Hurt Yacht Crew Awarded $2.89 Million From Collision That Sank Tanker – Peter Swanson
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Hurt Yacht Crew Awarded $2.89 Million From Collision That Sank Tanker
One Plaintiff Says the Money Was Not Enough
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Motoryacht Utopia IV raming a Bahamian tanker and sinking her two days before Christmas 2021 was the first Loose Cannon story published on Substack, and it was an exclusive—probably due to short staffing at traditional news outlets.
Let it be known then that the story has played out to its logical conclusion: A $2.89 million court-ordered payout to three Utopia crew injured in the ramming. In its report, the National Transportation Safety Board had referred to their injuries as “minor.”
According to the NTSB, one of the causes of the accident was the fact that the captain had left his post for 12 minutes, leaving an unqualified watchstander on the bridge alone.
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Both Utopia and tanker Tropic Breeze had departed from New Providence island in the evening. Around 10 p.m. The 207-foot Rossinavi motoryacht slammed into Tropic Breeze’s stern at 20 knots, causing the latter’s engine room to flood. As Tropic Breeze sank, her seven crewmembers abandoned ship and were rescued by a another passing yacht. Utopia had 20 people on board, 13 crew and seven charter guests.
One of the three injured was Electro-Technical Officer Eric Ward, who recently told Superyacht News that the voyage had been set up as a nominal bareboat charter but had not been insured as such, so the owner of the boat was responsible for medical expenses directly.
The three crew sued Utopia’s owner, alleging that they were owed money for medical expenses, unpaid wages and other monetary damages.
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Utopia was built for J.R. and Loren Ridinger of North Carolina, he being president and CEO of the online retail giant Market America (frequently compared to a “pyramid scheme”). Ridinger died in August 2022, leaving his widow as defendant.
Earlier this month, a jury in federal court awarded Ward $805,000. Deckhand Samuel Parrot was awarded $591,000. Engineer Fred Wennberg was allowed to piggyback other, unrelated injuries onto the crash claim and was awarded $1.49 million. Each award included substantial punitive damages.
Apparently, Ward was unhappy with his sum, telling Superyacht News, “The decision is called a ‘defense victory.’ It’s when we technically win, but win almost nothing for a judgement from the jury.”
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