These 4 Men are Missing At Sea

four adventurous sailor lives are painfully cut short during a fatal 30-day Voyage when a Beno 40.7 YT begins to take on [Music] water Beno is a French sail and power booat manufacturer with factories in France and the United States the holding company group Beno also owns both Brands like Jano and Lagoon the is founded in 1884 by ship Benjamin Beno in crudiv France to construct sailing trollers during the 1960s Benjamin's grandchildren Annette Beno Ru and Andre Beno introduced a range of fiberglass boats their primary production site in France is spread across five factories in the vendi region they also have a US Factory in Marian South Carolina which starts Manufacturing in 1986 in 2006 Beno builds cheeki Rafiki at the shipyard in San H deice in France the yacht is 39 ft long has a beam of just under 13 ft weighs just over 15 Tons can accommodate 12 crew and sails under 800 ft of canvas the Keel is attached to the hull using 10 bolts nine of which are 24 mm in diameter and one is 14 mm construction meets the C seaworthiness classification of category a ocean and is inspected by Bureau veritus Chiki Rafiki is equipped with an iridium 95 satellite phone enabling voice communication and data transfer including emails the idium satellite system is made up of 66 Leo or low earth orbit satellites providing Global Communication the satellite phone operates on a pay as you go system it's normally turned off to save battery life the Iridium connection is used to download weather data which can be viewed using ugb software which plots the weather onto your digital navigation charts grip is a binary data that's used to send large volumes of weather information in small data packets the lot's originally bought by a private owner in 2006 in 2007 it runs ground twice the owner takes the yacht out of the water to rest on its ke while it's inspected and repaired sometimes a ke is inspected while the yacht is in the sling where you can see if the Keel is separated from the hull or Twisted which can't always be seen if the hull is resting on the KE over the coming years it has at least four more light groundings it's important to know that grounding a vessel is not uncommon if you do a sailing course you'll be put in a position where the skipper grounds the yacht on purpose to teach you how to refloat it of course there's a difference between lightly grounding a yacht on purpose and running a ground at speed in 2011 stormforce coaching takes over the management of Chiki Rafiki stormforce coaching is a company based in England focusing on training Sailors the yacht takes part in the arc Atlantic rally for cruises in 2011 and 20 3 spending some time in the Caribbean after each event it's due for its next inspection on the 18th of March 2014 but it's still in the Caribbean stormforce coaching asks the yda or yacht designers and surveyor Association to Grant an extension to allow the inspection to be completed when the yacht is back in the UK unlike private yachts all commercial Yachts must be inspected at specific intervals to maintain their commercial registration the ydsa passes the request to the MCA or Maritime Coast Guard agency who confirm that no extension is permitted under the small commercial vessel code because of the cost of completing the survey while in the Caribbean it's not inspected and Chiki rafiki's Category 2 commercial coding expires in the spring of 2014 after completing the Antiga sailing week regata in the Caribbean Chiki Rafiki prepares to sail back to Southampton in England the skipper Andrew bridge and Douglas inis the director of stormforce discussed the passage plan and weather reports for the transatlantic Voyage Andrew bridge is 22 years old from the UK in 2011 he does an internship with stormforce coaching he has certificates from the Royal yachting Association or Rya including yacht Master ocean CER certificate of competence from October 2013 he has a commercial endorsement and cruising instructor qualification and he's completed the international sailing Federation offshore safety course he's got around 222,000 Mi of sailing under his belt with nearly 5,000 Mi as Skipper his ocean voyages include a trip from the azors to Cork as the first mate and he Skipper Chiki Rafiki in the Atlantic rally for Cruisers in 2013 for the transatlantic race from Las palas to St Lucia Douglas Enis is the principal of storm Force coaching he started training Sailors as an Rya instructor in 1993 he set up stormforce coaching in 2001 he's a Rya yacht Master instructor and examiner with a raft of qualifications with over 100,000 miles of yachting experience he's taken part in two Arc transatlantic ocean races inis is in the UK and helping Bridge plan the