolis, told CBS News Baltimore that he was on a friend's nearby boat when he saw the Lovebug start to go under.

"As we tried to figure out what part of the boat we were looking at, we realized it slowly started to list and lean over to one side," Hardman recalled. "I would say within four to five minutes the boat was consumed and the captain had made the determination that they needed to abandon ship."

"They did have to abandon ship and they did go in the water off the stern of the boat," he continued. "It could have been a lot worse had everybody not remained calm and spoke on the radio and were clear to make sure that everybody was accounted for. That was my number one priority: How many people are onboard, many people are in the water, who do we have, who do we not have. It was a joint effort."

Hardman noted that there was no shortage of nearby boaters waiting to help and that the local boating community came together to provide assistance. "It's something you don't find everywhere these days," he said.

Once everyone was safely rescued, Hardman spoke to the captain, who also didn't seem to know what had occurred.

"In the moment, I was like. 'Did you run aground?' He was like, 'No, but I was headed this way. We were taking on water,'" he explained. "Boats of that size have alarms that tell you when there's water inside the boat. They were ear piercing to be able to hear those high-water alarms going off."

Incredibly, there were no injuries reported. One person who had been onboard complained of head soreness but declined to be taken to the hospital.

Pollution response teams with the U.S. Coast Guard worked with a local salvage company to deploy oil boom barriers around the yacht to contain any possible fuel spills and mitigate the environmental impact. It's believed that all of the fuel was contained, and the next step is recovering the ship.

"The biggest thing now is just to get the vessel salvage so that we can hopefully get some clues as to what happened," said Maryland Natural Resources Police Cpl. Christopher Neville. "Once everybody was secured, it was just a matter of placing the safety protocols around the boat to keep out contaminants and trying to follow up with the captain and owner of the vessel."

Resolve Completes the Defueling of Grounded $3M Yacht

Courtesy USCG

Published Aug 1, 2024 6:01 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

Resolve Marine and subcontractor Clean Harbors have finished emptying the fuel tanks of the 74-foot sailing yacht Obsession, which went aground on an environmentally-sensitive reef just off Culebra Island, Puerto Rico on July 21.   

The bulk fuel removal recovered about 800-1,500 gallons of diesel from the yacht's four tanks and day tank. The pollution prevention response is still "far from over," according to Capt. Luis Rodriguez, Coast Guard Federal On-Scene Coordinator, but the completion of the removal of most of the diesel is a significant step towards protecting the environment. Luckily, the boat's fuel tanks were not damaged by the grounding, and no water pollution has been reported. The responders are still working to identify and remove any remaining petroleum and other potentially-damaging materials.

The reef is home to many protected species, and the grounding prompted an emergency consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on possible Endangered Species Act impacts. The unified command has had to consider and manage potential effects on four species of sea turtle, two shark species, and seven species of coral. 

A reef damage assessment is under way, thanks to the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources and NOAA. The two agencies have recovered several species of live coral that can be used to repopulate the damaged area later if needed. 

Soon after the grounding, the owner informed the Coast Guard that the salvage project would require "efforts which exceeded his capacity." After learning this, the USCG quickly federalized the response, tapped the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund (OSLTF), and hired Resolve Marine to defuel the boat. (Under OPA 90, the vessel owner may still be billed for the Trust Fund cleanup cost and fined for any pollution after the response is done.)

The unified command continues to work with the owner on plans to remove the vessel from the reef. In the meantime, a salvage company vessel will remain on site, along with the project manager and the yacht's captain, in order to monitor the wreck's condition and change out any sorbents as necessary.  

The vessel can be identified as the Sunreef 74 Obsession, a 2015-built luxury catamaran sailing yacht with modern amenities. It was up for sale as recently as 2022 for an asking price of $3 million.   

Burned Cruise Boat Spirit of Norfolk to be Reefed off Florida

Spirit of Norfolk during salvage efforts (Courtesy USCG)

Published Jul 31, 2024 8:01 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

The burned-out harbor cruise boat Spirit of Norfolk will be cleaned out and will be sunk off the Gulf Coast of Florida as an artificial reef. 

Spirit of Norfolk has been sold to Okaloosa County, Florida along with a second decommissioned vessel - the tug Skippin Sue - for a total of $740,000. Together, the two vessels will be sunk off Fort Walton Beach, where they will be a fish habitat and a dive attraction.

Okaloosa County has worked for years to buy and sink end-of-life tonnage off Fort Walton, creating new opportunities (and new revenue) for dive tour operators. The funding for the latest project comes from $900,000 in savings accrued by the county's commission during previous reefing ventures. The military picked up the cost of sinking the boats Crimson White and Countess Monarch, and two neighboring counties decided to split the cost of reefing the disused research vessel Deep Stim III. This left  surplus funding available, which the commission agreed to use to pay for an all-inclusive contract to acquire, clean and sink Spirit of Norfolk.

The Spirit of Norfolk's engine room caught fire while under way on June 7, 2022. Good Samaritan vessels responded to the scene and helped evacuate all 91 passengers and 17 crewmembers safely, drawing accolades for the speed and skill of their efforts. The vessel was towed to a nearby pier, where the fire continued to burn for four days, consuming all deck levels. It was written off as a total loss at a cost of $5 million.

The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the fire likely started in combustible materials that had been stored next to the port side generator's exhaust pipe, and that firefighting efforts may have contributed to the later expansion of the blaze. 

As an attraction, Spirit of Norfolk will serve the area well, according to the county board. From keel to top deck, she will rest 40 feet above the seabed, plus another 16 feet of mast height - giving divers plenty to explore. 

Neighboring Escambia County has ambitions to buy and sink a far larger vessel - the storied transatlantic liner SS United States, the fastest vessel of her type ever to serve the New York-UK route.