NEWSUp to £1.6m in damages for skipper03/01/2023Save articleA professional yacht skipper could receive up to £1.6m in damages after he was hit on the head by a 10kg steel pulley on a multi-millionaire’s superyacht.SHOW FULLSCREENAdam Prior was the skipper on board the Eleonora EAdam Prior says he had to give up a life at sea after he was struck in the face by the pulley during a race off the Isle of Wight in July 2015 on board the Eleonora E.The pulley first got stuck on some metal sheeting and then slipped free.Mr Prior, 40, sued Peras Ltd, the company which owns the boat, for £3.2m, claiming he suffered brain damage and blaming unsafe weather and lack of maintenance on the rigging for his accident.The company denied all blame and disputed the amount of compensation claimed – stating that Mr Prior was ‘the author of his own misfortune’.After a four-day trial at the High Court in London, Judge Richard Davison ruled that both Mr Prior and the ship’s owners were equally to blame. The amount of compensation is to be assessed but is set to be reduced by 50% due to Mr Prior’s own negligence.The judge said the yacht’s owners provided unsafe equipment in the shape of a metal rod attached to the 10kg pulley block.The metal sheeting was found to serve no practical purpose and was a cause of the accident as it could make the block stick in a way that was ‘foreseeably dangerous’.However, the judge also said Mr Prior was equally negligent as he crossed through the ‘danger triangle’, area of the ship – where there was extensive rigging and heavy blocks running free.The judge was told Mr Prior crossed by the shortest and most direct route, however there were safer routes that could have been taken.Mr Prior also failed to crouch or check the blocks were out of the way before moving across.The court was told that Mr Prior suffered brain damage causing long-term problems with fatigue and reduced concentration which meant he was no longer able to work on yachts.Mr Prior claimed the wind was gusting up to 30 knots on the day of the accident – a claim denied by the defence – and Eleonora E shouldn’t have been racing.However the judge stated the wind had played no part in the accident.Eleonora E was launched in 2000 and is a replica of the transatlantic schooner Westward.TopicsEleonora EIndustry NewsRegattaSchoonerSuperyacht

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