yatch or yacht meaning

Definition of 'yacht'

yacht in British English

Yacht in american english, examples of 'yacht' in a sentence yacht, trends of yacht.

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• a vessel used for private cruising, racing, or other noncommercial purposes.

verb (used without object)

• to sail, voyage, or race in a yacht.
• a vessel propelled by sail or power, used esp for pleasure cruising, racing, etc
• short for sand yacht ice yacht
• intr to sail or cruise in a yacht

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Other words from.

• yachty adjective
• super·yacht noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of yacht 1

Compare Meanings

How does yacht compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• yacht vs. sailboat

Example Sentences

As City News explained it, the bribes were paid not only in cash but through rugs, antiques, furniture, yacht club fees, boat repairs and more.

In Ashburn, Snyder is always lurking in spirit, even if he is on his 305-foot yacht somewhere in the Aegean.

Driving across country in a gigantic land yacht—with its crushed-velour seats and faux wood siding—was more practical than a two-door hot rod.

Host Jason Moore chats with experts who share tips harvested from their real-life experiences, such as a couple who paid off their $70,000 debt to travel full time and a woman who left her corporate job to work on a yacht.

Until Thursday, when federal agents escorted him off a 150-foot yacht moored in Long Island Sound, the word often used to describe Steve Bannon was “irrelevant.”

Instead the money allegedly was spent on luxury cars and a yacht club membership, among other things.

Loeb owns a $100 million penthouse on Central Park West and a $50 million yacht.

Solaire has set up charging capabilities at a project it built at a yacht club in Massachusetts, for example.

On my way back into town, I walked by the fortress of tents surrounding the harbor, readying for the yacht show.

Newly-minted Londoner, Lindsay Lohan, is currently chilling out on a yacht in Italy.

I heard her say to one of the servants once that my father had been lost on a yacht, and that he was oh, ever such a handsome man.

He owned a 54-ton yacht named the Opal, and attributed the wonderful health he enjoyed to his numerous sea voyages.

Another yacht had started from the old boathouse at about the time our friends and their new-fangled craft got under way.

Caermarthen ordered out his wonderful yacht, and hastened to complain to the King, who was then at Loo.

The yacht had long turned the head of the island and was beating down alongshore in the eastern bay.

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Definition of yacht noun from the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

Etymology [ edit ]

Circa 1557; variant of yaught , earlier yeaghe ( “ light, fast-sailing ship ” ) , from Dutch jacht ( “ yacht; hunt ” ) , in older spelling jaght(e) , short for jaghtschip ( “ light sailing vessel, fast pirate ship ” , literally “ pursuit ship ” ) , compound of jacht and schip ( “ ship ” ) .

In the 16th century the Dutch built light, fast ships to chase the ships of pirates and smugglers from the coast. The ship was introduced to England in 1660 when the Dutch East India Company presented one to King Charles II, who used it as a pleasure boat, after which it was copied by British shipbuilders as a pleasure craft for wealthy gentlemen.

Pronunciation [ edit ]

• ( UK ) enPR : yŏt , IPA ( key ) : /jɒt/
• ( US ) enPR : yät , IPA ( key ) : /jɑːt/ , /jɑt/
• Rhymes: -ɒt

Noun [ edit ]

yacht ( plural yachts )

• 1897 December (indicated as 1898 ), Winston Churchill , chapter X, in The Celebrity: An Episode , New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company ; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd. , →OCLC : The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.
• 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers , chapter VI, in The Younger Set , New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company , →OCLC : “I don’t mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera,   [ … ] , the chlorotic squatters on huge yachts ,   [ … ] , the neurotic victims of mental cirrhosis, the jewelled animals whose moral code is the code of the barnyard—!"

Derived terms [ edit ]

• motor yacht , motoryacht , MY
• sailing yacht , steam yacht , SY
• yacht person

Translations [ edit ]

Verb [ edit ].

yacht ( third-person singular simple present yachts , present participle yachting , simple past and past participle yachted )

• ( intransitive ) To sail , voyage , or race in a yacht .

Anagrams [ edit ]

• Cathy , tachy , tachy- , yatch

French [ edit ]

Borrowed from English yacht , from Dutch jacht .

• IPA ( key ) : /jɔt/ , /jot/ , ( Canada ) /jat/

yacht   m ( plural yachts )

Further reading [ edit ]

• “ yacht ”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [ Digitized Treasury of the French Language ] , 2012 .

Italian [ edit ]

Unadapted borrowing from English yacht .

• IPA ( key ) : /ˈjɔt/ [1]
• Rhymes: -ɔt

yacht   m ( invariable )

• the letter Y in the Italian spelling alphabet

References [ edit ]

• ^ yacht in Luciano Canepari , Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)
• yacht in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line , Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Norman [ edit ]

Borrowed from English yacht .

yacht   ? ( plural yachts )

• ( Jersey ) yacht

Norwegian Bokmål [ edit ]

From Dutch jacht , via English yacht .

yacht   m ( definite singular yachten , indefinite plural yachter , definite plural yachtene )

• “yacht” in The Bokmål Dictionary .

Norwegian Nynorsk [ edit ]

yacht   m ( definite singular yachten , indefinite plural yachtar , definite plural yachtane )

• “yacht” in The Nynorsk Dictionary .

Swedish [ edit ]

Alternative forms [ edit ].

yacht   c

Declension [ edit ]

• yacht in Svenska Akademiens ordlista ( SAOL )
• yacht in Svensk ordbok ( SO )
• yacht in Svenska Akademiens ordbok ( SAOB )

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What does the noun yacht mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun yacht . See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

How common is the noun yacht ?

