Epic F–k Up at Expedition Yacht Launching

There have been a number of blundered yacht and ship launchings over the years, as evidenced from compilations on YouTube. Thanks to the botched launching of the 90-ft expedition yacht Boden in Anacortes on May 20, the compilations are now going to be one incident longer.

After construction over a period of 30 months by New World Marine, aka Northern Marine, the launch of Boden, said to be worth $10 million, started out fine. But then she lurched on her cradle. "We reinspected everything before we proceeded," Wes Fridell of New World Marine told Soundings Trade Only. But as you can see from the video, from 2:30 on things became increasingly perilous until she finally tumbled on her port side at about 2:59. The thing that surprises us is that 30 long seconds passed during which time nobody seemed to be particularly concerned. Was it operator error or mechanical failure? We’ll have to wait until the insurance company investigates.

Northern Marine has reportedly been building and launching excellent boats for many years, so this wasn’t a first-timer’s mistake. Our condolences to the owner(s), as this has to be heartbreaking. Surely the boat was meant to be launched in time for cruising in the Pacific Northwest this summer. Repairing the damage to the fiberglass structure won’t be difficult. What’s going to take much longer is going over the inside of the boat. For as Fridell noted, "Everything inside is toast."

Have you ever had a bad launching?