voyage but won't be sailing with the crew during the planning they decide to attempt a Non-Stop Crossing but they can divert to the aors for additional supplies if they need to they agree that communication is limited to emails unless there's an emergency Bridge set sail from Antiga on the 4th of May 2014 Chiki Rafiki has a crew of four experienced Sailors on board Paul bosin Steve Warren James M and Skipper Andrew Bridge all from the UK James M is 22 he's an Rya keelboat instructor he's working towards his yach master offshore certificate and holds an advanced power boat certificate with a commercial endorsement he's interning with stormforce coaching Paul golin is 56 has sailed around 25,000 miles been the skipper on 11 yachting holidays and done two Crossings of the North sea Steven Warren is 52 with 32,000 Mi at Sea he skippered Charter vessels on holiday and also crewed on a yacht sailing from hamble to Los palas Paul and Steven have completed the Rya Coastal Skipper course and are working towards their yacht Master offshore [Music] certificate the voyage across the Atlantic is scheduled to take 30 days and cover 3,600 nautical miles throughout the crossing bridge frequently emails inis using the satellite phone on Monday the 5th of May at 0834 inis receives an email from bridge on Chiki Rafiki informing him their current position is 19° 0 minutes north 61° 28 minutes West he also mentions they've encountered a light patch and have picked up a fifth crew member a bird which has been sitting on the coach roof for most of the night Bridge asks inis for any weather rooting information at 17:15 cheeki Riki gets a response from Storm Force coaching they send an email saying you need to head east and north for the next 2 days there's a band of Southwest four coming in Tuesday afternoon to the east but it should fairly quickly settle to East 4 in the meantime endure the light conditions the number four refers to the bow foot wind scale which means a moderate Breeze between 11 and 16 knots on Tuesday the 6th of May at 12:24 storm Force receives a daily email from Chiki Rafiki they mention that the wind has been light and are heading north they still have a range of 900 to 1,000 M on the engine if the wind keeps dying in the email Bridge reports that it looks as if they will have to visit the azors for supplies and says any further weather information would be great inis replies go north do not pass go go north do not collect 00 go north on Monday the 12th of May at 1750 hours stormforce receives another email from Chiki Rafiki the email says they've been at sea for 9 days now and are all fairing well the winds have been gentle whilst routing northwards passing the east coast of Bermuda and have now turned East heading for home and completing their first th000 miles they've sailed almost a third of their Journey they give a position update at this point when they turn East they'll be heading into the North Atlantic Ocean putting distance between themselves and their closest major land mass on Saturday the 10th of May Chiki Rafiki sends an update they've sailed 176 mi in the last 24 hours they mention hitting a big wave hard and joke that the jolt from the wave fixed the stereo the average sailing speed of a yacht is around 5 or 6 nautical mph which is between 125 and 144 Mi every 24 hours a larger yacht with more sail and a longer Hull would expect to sell slightly faster and a smaller one slightly slower over the coming days regular updates pass between storm force in the UK and Chiki Rafiki which is making steady progress on Thursday the 15th of May at 2022 stormforce receives an urgent email from Chiki Rafiki we're taking on a lot of water both yesterday and today today it seems to be worse I think the starboard water tank has split so it's drained we've checked the hull and Seacock for damage but can't see any I'll take a swim to check the hull again when the weather improves which will be in about 24 hours we're currently monitoring the situation hater is 900 M away our position is 38° 38 minutes north 48° 59 minutes West any thoughts from from your end I'll check email in 2 hours stormforce responds at 2046 is the water fresh or salty that will tell you most of what you need to know they then send another email only moments later at 2048 loosen straps for the life raft check eerb and sat phone are accessible Etc have everything ready in event of the worst case scenario these emails are never opened at 2221 Andrew Bridge has a 55c satellite phone call with Douglas inis followed by a 2 minute 46c return call on a different mobile during the call Bridge describes the situation stating that water Ingress is worse than before and the water is salty the engine buge is dry and they