[Hogmann]

From Gcaptain.com

Some billionaire just had a really bad day. Or as the ol’ joke goes, maybe it was one of the best—who knows?

A 40-meter superyacht sank off the coast of Italy on Saturday and it was all caught on video.

The Italian Coast Guard said the yacht sank about 9 miles offshore Italy’s Catanzaro coast, in the Ionian Sea, and all nine people on board had been rescued.

Italian media has identified the yacht as the MY Saga. Apparently the vessel sank after taking on water starting on Friday. Four passengers and one crew member were taken off Friday by a Romanian patrol vessel operating with Europe’s border control agency Frontex. The remaining four crew abandoned the yacht on Saturday. An attempt to tow the vessel was made but ultimately unsuccessful as the weather deteriorated.
Superyachttimes.com reports that the MY Saga was built in 2007 at Monaco Yachting & Technologies in Italy. According to the publication, the yacht was last sold in 2022 but its sale price was not disclosed.

The cause of the sinking is under investigation.
Video of the sinking released by the Italian Coast Guard is below:

[kellyhound]

turned into a submarine

[Hogmann]

I'm thinking insurance job...

[kellyhound]

owner not known, which is weird.

[Hogmann]

Ownership of superyachts is usually obscured through various shell companies.

[William May]

Well, it's still under power and driving ahead, even when sinking, so you wonder why they didn't turn and head in towards a beach. Grounding it would have saved much of the loss.

Unless the owner couldn't unload the boat, and told his captain to "make something happen". I heard it was in 200 meters of water, which will make investigating it pretty difficult. So maybe they were out there on purpose.

[William May]

Originally Posted by Hogmann ↗

Ownership of superyachts is usually obscured through various shell companies.

Yeah, that's why it took them a month to find out which boat was owned by which Russian oligarch. Just like corporate aircraft.

When I started at Learjet in 1978, you could look at the aircraft registration and see who owned the aircraft. (Doctor, actress, businessman, etc.)
By the time I retired, there wasn't a SINGLE aircraft that had owner ID on it. They were all registered to "Western Wings" or "Dream Flight" or some other hokum organization. Also, most of the ones that had previously had owner insignia on the outside, wound up getting it removed, and they went with a plain vanilla paint job, so no one would know who owned it. Custom registration numbers disappeared, except in a few cases. Some companies did keep their unique markings, but not many. Phifer Wire Products Co. kept their registration number "N54YR". Tom Watson of IBM kept his little cartoon "Toonerville Airlines" insignia on his aircraft. There was a ranch in Texas, the "6666 Ranch" where the huge ranch was won in a Poker game with that hand of all 6's, back in the late 1800's. and they kept their insignia and tail numbers. There was a real estate developer who had flown in WWII with all the nose art, and he had a nearly nude portrait of his wife painted next to the entry door. She was a stunningly good-looking woman when she was young. There was a Canadian grain operator group, made up of 4-5 families who all owned the one jet, and they kept their registration, which was "C-FRGY" and they had frogs painted on different places on the aircraft. The insignia, registration, and the little frogs followed them from each aircraft to the next aircraft. (They stopped in at our service center for some minor problem with was quickly fixed, and when I was putting the flight log back on the aircraft after getting it released (They just stayed on board and chatted while they were waiting.) I made the comment "If I have to stop this Learjet ONE MORE TIME, we are just going to turn RIGHT AROUND and GO HOME!" and they all cracked up. You could tell they all had kids.

[kellyhound]

MY SAGA (MMSI: 319204600) is a Pleasure Craft and is sailing under the flag of Cayman Islands.

Multi-millionaire Gennady Ayvazyan is probably the owner as he has a yacht called life saga but maybe it's the same and he changed name? So yeah he probably let it sink because Russian oligarchs trying to hide assets so it won’t fall in the hands of authorities and now he tries to claim insurance money.

[Hogmann]

Originally Posted by William May ↗

Well, it's still under power and driving ahead, even when sinking, so you wonder why they didn't turn and head in towards a beach. Grounding it would have saved much of the loss.

Unless the owner couldn't unload the boat, and told his captain to "make something happen". I heard it was in 200 meters of water, which will make investigating it pretty difficult. So maybe they were out there on purpose.

It was being towed. You can see the tow line at one point.

[Hogmann]

Originally Posted by kellyhound ↗

MY SAGA (MMSI: 319204600) is a Pleasure Craft and is sailing under the flag of Cayman Islands.

Multi-millionaire Gennady Ayvazyan is probably the owner as he has a yacht called life saga but maybe it's the same and he changed name? So yeah he probably let it sink because Russian oligarchs trying to hide assets so it won’t fall in the hands of authorities and now he tries to claim insurance money.

That's what I'm thinking.