How is the noun yacht pronounced, british english, u.s. english, where does the noun yacht come from.

Earliest known use

The earliest known use of the noun yacht is in the late 1500s.

OED's earliest evidence for yacht is from before 1584, in the writing of S. Borough.

yacht is a borrowing from Dutch.

Etymons: Dutch jaght(e .

Nearby entries

• yabber, v. 1841–
• yabbering, n. 1839–
• yabble, n. 1827–
• yabble, v. 1808–
• yabbler, n. 1901–
• yabby, n. 1887–
• yabby, v. 1941–
• yabbying, n. 1934–
• yabu, n. 1753–
• yacca, n. 1843–
• yacht, n. a1584–
• yacht, v. 1836–
• yacht basin, n. 1929–
• yacht broker, n. 1882–
• yachtdom, n. 1901–
• yachter, n. 1828–
• yachtery, n. 1861–
• yachtian, n. 1842–
• yachtie, n. 1874–
• yachting, n. 1836–
• yachting, adj. 1847–

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Meaning & use

Pronunciation, compounds & derived words, entry history for yacht, n..

yacht, n. was first published in 1921; not yet revised.

yacht, n. was last modified in July 2023.

Revision of the OED is a long-term project. Entries in oed.com which have not been revised may include:

• corrections and revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
• new senses, phrases, and quotations which have been added in subsequent print and online updates.

Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into yacht, n. in July 2023.

Earlier versions of this entry were published in:

OED First Edition (1921)

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OED Second Edition (1989)

• View yacht, n. in OED Second Edition

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Definition of yatch

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Cite this entry.

“Yatch.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/yatch. Accessed 2 May. 2024.

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Definition of yacht – Learner’s Dictionary

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(Definition of yacht from the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

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a name someone uses instead of their real name, especially on a written work

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Boat vs. Ship vs Yacht: What’s the Difference?

Language is a tricky thing, and picking out the differences between similar terms can be confusing. This is especially true when some of the definitions overlap. This is the case with the case of boat vs. ship vs. yacht . What’s the difference? We know in our gut that there are differences between these three seafaring vessels, but unless you’re a harbor master do you really know what counts as what?

Let’s get into some definitions, and we’re going to start with the easiest to explain: What is a yacht? What is a ship? And what is a boat?

Yacht vs. Ship vs. Boat

What is a yacht.

A yacht, I think everyone would agree, is fancier than a ship or a boat. “Yacht” infers some amount of luxury , and definitely recreation. There’s also something to be said about size. A yacht tends to be anywhere between 35 feet up to 160 feet. And some yachts, known as superyachts, go even beyond that. (Jeff Bezos just built a 417 foot yacht, but that’s really breaking yacht records.)

Because of the size, yachts tend to operate in larger bodies of water–generally the ocean. Yachts are able to handle rougher ocean waves, and they are also equipped with more advanced navigation and guidance instruments than smaller boats. Likewise, a yacht tends to have a full crew to help with the navigation, engineering, repairs, as well as having stewards that serve the yacht’s guests. This can be anywhere from a crew of four or five up to a crew of a few dozen on large yachts. 

One interesting thing to note is that outside of the United States, a yacht refers to a sailboat , and a motorized yacht is called a “motor yacht”. 

So, is a yacht a boat? Yes, technically a yacht is a boat. But a yacht is a very specific kind of boat.

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What is a Ship?

The term ship is most commonly associated with a very large boat, and something that is not as fancy as a yacht (one exception is that cruise ships can still be very fancy, but are referred to as ships because of their size and power.)

Ships are generally so large that they would never be found in a lake, with some exceptions for the Great Lakes, and are made for navigating the high seas of the open ocean. An ship can refer to a cruise ship, a naval ship, a tanker, a container ship, and many other commercial vessels.

Ships tend to have advanced navigation and technology, but much more advanced than that of a yacht due to the size, the speed, and the routes that a ship will take. They are meant to be traversing the open ocean for very long periods of time, from one continent to the next, while a yacht may only rarely set across the ocean and most often stays somewhat near land. 

A ship will also have a much larger crew than a yacht or a boat. Ships are typically so large that they need not only one trained navigator but a set of navigators, plus an entire engineering team, and includes many more positions. 

Finally, a ship is meant to carry things. This may be passengers, yes (in reference to cruise ships and some navy ships) but most ships are for carrying cargo–or even carrying equipment to do work on other ships including repair work or refueling. 

What is a Boat?

Well, a boat is harder to define, because a yacht is technically a boat, and a ship is technically a boat. But when people refer to boats, they are almost always referring to something smaller than either a yacht or a ship. Boats may be motorized, like a speed boat, or they may sail, or they may be man-powered, like a rowboat or a kayak. Really, anything up to and including a liferaft, can be called a boat.

(As a side note that will just muddy the waters even further, submarine captains are adamant that their subs are boats. They are not ships.)

So, Boat vs. Ship Vs. Yacht?

Ultimately it comes down to this: all three of them are boats, but yachts are fancier, larger, and used for recreation, and ships are even larger, used commercially or by the navy, and are meant to cross oceans. The dividing line is sometimes thin, but generally speaking, when it comes to boats vs. ships.vs. yachts you can go by the adage “ I know it when I see it .”

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Yacht definitions: What is a yacht? And does it need to have sails?

