The Lady Candida Fire: Lessons Learned, and Suggestions for Safer Chartering

The MAIB report states that Lady Candida’s captain had 22 years of experience onboard boats, but that only one crew member, the senior deckhand, had completed an approved firefighting course. “None of the remaining crew had completed any firefighting or sea survival training,” the report states. “No safety induction procedures were conducted when passengers came onboard or new crew joined. Safety and fire drills were rarely, if ever carried out.”

As broker/captain Matthew puts it, these are the kinds of things that charter brokers assume management companies are looking after. “You assume that the captain and others are licensed,” Matthew says. “You assume the yacht is insured. You assume the crew are following training and procedures.”

As is evidenced in the Lady Candida case, those assumptions can be devastatingly wrong. Different crew are required to have different levels of training, but as a practical matter, you can ask your broker to find out exactly what training each crew member has, and exactly when the crew performed their most recent man-overboard and fire drills.

“Responsible brokers go to boat shows at least two times a year to see crews and inspect yachts,” broker/captain Garrett says. “In reality, though, we can get on a boat in May, and everything is fine, but by September, there could be a very different story.”

Garrett said management companies should provide a checklist of what training courses crew have completed, and what drills and maintenance have been performed most recently. Providing that information is not currently standard practice, and Garrett suggested that it should be. “If a boat is in your fleet,” Garrett says, “if you are promoting it for charter, then everything should be in order.”

The way charter yacht contracts read, though, bookings are legal agreements between you and the yacht’s owner, not you and the management company. Thus, as a practical matter, you might ask your charter broker to get crew training and emergency-drill records before you sign a charter contract, just to ensure the records actually exist.

“You wouldn’t ask a broker to do this for, say, six yachts that you’re considering,” Matthew says, “but when you have it narrowed down to one or two boats, then it’s an appropriate request to make.”

On a broader level, charter brokers themselves need to ask questions of this nature on a more regular basis, Garrett and Matthew say. Typically, matters of training and maintenance are assumed to have been checked by the yacht’s management company.

“One time, as a fluke, I had a client who wanted a copy of the captain’s license for insurance purposes,” Matthew says. “The boat was part of a large, well-respected management company, so I called to ask for it—and I was surprised when I kept getting the brush off. As it turned out, the captain had completed the coursework required for his license, but the license hadn’t yet been issued. So here, technically, we had a large management company promoting a boat for charter without a licensed captain.

“It’s the only time I’ve ever been asked to double-check information like that,” Matthew adds. “All of us brokers should be requesting that kind of information more often.”

According to the MAIB report, Lady Candida arrived in the Mediterranean on July 12, 2007, after a difficult Atlantic crossing that involved challenging weather conditions. The yacht’s engineer left the yacht on July 13 and was not replaced—thus forcing the captain to assume the engineer’s duties in addition to his own. Lady Candida’s crew performed a 10-day charter from July 13 through 23, and then had three days to prepare for the charter that began on July 23 and ended in flames on July 28.

During all this time, the report states, the captain was getting less than five hours of sleep per night, and the rest of the crew were fatigued as well. That fatigue, the report states, contributed to the scope of the fire and subsequent sinking.

Crew fatigue is common. In fact, many charter yacht crew take pride in saying they can accomplish “24-hour turnaround,” meaning one group of charter guests leaves the yacht on a Sunday, and a new group arrives on a Monday. Many crew want their yachts to do as many charters as possible, because with charters typically come cash gratuities. Many crew figure they can sleep when they retire.

In some cases, crew are violating seagoing regulations by failing to allow for proper rest. (Page 17 of the MAIB report addresses these regulations in some detail.) But as longtime charter yacht manager David says, you can make all the regulations in the world and the crew might ignore them if the income to be gained is substantial. Only the crew themselves know how often they are sleeping, and if nobody complains or keeps records, there is no proof that overwork has occurred.

All 11 charter guests were safely ashore by the time Lady Candida sank. However, according to the MAIB report, there were significant safety issues that could have created additional problems before and after the guests entered the liferaft.

First, the report states, Lady Candida’s liferaft was rated as having a nine-person capacity. This is less than the 11 guests in total that the yacht accepted for a charter vacation. Second, the report notes that no children’s lifejackets were onboard the yacht, even though four of the charter guests were children. Third, the report states that crew did not give guests an overview of the yacht and safety procedures before the charter began.

None of these things contributed to the fire or sinking of Lady Candida, but they easily could have added to the onboard crisis—and they can easily be averted during any charter.

Ask your charter broker how many people a yacht’s dinghy can safely hold, so that everyone in your party can easily fit in case of an emergency. If you are chartering with children, ask whether children’s lifejackets are onboard—or better yet, buy and bring your own to ensure a proper fit for children of different sizes.

Perhaps most important, if your charter yacht’s crew does not offer you a tour of the boat with a discussion of emergency procedures your first night onboard, ask for one. In many cases, crew are required by law to give such tours. Even if they’re not, your requesting a tour will remind them that it’s a good idea for guests to know things such as where the lifejackets are, and where to go in case of an emergency. 

The MAIB report does not lay blame for the Lady Candida fire and sinking. It is meant to be educational, and to help prevent similar incidents in the future. Still, it is logical to infer from the report that many things went wrong before this disastrous charter even started.

One could blame the yacht’s owner for apparently failing to fund proper maintenance and crew levels.

One could blame the yacht’s captain for failing to notify the charter management company that the yacht was understaffed, ill-trained, and therefore unable to perform the scheduled charters.

One could blame the yacht’s management company for failing to keep better track of what was actually happening onboard a yacht that it promoted for charter vacations.

One could blame the broker who booked the charter for failing to ask questions that might have highlighted any of the above problems, especially given Lady Candida's age.

At the end of the day, yacht charter involves all of the above people doing their part to ensure that you will be safe when you book a vacation. What you must keep in mind before booking any charter yacht is that it is your role, as a responsible consumer, to make sure you are doing business with people who are indeed carrying out their responsibilities.

If there is one surefire lesson that the Lady Candida sinking teaches, it is that you cannot trust even the most well-known companies, nor the longest-serving captains and brokers, to be doing things as completely as they might otherwise be done. Ask the questions suggested in the text above. Refuse to settle for half-answers. Know that you can, and perhaps should, look to another broker or yacht if you cannot get basic information beyond what you see in any brochure.

As Lady Candida’s guests would no doubt attest, it’s best to have all the information you can get before you step onboard a yacht and cruise away from the dock.—Kim Kavin