Collision with an oil tanker caused the sinking of Acrobatica

The shipwreck of Acrobatica, Alberto Riva’s Class 40, was caused by a collision with the Liberian tanker “Silver Ray,” which later rescued the three shipwrecked men. We learn this from a press and social note circulated by Alberto Riva himself, who at this moment, with Tommaso Stella and Jean Marre, is in the Azores, at the island of Flores, where the same tanker disembarked them after the accident. The official team note specifies that Acrobatica: “due to causes yet to be clarified, was involved in a collision with the Liberian tanker “Silver Ray”

The three of them are all right, with no physical injuries, which in itself is very fortunate for the conditions under which the collision occurred, recounted by Alberto Riva himself:

“The weather conditions were very harsh, there were 35-knot gusts of wind, with high waves and breakers sweeping the deck. The boat was going very fast and the conditions on board, as you may have seen from the videos, were complicated because of the constant shaking. Suddenly there was a collision and within less than minutes ‘Acrobatics” was completely flooded. We were very lucky, no one was seriously injured, but for us, it was no longer safe to stay on board. We activated the EPIRB, launched a Mayday and were rescued by the tanker ‘Silver Ray’. After that, thanks to MRCC’s request. [Maritime Rescue Coordination Center i.e., the organization in charge of the Search & Rescue system, ed.] we were landed in the Azores, where we are right now.”

Acrobatica shipwreck, what happened?

How could the Acrobatica collision have occurred during the Quebec – Saint malo? At the base appears the possibility of human error, either by the crew of the Class 40 or that of the Silver Ray tanker. Alternatively, one could think of a malfunction in the instruments, Radar and AIS, of either unit. Reasonable to think that visual monitoring, in the harsh weather conditions at the time, would not allow for the sighting of obstacles on the water. Fully loaded tankers sail rather shallow, and the Class 40 remains a small boat anyway, not obvious to spot if waves exceed 3-4 meters in height. With the cockpit almost entirely indoors, the view outward from a Class 40 is quite reduced, so skippers rely heavily on instruments.

The realistic scenario then is one of possible human error or possible instrument malfunction, but the two eventualities could also have occurred together: a late detection of the intersection for technical reasons, and a consequent error in maneuvering, or inability to execute it in the remaining space, by one of the two units. From Acrobatics at the moment the dynamics of the collision remain confidential.

We feel great sorrow to see Alberto Riva once again caught by unlucky circumstances, which put him out of the running, momentarily, at a stage when he had perfectly recovered from his nasty Transat Jacques Vabre injury and had begun to achieve important results with his Acrobatics. Indeed, the Musa 40 had set a 24-hour record, and Riva was proving that he could play on a par with the best in an ultra-competitive class.

Among the difficult moments in recent months for Riva had been the passing of Riccardo Iovino, the founder of Edilizia Acrobatica, the one who as a sponsor had started the sports project in Class 40. So a hug to Alberto and his team, with the hope of seeing them back on the water soon after weathering this other storm.

Mauro Giuffrè