• Top stories

By far the most common question we get asked here at Motor Boat & Yachting is ‘how can you call that a yacht if it doesn’t have sails?’ Here we explain why a boat doesn’t need sails to be called a yacht...

What’s in a name? Quite a lot if you’re a yacht! Not only are the names of yachts a source of endless amusement, but by defining your boat as a yacht in the first place, you’re setting up certain expectations.

Yacht definitions: A brief history

Whilst boating for fun dates back to Ancient Egypt and possibly even further than that, the word yacht comes from the Dutch ‘jachtschip’, which means hunting ship. Jachts were originally a class of sailboat used in the 16th century to hunt down enemies of the Dutch Republic.

However by the 19th century the term ‘yachting’ had developed to mean recreational boating in general, and with the advent of steam boats, sails were no longer the only method of propulsion available to Victorian yachtsmen.

Article continues below…

World’s largest superyacht: Everything you need to know about 183m REV

Hemingway’s boat reborn: how pilar was recreated in meticulous detail, recommended videos for you.

In the early 20th century (1904 to be precise), our humble magazine was launched under its original title The Motor Boat , but by the 1950s the ‘& Yachting’ suffix had been added to refer to the general pastime enjoyed by motorboat owners. We even reviewed the occasional motorsailer for those who liked to enjoy the benefits of both power and sail.

Today’s Motor Boat & Yachting is dedicated purely to powered leisure vessels from 25-125ft with the occasional foray above and below that when interest dictates. Current editor Hugo Andreae insists that he is ‘terminology agnostic’ saying, “I’m not bothered whether people refer to their boats as yachts, cruisers, power boats or gin palaces just so long as they enjoy using them. But for the record my 22ft Karnic is definitely a gigayacht!”

Editor Hugo’s Karnic 2250 is his family’s pride and joy, but should it be called a yacht?

What makes a yacht, a yacht?

Some would argue that a yacht has to have sails, and as we’ve seen, that was originally the case, but we here at Motor Boat & Yachting beg to differ, as its common to refer to large motorboats as motoryachts, superyachts or even megayachts without any expectation that they would have sails.

Others assert that a yacht should have to have a cabin in order for it to be fully considered a yacht, or that it has to measure at least 10m in length. If that’s the case then some longer narrowboats could be technically considered as yachts, although you’d be hard pushed to find anyone who agrees with that definition.

The final test for something to be considered a yacht is harder to pin down, but it is generally accepted that all yachts have to have a certain aesthetic or architectural appeal in order to earn this haughty moniker.

The advent of internal combustion in the 19th Century allowed motor yachts, like this fine example from Camper & Nicholsons, to be launched. Photo: Getty Images

Whether a boat is worthy of being called a yacht is clearly subjective, but there’s one thing we won’t budge over – it certainly doesn’t have to have sails!

If it’s sailing yachts specifically that you’re interested in, you won’t find many of them here, but we can heartily recommend our sister titles Yachting Monthly and Yachting World , who know much more about them than we do.

Bigger yacht definitions: Superyacht, megayacht or gigayacht?

Beyond the simple term yacht, there are a few other yacht definitions worth clarifying. The most commonly used of which is superyacht .

The debate still rages over what constitutes a superyacht. Any pleasure yacht with a load line length of 24m or more (not length overall or waterline length as is often misquoted) and a gross tonnage of 80GT is classified as a Large Yacht under MCA coding rules, causing a number of additional regulations to kick in, most crucially the requirement for the skipper to hold a commercially endorsed Yachtmaster Offshore Certificate. This is the closest thing to a technical definition of a superyacht.

At 180m Azzam is currently the largest yacht in the world, but an 183m gigayacht called REV is currently under construction in Norway. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

However, while this used to mean most leisure boats with an overall length (LOA) of 80ft or more fell into the Large Yacht category, yards have become so adept at designing bigger boats with a load line length of just under 24m that many craft with an LOA of 90ft or more still count as regular pleasure vessels.

For that reason some people prefer to use the simpler definition of a superyacht being any privately owned vessel with an LOA of 100ft or more. Even then some would argue that a true superyacht should be a custom built yacht of at least 35m or 120ft.

Such is the inflationary pressure on yacht sizes and terminology that the term superyacht itself has begun to lose currency among the yachting elite. Owners of craft over 50m now use the term megayacht to categorise their larger vessels, while the lesser-spotted gigayacht is reserved for yachts over 100m.

Fewer than 100 gigayachts have been built to date, making this the rarest of rare breeds. That said with the world’s largest yacht now measuring over 183m, it’s surely only a matter of time before the 200m mark will be broken and yet another term will be needed. Got any suggestions? Drop us an e-mail: [email protected]

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Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard California scuba boat

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in Los Angeles on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in prison and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.

The  Sept. 2, 2019, blaze  was the deadliest maritime disaster in recent U.S. history, and prompted changes to maritime regulations, congressional reform and several ongoing lawsuits.

Captain Jerry Boylan was found guilty of one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer last year. The charge is a pre-Civil War statute colloquially known as seaman’s manslaughter. It was designed to hold steamboat captains and crew responsible for maritime disasters.

Family members pleaded with U.S. District Judge George Wu to give Boylan the maximum 10-year sentence in an impassioned hearing. Many cried, and Robert Kurtz, father of the sole deckhand killed, Alexandra Kurtz, brought a small container with him up to the lectern to address Boylan and the court.

“This is all I have of my daughter,” he said.

Yadira Alvarez is the mother of 16-year-old Berenice Felipe, who volunteered at an animal shelter and dreamed of becoming a marine biologist, and was the youngest of the 34 victims killed on the boat.

