Thanks for visiting our team fundraising page.
5 years ago, at the end of the last day of the Monaco boat show, we received a call saying there had been a boat crash the previous evening and our gorgeous William, who was Bosun on super yacht Burrasca, was missing, presumed dead. Many friends at the time wanted to help and raise money in his name but to be honest it has taken this long to think clearly about being able to do this. We now are doing something positive in his name within the maritime industry in which William found a home for his spirit of adventure.
We are setting up a bursary with the UKSA ( the sailing academy where William trained) to fund new sailors who otherwise might not be able to enter the industry. This is a way for Wills name to live on and give back to the industry he so loved.
If you would like to support Wills cause in any way, we have set up a Justgiving page and an account to start raising money - so if you are running a marathon, doing a cycle or would like to do anything in his name we would love your support. We will be doing the first money raising get together around his birthday in July this year, in Ripley (where we have his bench). We can all get together, laugh, remember, listen to good music and start talking about how we can do positive things for our lovely boy. I will let you know more details nearer the time, but hopefully we can start making this an annual event in his name.
On anther note there were so many factors around his accident we were horrified by and now feel we have to address.
We received the phone call from his captain advising us of Wills accident, and that the Air Sea Rescue had been called off. We made arrangements to fly out but upon arriving in Monaco on the Tuesday, discovered that the Burrasca had already left the port, having deposited Wills belongings with the local police. This meant that we never saw the boat he was working on, met with the Captain or crew he worked with, in fact we never heard from them again. The boat was taken out of European waters by the owners so they couldn't be held accountable for anything to do with the accident, and subsequently put up for sale. We later found out none of the crew was insured by the boat- as if none of their lives mattered and that Wills death was an inconvenience. We know we can't hope to battle with Russian billionaires who could drag a court case out over years, but after hearing about similar horrific accidents that could possibly have been avoided if there were stricter marine laws and talking to the families affected, we want to join with them and raise awareness about the fact that the lack of care for human life is not acceptable and needs to change.
Following the inquest into Wills accident, we suspect that the tender (rib) that he was driving on his way back to SY Burrasca, must have been hit by the swell from another tender ahead, that was being driven at speed (this can be seen on the CCTV). This must have knocked him off the boat and he fell into the water, either knocking himself unconscious or breaking his neck. Either way it would have been instantaneous. The boat then kept going and crashed into a moored boat. However the fact there was no life jacket being worn and the kill chord switch had been disabled (under order of the boat presumably to save time - the kill chord stops the boat if the driver takes his hand off the wheel) meant the divers searching for Will at the crash site never found his body. If a life jacket had been worn, then in the worst case we would have been able to find his body and have to chance to bring him home and bury him and, best case scenario, if he had only been knocked unconscious we'd still have him with us. Either way safety of crew is such an important issue and one which we can't let go. Those of you who knew Wills huge personality and love of life know how devastated this left us all - here's to doing something wonderful in his name.
Please use the following hashtags when posting anything about this
#willbiggestheartwidestsmile
#crewsafetycounts
#crewWILLBsafe
We've joined together to raise money in Willaims name for charity UKSA. You'll see our team fundraising target on the right. Your donation can really help us smash this goal
Remember: Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never share them with anyone or send you unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. They'll make sure Gift Aid (an additional 25%) is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer, too. That means more money goes to the charity, faster, with JustGiving.
