I’m a commercial yacht skipper and instructor. In the training, it’s quite clear, if you’re taking on a lot of water and you’re offshore, you activate all the distress electronics and issue a Mayday. Sending an email to the owner was not the correct course of action by the skipper.

Very sad indeed, we raced against them in Antigua Sailing Week just days before they left on CAIPIRINHA another Benetteau 40.7, they beat us by 1 point and won the class. We had a few beers with them on the Friday that the regatta ended. May their souls continue to rest in peace.

We will never forget this. About 3 weeks before them, we went down with our Beneteau Oceanis 50 about 244NM SSE bearing approximately 165degrees from where they went down. We were lucky and we all survived in our liferaft. We at least had about an hour to get our liferaft deployed and ready. They obviously had a sudden catastrophic loss of the keel. May their souls R.I.P.

This is a pretty accurate recitation, but as a former owner of a Beneteau 40.7 (#676) there are a few details in this recitation that are not accurate. The boat weighs about 15,000 lbs. Not 15 tons. The keel was not bolted to the hull, but through the hull to the fiberglass frame. There are heavy duty steel backing plates inside the frame. The point of that construction is to spread the load through the frame to the whole hull. Part of the frame was the sump that actually sticks down into the keel. The picture of Cheeki Rafiki at 1:40 of the video is a beneteau 40.7. The picture at 16:51 that also has "Rafiki" sailing with four men on board is not. It has an open transom and two steering wheels and one long window instead of four on the cabin, so it's a nice picture but not a picture of the boat in question. People need to be concerned about a lot more than the bolts. Any cracking or tearing in the frame or at any of the joints between the frame and the hull, or especially in the sump could give evidence of damage which could then weaken, allow movement of the keel and then weaken the joint then allow breakage of the bolts. I think if the keel was moving it is likely the pre catastrophic leaking was coming from cracking around the sump. Everyone with a boat with a deep keel and short fore and aft connection to the boat should check for all of those kind of things every year, but especially after any groundings.

I was on a boat preparing for a coastal passage off Australia. The skipper and crew were working out how to lash the life raft to the deck after it had been serviced. It needs to be done a certain way for the hydrostatic releaset to operate. One of them said "Just use some sail ties, we're not gonna need it" Needless to say it was the last time I ever sailed on that boat again.

thats why i bought a boat built in the early 80s with a solid fiberglass hull with internally encapsulated ballast in a full length keel. no way it can fall off unless i hit something so hard that losing the keel will be the least of my problems. miss me with that "catalina smile"

It's one of those "why" stories. Basically - why were they not in the liferaft?. All those guys seemed more than adequately experienced. The skipper was extremely young to be so well qualified that he must've all but lived on the water. However, even a grunt like me finding water in the bilge wouldn't need to be told to immediately check as to whether it was fresh or salt. And being salt meant that there was a hull integrity issue. Then it's a matter of elimination. Stern gland, sea-cocks, coolant leak or hull breach. Stern gland & sea cocks are usually straightforward checks. The biggest palavar is pulling up all the cabin sole (flooring). If the engine was sea-water cooled there might be a ruptured pipe - again it's a simple enough check. But they said the engine bay was dry. That leaves hull breach. Again, you pull up all the flooring you can - and LOOK. The vessel would have auto and manual bilge pumps so the influx must've been overpowering the automatic bilge pump in order to produce levels of flooding to raise concern. That would suggest a discernible flaw. Failing that, it wasn't a heavy sea, so a heave-to should've been straightforward, and if nobody was keen to go over the side, then a GoPro on a pole could be tried. By a process of elimination, that just leaves the keel, and on almost all yachts with bolted keels, the bolts are accessible from the bilges. If water was penetrating from there, it would be pretty evident. It was also amazing that despite so much evident concern, the crew had to be reminded to ensure the liferaft and EPIRB were ready for use - and also the emergency scram-bag (not mentioned). That should've been instinctive. And yet the recovery divers claim to have found the liferaft still tethered in its locker, meaning that no emergency prepping had been done. At the time of the crisis, at least 2 of the crew should've been off-watch down below. When the keel detached, the yacht would've inverted like a pendulum, so they'd have been tumbled out of their bunks into cold gushing water. However, it's unlikely that all below would've been knocked unconscious and drowned. One, perhaps, but not all. The fact that no corpse was found on board suggests that they all managed to exit the cabin. The helmsman should've been tethered, and fully clothed for the north Atlantic. Of all people, he should've been ready and able to act - unless his tether somehow became fouled, causing him to drown. How it is that not one of the 4 had the wit and wherewithal to unship and activate the liferaft and help one or more of the crew to escape into it is just a mystery...