“He’s not a victim. He is responsible for my daughter not being here,” Alvarez said, while sobbing in court. “Can you imagine my pain?”

The Conception was anchored off Santa Cruz Island, 25 miles south of Santa Barbara, when it caught fire before dawn on the final day of a three-day excursion, sinking less than 100 feet from shore.

Thirty-three passengers and a crew member died, trapped in a bunkroom below deck. Among the dead were the  deckhand, who had landed her dream job ; an environmental scientist who conducted research in Antarctica; a globe-trotting couple; a Singaporean data scientist; and a family of three sisters, their father and his wife.

Boylan was the first to abandon ship and jump overboard. Four crew members who joined him also survived.

During the hearing, Boylan’s attorney read a statement aloud to the court in which he expressed his condolences and said he has cried every day since the fire.

“I wish I could have brought everyone home safe,” the statement said. “I am so sorry.”

In determining a sentence, Wu said he took into account Boylan’s age, health, the unlikelihood of recurrence and the need for deterrence and punishment.

He said while Boylan’s behavior was reckless, the guidelines for sentencing would not warrant a 10-year sentence.

“This is not a situation where the defendant intended to do something bad,” Wu said.

The defense had asked the judge to sentence Boylan to a five-year probationary sentence, with three years to be served under house arrest.

Boylan’s appeal is ongoing.

Hank Garcia, whose son Daniel was among the victims, said he is not a vengeful person but he and other family members don’t want something like this to ever happen again.

“We all have a life sentence,” he told the court. “We are having a life sentence without these people that we love.”

U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement: “While today’s sentence cannot fully heal their wounds, we hope that our efforts to hold this defendant criminally accountable brings some measure of healing to the families.”

Thursday’s sentencing was the final step in a fraught prosecution that’s lasted nearly five years and repeatedly frustrated the victims’ families.

A grand jury in 2020 initially indicted Boylan on 34 counts of seaman’s manslaughter, meaning he could have faced a total of 340 years behind bars. Boylan’s attorneys argued the deaths were the result of a single incident and not separate crimes, so prosecutors got a superseding indictment charging Boylan with only one count.

In 2022, Wu dismissed the superseding indictment, saying it  failed to specify  that Boylan acted with gross negligence. Prosecutors were then forced to  go before a grand jury again.

Although the exact cause of the blaze aboard the Conception remains undetermined, the prosecutors and defense sought to assign blame throughout the 10-day trial last year.

The government said Boylan failed to post the required roving night watch and never properly trained his crew in firefighting. The lack of the roving watch meant the fire was able to spread undetected across the 75-foot (23-meter) boat.

But Boylan’s attorneys sought to pin blame on  Glen Fritzler , who, with his wife, owns Truth Aquatics Inc., which operated the Conception and two other scuba dive boats, often around the Channel Islands. They argued that Fritzler was responsible for  failing to train the crew in firefighting  and other safety measures, as well as creating a lax seafaring culture they called “the Fritzler way,” in which no captain who worked for him posted a roving watch.

The Fritzlers have not spoken publicly about the tragedy since an interview with a local TV station a few days after the fire. Their attorneys have never responded to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

With the conclusion of the criminal case, attention now turns to several ongoing lawsuits.

Three days after the fire,  Truth Aquatics filed suit  under a pre-Civil War provision of maritime law that allows it to limit its liability to the value of the remains of the boat, which was a total loss. The time-tested legal maneuver has been successfully employed by the owners of the Titanic and other vessels, and requires the Fritzlers to show they were not at fault.

That case is pending, as well as others filed by victims’ families against the Coast Guard for what they allege was lax enforcement of the roving watch requirement.

After the sentencing Thursday, Susana Solano, who lost three of her daughters and their father on the boat, said she and the other family members hoped the judge would listen to their pleas.

“I’m extremely disappointed,” she said. “It’s just heartwrenching.”

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California boat captain sentenced to four years over fire that killed 34

Jerry Boylan found guilty over 2019 incident in which Conception caught fire before dawn and sank off Santa Cruz Island

A California scuba dive boat captain has been sentenced to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence over an onboard fire that killed 34 people four years ago.

The blaze was the deadliest maritime disaster in recent US history, and prompted changes to maritime regulations, congressional reform and several lawsuits.

Captain Jerry Boylan was found guilty of one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer last year. The charge is a pre-civil war statute colloquially known as seaman’s manslaughter . It was designed to hold steamboat captains and crew responsible for maritime disasters.

Boylan’s appeal is continuing. He faced up to 10 years behind bars.

The defense had asked the federal judge to sentence Boylan to a five-year probationary sentence, with three years to be served under house arrest.

“While the loss of life here is staggering, there can be no dispute that Mr Boylan did not intend for anyone to die,” his attorneys wrote in a sentencing memo. “Indeed, Mr Boylan lives with significant grief, remorse, and trauma as a result of the deaths of his passengers and crew.”

The disaster occurred in September 2019 when the boat, the Conception, was anchored off Santa Cruz Island, 25 miles (40km) south of Santa Barbara. The vessel caught fire before dawn on the final day of a three-day excursion, sinking less than 100ft (30m) from shore.

Thirty-three passengers and a crew member died, trapped in a bunkroom below deck. Among the dead were the deckhand who had landed her dream job; an environmental scientist who conducted research in Antarctica; a globe-trotting couple; a Singaporean data scientist; and a family of three sisters, their father and his wife.

Boylan was the first to abandon ship and jump overboard. Four crew members who joined him also survived.

