boatingbusiness.com
JANUARY 2023
Person Behind the Face 6 | Cardinal Sin 8 | Business Matters 12 | Marketing 20 | New Products 24 | People 28 | Profile 30
UP TO £1.6m IN DAMAGES FOR SKIPPER
News
Market stagnation Increased capacity Unpaid debts pages 1-11
A professional yacht skipper could receive £1.6m in damages after he was hit on the head by a 10kg steel pulley on a multi-millionaire’s superyacht. Adam Prior says he had to give up a life at sea after he was struck in the face by the pulley while racing off the Isle of Wight in July 2015 on board the Eleonora E. Mr Prior, 40, sued Peras Ltd, the company which owns the boat, for £3.2m, claiming he suffered brain damage, blaming unsafe weather and lack of maintenance on the rigging for his accident. The company denied all blame and said Mr Prior was ‘the author of his own misfortune’. After a four-day trial at the High Court, Judge Richard Davison ruled that both Mr Prior and the ship’s owners were equally to blame. The amount of compensation is to be assessed but is set to be reduced by 50% due to Mr Prior’s own negligence. The judge said the yacht’s owners provided unsafe
8 Adam Prior was the skipper on board the Eleonora E
equipment in the shape of a metal rod attached to the 10kg pulley block. Metal sheeting was found to serve no practical purpose and was a cause of the accident. However, the judge said Mr Prior was equally negligent as he crossed through the ‘danger triangle’, area of the ship - where there was extensive rigging and heavy blocks running free. The judge was told Mr Prior crossed by the shortest and most direct route however he could have used a safer route. He also failed to crouch or check the blocks were out of the way before moving across. Mr Prior claimed the wind was gusting up to 30 knots – a claim denied by the defence - and Eleonora E shouldn’t have been racing. However the judge stated the wind had played no part in the accident.
Multihull designer dies Multihull designer and boat builder, Derek Kelsall, has died aged 89. Derek is credited with creating the modern-day trimaran, introducing French sailing legend Eric Tabarly to multihulls and being one of the first to champion foam sandwich construction. Derek was born in North Wales in 1933, growing up in humble surroundings. He studied engineering at Bristol University but was unable to complete his degree when he ran out of money.His career took him to Texas, at the time when his passion for boating was growing, along with an interest in multihulls, both sailing and building them.
He enjoyed success with his small trimaran designs, with the 45ft Toria one of the most influential multihulls ever, establishing the fundamental concept of what a racing trimaran should look like. His use of foam sandwich construction attracted some of the top campaigns including Sir Thomas Lipson’s 1968 OSTAR victory. KSS, the Kelsall Swiftsure Sandwich technique, used flat panels that could be laid up rapidly on a table, enabling construction time to be dramatically reduced, a process Derek first used in 1973 and constantly evolved over subsequent decades.
boot Düsseldorf preview
Nine themes Bio-technology inspired Fundamental change pages 14-17
Clothing and Accessories
Valuable feedback Latest gloves Adaptation pages 18-22