Not an incredibly experienced sailor here, but I had a similar experience with my first sailboat years ago. It was a swing keel 22 Hunter which had (4) 1/4" through hull bolts which held the pivot of the keel against the bottom of the hull. I beached it often and noticed more and more water in the bilge as time went on. Finally figured out the source of the leak and replaced all bolts 1 at a time with snorkeling gear while afloat. Wasn't easy, but it was bone dry from then on. My next boat leaked from the prop shaft seal...

I've been sailing for over 40 years and as far as I know the cause of this tragedy was the failure to check and inspect the keel bolts. In a close hauled situation there is huge pressure on the keel and in this very sad situation, the keel fell off and the yacht turned turtle within seconds. These poor souls didn't stand a chance. My heart goes out to their families 😢

Great works as always. I hit a boulder doing 10-11kts in a 40' sailboat and the first thing I did (after I popped my shoulder back in place) was run down below and started ripping up floor boards to check the keel bolts. They were fine, but we replaced them when we hauled the boat out for the season later.

What a tragedy, especially for the loved ones that have to live with all those questions. I read comments about the life raft, why it was still strapped on. You can’t release the straps while sailing. It will fly all over the place and be a danger by itself. It’s quite heavy. Preparing for worst case would probably be checking if it can be released easily and if all the crew knows the procedure. You release it when you’re sinking, abandon ship. When you lose the keel the boat will flip upside down instantly, making it probably impossible to deploy. A conclusion that the keel bolds have failed seems a bit too fast to me. I have some knowledge of these types of boats and I think the laminate of the hull was probably damaged by the groundings. In these type off boats the keel is only hanging on the hull laminate. When the keel starts flexing on that damaged laminate, water can go into the bilge. You don’t really see the water flowing in. In my case it was there every time we did some heavy sailing. I guess we were lucky. Didn’t trust the keel situation and had her hauled out. Visual inspection didn’t really show any damage. Still didn’t trust it and dropped the keel. The hull laminate was compromised around the bold holes and we had to have it repaired by a professional shipyard. They also changed the whole internal construction so it isn’t hanging only from the hull laminate. The keel bolds were in perfect condition, renewed them anyway.

Many thanks for uploading this.. the first detailed presentation I've seen of this tragic event. Inexperience of the crew, including the skipper, did in my opinion play a definite part in this tragedy..There's more to being 'experienced' than simply adding miles under the keel to one's log-book. I had a 17 year career as a professional yacht skipper, 10 years of which was as a yacht-delivery skipper moving a huge variety of yachts, both power and sail, over most of the world..this experience included having to abandon a vessel in the middle of the night a long way offshore.. Anyone discovering a large quantity of water in the bilges should instinctively taste it for salt, (not always a pleasant task, on two occasions it turned out to be shower water), why this skipper had to be told that is beyond me. Secondly, it's obvious that the crew were becoming very concerned about the influx of water yet the life-raft was not unshipped ready for instant deployment, If emails were going unanswered it's likely that the situation was becoming serious, sending a crew member on deck to ready the raft should again have been an instinctive action. Let others read and learn from the experience of others and especially from presentations such as this.. Well Done and Thanks again..