can't find the source of the leak at 2230 storm4 sends another email to Chiki Rafiki saying I need your position this email is never opened at 22:33 inis attempts to call Chiki Riki via satellite phone but the call is redirected to voicemail on Friday the 16th of May at 03:30 inis and Bridge have a 1 minute and 42 second satellite phone call inis is having difficulty understanding what bridge is saying but he manages to make out Bridge saying this is getting [Music] worse at this time Chiki rafiki's appro o imate position is 38° 37 minutes North 48° 6 minutes West Bridge hasn't worked out where the water's coming from after several groundings a recent ocean Crossing and the jolt from hitting a large wave that fixed the stereo the Keel is now loose every wave that rolls through every change of course puts a little more pressure on the kill bolts holding the lead Keel in place like bending a paper clip back and forth it's only a matter of time after the phone call inis contacts Her Majesty's Coast Guard to alert them to the situation Chiki Rafiki has lost connection to the satellite and is not responding to emails or phone calls the yacht's last known coordinates are within Boston Coast Guard's area of operation rescue coordination Center RCC Boston scrambles an hc-130 long range surveillance aircraft to the location of the crew's last recorded UR signal an eper is an emergency position indicating radio Beacon flying over the last known location the locky C130 Hercules can spot only debris in the water on the 17th of May at around, 1400 the container ship mask cure spots the upturned hill of a small boat which they believe could be cheeky Rafiki rough weather prevents them from launching the ship's lifeboat or rescue boat to get a closer look on the 18th of May at 0900 the US Coast Guard calls off the search RCC Boston calculates the estimated survivability of the crew members assuming they're dressed in full foul weather sailing gear are immersed to the neck in water and wearing a personal flotation device the estimated survival time is 12 to 15 hours on the 20th of May the UK government intervenes and asks the US Coast Guard to continue the search once again RCC Boston coordinates the second attempt the first search and rescue assets arrive in the vicinity of the boat later that day a wider scale search is coordinated between the US Coast Guard US Air Force Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal Air Force nine Merchant vessels joined the US Coast Guard cat vigorous US ship Oscar Austin and numerous private yachts on the 23rd of May at 1500 USS Oscar Austin's helicopter locates an upturned yacht Hill The Vessel launches a small boat with a surface swimmer who positively identifies the hill as cheeky Rafiki the swimmer also confirms that its life raft is still on board in its usual position on the 24th of May at 0200 the search and rescue effort is called off an investigation is immediately launched by the Marine accident investigation board or maib inspectors examin four other Beno 40.7 yachts they notice that all show signs of Detachment of the Kill from the hull around the AR end towards the back of the Kill from previous groundings two of these four Yachts also show signs of Detachment in the forward section on the 5th of December 2016 stormforce principal Douglas inis is charged with four counts of manslaughter by gross negligence inis pleads not guilty and the jury finds him not guilty of manslaughter but they do deliver a verdict of unsafe vessel operation and not meeting the merchant shipping acts requirements the court concludes that storm Force neglected maintenance in order to save money making the yacht unseaworthy the crown prosecution service claims that even before the yacht set saale from intiga it had corroded or broken Kel bolts on the 11th of May 2018 inis receives a suspended sentence storm force is fined £50,000 which forces them to liquidate all their assets and file for bankruptcy a close friend of mine and I owned a 24t sailboat in the UK at the time in 2018 we sent it to a marine engineer to inspect the Kel bolts and protect them from seawater under a coating of epoxy as I'm sure many yacht owners did after cheeki Rafiki [Music] capsized thanks for watching if you enjoyed this video and would like to watch more videos from this channel without any ads please consider joining our patreon the link is in the description you can join for free or select a membership with Benefits 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Channel: Waterline Stories

Views: 367,286

Keywords: cheeki rafiki, sailing accidents, sailing boat accidents

Id: 4kunohxmvuM

Length: 17min 16sec (1036 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 25 2023