Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen, left, with Coach Pete Carroll. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) 
 
 UPDATE 3:01 P.M. 
 
 Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc. issued a statement to GeekWire saying that the yacht’s crew was directed to anchor in the designated area and moved the ship when it found out something could be amiss: 
 
 “Media reports are greatly exaggerated and the investigation by the local authorities is continuing. The local port authority had directed the Tatoosh to anchor in a designated area, and the crew moved the vessel, on its own accord, as soon as it learned from local divers that there might be a problem. The crew is cooperating fully with the local authorities in this matter.” 
 
 ORIGINAL POST 
 
 As one does when you’re the co-founder of Microsoft and owner of the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers, Paul Allen owns a big yacht — the Tatoosh, which at 303 feet long long is the 49th largest in the world, according to BoatInternational.com. The yacht, described as “a model of understated luxury” in those big-yacht rankings, is manned by a crew of 30 and has two helipads, because you never know when you’ll need a spare. 
 
 And now it appears that Allen’s big yacht has him in big trouble in the Cayman Islands, where officials have accused him of wrecking a high percentage of a protected coral reef. 
 
 Paul Allen’s superyacht Tatoosh damages coral reef in the Caymen Islands https://t.co/gDVBcdCGam pic.twitter.com/QQNLkYTAVf via SUPERYACHTS.… — SuperYachts News (@superyachts_) January 27, 2016 
 
 Yacht & Boating World has the story: 
 
 The Department of Environment has accused the Microsoft co-founder of having caused serious damage to the protected coral reef in the West Bay replenishing zone. Following an inspection by local divers to assess the damage, officials have found that Allen’s 300 ft yacht MV Tatoosh wrecked a high percentage of the coral, which is essential for marine’s life. It is thought that the accident was caused by a yacht’s chain when it was anchored by the Doc Poulson shipwreck and The Knife dive site. 
 
 According to the Cayman News Service, the yacht’s anchor chain destroyed close to 14,000 square feet — three-tenths of an acre — of the coral reef in question, or about 80 percent of it. Coral reefs are considered vital for marine life to flourish and help protect coastlines from big waves and tropical storms. 
 
 Officials have yet to determine if Allen was aboard the yacht when the damage occurred but his camp is blaming the Port Authority, “claiming that they followed instructions when mooring the superyacht,” Y&BW’s Stef Bottinelli reports. “Shifting winds reportedly changed the position, pushing the ship toward the reserve but it was relocated to avoid damage,” the Cayman News Service says. 
 
 The Cayman Islands Department of Environment will issue its findings next week, and Allen could incur a big fine if he’s found to be responsible (though the Cayman News Service says the government there has failed to collect on similar sanctions levied on cruise-ship lines and other megayacht owners). 
 
 With a net worth of $17.4 billion, Allen probably can foot the bill. ||||| A rescue operation has been launched to save a 29-year-old woman from Cornwall whose yacht was capsized and dismasted in a storm in the south Pacific. 
 
 Susie Goodall, from Falmouth , was taking part in the arduous Golden Globe Race – a single-handed non-stop race around the world. 
 
 Disaster struck when her yacht was wrecked 2,000 miles west of the southern tip of South America after it was pitch-poled – turned end-over-end – by a huge wave. 
 
 Coastguards in Falmouth received news of the activation of her emergency beacon and a rescue operation, coordinated by the authorities in Chile, is now under way. 
 
 Susie tweeted that she had banged her head but was otherwise uninjured. However her yacht DHL Starlight has been smashed up and she reported she was “clinging to her bunk” awaiting for rescue. 
 
 Her position is so remote that the nearest rescue vessel, a Hong Kong-registered cargo ship, was not expected to arrive at her location until two days later. The ship was expected to arrive around 5am (UK time) on Friday but will have to wait several hours for daylight. 
 
 Speaking to race HQ she said: “I have been dismasted. Thought I had holed the hull because the boat filled with water, but the hull is NOT holed. The hull is ok. The boat is destroyed. I can’t make up a jury rig. 
 
 “The only thing left is the hull and deck which remain intact. We were pitchpoled and I was thrown across the cabin and knocked out for a while.” 
 
 We will bring you updates on the rescue below. ||||| A private inspector said Saturday that he warned the company operating the duck boats that capsized on a Missouri lake about design flaws putting the watercraft at greater risk of sinking. The warning came less than a year before the accident that killed 17 people during a sudden storm. 
 
 Steve Paul, owner of the Test Drive Technologies inspection service in St. Louis, said he issued a written report for the company in August 2017. It explained why the boats' engines -- and pumps that remove water from their hulls -- might fail in inclement weather. 
 
 He also told The Associated Press that the tourist boats' canopies make them hard to escape when they sink — a concern raised by regulators after a similar sinking in Arkansas killed 13 people in 1999. 
 
 The accident Thursday evening on Table Rock Lake outside the tourist town of Branson also is raising questions about whether storm warnings in the area went unheeded and whether any agency can keep boaters off the water when inclement weather approaches. 
 
 "If you have the information that you could have rough waters or a storm coming, why ever put a boat on that water?" Paul said. 
 
 Pat Cox, who owns the State Park Marina on Table Rock Lake, called his manager Roger Carpenter just after 6 p.m. Thursday with orders to evacuate the marina. Carpenter was expecting to find people in life jackets floating in the water. What he encountered was very different. 
 
