9th October 2020
Multimillion-dollar superyacht sinks after devastating fire.
Lady MM = Total Loss
The call came in around 6am requesting assistance due to a fire on board. A helicopter and 2 SAR patrol boats were deployed to help aid the vessel but by the time they reached her location, all passengers had abandoned ship in a tender.
There was a total of 17 guests on board Lady MM when the fire erupted. The eight guests were Kazakstan nationals, and the other nine were crew members. All are believed to have made it to shore safely after being escorted by the coast guard team.
Going by the video footage from the helicopter, it is no wonder the occupants fled for safety, as the superstructure succumbed to the flames. The fire completely engulfed the yacht, and the irreversible damage caused her to sink into a watery grave.
There is no word yet on how the fire broke out or how it managed to get so out of control, sending her disappearing into the depths of the Med, but investigations will be taking place to ascertain the cause of this complete and utter devastation.
Lady MM was built in 2003 as part of the ISA 470 series, at the Italian shipyard ISA Yachts. Her first name was April Fool, but this fire was certainly no April Fools! Her exterior was designed by Walter Franchini Architetto, who is also responsible for the exterior of Aquamarina which we recently published an article about. Click here to see Aquamarina with her striking blue hull, and her grand interior! Whereas Aquamarina’s interior was designed by Cristiano Gatto Design, Lady MM’s interior was designed by Janet Leroy.
The only other yacht that Janet Leroy has designed is Samadhi, a 61m Feadship that was built in 2006. Samadhi was delivered to the original owner of Lady MM, Sanford Weill. (Luckily Samadhi is still in operation!) Lady MM was believed to have been first named April Fool because Weill had met his wife on 1st April 1955. Weill sold April Fool (Lady MM) for €17.5 million back in 2006 and has since had several different names, including 360! You can see the 2019 asking price of the similar yacht Aquamarina on our previous article.
There has been some speculation about the current owner of Lady MM, where some reports indicated that she was being used by Kanat Assaubayev, the Chairman at Altyn PLC, in the industry of metals and mining. A clue leading to this speculation was that the yachts most recent name, Lady MM, was a dedication to Assaubayev’s late wife Marusya Maralovna, who passed away in 2015.