Thursday’s sentencing was the final step in a fraught prosecution that has lasted nearly five years and repeatedly frustrated the victims’ families.

A grand jury in 2020 initially indicted Boylan on 34 counts of seaman’s manslaughter, meaning he could have faced a total of 340 years behind bars. Boylan’s attorneys argued the deaths were the result of a single incident and not separate crimes, so prosecutors got a superseding indictment charging Boylan with only one count.

In 2022, US district judge George Wu dismissed the superseding indictment, saying it failed to specify that Boylan acted with gross negligence. Prosecutors were then forced to go before a grand jury again.

Although the exact cause of the fire aboard the Conception remains undetermined, the prosecutors and defense sought to assign blame throughout the 10-day trial last year.

The government said Boylan failed to post the required roving night watch and never properly trained his crew in firefighting. The lack of the roving watch meant the fire was able to spread undetected across the 75ft (23 meter) boat.

But Boylan’s attorneys sought to pin blame on Glen Fritzler, who with his wife owns Truth Aquatics, which operated the Conception and two other scuba dive boats, often around the Channel Islands. They argued that Fritzler was responsible for failing to train the crew in firefighting and other safety measures, as well as creating a lax seafaring culture they called “the Fritzler way”, in which no captain who worked for him posted a roving watch.

The Fritzlers have not spoken publicly about the tragedy since an interview with a local TV station a few days after the fire. Their attorneys have never responded to requests for comment from the Associated Press.

With the conclusion of the criminal case, attention now turns to several ongoing lawsuits.

Three days after the fire, Truth Aquatics filed suit under a pre civil-war provision of maritime law that allows it to limit its liability to the value of the remains of the boat, which was a total loss. The time-tested legal maneuver has been successfully employed by the owners of the Titanic and other vessels, and requires the Fritzlers to show they were not at fault.

That case is pending, as well as others filed by victims’ families against the Coast Guard for what they allege was lax enforcement of the roving watch requirement.

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Courtney pushes to restore submarine build rate after proposed cut

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A bipartisan coalition of more than 100 lawmakers is “deeply concerned” about a proposed cut to the procurement of Virginia-class submarines manufactured in large part by Groton-based Electric Boat and supported by suppliers in Connecticut.

But U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, who has played a key role on these issues for nearly two decades, said Congress has been in this boat before — and has successfully fended off changes to build rates.

He is making a similar push following the Pentagon’s budget request that reduces the number from two to one nuclear-powered submarine for fiscal year 2025 and cuts spending by $2.6 billion.

Federal lawmakers confronted the same issue in 2013 with former President Barack Obama as well with former President Donald Trump’s budget proposal released in 2020. In both years, they revived the two-per-year rate for Virginia-class despite threats of cuts.

[RELATED: CT Dems push back on Pentagon plan to cut submarine production]

At a Wednesday hearing with Navy officials before the House Armed Services Committee, Courtney said they will again fight to restore the current cadence that earned him the nickname “Two-Sub Joe” when he first came to Congress.

“We are going to work really hard with your team to try and accomplish that goal. We’ve done it in the past. We did it in 2013 when the Obama administration eliminated a submarine and then 2020 when the Trump administration eliminated a submarine,” said Courtney, who is the ranking member of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee. “We … stepped forward and filled that gap, and it’s a good thing we did.”

Ahead of the hearing, Courtney signed a letter, along with 119 other lawmakers, urging House appropriators to keep a “consistent” production schedule to maintain stability for shipyards.

“Unfortunately, our attack submarine fleet experiences significant shortfalls and is projected to decline to just 47 boats in 2030 — a 19 boat deficit from the 66 attack submarine requirement,” the letter states . “While the FY25 budget request includes substantial investments in the nationwide submarine industrial base, there is no alternative to stabilize the supply chain other than consistent procurement of two Virginia Class submarines in FY 2025.”

Members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation have raised concerns about the proposal and what it would mean if implemented for Electric Boat as well as the smaller suppliers around the state.

They also warned about the potential ramifications on the security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. As part of AUKUS, Australia will initially buy three Virginia-class subs from the U.S., but the first transfer is not expected to happen until the early 2030s.

The submarine industry plays a major role in Connecticut’s defense sector and economy, especially in the southeastern part of the state, represented by Courtney.

Electric Boat locations in Groton and Quonset Point in Rhode Island handle much of the Virginia-class shipbuilding, along with Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia.

But a combination of disruptions has put a strain on the U.S. submarine industry and procurement, including the pandemic, supply chain issues and a workforce that is aging and retiring. Companies like Electric Boat are hiring to fill those gaps and add to the ranks as production grows over the next decade.

Lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee pressed Navy leadership on Wednesday about the reasoning behind the cuts, their commitment to the Navy’s 30-year shipbuilding plan for 66 attack submarines and support for smaller suppliers.

Courtney asked Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro about the supply chain companies that would be “left out” and would not benefit from the proposed investments in advanced procurement meant to bolster the supplier industrial base and submarine industry.

“Regarding specifically to these vendors, we’re in constant contact with these vendors. The purpose of advanced procurement money, however, isn’t to fully fund all the vendors that are in the supply chain,” Del Toro said. “It’s to fund those vendors that are most critical to the supply chain. I don’t think there’s ever been a confirmation that we can support, you know, full funding of all the vendors across the entire spectrum.”

Del Toro and others within the department said they remain committed to the shipbuilding plan to have 66 attack submarines in the service’s fleet. He said there are currently 50 submarines with nearly a dozen under construction and an additional four under contract. But 19 boats will be decommissioned in the coming years.

