Princess F50 ran aground

[roa312]

A brand new Princess F50 ran aground on its delivery trip from the factory to it's new home port in Denmark. Pictures below are from a local newspaper. The boat has now been transported to a shipyard in my local harbor, so I'm hoping to get some close up shots. It's clear from the pictures that both IPS drives are gone, but I'm interested to see if that also led to significant damage to the hull. It was being skippered by a professional delivery crew, but I don't know the story about what happened. Weather conditions have been perfect for two months now - same as in the pictures. But maybe there was some evasive action, maybe the skipper had a heart attack - all speculation. Should be able to follow up with the story and close up shots later.

 

[Portofino]

My speculation .
Either another heads down gawping at screens + twiddling about with them .Or mech failure of the IPS drives leading to loss of steerage and the tide did the rest .

Or just innocent lack of local knowledge .

It will be a big insurance claim that’s for certain .

 

[roa312]

Below is a snippet from GoogleMaps where I've marked the position of where the boat ran aground (my guesstimate). It may be that the crew just wasn't paying attention but it still seems unlikely given the proximity to the harbor inlet. I know the harbor well and I can't see any obvious explanation. Maybe it happened at night and they just got confused (?) - there's certainly no tides to speak of. I should be able to confirm the story and will report back.

 

[crazy4557]

Feel for the owner who was probably counting down the hours before delivery of their new dream boat.

 

[westernman]

I hit the harbour wall once at night. I had a chart which was out of date. Not that the up to date version was any more up to date.
I was coming down parallel to the harbour wall towards the entrance and I turned right at the green light which on the chart marked then end of the harbour wall.

However, they had extended the harbour wall, and there was a second green light further down. I hit the wall between the two green marks.

No damage except to my reputation as a reliable safe skipper.
I left a clear blue skid mark on a rock on the new part of the harbour wall. It was several months before it washed away.

In the meant time, that first green mark which I had assumed to mark the end of the wall, has changed colour to be a white one now.

Shit happens.

 

[Leighb]

Many years ago, a professional delivery crew taking a brand new Oyster 50 or thereabouts from Ipswich to Sweden headed out of Harwich harbour and then set a course directly across the North Sea. Unfortunately the Cork Sand was in the way. They hit it very hard causing extensive hull damage at the root of the keel. I saw it on the hard at Shotley Marina later and there were long transverse cracks at the leading and trailing edges of the keel!
An enquiry revealed that the only chart they had on board was of the entire North Sea on which the Cork was the size of a babies finger clipping.

 

[Momac]

Many years ago, a professional delivery crew taking a brand new Oyster 50 or thereabouts from Ipswich to Sweden headed out of Harwich harbour and then set a course directly across the North Sea. Unfortunately the Cork Sand was in the way. They hit it very hard causing extensive hull damage at the root of the keel. I saw it on the hard at Shotley Marina later and there were long transverse cracks at the leading and trailing edges of the keel!
An enquiry revealed that the only chart they had on board was of the entire North Sea on which the Cork was the size of a babies finger clipping.

Not very professional it seems
I am not familiar with Harwich but at a glance it's fairly clear there is a big shallow bit that you need to go around.