It was a broken pad-eye that caused the death of a sailor aboard the s/y Farfalla
After investigations, the coroner determined that the cause of Sam Richmond's death was a fatigue failure of a piece of equipment on the yacht.
Coroner Jason Pegg attributed Sam Richmond's death to a blow to the head from a pad eye that collapsed due to a fatigue fracture. The accident occurred in March 2022 aboard the 102-foot Southern Wind Farfalla during training for the Superyacht Challenge Antigua. The professional sailor lost consciousness and died two days later at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.
According to a BBC article, the coroner noted that "the fracture was due to progressive structural fatigue that had accumulated since 2014, the year the vessel was built. This fatigue developed due to cyclical forces applied to the pad-eye during navigation, aggravated by a misalignment between the load of the lines and the axis of the pad-eye, which compromised its ability to support the maximum expected load. Essentially, the element was not sufficiently sized to support the applied load."
In response to the tragic incident, the owners of the superyacht—represented by Sam Laidlaw—announced a stringent review of their safety procedures: the pad-eyes will have to be inspected and replaced every two years, with more durable and reliable titanium versions being added.
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