Mike McCord, the comptroller of the U.S. Department of Defense, was asked at a March briefing about whether the decision to cut a Virginia-class sub was made because of spending caps negotiated in Congress for the current fiscal year or issues with production cadence and delivery schedule. He said it was the latter.

“Virginia-class, to be clear, was trying to get to a better, more healthy dynamic where we can get to the two-submarine-a-year production rate, and we thought that going a different direction was our best move in that case,” McCord said, noting that boats that are supposed to be delivered this year were months behind.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Navy officials largely cited the budget constraints that were passed by Congress when negotiating to lift the debt ceiling last year.

“In response to the very difficult negotiations that were done around the debt limit, that forced our hand this year to be able to have to remove that one submarine in a situation where it simply could not be delivered by the shipyards,” Del Toro said.

But members on the House Armed Services Committee said the changes make it difficult for companies to maintain and grow their workforce and keep up with the demanding shipbuilding pace.

“We can blame it on money, we can blame it on budgets, but for the last three years, we’ve asked to give away more ships than we’re bringing,” U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly, R-Miss., said.

“We have to send a constant message that we’re going to continue because we will never get our workforce in place if we continue to say … we’re going to do a strategic pause on Virginia class,” Kelly added. “You’ve got to let them catch up to get on schedule.”

Even with the proposed cuts, Electric Boat does not plan on changing its hiring goals for the year. The company hired more than 5,300 people in 2023 and plans to grow its workforce with more than 5,000 hires again for 2024.

At a separate hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, Nickolas Guertin, who is the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development, and acquisition, testified that in order to meet demands for both Virginia and Columbia-class submarines, there will need to be an additional 10,000 people hired.

Guertin said they are using the recently passed federal foreign aid bill that provided $3.4 billion in additional funding  for the submarine industrial base to better meet those needs within the industry.

“We are not just failing to build in terms of planning. We are way behind right now where we should be,” U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said at Wednesday’s hearing, addressing the workforce needs of bigger companies like Electric Boat as well as the thousands of smaller suppliers. “Those numbers are a measure of the crisis that we face in submarine construction which is essential to our underseas superiority which is in turn essential to our Navy’s strength and our defense.”

The Connecticut Mirror/Connecticut Public Radio federal policy reporter position   is made possible, in part, by funding from the Robert and Margaret Patricelli Family Foundation .

Lisa Hagen Federal Policy Reporter

Lisa Hagen is CT Mirror and CT Public's shared Federal Policy Reporter. Based in Washington, D.C., she focuses on the impact of federal policy in Connecticut and covers the state’s congressional delegation. Lisa previously covered national politics and campaigns for U.S. News & World Report, The Hill and National Journal’s Hotline. She is a New Jersey native and graduate of Boston University.

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Teen among those on trash-dumpers’ boat speaks: ‘I’m sorry for whatever happened’

He says he didn’t see others doing dirty deed.

Sanela Sabovic , Reporter

Samiar Nefzi , Reporter

BOCA RATON, Fla. – One of the teenagers on the boat at the center of a viral video showing trash being illegally dumped into the waters off South Florida said he’s disturbed by what happened.

The 15-year-old asked not to be identified, but said he wasn’t one of those seen on video dumping garbage into the ocean. He said he was one of more than a dozen people on the boat at the time and didn’t notice the others who did dump the trash over the weekend, off Boca Raton.

“I was looking straight, I was in front of the boat, it’s a pretty big boat so you don’t really notice,” he said.

The teenager said he feels bad that the incident even happened to begin with.

“I completely disagree, that shouldn’t have been the choice he made, but it’s what happened,” he said. “I do feel a little remorse for him, but I feel like he deserves whatever happens because he made a really bad decision.”

“I wish I could have been off of that boat,” he added. “I’m sorry for whatever happened.”

Meanwhile, Lola Dutremble said she decided to collect garbage at sea after watching the viral video that is part of an investigation into an environmental crime off Boca Raton.

“We live in such a beautiful area; no one should be doing that,” said Dutremble, a surfing instructor, avid swimmer, and sunscreen entrepreneur.

To help spread her environmental message, Dutremble posted an Instagram video of her mission. She said she collected garbage near the dumping area at the Inlet.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is investigating.

“Our investigators are actively looking into this and we are identifying the subjects that were involved in the illegal dumping of trash in our marine environment,” FWC Officer Tyson Matthews said. “We are working closely with (prosecutors) in Palm Beach County and will determine the appropriate charges for these individuals.”

FWC officials said no arrests have been made in the case and they haven’t released the identities of the litterers.

Local 10 News is not identifying them until state officials do.

Copyright 2024 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.

About the Authors

Sanela sabovic.

Sanela Sabovic joined Local 10 News in September 2012 as an assignment editor and associate producer. In August 2015, she became a full-time reporter and fill-in traffic reporter. Sanela holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications with a concentration in radio, television and film from DePaul University.

Samiar Nefzi

Samiar Nefzi joined the Local 10 News team in August of 2023.

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Captain of Santa Barbara-Based Dive Boat that Burned and Sank, Resulting in 34 Deaths, Sentenced to 4 Years in Federal Prison

LOS ANGELES – The captain of the P/V Conception – a Santa Barbara-based dive boat that caught fire and sank near Santa Cruz Island on Labor Day in 2019, resulting in the deaths of 33 passengers and one crew member – was sentenced today to 48 months in federal prison.

