Have you ever wondered what happens to a superyacht after it dies? What’s the process in the aftermath of a fire? DMARGE spoke to a luxury yacht manager to get the lowdown.

Fires are now rare on boats. This is thanks to the sophisticated alarm systems that now exist (which mean that fires don’t end up getting out of control as often as they once did). For this reason, fires come in at number 10 on Yachting & Boating world’s list of the most common boat insurance claims (behind more frequent issues like theft, collision with underwater object, collision with another vessel and sinking).

However, although boat fires are rare, when they happen they can totally anihilate a boat (or superyacht). A boat fire can occur due to myriad reasons. Electrical faults, explosions, a billionaire passing out on the helipad with a cigar in hand after a 48 hour Mykonos bender, you name it…

Fires can cause enormous damage to a vessel – and particularly when it comes to superyachts, the costs can be immense to put the boat right (or it could even result in a write-off, depending on how bad the damage has been, and where the fire takes place).

Various superyachts have been burnt to the water this past year, making headlines all over the world. The beautiful multi-million dollar 27 metre Sanlorenzo SX88, for instance, was turned into ‘crispy paella’ in Valencia in April after a blaze reportedly began due to a fault from the lithium batteries.

The yacht, which was carrying about 8,000 litres of fuel, and which weighed about 82 tonnes, was left semi-sunk by the destruction caused by the blaze (fire fighters came to put out the fire, but in the end were unable to stop it, settling instead for preventing it from spreading elsewhere in the marina, containing it to the…