I sail a 40.7. Amd we know the details of this story and ship. A thing that is missed in both this video, and the investigation, is the inner scale desigm of the 40.7. Ingress water leaks in between the 'outer and inner' hull. Which makes it impossible to locate the source. A bit of rust on keelbolts is common. And not a solid indicator of a keel problem. It is more a design problaem then a lack of care and maintenance. And believe me, I know every inch of this type of boat.

If the counter weight broke off then the boat would capsize instantly, the best advice was in the email "prepare everything for the worst possible event"

Really sad incident. Always taste any water in the bilge. If it is salty you need to figure out where it is coming from immediately. When that boat dropped her keel she would have inverted almost immediately and the life-raft strapped onto the coach roof would have been impossible to get to if the crew were wearing auto inflating life jackets

we were part of the search heading to the Azores on a slightly higher north route, i have a short video and radio call to the American warship as they found the capsized hull.

I love these videos!! You're doing a great job!! 👏

Loosing a keel is the worst fear of any sailor. Because there is no time to react, the boat will be upside down in literally 1-2 seconds...

Great episode. Great indepth information! I LOVE the rescue & investigation process myself these are marvelous videos thank you

Thanks again for the content

“Bend and Tow” was the epithet I heard sailors use for Benateau yachts in Bermuda just a year before this tragedy.

Excellent report.

Very tragic story, excellent summation and presentation!

I absolutely love your channel!! Thank you so much for making this great content and explaining things so well for us non-divers. Cheers from Las Vegas!

I can't believe that an experienced crew had to be told to taste the water!!!

Blue water cruiser here. Would never stray far from land with this type of boat.

I cannot imagine the anguish the families go through. These men were young!

I love when the algorithm brings me to a new channel like this, binge watched some great vids 😎 thanks 😎

another great video as always! keep it up

As a boat enthusiast prayers to the victims, family & friends! Amen

There is no way I'd ever cross an ocean in a Beneteau or Jeanneau. I'm not down with those bolted on keels or spade rudders. Too easy for them to fail. They're fine for coastal cruising, but IMHO not crossing oceans. I know many have done it but you'll never see me do it. I want an integral keel and at least a skeg hung rudder, but for the most safety I want a full keel vessel with the rudder hung from and fully protected by the keel. Just my $0.02.

This was one of several keel failure events that occurred on several boats in the early 2000’s yrs. All of the boats were eventually found and extensive investigations found all had keel damage history. All of the boats were fin keels that were bolted to the hull skins between the grid structures. The only boats I have sailed that had this type of keel attachment have been low quality mass production boats. Many quality boats are built with keel bolts that pass through key hull structures not just the hull skin between structural grids. Having said that Cheeky Monkey was delayed in leaving on this trip due to water leaking into the bildge while at the dock. It was reported the leaking got worse when under way. This is Beneteau hull primarily designed for Mediterranean charter use. With known heavy grounding history. Basically every red flag there could have been possible besides the keel falling off at dock was there. Basically the boat was a POS!!! Owner I recall faced serious criminal charges.

Thanks for explaining what happened.

hard to believe they had to be told to check if the water was fresh or salt .....

Merry Christmas Mike!!! See you next year🎉🎉🎉🎉

Love your galley lighting. I need to learn how to do electric stuff., basically camping on board depending on the extension cable available

Speaking as a very experienced sailing instructor I can tell you that you will NOT be asked to "lightly ground" a yacht on a sailing course. That is nonsense.

I remember this. I was at sea at the same time delivering a Hylas 54 from Marblehead Mass to the US Virgin Islands via Bermuda. RIP, sailors.

Your analyses are always so detailed and well communicated. This stuff, while tragic is fascinating and shows how accidents like this are caused by a cascading series of events. My question is why didn't they launch the emergency raft. Perhaps the Rafiki went under, or rolled so quickly they didn't have an opportunity? Thanks for a great video. Well done.

