catamaran that capsized

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PHOTOS: Five Rescued from Capsized Superyacht in West River

The partially-capsized 122-foot yacht Lovebug sits with its starboard side down in the water. Photo: Jodi Scheffler

It was a shocking sight to many on the Bay over the weekend: a 122-foot-long yacht, laying on its side in a high-traffic part of the West River.

Now, towboat operators are making a plan to remove the superyacht from its unfortunate resting place.

The superyacht Lovebug , which had been spotted docked in Annapolis earlier in the week and on the move in the Bay, partially capsized at the mouth of the West River around 12:30 p.m. Saturday. Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) responded to reports of a vessel taking on water.

Fellow boaters said they heard the call on VHF Channel 16, but had no idea it was referring to a 122-foot-yacht.

When Natural Resources Police arrived, they found five people on board. Police tell us they included a captain, three crew members and one passenger. All five were transported to shore safely and didn’t need any medical treatment.

The Coast Guard also responded to the incident.

NRP is investigating the cause of the incident and a spokesman says they “cannot confirm any speculation at this time,” despite plenty of theories about whether the yacht was intentionally grounded after taking on water. The vessel draws eight feet, and the river channel is known to drop off quickly.

Now, TowBoatUS Annapolis is making a plan for salvage. Company spokesperson Christine Plummer tells Chesapeake Bay Magazine, “We will approach the planning and execution with care for the environment and care for the owner’s property.”

They are still planning and have not yet released a timeline for removing the yacht.

In the meantime, TowBoatUS asks boaters to steer clear. “24-hour security is in place and we ask boaters to not approach and to pass at slow-bell,” says Plummer.

Word of the capsized superyacht spread quickly among Anne Arundel County boaters who passed by the scene. The vessel is a head-turner, so many had checked it out earlier in Annapolis and on the Bay. CBM follower David Driftmier sent us this “before” shot of the Lovebug docked on Spa Creek (within view of the Chesapeake Bay Magazine offices).

According to a previous listing for the boat, the Lovebug is an Italian boat built by Sanlorenzo in 2010 and updated in 2017. It sleeps 11 guests in five staterooms and can accomodate seven or eight crewmembers. It boasts zero speed stabilizers, a flybridge sundeck with Jacuzzi, tender/jet ski garage, and a full-beam master stateroom with a full bean master bath and owner’s office.

We continue to follow this developing story and will update it as we learn more from investigators.

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Breaking news, boatload of trouble superyacht the lovebug capsizes in chesapeake bay, prompting wild rescue.

They were almost in deep ship!

A superyacht capsized in the Chesapeake Bay near Washington, DC , forcing passengers to plunge into the water as it sank — and prompting a dramatic rescue, authorities said.

The splashy, 122-foot vessel, known as the Lovebug, began taking on water around 12:30 p.m. Saturday near Edgewater, Maryland, police and witnesses told CBS Baltimore .

Striking footage shows the $8 million superyacht — which docks at the Annapolis Yacht Club and costs $125,000 to charter per week — sinking on its side in a heavily traveled area near the mouth of the West River.

Trevor Hardman was in a boat nearby when he realized folks onboard were up a creek.

“It slowly started to list and lean over to one side,” Hardman, who works at Boat Annapolis, told the station.

“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.”

All five people on the yacht, who were not identified, jumped into the water from the stern of the vessel as Hardman radioed for help, he said.

They were all pulled to safety, with no major injuries, by first responders, the station reported.

The captain, who was not identified, was baffled by what may have caused the yacht to capsize, said Hardman, who spoke to the seaman after he was plucked from the bay.

“In the moment, I was like, ‘Did you run aground? He was like, ‘No … We were taking on water,’” Hardman said. “Boats of that size have alarms that tell you when there’s water inside the boat.”

Police are investigating what caused the nautical mishap.

“The biggest thing now is just to get the vessel salvaged so that we can hopefully get some clues as to what happened,” said Cpl. Christopher Neville of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police.

The Italian-made yacht, which was previously named Anastasia M, features jet ski storage and a small pool along with enough room to host 11 guests and seven crew members, according to boatinternational.com .

After the vessel capsized, first responders set up barriers around the yacht to contain a potential fuel leak, but authorities don’t believe any spilled, CBS reported.

One person aboard the yacht complained of head soreness after the rescue but declined to  go to the hospital.

“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,” Hardman said.

The marine service Towboats US also helped with the rescue, he said.

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Spectacular footage shows US catamaran flipping over and capsizing during pre-race in Bermuda

Topic: Sport

The crew of the catamaran are ejected from the vessel during the Bermuda event.

