The yacht lost her keel in the Atlantic Ocean about 720 nautical miles (1,330 km; 830 mi) southeast of Nova Scotia, Canada, and subsequently capsized.

They were laminated into the keel, and put through the outer hull, the matrix, and a steel washer, and then secured with nuts.

Cheeki Rafiki had participated in the Antigua Sailing Week event in spring 2014 and was supposed to return to Southampton, England afterwards, to be available as charter yacht the following season.

During the voyage, the skipper exchanged emails with the director of Stormforce over satellite phone, especially about route suggestions and weather reports.

[1] On May 17, more than 24 hours after the last contact with the ship, the container vessel Maersk Kure identified Cheeki Rafiki's hull, upside-down.

[2] The accident resulted in heated discussion amongst yachtsmen over the safety of sailboats and particularly over the construction and dimensioning of the connection between keel and hull, which had obviously failed in this case, but is of utmost importance for a sailing vessel.

There were speculations whether the shipyard had fallen below the margins for required hull stability to cut costs as a measure to win customers in the highly competitive market for affordable yachts.

The accident investigation report points out though, that it's unclear whether the ship was even allowed to set to sea under applicable laws.

The latter was overdue, but the operator was intending to postpone the inspection until the boat was back in England, so that he could avoid the costs of having to fly an inspector to the Caribbean.

[1] The investigation report then tries to evaluate why the keel actually separated, even though technically, computationally and based on the weather at the place of incident there was no obvious reason for this.

So the MAIB had to find their conclusions from the few pictures of the rescue crews, the history of the boat and reports from sister ships.

[1] The report concludes that the most probable cause for the accident was a failure of the glued link between the "matrix" (inner skeleton) and the outer hull.

[8] The jury at Winchester Crown Court acquitted Innes of manslaughter, but they did find him and the company guilty of unsafe operation of the vessel and of failing to fulfill the requirements of the Merchant Shipping Act.