One of the most underrated channels on KZfaq! Keep up the fantastic work bro :) every uploaad is an instant watch for me. Recommended you to all my mates to watch.

This was a tragedy. Condolences too all of the grieving loved ones. Prayers from South Africa 😢

They did not use the life raft? Granted, they probably presumed their danger came from water intrusion which meant time with some accommodation. A keel separation would have been a dramatic turn of events.

Even though it was obviously to save his skin eventually, impressed by the spot on attentiveness of the management - lots of attempted and real communication with legit suggestions. So sad though to see so many young and old experienced sailors lost.

Another interesting video. My parents used to sail when they were younger, they had a 26 foot sail boat that they bought when my old man retired, although it was only on lake Windermere, which was great for me and my other siblings, as we had the house to ourselves every week-end lol.

I wonder if they were sleep-deprived from the stress and just completely forgot about the life raft. They knew they were taking on water and they couldn't find the source, the first thing I'd do is start getting grab bags ready

Good to have access to keel bolts and correct size ratchet and sockets and give them a couple of turns from time to time.

I already told you how great your videos are. Another masterpiece, thank you I really appreciate it

seriously working there - with the video :-) On my old English Westerly GK24 (GK=Giant Killer) i have fiberglassed the keelbolts. Next year i have to repair the keel and hull connection. I would never take my Westerly GK24 out on the blue waters: Wrong design/wrong boat. Im keeping an eye on the keelbolts which is stainless/rust free..

Tragic, the name of this boat stood out in my mind, I couldn't remember why. Musty have heard it on the news at the time. The red flag was that the business owner could not even afford to pay the fine of $50k and had to liquidate. Clearly he was desperately short of cash and was cutting every corner. Hats off to all brave souls who go to sea, they made our great country what it is. I am seated firmly in my armchair on terra firma

Luckily I never owned that type of keel since I have run a ground occasionally and worst case to worry about was sand rubbing off the paint.

So sad, the ocean is the definition of sublime.

already ran it aground at least six times... before the incident... im going with poor seamanship in general causing stress damage which weakened over time until failure... i dont give a damn what your on paper qualifications are... most people with competency certificates, are still incompetent... they just paid the money for the piece of paper... i argue thaat 75-90% of licensed drivers shouldnt really have drivers licenses and really dont understand how to drive a car and cant handle emergency maneuvering at speed... these guys beat the crap out of the boat and didnt maintain the seaworthiness till it finally fell apart and sank... keel bolts/attachments are a regular maintenance check... definitely before an open water crossing!

Good video explaining the necessity of regarding details at all times and what the consequences are when neglect. sorry for the guys.

captain may not have known the history of the boat. some water coming in the boat does not make you immediately think the keel may fall off. it would be interesting to hear what someone with real training would say to do if you think your keel is damaged and may come off. I would think get the life raft unstrapped and have it in the rear cockpit even though it may move around. I would want a line tied to it also if possible. every should have a lifeline with some significant slack in it also tied to the boat. when the boat flips you are coming off. you need to get back to the life raft in order to survive longer than the 10-12 hours whatever they said. if i thought the keel was damaged and may come off I would have the life raft deployed and dragging behind the boat filled with provisions. they must not have entertained that possibility. I have done a fair bit of sailing and there are so many captains that I would call reckless if not outright idiots. the problem is you can usually get away with quite a bit and survive but things can spiral out of control quickly and, although rarely, become deadly. Especially in cold water. Cold water scares me.

Yeah! A new video. Love this channel.

I've sailed the 40.7s in one design and offshore Sailed Vic-Maui in one. I like them. Saw some 18+ kn speeds in them.

Very sad story indeed.