The crew of a catamaran that flipped during the pre-race at a Bermuda event escaped unharmed, as vision showed the US team being flung through the air.

The F50 capsized during the third and final practice race, and while the crew were unhurt in the spectacular moment, the team was forced to withdraw from the race due to the damage sustained to the catamaran.

Data from the vessel showed that wing trimmer Victor Diaz de Leon pressed a button by accident, which inverted the wing of the boat.

"While operating the wing, I chose the wrong function on my control panel, which caused our boat to flip. It was very scary and I'm thankful all my teammates are safe," Diaz de Leon said after the incident.

Team CEO and strategist Mike Buckley said mistakes can happen.

"We compete as a team and whatever the outcome is — whether it's what we want — we win and lose as a team and we learn from it," he said.

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Video shows Coast Guard rescuing 4 from capsized catamaran off North Carolina

By Gina Martinez

October 23, 2023 / 4:14 PM EDT / CBS News

The U.S Coast Guard rescued four Canadians after their catamaran capsized about 140 miles southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina, officials said. 

At 12:18 p.m. on Saturday, the Coast Guard 5th District Command Center in Portsmouth, Virginia, received an emergency signal from the Moon Dragon, a 60-foot catamaran that charters between the Mid-Atlantic and the Virgin Islands, the USCG said in a news release . 

An airplane crew flew to the scene and spotted the overturned catamaran and a covered life raft with four people inside, according to the Coast Guard. 

Footage of the rescue shows a Coast Guard crew hoisting a person from the rough waters onto their helicopter. 

All four people aboard the catamaran were airlifted and then taken to Air Station Elizabeth City before they were transferred to a local hospital, the Coast Guard said. None of the passengers were injured, according to the Coast Guard. 

The catamaran crew said that, while at sea, both their port and starboard side hatches broke, leading to flooding that forced them to abandon ship, the Coast Guard said. 

"The survivors in the raft used a radio to contact the overhead HC-130 crew and request assistance," the Coast Guard said. 

Operations unit controller Petty Officer First Class Austin Lang said the rescue mission was a success because the catamaran crew was prepared with an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, a proper radio, and a functional life raft. 

"The ocean is unpredictable and unforgiving, and this case represents perfectly the value of being prepared at sea," Lang said in a statement. 

"These sailors had the right gear on board, it worked, they knew how to use it, and it's because of that we were able to find them and bring them home safely," he added. 

The catamaran was left partially submerged in the strong winds and high waves. The Coast Guard said they issued a navigation hazard to mariners in the area.

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Accidents : How capsize-proof are cruising catamarans?

Johannes Erdmann

 ·  20.09.2023

When monohull yachts reach their stability limits, their crews can clearly feel it. The heeling increases sharply, often accompanied by a brilliant sun shot and loudly rattling sails. If there is too much cloth, the boat can overtake so far that it is difficult to hold on to the cockpit, let alone furl the genoa and tie in a reef. In other words: orange alert!

If you have already reduced the sail area with foresight, you will only be noticeably laid on your side in a gust. This reduces the wind pressure in the rig, and as soon as it eases, the ship rights itself again. This self-regulation and the ability to communicate at the limit makes keel yachts comparatively easy to handle. This is another reason why they are considered by many to be more seaworthy and safer.

Ride-on cats react differently to monohulls

A heavy, seven or even eight metre wide twin hull hardly heels. Thanks to its dimensional stability, its rig can withstand the force of the gust for much longer. This characteristic is particularly appreciated by beginners and occasional sailors, who often feel uneasy when sailing monohulls.

Static stability in comparison

The righting moment (RM) defines how much resistance a yacht has to lateral forces. It is calculated from the product of the weight of the ship and the distance (d) between the centre of gravity (CG) and the centre of buoyancy (CB). In a monohull, both centres of gravity are close together even when heeled. Although the cat hardly heels when sailing, the empty hull is pushed slightly under water by the wind and the centre of buoyancy also moves to leeward. Due to the greater distance between the two centres of gravity, the righting moment of a catamaran is many times that of a monohull.

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Stability curves

However, the advantage of greater initial stability does not override physics, nor does it replace the need for good seamanship. If the force applied is too great, even multihulls can tip over - not with long notice, but suddenly.

Even if the circumstances and the boats were very different and require a differentiated analysis, the overall picture nevertheless raises fundamental questions:

• Under what conditions can it become critical on catamarans?
• What safety reserves do they offer?
• And how has their design changed in recent years?

