Dramatic moment £15million British superyacht smashes into boats in Portofino harbour ‘due to gear malfunction’

THIS is the moment a British registered yacht brought chaos to a swanky Med port as it bungled its attempt to leave and reversed into several boats.

The £15 million superyacht Tales was trying to leave the marina at Portofino on the Italian Riviera when it spectacularly misjudged its route and ploughed into more than half a dozen boats.

Bystanders watched open mouthed as the back of the yacht sent them crashing into each other causing several thousands pounds worth of damage.

In the video, shot from a cliff top overlooking the harbour, grey tenders and harbour master boats can be seen frantically speeding towards the 175ft yacht to try and warn the captain.

Tales, which is described as a ''pedigree yacht of exceptional quality'' on web sites has six cabins and is thought to cost £200,000 a week to charter.

A spokesman for the harbour master at Portofino told The Sun on Sunday: ''There was an incident with a British registered yacht called Tales. At the time there was a party of eight onboard, as well as 12 crew members.

''After it had raised its anchor and was on its way out the caption could not disengage the gears and it continued sailing backwards, hitting the boats.

''We have spoken too the captain and the crew and have also obtained CCTV footage of the incident. No-one was hurt and there was no environmental impact.''

The footage was posted online on Facebook to a local Portofino website and holidaymaker Ben Edney wrote: ''That was the boat we were waiting on to come out so we could take their berth.

Dunno what happened but I'm guessing something malfunctioned to get like that.

''It's pretty much a straight shot out off the dock in normal circumstances.

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