Bloody typical that is such a shame for the decent people that lost there lives rip 🙏

As a non-sailor, I’m confused as to why they died. Capsizing sucks, but it wasn’t stormy. So if they suddenly capsized why couldn’t someone swim down, pop the life raft, and grab the epirb? Also, if you are flooding uncontrollably, albeit slowly, why wouldn’t you have the lifeboat ready, if not already inflated, loaded with appropriate supplies, and lashed to the back of the boat? I know it’s easy to get into a task-oriented tunnel vision while working an urgent problem. But they had to know that, with the closest shore being so far away, odds were pretty damn high they were going to be paddling soon.

Once the inner hull shell became detached the keel would have torn out . Every time the boat is grounded the inner hull shell which incorporates stringers both transverse and longitudinal suffers de bonding. The big wave hit probably gave the inner hull shell it’s last load bearing strength loss, hence water ingress after. This is the reason visually they could not determine the issue at hand. I’m sure the four individuals sailing were pushing the boat to its maximum hull speed at all times and never bothered to “hove too “ and call pan pan . The sailing yacht had 4 known hard groundings and perhaps many many others unknown . Without private ownership each party gets on board with one thing in mind “max hull speed”. To say that Beneteau is not ocean safe or a bad build product is 100% a false statement. The build quality is that good that the boat was continuously used even though it’s inspection date was over due including the knowledge of grounding many times.

Covering your keelbolts in resin makes it much harder to change them when change is due. Treat keelbolts like your rig - don't leave them in place forever.

thank you for sharing this cool story, i would expect these keel bolts would be made from strong corrosion free material like stainless steel 😮

GREAT WORK CHAMP!💥💪 AUSTRALIA!🤍💙❤️👊

In the marina where i bought my nicholson 32ft there was an oyster 37 on the hard which was repaired after a grounding. The owner had it lifted to get it back in the water and heard cracking noises when lifting it. They put it back down and never moved again in over a decade now. I was in the boat and found rain water in the bilge where the keelbolts were but outside she's completely dry. My guess is that the weight of the keel was stretching the new extra layers of fiberglass during lifting. The repair and reïnforcement looked well done. The rainwater came through the masthole from which the cover had blown away over the years. Made an offer on it but never heard anything back.

I’ve grounded most of my boats lol.

Bavaria Yachts also have trouble with keel bolts.

Thats a great nav station at 9:04... maybe I've seen it on youtube somewhere else? 🤔

22 yrs old! He isn’t even shaving yet!

Sad story may God bless their souls 🙏

So many groundings !

Puh, it puts a weight in my stomach to think about the panic of the sailors on board, thousands of miles off shore and slowly losing your vessel. I bought a older vessel for open ocean crossing with a fully laminated fin keel an skeg rudder and I am pretty sure this was the better decision, considering how many lost boats of the bolted types I've heard of. This is simply to much force on a laminated epoxy bond with this little surface area at a 90° angle. It may be fast and cheaper to build, but it is proven again and again that these vessels don't belong on open oceans.

In Maine where the tides can range to 10 feet we “ground” our sailboats 2 times daily

it would be easier to follow for me if you have some sort of visual calendar appearing on the screen from time to time. you did show a map a few times, but I would understand it better if say you show a map, the boat's location when they first discovered water and how far away what was from the USA. probably the boat was relatively close to the USA but they continued across the ocean. its very sad. I want to sail but such stories scary me a lot. especially this is scary because all the crew were such experience guys.

This is quite shocking, it’s sometimes amazing at the verdict’s of the courts. It just shows, before going on a long voyage lift out and get everything fully inspected. The company owed a duty of care and FAILED in its obligations. Sadly, let this be a warning to all of us who skipped, just make sure it’s been fully inspected out of the water before a major crossing.a few thousand pounds, is nothing to the potential risk and loss

Yikes, if they just stayed with the boat

When planning a voyage on the high seas always do due diligence on all equipment especially if the boat is borrowed..All seemed very shoddy for such a journey..Sad they had no chance ❤

For a licensed and qualified captain and the other qualified crew they sure came up short knowing their vessel was taking on uncontrollable water and not knowing how. Life boat still secured to the boat and looks like no preparation for possible sinking. Sailboats capsize for various reasons and could always be a possibility.

great video thanks...my gut-feel if I was sailing and taking on water, would have my eye on the safety vessel..it is presumed that it must have been catastrophic with no visibility... having luminescent ties could be a solution.

