'It went rogue': Royal Navy drone boat crashes into £400k luxury yacht in Portsmouth harbour and damages her
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Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage was caused
A Royal Navy drone boat crashed into a racing yacht and caused thousands of pounds worth of damage.
The Rattler-class vessel collided with Lutine - a £400,000 luxury vessel - in Portsmouth Harbour. Describing the incident, one source told The News: “It just shows a bit of a risk with these unmanned ribs. The collision regulations could come under pressure.
“You could imagine that if it happened to a smaller boat, it could have sunk it. It might have to go out of the water for two to three weeks for repairs.”
Lutine is operated by the Lloyd’s of London Sailing Club. The ship is currently being repaired at Hamble Point Marina, with work on the stern end of her starboard side. She is being kept in the off-limits area of the marina.
The X-55 yacht was involved in the crash with a rigid inflatable drone, codenamed the Rattler 4, earlier this month. A harbour source told The Sun that the un-crewed vessel “went rogue” and crashed into the ship, which was under sail and had right of way at the time.
Both vessels were severely damaged but were still seaworthy. The national publication said repairs to Lutine will cost thousands of pounds. Rattler-class ships have been seen regularly in and around Portsmouth Harbour. They are produced by SYOS in Fareham.
Various trials have been conducted by the Royal Navy so sailors can get to grips with controlling autonomous vessels. The force is pushing to become a hybrid force, where conventional warships will operate alongside drone boats, and un-crewed subsurface vessels and aircraft.
The vessels are supposed to stay 650ft away from commercial ships. They are currently being used by the Fleet Experimentation Squadron. KHM Portsmouth has issued several notices to other mariners about such trials. In them, they said the un-crewed surface vessels (USVs) comply with International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, and they would be aborted “if a close-quarters situation” develops.
A Royal Navy spokesperson told The Sun: “We are investigating an incident which occurred between a Royal Navy Rattler craft and a civilian yacht during a controlled training exercise in an area within Portsmouth Harbour.”
Guy Williams, commodore of Lloyd’s Yacht Cub, added: “We can confirm the incident occurred but have nothing else to add.”