Jerry Nehl Boylan, 70, of Santa Barbara, was sentenced by United States District Judge George H. Wu. A restitution hearing was scheduled for July 11.

At the conclusion of a 10-day trial, a jury found Boylan guilty in November 2023 of one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer – an offense commonly called “seaman’s manslaughter.”

The Conception was a 75-foot, wood-and-fiberglass passenger vessel that docked in Santa Barbara Harbor. During a Labor Day weekend dive trip in 2019, the boat carried 33 passengers and six crew members, including Boylan.

During the early morning hours of September 2, 2019, a fire broke out while the boat was anchored in Platt’s Harbor near Santa Cruz Island. The fire, which engulfed the boat and led to its sinking, resulted in the deaths of 34 people who had been sleeping below deck. Five crew members, including Boylan, were able to escape and survived.

“The defendant’s cowardice and repeated failures caused the horrific deaths of 34 people,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “The victims’ families will be forever devastated by this needless tragedy. While today’s sentence cannot fully heal their wounds, we hope that our efforts to hold this defendant criminally accountable brings some measure of healing to the families.”

“The fate of the victims on the Conception might have been different were it not for the negligence of the defendant,” said Mehtab Syed, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “I want to commend the collaborative effort by investigators and prosecutors that led to today’s sentence and hope that it delivers a measure of justice to the victims’ families as they continue to heal from this tragedy.”

Boylan, as captain of the Conception , committed a series of failures – including abandoning his ship instead of rescuing passengers – that resulted in the disaster. Such conduct constituted misconduct, gross negligence, and inattention to his duties and led to the deaths of 34 victims, prosecutors argued.

As the ship’s captain, Boylan was responsible for the safety and security of the vessel, its passengers, and its crew. Federal prosecutors argued he failed in his responsibilities in several ways, including by:

• failing to have a night watch or roving patrol;
• failing to conduct sufficient fire drills and crew training;
• failing to provide firefighting instructions or directions to crew members after the fire started;
• failing to use firefighting equipment, including a fire ax and fire extinguisher that were next to him in the wheelhouse, to fight the fire or attempt to rescue trapped passengers;
• failing to perform any lifesaving or firefighting activities whatsoever at the time of the fire, even though he was uninjured;
• failing to use the boat’s public address system to warn passengers and crew members about the fire; and
• becoming the first crew member to abandon ship even though 33 passengers and one crew member were still alive and trapped below deck in the vessel’s bunkroom and in need of assistance to escape.

“There are no winners when lives are lost at sea, but there is justice in bringing those accountable to answer for their crimes. Today is an example of that.” said Coast Guard Investigative Service Director, Jeremy Gauthier. “This was in its truest form, a joint effort by our hard-charging CGIS Special Agents, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.”

“The horrific tragedy on the Conception has forever changed many lives,” said Christopher Bombardiere, special agent in charge of ATF’s Los Angeles Field Division. “I want to express my deepest condolences to everyone who lost a loved one. No sentencing will ever be sufficient for the suffering you have endured, nor will it bring back your loved ones. I hope this prosecution and sentencing sends a message to other captains and this recklessness is never repeated. I want to thank our National Response Team, which investigated the cause and origin of the fire. Their dedication and skilled expertise provided much needed answers.”

The FBI, the Coast Guard Investigative Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Mark A. Williams, Matthew W. O’Brien and

Juan M. Rodríguez of the Environmental Crimes and Consumer Protection Section, Brian R. Faerstein of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section, and Alexander P. Robbins of the Criminal Appeals Section prosecuted this case.

Ciaran McEvoy Public Information Officer [email protected] (213) 894-4465

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Captain gets four-year sentence for Conception boat disaster

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Jerry Boylan, the captain of the Conception dive boat where 34 people died amid smoke and flame over Labor Day weekend in 2019, was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison for negligence that contributed to the disaster.

U.S. District Judge George Wu said he found Boylan “incredibly remorseful” and that he had not “intended to do something bad.”

The judge called it “one of the most difficult sentencings I’ve ever done” and said he was taking the 70-year-old Boylan’s age and health into account, as well as the unlikelihood that he would re-offend.

The judge also rejected the prosecution’s claim that Boylan had abandoned his ship.

Hearing those words, Boylan began to tremble and wipe away tears. He could have received up to 10 years in federal prison for his conviction on what is colloquially called seaman’s manslaughter.

The lighter sentence — and the fact that the judge is allowing Boylan to remain free until after a restitution hearing — left many of the victims’ family members furious.

“There’s no justice,” said Robert Kurtz, the father of one of the victims. “He’s not even being remanded. He’s still free.”

After a two-week trial, a federal jury in November found Boylan committed gross negligence in the deaths of the 33 passengers and one crew member who were trapped in a windowless bunk room when the boat caught fire before dawn on Sept. 2, 2019, off Santa Cruz Island.

Boylan had been a captain for 34 years but failed to appoint an overnight watch , ignoring the Certificate of Inspection requirements hanging in his own wheelhouse.

Nor did he institute adequate fire safety drills. Prosecutors argued that this left his poorly trained, panic-stricken crew effectively useless amid the fire, which possibly originated in a trash can sometime after 2:35 a.m.

As the flames spread, blocking the exits for those crowded in the bunk room below, a member of Boylan’s crew twice ran right by a 50-foot fire hose overhead. Boylan himself called in a Mayday at 3:14 a.m. and jumped overboard, which prosecutors described as abandoning ship.