The bumps in the night against the boat when your out there all alone is one experience I won't do again

Sadly, Chiki Rafiki was doomed form the VERY BEGINNING. I mean grounded 4 times should have been a sign. May they REST IN PEACE.

Highly professional and informative presentation that will encourage boat owners not to cut corners and to be safety conscious.

I am amazed they were not rust proofed from day one

It makes me realize how well built my 37.5' Endeavour sloop was.

Where did you get that shirt bro? It"s dope!!

So many comments but nobody says what would you do??? If the keel breaks off you have no chance to leave the boat, or launch the liferaft, no matter how experienced. So the most important here is to maintain whatever last strength that keel connection has. I think first thing…instantly!!! stop sailing to get the ripping moment off the keel!!! Assess the bolts, maybe tighten assuming there is wrench like that. Start plugging the bolt holes and cracks that leak, must have material and underwater epoxy, and btw lots of good charged head lights. And another crazy idea - If the wind is bad and you still get load on your rigging and so some heeling which loads the keel flange…maybe lose the mast all together, undo/cut the rigging and drop the mast in the ocean. Yes, make it a powerboat that has no load on the keel flange. And continue fighting the water in the bilge. Maybe this will give you that day to be rescued. Thought?

At least they had some tunes in their final moments

Very sad story.

If the engine compartment was dry the only spots for Ingress I can think of are thruhull senders such as depth sounders, logs , heads, sink etc or possibly bow thrusters

Bolt on keel, fall off & kill. This happens way more often that people realise. Especially here in Australia. No fatalities (here so far) means this gets little or no media coverage to warn Australians the yachts they purchase may be a death trap. Only integral keels are safe for ocean cross. No exceptions.

There is a very long and very interesting thread on Sailing Anarchy about this from day 1 but you know that:)

Having worked in boat building, DON'T.. DON'T...DON'T ever paint resin / fibreglass over problems for protection. If there has been ANY water penetration, you are only sealing in the problem, and can certainly cause major issues with wood rot and rusting anything metallic.

That's what l was talking about all the time, if you want save ocean crossing boat then buy a boat, that have a long keel. No screwed with bolts or some sketchy stuff.

When a fin keel breaks off. The failure is catastrophic. Boat will capsize in a matter of seconds. Not enough time to abandon ship ⚓

I find it strange that their position was not known if there were sat coms, as it would have been the first request and answer on making the call!

There used to be one of their boatbuilders near me, we always said the name "Ben-ee-toe

Carelessness & greed caused this crew to pass. Unacceptable!

This why I’d never buy a boat with a bolted-on keel. The cantilever forces on them are huge (even without the additional distress of multiple groundings) and they sit in a corrosive environment.

So good day to my favorite site and my favorite story teller. ❤😉 So did you have issues with the keel bolts on your yacht? So do you still sail regularly?? Be safe, please

What a shame. I have owned and cruised oceans with 4 different yachts over the years. All of them had moulded keels. Never a problem. I never have trusted bolt on keels. Very high loads for such an appendage attachment. Too failure prone for me. Loads, working, corrosion, groundings. Salt intrusion, etc.

Very interesting. I would have thought the movement between the keel and the hull would have made an unusual noise and pointed them to the fact something was loose. I would have also thought movement in the bolts would have been visible in the bilge. As for water ingress though, I’ve been on a Beneteau that sustained a punctured hull after being driven onto rocks and it was impossible to tell where the water was coming in as the hull had an internal liner which wasn’t breached. Interestingly the detritus - presumably left over from the original builders - between the hull and liner soon found its way into the bilge and blocked the pumps. We only had approximately 5 minutes before we had to abandoned ship.