A luxury yacht worth nearly $1 million sank off the coast of Zonguldak, in northern Turkey’s Eregli district, just 15 minutes into its maiden voyage earlier this week. The 85-foot vessel, named Dolce Vento, had only recently been built at the Med Yilmaz Shipyard, according to Superyacht Times. As the yacht began to take on the sea and tilt, panic broke out among the passengers and crew. Everyone aboard, including the ship’s owner and captain, abandoned the vessel and jumped into the sea, The New York Times reported. The now-viral video shows the yacht’s owner swimming back to shore after the incident. All passengers on board made it safely to land without injury, the report added. Watch here: Brand new $1M luxury yacht tips over and sinks just minutes after launching — forcing crew to jump overboard pic.twitter.com/o7hMghIKVw — New York Post (@nypost) September 3, 2025 With over a million views, the video ignited a flurry of reactions as many users questioned the cost of the yacht. "Look how tiny that hull is when it's out of the water! What a terrible design. I'm no shipbuilder, but I could have told you that wasn't going to work," a user wrote. "If a yacht that size only cost $1M, then that explains why it sunk," another user commented. "If that yacht was brand new and valued at $1M , then they got what they paid for. Maybe $10M?"a third user reacted. "Gen Z, building yachts now," a fourth user said. The exact cause of the sinking remains unclear. Officials from the shipyard have announced that technical inspections will be conducted to determine what went wrong, the New York Post reported. The incident comes just weeks after another maritime mishap in the US, where a fishing boat carrying 11 passengers began to sink off Pier 1 in Sheepshead Bay. That incident required a swift rescue by the NYPD Harbor Unit.
