Mind the stern when maneuvering...

THIS is the moment a British registered yacht brought chaos to a swanky Med port as it bungled its attempt to leave and reversed into several boats.

The £15 million superyacht Tales was trying to leave the marina at Portofino on the Italian Riviera when it spectacularly misjudged its route and ploughed into more than half a dozen boats.

Dramatic moment £15million Brit superyacht smashes into boats in Italian harbour

Shame....... That poor b*strd is out of a job.

The captain earned being fired.

I like the two dinghies coming up to help the bow thruster.


Seems he tried to get in a little too close to the "little boats".

''After it had raised its anchor and was on its way out the caption could not disengage the gears and it continued sailing backwards, hitting the boats."

Seemed curious that it kept going.

''After it had raised its anchor and was on its way out the caption could not disengage the gears and it continued sailing backwards, hitting the boats."

No mention of the captain losing his/her job. Only that there was a mechanical failure and he couldn't disengage from reverse into neutral. You can see crewmembers on the stern as well. They would have been advising the captain of proximity.

Also look at the wider shot from the very beginning. That inner space looks like a small lagoon. I doubt he was coming from the inner harbor and doubt he misjudged the area he navigated into.

I strongly suspect he pulled anchor, encountered a mechanical issue, then ended up in the space we see in the video as he tried to recover. It's pretty common to find YouTube videos from unknowing lubbers with comments like "Look at this idiot" when in fact, upon closer inspection it's a boat with one engine down and no thruster, trying to navigate a marina in 20 kt cross wind.

Article looks like it published a lot of assumptions from onlookers and little fact.

May well have been equipment malfunction. I have questions that can't be answered by the limited video. One is where was he anchored and was it really somewhere advisable for a boat his size. In the video, we see nothing but smaller boats. There are some crowded anchorages in those areas but sometimes just anchoring a bit further out is advisable. Also, I wondered if this was a port offering pilot boat services. Sometimes that's a far preferable option vs trying under your own power. In Fort Lauderdale, New River is the most common use of pilot boats. Most of the larger boats could do it on their own most of the time, but that isn't enough so they use pilots. That allows controlling the stern well in tight quarters.

Jumping to the conclusion the captain was fired is just a shot from the dark. Many captains of megayachts experience an accident and maintain their jobs.

As noted, best to get the facts before making assumptions while sitting at a desk with a keyboard under our fingers.

Unfortunate occurance, but even the replacement cost for the boats they hit wouldn't even be a rounding error in the annual budget for that boat.

dhays said:

Unfortunate occurance, but even the replacement cost for the boats they hit wouldn't even be a rounding error in the annual budget for that boat.

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Probably not even enough to impact their insurance rate.

BandB said:

Probably not even enough to impact their insurance rate.

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Exactly. Leave it up to the insurance co.

Tonnage may rule but, it doesn't doesn't make you skillful nor a gentleman.
Judging from the arrival of the RIBs, the captain made the regrettable decision not to wait for assistance.
Sadly, the boat owners' will not recover the value of their boats. When the courts award damages they do not take into account the upgrades, maintenance nor the 'blood sweat and tears' and pride of the boat owner's.

Wonder how the big boat ended up in a cross-wise direction in the harbor. There doesn't appear there was sufficient room between boats for the big boat to rotate. The logical move would be to leave going backward. Still, mechanical/engine failure may have caused an unintended rotation. Too bad an earlier video recording isn't shown.

I'm sure this can't just be stupidity. You don't get to take control of a yacht like that without knowing what you are doing.

If you find your gears stuck in reverse, and heading towards moored boats, shut the engines down.

Not sure I buy the "stuck in gear" thing. After plowing into the boats for a while, fwd thrust propwash was visible.

Maybe this boat had a port qualified pilot on board and he called for 4 tugs (RIBs) but, the pilot either got tired of waiting or the additional tugs were busy on another project.

If this be true and the pilot made the decision not to wait for the additional tugs, it is still the responsibility of the captain!! Again, assuming there was a pilot on board, I wonder if he kept his license?

Too bad there was no video on how the boat got sideways.
Alas, we will never know the conclusions of the inquest.

I've been here. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, in fact. It's a very small inner harbor, definitely too small for a yacht of that size.

There were several yachts like this one, and a small cruise ship anchored about half a mile away in the outer harbor when I was there. Doesn't look like there was enough wind to have blown them that far, though.

If I had to guess, I bet they were med-moored next to the other big guy to the left side of the frame, and had some sort of mechanical problem after departure, causing him to drift into the harbor. I certainly hope they didn't find themselves there intentionally, because there ain't no way they was ever going to find a good parking spot in there.

I feel for the captain, either way. That's a bad day.

BandB said:

May well have been equipment malfunction. I have questions that can't be answered by the limited video. One is where was he anchored and was it really somewhere advisable for a boat his size. In the video, we see nothing but smaller boats. There are some crowded anchorages in those areas but sometimes just anchoring a bit further out is advisable. Also, I wondered if this was a port offering pilot boat services. Sometimes that's a far preferable option vs trying under your own power. In Fort Lauderdale, New River is the most common use of pilot boats. Most of the larger boats could do it on their own most of the time, but that isn't enough so they use pilots. That allows controlling the stern well in tight quarters.

Jumping to the conclusion the captain was fired is just a shot from the dark. Many captains of megayachts experience an accident and maintain their jobs.

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To me it looked like he had already been there(probably for a long time) and got "boxed in".. Should he have been there in the first place? I dunno but I doubt it based on the size of every other boat..

That being said if you have a yacht that big most other boats are gonna be smaller.


Just didn't look possible for him to sneak in his position and he was probably trying to get out of there. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.. A captain on that boat is probably qualified and then some.

Very weak bow thruster for moving to port.

If the captain came in hot to impress observers and intended to med-moor beside the other big yacht, things could go sideways pretty fast if the bow thruster didn't work as planned.

*Note to self* If ever we get a bow thruster...always test before leaving the dock and before entering a marina.

Accidents happen. Just a couple of weeks ago at my marina, a 34 ft boat was pulling into his slip and the reverse cable snapped causing it to slam into a 55 ft yacht that had just had a 20,000 dollar paint job. Mechanical failure in that case and insurance took care of it.

Benthic2 said:

I'm sure this can't just be stupidity. You don't get to take control of a yacht like that without knowing what you are doing.

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Unless it has one of "those" owners who periodically comes to the bridge to "take command"....


Immunity necklaces all around?

I've been in that harbor many times. Knowing the layout it's pretty obvious his stbd anchor was in amongst the right side anchorage and he worked his nose in to pick it up, for unknown reason his stern swung to far to port across the channel, very possible he did have a mechanical on controls or power. The majority of the time it's my job to work the aft deck, calling all maneuvers and handling aft lines, I can usually guide a boat within 1 foot in decent conditions. Usually a small incident like that does not even warrant a call to the insurance, just quick inspection/payout.

See if I can get these pics to load

Two of my boats docked in same spot, Portofino, It

In the lower fore ground is a 120' I built and was engineer on at the time. You can see the small boat anchorage he backed into. If you ran an anchor chain directly off my bow it would lead to the same spot where his bow was, just out of the picture.

Just behind me is a 180' that I did the engineering design and built a few years ago. Buddy of mine was Capt at the time.


Bottom is me during some maneuvering on that same 120', on a Great Lakes trip a few yrs ago, work day, not in uniform, lol

I've been to Portofino - the area behind the big trees on the right side of the frame are where the big boats tie up, stern to. Very odd how he got into that sideways position.