When the alarm went off on his Lagoon 42 one night, James ‘Ted’ Rutledge found water in the starboard hull. According to his account to the the Australian broadcaster ABC The glass panel of an emergency exit hatch had come loose. Water was pouring into the boat through the opening. The 70-year-old Canadian was travelling alone, around 1,000 kilometres east-southeast of Christmas Island.
Rescue from the dinghy
Rutledge abandoned the catamaran and made his way to safety in the dinghy. According to his account, his life raft was already submerged and no longer usable. As two agreed messages to his family failed to materialise, his brother alerted the Australian Maritime Search and Rescue Service. A search aircraft located the partially submerged catamaran and Rutledge in the dinghy. The crew dropped him a life raft containing a radio, water and provisions. He was subsequently picked up by an Australian Navy helicopter and taken aboard the ‘HMAS Supply’. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) documented the operation on 6 September 2026. We had heard about the rescue as reported back in early September, before the owner provided details of the water ingress.
Luke secured following a call-back
Rutledge told ABC that the hatch in question had been retrofitted in Panama following a recall. It is not clear from his account whether, or how, the retention system failed in this specific instance. Nor is it clear how old the hatch was or what condition it was in prior to the accident.
The recall relates to a known fault: on certain permanently fitted Goiot emergency escape hatches, the glazing bonded to the frame may come loose. Lagoon explains in its Notice regarding the Goiot recall, that retaining devices have been retrofitted since 2019. These are designed to secure the windscreen should it come loose and to reduce the risk of water ingress. The notice relates to Lagoon catamarans built between 2007 and 2019 that are fitted with these devices.
A an older article from 2023 describes another catamaran sinking linked to faulty emergency exit hatches. It remains to be seen what conclusions can be drawn from this in relation to the current incident.
As early as spring In 2025, YACHT reported There was also a case of a damaged Lagoon 42, which had also capsized in the Caribbean due to a faulty emergency hatch. Together with the current case, this brings the total to three total losses, all of which were caused by the same factor.
Lagoon also draws attention to a separate maintenance specification from Goiot: the hatches in question are to be replaced after ten years, even if the retention system has been fitted. Retrofitting therefore does not extend the service life of the hatch. It is not known whether this age limit was a factor in the case of Rutledge’s boat. For owners of affected catamarans, this raises two questions: Was the recall carried out, and when were the hatches last replaced?
Have you checked the recall campaign and the age of the emergency exit hatches on your catamaran? Please share your experiences in the comments.
Michael Rinck
Redakteur Test & Technik
