Yesterday Niall Robinson one of the founding partners in Yacht Management company Hill Robinson issued a statement to the press which read
We are desperately sad to confirm that a tragic accident has occurred on Germania Nova leading to the fatality of a crewmember.
The crewmember’s next of kin have been informed and our thoughts are with the family, friends and fellow crew members at this very difficult time. Hill Robinson and the Owners are doing everything possible to support the family and friends and of course an immediate investigation is already underway.
We request the courtesy of privacy for her family and all those affected.
Today we can report the crew member who died was British teenage sailor and that she was killed after falling from the mast of 60 metre schooner.
Eighteen year old Bethany Smith, from Wales, died in hospital from multiple injuries following the accident on Tuesday while the yacht lay in Portland, Jamaica
The Welsh teenager, from Glyn-Dyfrdwy in Denbighshire, left the UK with her family to sail around the world with her family ten years ago. She loved the life so much she decided upon a career at sea in superyachts and joined Germania Nova as a junior deckhand for more than a year.
She was described as a “generous person” and “a ray of sunshine who brought laughter and music into the lives of those she met”.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help her family with funeral costs and more than £9,000 has been raised.
The teenager’s mother, Sarah, is in Trinidad, her father Dave is in the Netherlands and her brother Bryn is in Antigua, the page states.
Niall Robinson, said, “Hill Robinson and the owners are doing everything possible to support the family and friends and of course an immediate investigation is already under way.”
