Sport Yacht Fire in Syracuse Sicily

A sport yacht of about nineteen meters in length went ablaze on the night early morning of 29 May at approximately 00:44 hours at the Marina Yachting marina, located in the natural harbor of Syracuse, in the Eastern Ionian coast of Sicily.  Upon reports of the fire the Syracuse Coast Guard and the Fire Fighting squad dispatched two boats; CP323 and a fire fighting tug boat, with other units coming from the land side to control the fire.  The fire left one of the marina staff needing medical assistance for toxicity, caused by smoke inhaling from trying to turn off the flames.  The sport yacht sank two hours later, with the harbor Coast Guard starting the procedure to protect the area from environmental damage.  The sport yacht was reported as being on charter, with the cause of the fire having unconfirmed reports that it started from exploding batteries.

The nineteen meter sport yacht in this fire looks a Sessa C68, designed by Christian Grande and released in 2010.  The C68 offers interior layouts for three or four double cabins plus a crew cabin for two.  The C68 is powered by twin Volvo 900 or 1000hp engines with IPS pod drives and is able to reach top speeds up to 36 knots, although the first hulls which precede the large IPS drives where powered by twin Volvo 700hp with IPS and or Man 1360hp and line shaft propulsion.  The Sessa C68 was modernized in 2018 with window glazing replacing the circle shaped port holes.  A Sport Fly version presented as a project in 2013 never actually materialized. The C68 was replaced as Sessa's flagship by the slightly larger, and wider Fly 68 Gullwing in 2018.