Superyacht chef dies after falling into French Riviera harbour on night out

A superyacht’s head chef has tragically drowned after a night out drinking with fellow crew members, a coroner has found.

Flinn Sessions, from Wimborne, Dorset, had been working on the Atlantico for two months when he died. An inquest in Bournemouth heard the yacht was moored at La Ciotat, near Marseille in France, on 9 June 2023.

Mr Sessions had visited several bars with his colleagues, as well as workers from other boats.

The 22-year-old had been seen to have drunk several beers and shots of alcohol.

At one point, his friends asked the waiter not to serve him any more drinks and he also knocked some glasses off a table, Coroner Brendan Allen told the hearing.

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Mr Allen added that CCTV footage from the early hours of the morning showed Mr Sessions, who was alone at the time leaning on a bollard on the quayside.

He then fell into the water and was seen to swim to the back of the yacht.

Mr Allen said that Mr Sessions was found dead in the water in the morning and post-mortem examinations in France and the UK both found that he died of drowning.

Mr Allen recorded a conclusion that Mr Sessions’s death was the result of an accident.

“While socialising with friends and colleagues, he had consumed a considerable amount of alcohol,” Mr Allen said.

“On returning to the Atlantico in the early hours of 9th June, he fell into the water from the quayside and sadly drowned.

“From the fact the CCTV clearly shows Flinn was alone at the time he suffered the fall from the quayside, he wasn’t suffering any ill health and this was clearly not something he intended to happen, Flinn died as the consequence of an accident so that will be the conclusion that I will record.”