Collision at sea.
Documented collision incidents from the Logbook — 17 records, each with sources, lessons, and the SeaWise procedures that address it.
← Search & filter the full LogbookA sailing yacht is small, quiet, and rides low — and a ship or a pushed barge can neither stop nor turn quickly for it. The collisions documented here share a hard pattern: a give-way vessel that assumed it had been seen, or a watch that lapsed at the wrong moment. The lesson is to make yourself obvious, keep clear of commercial fairways, and keep a dedicated lookout whenever traffic is near.
On 23 June 2026, two cruising catamarans collided in the Gulf of Cargèse, Corsica. One, a Looping 50 with three aboard, was holed and flooded faster than her pumps could keep up. The SNSM lifeboat crew took the three off and deliberately grounded her on sand to stop her sinking, then patched and refloated her the next day. No one was hurt.
A French-flagged charter yacht with eight Czech sailors aboard was struck by the high-speed passenger catamaran Krilo Eclipse in Splitska Vrata, the busy channel between Šolta and Brač, on 14 June 2026. The yacht sank in about 50 metres of water and four of the eight were killed; the other four were rescued. The catamaran's first officer, navigating in place of the captain, was arrested as the investigation continues.
Off Zea Marina, Piraeus, around 1 June 2026, a charter sailing yacht left harbour at speed and — keeping no proper lookout in daylight — ran down and sank a small fishing boat. The fisherman jumped into the sea at the last moment and was pulled out by a Coast Guard crew inspecting boats nearby. No one was killed, and the port authority opened an investigation into how the yacht's crew failed to see the boats ahead.
On 14 June 2026, in the busy Splitska vrata channel between Brač and Šolta near Split, Croatia, a fast scheduled passenger catamaran collided with a French-flagged sailing yacht, which sank. Eight people were aboard the yacht: four were rescued from the water, and four died — three at the scene and one recovered the next day from the wreck at 50 metres. The cause is under investigation.
On 3 August 2025 a daycruiser motorboat and a sailing trimaran collided in the busy inner Oslofjord near Fagerstrand, off Nesodden, Norway. Police said the motorboat operator acted negligently and struck the sailing vessel. The motorboat sank; the trimaran stayed afloat. Three people were involved and two were lightly injured, with no reported pollution.
On the morning of Tuesday 22 July 2025, a motorboat ran into a sailing yacht that was under sail in the Oslofjord, just south of Filtvet lighthouse off Asker, Norway. The motorboat struck the yacht midships, brought down its mast, and ended up on its foredeck. Three people were involved and all escaped injury. The motorboat's skipper, who appears to have been below deck, was treated as a suspect.
On 23 June 2024, a 75-year-old man sailing alone in the Oslofjord, off Langøya near Hurumlandet, was killed when a 43-foot cabin cruiser struck his sailing boat from astern. The sailing boat sank; he was found dead aboard it, while the cruiser was towed ashore. The cruiser's skipper was charged and later convicted of negligent homicide.
On the evening of 25 May 2019 the motor yacht Vision attempted a fast, close pass of the anchored motor yacht Minx off Île Sainte-Marguerite, near Cannes. Vision struck Minx's bow, killing a crewman standing on Minx's foredeck. Vision was travelling at more than six times the anchorage's 5-knot limit, and her skipper had used cannabis, impairing his judgement.
In thick fog on 21 October 2018 the ro-ro ferry Red Falcon lost orientation in Cowes Harbour, left the channel and spun through 220°. Disorientated, her master drove the ferry the wrong way and collided with the moored yacht Greylag, sinking it on its mooring. The MAIB found the master became fixated on his electronic chart and cognitively overloaded, and that the risk to people sleeping aboard moored yachts had not been adequately managed.
Charter yacht dragged at 02:00 in a downburst and contacted a moored wooden trader; bow roller damage, caïque holed, both insured.
On Sunday 8 June 2014, the 31-foot Moody sailing yacht Orca was struck by the dredger Shoreway about 7 miles off Felixstowe, England, and sank within minutes. The dredger's bow-mounted equipment hid the yacht until seconds before impact, and neither vessel was keeping a proper lookout. Orca's skipper was pulled from the water by the dredger's rescue boat; his wife drowned in the sunken yacht.
On the evening of 16 April 2007, the sailing yacht Whispa collided with the LPG carrier Gas Monarch in dense fog about 6 miles ESE of Lowestoft. No one was hurt on either vessel, and the yacht's damage was minor at first, but progressive flooding worsened it as a lifeboat towed her to Lowestoft. The MAIB found that both vessels had broken the collision-avoidance rules and misused their radars in the fog.
On the night of 20 August 2006 the yacht Ouzo sailed from Bembridge, Isle of Wight for Dartmouth with her three regular crew, and was lost after an encounter with the ro-ro passenger ferry Pride of Bilbao. The yacht was never found. All three crew were recovered from the sea over the following days, in inflated lifejackets and good yachting clothing — but with no means to raise the alarm, none survived.
On the night of 6 February 2006, the 13.28 m wooden sailing yacht Ile D Yeu, with three aboard, was sunk in a collision with the coastal chemical tanker Dutch Progress about 4 miles east of Whitby. The tanker's officer had seen the yacht's red light at 4 miles but took no compass bearing or radar plot, and could not acquire the small wooden yacht on either radar. All three crew survived; the yacht was lost.
On 2 June 2005 the 277 m container ship OOCL Malaysia was outbound from Southampton when the pilot saw the 6.7 m wooden yacht Ibis about to enter the moving prohibited zone ahead. A launch was sent to tell Ibis to hold clear, but her singlehanded skipper tacked, lost the wind, and was caught in the ship's path. He jumped clear and was picked up by the launch; Ibis was run down and foundered. No one was hurt.
At 1100 UTC on 28 May 2003, the container ship P&O Nedlloyd Vespucci and the yacht Wahkuna collided in poor visibility in the English Channel, and the yacht sank. The MAIB found a chain of failures: the yacht's skipper misread which collision rules apply in fog, the ship's master over-trusted his radar and accepted a small passing distance, neither vessel kept an effective radar lookout, and the ship was travelling too fast for the conditions.
On 7 August 1999 the yacht Bluebell of Warsash was struck on her starboard side by the bulbous bow of an unidentified ship about 23 miles south of The Needles, Isle of Wight. One of the four crew threw himself over the side just before impact and was recovered; three crew were injured, two airlifted to hospital. The yacht reached the Needles, met an RNLI lifeboat, and was towed to Yarmouth. The ship was never identified.