What Sank the Tech Tycoon’s ‘Unsinkable’ Yacht?
www.nytimes.com
A Times investigation has found that an unusually tall mast, and the design changes it required, made a superyacht owned by a British tech mogul vulnerable to capsizing.
  • Soyweiser@awful.systemsEnglish
    23·
    2 months ago

    Wait, they replaced the two masts with one double sized one? That seems a bit unwise.

    Most of the time, though, the Bayesian operated like a motorboat, powered by two enormous diesel engines. During her five-day voyage, Ms. VanSickle said they sailed only once, for just a few hours. But when they did, the boat moved through the water so smoothly, she said, it felt like they were “gliding.”

    Yes that is how sailing often feels if the water isnt choppy.

    • aio@awful.systemsEnglish
      28·
      2 months ago

      Mr. Costantino said the design was not at fault and that the towering mast, which stood 237 feet tall, had not created “any kind of problem.”

      “The ship was an unsinkable ship,” he said. “I say it, I repeat it.”

      - Designer of sunken ship

  • sc_griffith@awful.systemsEnglish
    23·
    2 months ago

    between this and the submersible guy I’m starting to think we need more billionaires on the ocean. maybe peter thiel is onto something

  • Sailor Sega Saturn@awful.systemsEnglish
    18·
    2 months ago

    Some innocent people died so it’s sad stuff, but I can’t get past the fact that they named a top heavy weirdly balanced yacht the Bayesian.

    Well on the bright side naval engineers will be able to update their drivers priors after this perfectly engineered unsinkable sink sa–

    “This boat had definite shortcomings that kind of uniquely made it vulnerable to what happened.”

    “people would take photos of it constantly because it was so crazy-looking in comparison to other boats.”

    Philipp Luke, a Dutch naval architect, started violently shaking his head. “No, no, no,” he said. “You don’t do that.”

    “When I first saw this, I couldn’t believe it,” said Mr. Roberts, the naval architect. “It made no sense to me.”

    “Technology moved on,” Mr. Costantino said.

    Oh.

    • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systemsEnglish
      12·
      2 months ago

      I don’t know. I feel like the prior for putting tech billionaires on massive single-masted yachts with high waterlines and low air vents is still pretty positive. This is only one bad voyage; consider how many trips provide evidence that this is a good plan.

      Much like Titan, which had several successful voyages to the Titanic that other billionaires should seek to emulate by using the exact same sorta-procen design and construction that Titan did.

      • Soyweiser@awful.systemsEnglish
        13·
        2 months ago

        Still think this is a bit expensive, both on cost and collateral damage. Popularizing being your own helicopter pilot among the mega rich is a tried and true tactic.

    • Soyweiser@awful.systemsEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      The boat wasnt called that at first, the guy who ordered it gave it a different name. Guess he sold it as the weirdest HP assassination play

  • jaschop@awful.systemsEnglish
    14·
    2 months ago

    His Wikipedia article is quite a ride. Apparently he and a Stephen Chamberlain were recently found innocent for a bunch of fraud charges. They boil down to inflating the value of a SW company he sold to Hewlett-Packart. They died within a day of each other in unrelated accidents. Must be rough.

    • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systemsEnglish
      17·
      2 months ago

      On one hand, if inflating the value of the startup you’re offloading onto a tech giant is a crime we should put half of Silicon Valley in prison. On the other hand, maybe we should put half of the Valley in prison.

        • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systemsEnglish
          6·
          2 months ago

          Given that his codefendant was hit and killed by a car three days after the acquittal, I’m not sure if they even hired assassins or if they have some kind of black magicians on staff.

  • Sternhammer@aussie.zoneEnglish
    11·
    2 months ago

    The documents also show that the Bayesian could begin taking on some water at angles that appeared to violate the safety threshold set by the British Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

    Clearly safety rules shouldn’t apply to the rich and famous. For example, princesses shouldn’t need to worry about wearing seat belts in cars speeding away from Parisian paparazzi.