Firstly, it is important to categorise the accidents. The catamaran off Corsica, for example, was not an ordinary cruising catamaran, but an extremely lightweight construction from the 1990s. According to the shipyard, the Outremer 43 had an unladen weight of less than four tonnes. By comparison, a Lagoon 42 designed for cruising weighs a good three times as much today. Furthermore, the boat did not capsize while sailing, but at anchor after the wind had reached under the bridge deck with peaks of up to 90 knots.

The cat that capsized off Vlieland was also a lightweight construction, and an extremely compact one at that, with a hull length of just eight metres. The French-built Rackham 26, which was available in a basic and a regatta version until it was discontinued, is more of a sports catamaran than a touring catamaran and does not fulfil the CE requirements for offshore use. In the stormy conditions that were its undoing, it simply had no place in the choppy North Sea.

When does a catamaran capsize?

How much wind or wave does it take to exceed the stability limit? The physical background to stability is quite simple to outline: A boat that experiences a lateral force in the rig due to wind pressure always has a tendency to lean to one side. To prevent it from capsizing, it needs a righting moment (RM) that is stronger than the force applied. It can be understood as a kind of built-in static resistance to tipping and describes the product of the ship's weight and the distance (d) between the centre of gravity (CG ) and the centre of buoyancy (CB). Drift also plays a role, i.e. the tendency to counteract the wind pressure by pushing it away.

For those switching from a keelboat, this "sailing by the chart" is unfamiliar. But on a catamaran, there is no feedback for reefing by feel. Even more so than with a monohull: if in doubt, it is better to reduce the sail area too early than too late. A reefed cat sails better than an over-rigged one anyway.

The reaction to gusts also differs. If the wind suddenly picks up or there is more wind in a cloud than expected, there are two ways to temporarily compensate for the overclocking: When sailing courses from half to room wind, it helps to drop as far as possible without risking a gybe. Under no circumstances, however, should you jibe under pressure, otherwise the apparent wind will increase even more.

To quickly take pressure out of the sail, luff up on upwind courses, drop in half to full breeze

On an upwind course, on the other hand, it helps to lean a little, because usually only a few degrees are needed to reduce the pressure. The headsail and main may invert noticeably in the luff, i.e. show a counter-belly. On all courses, reef immediately after the gust has passed!

Bruno Belmont recommends always keeping an eye on the boat's speed in heavy weather and not surfing too fast into the valleys in big waves, otherwise capsizing over the bow is possible, especially with light trimarans.

Capsizing over the bow

With heavy cruising catamarans, there is hardly any risk of being undercut by the waves with the bows and going upside down when surfing. Today's boats have sufficient buoyancy in the bridge deck and in the area of the bows to quickly pull the bow tips back to the water surface when undercut. Capsizes over the bow happen more frequently on trimarans, such as the Dragonfly 28 on the Silverrudder 2015, on fast beach cats or extreme vessels such as the 72-foot America's Cupper from Oracle (see gallery above).

In a storm, Belmont advises setting a small storm jib when running off the waves and slowing the boat down with trailing lines, which he usually lays in long loops from stern cleat to stern cleat. If this is no longer sufficient, he recommends turning under a drift anchor.

He himself has only been scared once on a cruising catamaran, and that was decades ago. Back then, he was testing the prototype of the Lagoon 37 TPI in a severe winter storm. The problem: "The keels were still far too long back then, and we always had the feeling that we were about to capsize sideways." Keels that were too deep were a common problem with the cruising cats of the first generations because they had too much resistance leeward and caused the boats to stumble. For this reason, the windward centreboard is used at most on cats with centreboards in storms.

According to Belmont, capsizes are generally very rare. "We may have missed a few cases," he says, "but to my knowledge, only a handful of the 6,400 ships built have capsized."

So something must have gone wrong in Croatia when the Outremer 45 of a Berlin family capsized during a storm in mid-July. "In the storm, it only took a moment for the boat to capsize," the Croatian rescue team announced on its Facebook page. "But it took four long and labour-intensive days to turn the boat back around."

A well-built catamaran is extremely safe. Only a fire or a cargo ship can sink it

Once a cat is upside down, it is difficult to turn it back again. "One of the most fundamental laws of physics is that everything in nature seeks its most stable position," writes American blogger and catamaran fan David Crawford on his website. And admits: "Once a catamaran is upside down in the ocean, it has found its most stable position." As unfortunate as this is, Crawford also sees the good in it: "For a monohull, the most stable position is at the bottom of the ocean." In his opinion, there is no safer ship than a catamaran. "The most that can sink a well-built cat is a fire or a cargo ship."

Unsinkable life raft