TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Ship smashes into dock new Yacht Club, Twice!!

So we were out for our morning walk and as usual we headed for the bridge to see what might pass through. There was a monster of a ship that looked like it was waiting for the bridge to go up. I don’t know it’s name and, of course, didn’t have my phone. It was very very blue in color and more than 150 feet long. All of a sudden it was headed right for the yacht club and just kept on coming. It rammed into the wooden floating dock behind the yacht club, backed up and then rammed the concrete dock. The docks used by the youth sailing program was badly damaged . No one was hurt. Someone is in big, big trouble! Hopefully someone having breakfast at the yacht club will post video. It was completely out of control.

Here's a link to a video. https://www.facebook.com/sveraguas/posts/4267547513273135

Mercy me!! Glad no one was hurt!!

That is M/Y GO. We watched it yesterday afternoon leaving the dock but one of the engines was not working so with help from some folks in boats and on the dock it was able to get back in. Looks like the bow thrusters gave out today. What a mess. And the Yacht Club recently completed the rebuild of their dock system destroyed in Irma!

Another video https://www.facebook.com/sveraguas/videos/4267520516609168

Wow. That left a big ouch.

that’s a lot of Capri Suns Hans will need to sell

GO Yacht Owner

Another view.
https://sxmgovernment.com/2021/02/2...OQEm87CwAtkm6LNkGUEA-yK27UuLbN_fpa5lUL-s

Here is the first hit.
https://www.facebook.com/sveraguas/videos/4267520516609168/

Already posted.

the sxmgov site video shows boat hit another boat on left of dock before stopping. WOW!

Sorry. Didn't see your post. My bad.

No big deal. Both have been taken down for some reason.

The sxmgovernment link still works, as of now

Herald Story.
LINK
Link to video is also in this article.

That is really ugly. We saw that ship come in mid-January....VERY turquoise

Yes, both on YouTube now

Quote from that article "..“Funding is the big challenge for us and we don’t quite know yet if the yacht’s insurance will be helping us.” Say WHAT???????????? Is there some rule of maritime law that yachts are not responsible in cases like this???

Yacht owner Hans-Peter Wild used to own a US-based company that he inherited called Wild Flavors. They have a big plant near Cincinnati airport.

Several years ago, ol' Hans-Peter sold his biz to ADM, and H-P pocketed a cool US$1,950,000,000.

Double Say WHAT????????. Maritime law states you are responsible for damages caused by your wake or property damage caused by vessel.

SMYC posted this on Facebook.
"The Sint Maarten Yacht Club
28m ·
As most of you will have heard by now, this morning an accident occurred with a mega yacht. They lost control over the vessel and hit the dock of the Sint Maarten Yacht Club.
Nobody was injured and the damage is solely structural, however it is very significant. We are currently assessing the extend of the damage to make a plan to rebuild.
Our main concern right now is safety, therefore the the Sint Maarten Yacht Club dock cannot be used until further notice. This means no dinghy access, no provisioning, no drop offs, etc.
We refer you to the police dock by the bridge (open till 6pm) or the dock by Nowhere Special (no lights at night). Of course there is also Dinghy Dock further down the road.
Sailing lessons have been canceled for the remainder of the week while we make a plan moving forward. More information will be sent out in the upcoming days.
We kindly ask you when visiting the Sint Maarten Yacht Club to NOT go near the docks. Signage is placed to indicate no access and this is to ensure everyone's safety.
If you have any questions or would like to contribute in any way, please contact manager@smyc.com.
We apologize for the inconvenience and will notify you once the dock is back in use.
The SMYC team"

Really? I didn't know you were a lawyer familiar with the St. Maarten legal system. Or do you think this will go to some international Maritime Court?

The nice thing would be for the billionaire owner of the vessel to voluntarily pay the Yacht Club for all damages done, and maybe even build them a nice new clubhouse or something! Why make them go thru all the insurance hassles.

Besides, who wants their membership dues to go up?

Raspy--are you saying that the vessel's owner would NOT be responsible?

I do agree that it would be the RIGHT thing to do, to just voluntarily pay for the damage, and like you say, something on top. Uber rich people often don't do the right thing, though.

No, I am NOT trying to say that at all. I just don't know what the law in SXM is relating to this, and I don't think other posters here do either, but I may be wrong.

OK, since you have hung around the Yacht Club a lot, I thought you would know.

It is interesting to me that the Yacht Club comment seems to assume that the owner of the yacht won't pay..

My guess is that they are assuming they will need to go thru insurance company that may take months (or years?) to get compensated, so how do they pay for repairing the dock in the meantime. The Yacht Club is not rich.

Ok, I get ya.

Another view from overhead.
https://www.facebook.com/jerome.cornellier/videos/10159115654281280

My guess is that the Captain got distracted as he struggled to find the perfect angle to stick the straw into his Capri Sun pouch without bending the straw....

Not sure where he was going. Bridge wasn't open for traffic yet.

The ship had mechanical problems, not an issue with the captain.

I read where they picked up a sail (from Irma) with their anchor, and perhaps it was sucked into the thrusters? If that's the case, I wonder if the SXM government would have some liability for their failure to clean up the lagoon. Just conjecture....

Be glad he didn't hit the bridge.

Right on.

Be glad it didn't take out the whole yacht club deck with people eating/drinking on it.

Also very true.

We were there when it happened...all very surreal, almost like you were watching a movie.

Bigdaddy--how's your trip going otherwise??

My question is why were the videos of the boat hitting the dock twice taken down ?

Dick--not really sure it matters. If it was on someone's private Facebook page, they could just take it down.

This one is still there.

Am I the only one who had a flashback to Speed 2 when I saw the video??