A teenager, who took his father's £1.2 million motor yacht for a spin off Saint-Tropez in Southern France, has written off the vessel after crashing it onto rocks.
A Belgian teenager wrote off his father’s £1.2 million motor yacht after hitting rocks off Saint-Tropez, Southern France.
Local media are reporting that the 18-year-old was with four other friends, aged between 18 and 20, when the accident happened.
He had the permission of his father to use the vessel.
The yacht on the rocks off Saint-Tropez
According to the French rescue services, the teenager and his friends were lucky to escape the crash with only bruises.
Pierre-Yves Barasc of Société Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer (SNSM) is reported as saying: “If they had crashed 10 metre away, they surely would have died.”
At the spot where the teenagers crashed, the water is as little as 60 centimetres deep.
The boat is reported to have a draught of 2.7 metres.
Aerial view of the crashed vessel
Eric Esters of the French coastguard in Saint-Tropez described the accident as ” a clumsy piece of amateurism”.
“Those guys barely knew how to hold a rudder,” he is reported as saying.
The yacht was built in 2009 at a cost of £1.2 million.
Local media are reporting that the vessel cannot be salvaged and is likely to be scrapped.
The accident happened on the 25 September 2016.