Douglas Innes, the director of the yacht company to which Cheeki Rafiki belonged, had sent an inexperienced crew from Antigua across the Atlantic to Britain to save time, although the yacht was not authorized to be more than 60 miles offshore without an escort from another vessel.
«Unsafe and damaged» The boat failed to pass a safety inspectors' inspection, it emerged during a court hearing in the death of Cheeki Rafiki and four of her crew members.
Only then did he return home, call the coastguard and send a message to the crew recommending they check the keel bolts.
Innes, 42, did not order a safety inspector to examine the yacht before the transatlantic crossing even though Cheeki Rafiki has been continuously raced for three years and has run aground three times. By the time of the tragic crossing she was missing several keel bolts.
Cheeki Rafiki sank in May 2014 100 miles off the US coast. The boat began gaining water after her keel broke off. Four crew members died. Douglas Innes has been charged with causing death by negligence. The trial is ongoing.
