Sailor's widow files suit against US sailboat manufacturer
By IBI Magazine
Linda Stone, widow of a Texas sailor who drowned last month after the keel fell off his sailboat, filed a lawsuit last week against the boat's builder, Cape Fear Yachts. Stone has also filed suit against a Galveston, Texas boatyard that fixed the keel after it ran aground. Roger Stone died on June 6 after helping two students escape from the capsizing sailboat 10 hours after the start of a race from Galveston, Texas to Veracruz, Mexico. Linda Stone told the Houston Chronicle that the main purpose of the lawsuit is to find out why the keel failed and prevent it from happening again on other boats. "Accidents happen, but this wasn't God doing it," Stone said at a news conference in her lawyer's office. "It wasn't 'Roger's time'. Somebody fouled up. Keels don't fall off boats. They should be built so they don't fall off. We don't want anyone else to be hurt." The lawsuit names Cape Fear Yacht Works, boat designer Bruce Marek and Payco Marine, and Galveston Yacht Service. The last two clients performed repairs on the boat after a hard grounding in 2007. The lawsuit alleges that the design and manufacture of the boat were defective and the repairs done to fix the leaking keel inadequate. Stone's attorney told the paper that Cape Fear Yacht Works declined to provide drawings and other data detailing the boat's design and manufacturing process. Steven Grubbs, Cape Fear's attorney, told the paper that his client decided to withhold detailed information from Stone and her attorney after it became clear they were going to file the lawsuit. "Their implication is that we are hiding things and hampering the investigation, which is not true," Grubbs told the paper. "We have been very open and cooperative with the Coast Guard since day one." Grubbs said Cape Fear has assembled a "dream team" of marine experts to look at the design and construction of the boat and the damaged vessel. Boat designer Marek and Kent Mitchell, who owns Cape Fear, told the paper in earlier interviews that the likely cause of the keel failure was the damage that had been inflicted during several grounding incidents. They said the company was not asked to inspect the boat either before or after repairs were done. Payco Marine's owner, Herschel Payne, declined to comment on the lawsuit. Payne had told the paper in a previous interview his company reattached the keel but did not bring in experts to evaluate the overall condition of the boat. He added that he did not like the design of the keel attachment. Fifteen core samples of the boat have been sent to a Florida laboratory for analysis. The lawsuit does not specify monetary damages.
(14 July 2008)
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