 "All we seen was empty life jackets and empty life rings and I mean, your heart just drops," he said. "It's a shame. It's a crying shame." 
 
 A witness' video of the duck boat just before it capsized suggests that its flexible plastic windows might have been closed and could have trapped passengers as the hybrid boat-truck went down. It does not show passengers jumping clear. 
 
 "The biggest problem with a duck when it sinks is that canopy," Paul said. "That canopy becomes what I'll call a people catcher, and people can't get out from under that canopy." 
 
 A spokeswoman for Ripley Entertainment, the company operating the duck boats in Branson, did not respond Saturday to telephone and email messages seeking comment. Spokeswoman Suzanne Smagala has noted that Thursday's accident was the only one in more than 40 years of operation. 
 
 An archived version of Ripley's website said it operates 20 duck boats in Branson and described them as "built from the ground up under United States Coast Guard (USCG) supervision with the latest in marine safety." 
 
 In central Wisconsin, Original Wisconsin Ducks in the Dells has no plans to change how it operates after 73 years of safe rides, general manager Dan Gavinski said. But his company operates World War II-vintage boats, not the modified modern version. 
 
 Since 1999, duck boats have been linked to the deaths of more than 40 people, with a troubled safety record on the road and water alike. Their height can obscure cars, pedestrians or bicycles from a driver's view, and maintenance problems can be severe. 
 
 Paul said he won't know until the boat that sand is recovered from the lake whether it's one of the two dozen he inspected for Ripley Entertainment in August 2017. He declined to share a copy of his report with The Associated Press but said he said he is willing to make it available to authorities. 
 
 "I'm sure eventually it will be subpoenaed," he said. 
 
 Paul said the duck boats he inspected -- which the company had just purchased or repaired -- vented exhaust from the motor out front and below the water line. He said in rough conditions, water could get into the exhaust system, and then into the motor, cutting it off. With the motor off, he said, its pump for removing water from the hull would not operate. 
 
 "If you watch that video, that water is definitely being slammed up into that exhaust without a doubt," Paul said. 
 
 After the deadly sinking in Arkansas in 1999, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended doing away with the canopies and adding more floatation capacity so duck boats could remain upright and keep floating even if they took on water. 
 
 The industry took little heed, said Robert Mongeluzzi, a Philadelphia attorney who has represented victims of duck boat crashes. The canopies can protect customers from rain or sun, he noted, and closed windows allow companies to heat the cabins, extending operating hours. 
 
 The NTSB called the industry's response to the recommendations disappointing, saying companies cited the cost of engineering and installing additional flotation capacity as prohibitive. 
 
 "The duck boat is notoriously unstable and unsuited for what they were attempting to do with it," said Daniel Rose, an attorney whose New York-based law firm has represented victims in several accidents. "It tries to be a boat and a car and does neither, really, except under ideal circumstances." 
 
 State officials said the Coast Guard regulates such craft; its officials did not immediately respond to requests for more information. Spokesmen said the Department of Transportation doesn't regulate duck boats because they're amphibious, and the Department of Public Safety doesn't in this case because it's a commercial vessel, as opposed to a recreational one. 
 
 It's also not clear that any agency had the authority to keep boats off the lake. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built it in the late 1950s, but its officials said they don't have such authority. 
 
 Witnesses have said the weather appeared calm before a storm suddenly whipped up strong waves and spray. But nearly eight hours earlier, the National Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the western and central Missouri counties. 
 
 A severe thunderstorm warning that went out at 6:32 p.m. specifically mentioned Table Rock Lake. The first emergency calls over the accident occurred just after 7 p.m. 
 
 Meteorologist Elisa Raffa of KOLR-TV in Springfield said in a phone interview Saturday that her station was forecasting the threat of severe weather all morning. 
 
 "This storm didn't come out of nowhere," she said. "That is what pains me. I feel like we did everything, at least we tried to do everything, by the book as meteorologists and we still had this horrible tragedy on our hands."
– Millions of dollars went into the drink, if not down the drain, Sunday night as a yacht worth at least $10 million capsized as it was being delivered to its owner in Washington state's Puget Sound. As KIRO TV and the Skagit Valley Herald report, some five or six crew members employed by the yacht's builder were putting the boat into shallow waters in Anacortes when it immediately began to tilt. Several attempted to adjust the ballast in the engine room of the Bäden, but without success. The engine room began to flood, and one man had to be removed through a port hole that rescuers chopped out with an ax. A spokesman for yacht builder Northern Marine, which will have to bear the cost of the salvage, tells the Herald that the ship took two and a half years to build. It's likely a lot of effort and money wasted: The 85-foot fiberglass hull is expected to be salvageable, but "everything inside is toast—everything. Nothing's made to be submerged in salt water." The owner of the yacht was not identified. Maritime website gCaptain notes that the Bäden was, per an engineering firm employed by the builder, "lighter than other Northern Marine builds of similar length, thus requiring more ballast to sit on a desired waterline." The firm advised final ballasting take place at launch, but exactly why the yacht capsized is unclear. The US Coast Guard will investigate. (Click for another unusual story involving a yacht ... and Louis CK.)