But Boylan’s attorneys with the federal public defender’s office called it “an unstoppable inferno” and said there was little he could have done after waking amid the flames. His attorneys also argued that Boylan, in failing to use an overnight watch, was merely following the custom of the company that owned the boat, Truth Aquatics, and did not know that he was imperiling passengers. Prosecutors called it the “blaming your boss” defense.

Feds say captain saved himself as California boat fire killed 34. But prosecution hits a wall

Conception dive boat Captain Jerry Boylan’s criminal prosecution has become a battle over negligence on the seas.

Sept. 3, 2022

Families of the fire victims packed the ninth-floor courtroom in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday. Many came with posters of their loved ones, and some wore shirts that said “34 fearless divers” and “forever remembered.” For nearly two hours, families read victim impact statements to the judge.

Yadira Alvarez said her 16-year-old daughter, Berenice Felipe, who died on the boat, was in her last year of high school.

“Her wings were cut,” Alvarez said. As she displayed photos of her daughter on the screen, Boylan kept his head bowed. She demanded the maximum 10-year sentence for Boylan, even though “10 years for him is nothing,” adding: “He is not a victim.”

During the trial, the families endured graphic testimony about the effort to recover the bodies from the charred boat 56 feet below the surface. They watched a 24-second video, found on an iPhone recovered from the wreck, recording the victims’ last moments alive.

On the tape , voices could be heard exclaiming, “There’s got to be a way out!” and “There’s got to be more extinguishers!” and “We’re gonna die ...!”

Boylan did not testify and has remained free since his conviction. Prosecutors said he was guilty of manslaughter if his negligence caused even one of the 34 deaths.

Boylan’s lawyers, and his supporters, pleaded for leniency before the sentencing.

“There’s no way to undo this tragedy,” said defense attorney Georgina Wakefield. “Mr. Boylan is not a bad man. He wishes every day that he could go back in time and change what happened. ... I’ve never represented anybody who is as grief-stricken.”

Defense attorneys argued that none of the Truth Aquatics boats, nor any other boat in the waters off Santa Barbara, used a roving night watch at the time, and that it was unfair “to punish him for the failings of an entire industry.”

Giving Boylan a stiff prison term would not serve to deter further catastrophes like this one, the attorneys argued, since the dive boat industry has already implemented safety reforms as a result of the Conception fire.

Conception boat owner, criticized as ‘woefully underinsured,’ sells rest of fleet

Facing a flurry of lawsuits, the owner of the Conception dive boat that burned and killed 34, has sold the two remaining boats in its fleet.

March 11, 2021

Defense attorneys asked the judge to sentence Boylan to house arrest and community service, characterizing him as a man with “almost no family” whose “job was his life.” He was now an isolated 70-year-old man who sleeps 1½ hours most nights, rarely leaves home and “has been crippled with pain and guilt in the years since the accident,” according to a pre-sentencing defense memo.

The memo said Boylan, who was making a wage of around $44,000 after decades as a boat captain, now survives on Social Security and can’t afford payments on the trailer where he lives.

Baron Kelly, who worked on Boylan’s crews and considered him a mentor in seamanship, described him as among “the most conservative” of the Truth Aquatics captains, a skipper who drilled his crews in how to handle dive-related emergencies.

“I have spoken with Jerry many times since the accident and his grief is colossal,” Kelly wrote in a letter to the judge. “At one point he told me he was sleeping in his living room because his bedroom didn’t have enough emergency exits. Some days when I would reach out, he was too distraught by grief to speak at all.”

Another of Boylan’s former crew members, Shannan Johnson, described him as “one of the company’s most reliable and responsible captains.”

“Jerry is a good man. He did his best and then some,” Johnson wrote to the judge. “Yet that night the negligence was trusting that what had been safe and successful for 30 years all of a sudden wasn’t.”

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Christopher Goffard is an author and a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. He shared in the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for the paper’s Bell coverage and has twice been a Pulitzer finalist for feature writing, in 2007 and 2014. His novel “Snitch Jacket” was a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel. His book “You Will See Fire: A Search for Justice in Kenya,” based on his Times series, was published in 2011.

Brittny Mejia is a Metro reporter covering federal courts for the Los Angeles Times. Previously, she wrote narrative pieces with a strong emphasis on the Latino community and others that make up the diversity of L.A. and California. Mejia was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2021 in local reporting for her investigation with colleague Jack Dolan that exposed failures in Los Angeles County’s safety-net healthcare system that resulted in months-long wait times for patients, including some who died before getting appointments with specialists. She joined The Times in 2014.

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2 children dead, 15 people injured after vehicle crashes into building holding child's birthday party

A 66-year-old suspect was arrested at the scene, police said.

Two children are dead and 15 people were injured after a woman drove her car into a child's birthday party, Sheriff Troy Goodnough said in a press conference Saturday evening.

The two children who were pronounced dead at the scene were siblings, an 8-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy, according to police.

MORE: 5 people, including infant, injured after FedEx semitrailer rolls over bridge in New York: Officials

Around 3 p.m., a woman drove a vehicle through a wall of the Swan Boat Club in Monroe County, Michigan, coming to a stop 25 feet inside, authorities said.

First responders rendered aid to 15 victims at the scene. Nine were transported to local hospitals – either by ambulance or helicopter – with serious life-threatening injuries. Of the nine transported, three were children, and six were adults. Others at the scene were transported by private vehicle to hospitals, the sheriff said.

The 66-year-old suspect was arrested at the scene for suspicion of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, causing death and is currently being held at Monroe County Jail, according to Goodnough.

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