Five Rescued After $8 Million 'Superyacht' Capsizes
A superyacht worth approximately $8 million sank after capsizing in the Chesapeake Bay near Washington, D.C. over the weekend, leading the dramatic rescue of five passengers who were forced to jump overboard.
The incident occurred about a half-mile offshore at the mouth of the West River, when the 122-foot Sanlorenzo motor yacht named "Lovebug" suddenly ran aground just after 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. The Lovebug, which docks at the nearby Annapolis Yacht Club and costs $125,000 per week to charter, was last sold for $7,995,000 in 2021, Boat International reports. The vessel accommodates 11 guests and seven crew and features a sundeck with a small swimming pool and a bar, among other amenities.
Aerial drone footage shows the Lovebug on its starboard side, partially submerged in the water. It reportedly took only minutes for the yacht to sink, while the U.S. Coast Guard rushed to the scene.
Trevor Hardman, who works with Tour Boat Annapolis, told CBS News Baltimore that he was on a friend's nearby boat when he saw the Lovebug start to go under.
"As we tried to figure out what part of the boat we were looking at, we realized it slowly started to list and lean over to one side," Hardman recalled. "I would say within four to five minutes the boat was consumed and the captain had made the determination that they needed to abandon ship."
"They did have to abandon ship and they did go in the water off the stern of the boat," he continued. "It could have been a lot worse had everybody not remained calm and spoke on the radio and were clear to make sure that everybody was accounted for. That was my number one priority: How many people are onboard, many people are in the water, who do we have, who do we not have. It was a joint effort."
Hardman noted that there was no shortage of nearby boaters waiting to help and that the local boating community came together to provide assistance. "It's something you don't find everywhere these days," he said.
The Coast Guard and partner agencies are responding to the 104-foot yacht Lovebug which ran aground roughly a half-mile offshore between Beverly Beach and Curtis Point, Maryland, Saturday.
— USCG Mid-Atlantic (@uscgmidatlantic) July 27, 2024
The five persons on board were safely recovered by a good Samaritan and a tow boat. pic.twitter.com/NXurdsiApW
Once everyone was safely rescued, Hardman spoke to the captain, who also didn't seem to know what had occurred.
"In the moment, I was like. 'Did you run aground?' He was like, 'No, but I was headed this way. We were taking on water,'" he explained. "Boats of that size have alarms that tell you when there's water inside the boat. They were ear piercing to be able to hear those high-water alarms going off."
Incredibly, there were no injuries reported. One person who had been onboard complained of head soreness but declined to be taken to the hospital.
Pollution response teams with the U.S. Coast Guard worked with a local salvage company to deploy oil boom barriers around the yacht to contain any possible fuel spills and mitigate the environmental impact. It's believed that all of the fuel was contained, and the next step is recovering the ship.
"The biggest thing now is just to get the vessel salvage so that we can hopefully get some clues as to what happened," said Maryland Natural Resources Police Cpl. Christopher Neville. "Once everybody was secured, it was just a matter of placing the safety protocols around the boat to keep out contaminants and trying to follow up with the captain and owner of the vessel."