Superyacht sailor's fatal head injury an accident

Sam Richmond had been part of a crew training in Antigua

The death of a professional sailor who suffered a fatal head injury on a superyacht in Antigua was an accident, a coroner has ruled.

Sam Richmond, 37, from Southampton, was hit by a pulley after part of the rigging failed during training for a regatta on 8 March 2022.

He was knocked unconscious and died in hospital in Florida two days later.

The yacht's owners, Red Birdwing, said tighter checks had been introduced, and the components would be inspected and replaced every two years.

The inquest in Winchester was told Mr Richmond had been with a crew training for the Superyacht Challenge Antigua when a pad eye - a type of bolt - on board the 102ft Southern Wind yacht Farfalla had failed, causing a block - or pulley - to swing loose.

Sam Laidlaw, of Red Birdwing, described the pad eye as "a very solid piece of metal", adding: "You would expect the rigging to fail or training blocks to fail but you wouldn't expect the pad eye to be the weak link."

In his conclusion on Thursday, coroner Jason Pegg said the pad eye had fractured because of "fatigue cracking, which had developed over time since the construction of the yacht in 2014".

He said: "The fatigue cracking was caused when cyclical forces were applied to the pad eye when the yacht was under sail and the pad eye was not aligned with the load of the rigging, which reduced the load-carrying capacity of the pad eye.

"The pad eye had an inadequate maximum working load capacity for securing the runner turning block."