The leading Italian luxury yacht builder, Benetti, has released an official update on the 56-metre FB261 yacht, damaged in fire at Benetti’s shipyard in Italy’s Livorno, on August 20, 2013.

Benetti superyacht FB261 after the intervention of fire fighters of Livorno - Photo credit to Vigili del Fuoco Livorno

“The sense of responsibility and the passion of the Benetti team, will make us learning from such an extreme case and reinforce the team commitment, to continue to build as we did in the last 140 years beautiful Benetti’s sailing worldwide,” stated by Vincenzo Poerio Azimut Benetti Megayacht division CEO.

The cause likely depends on three exceptional circumstances:

1. A massive electrical storm affected Tuscany and in particular Livorno’s area that night;

2. The protection against extraordinary electrical shocks, including thunder storms in operation when a yacht is in commissioning, was not yet armed;

3. No one was sleeping on board that night and could hear the alarms.

Benetti has immediately taken drastic measures to avoid any other extreme case like this may happen in the future.

Superyacht FB261 will be taken out of the water and completed in a short time.