British teenager dies after falling from mast of luxury yacht in Jamaica

Thursday, 16 March 2017

Bethany Smith, 18, has died after falling off the mast of a luxury yacht while it was berthed near Portland, Jamaica. The young lady had been working on the yacht for over a year as a junior deckhand until that fateful Tuesday when she had an unfortunate accident and died in hospital as a result of her injuries.
The teenager is originally from Glyn-Dyfrdwy, Denbighshire, North Wales, UK but she left a decade ago to sail around the world with her family on their yacht. More than a year ago, she fell in love with a Germania Nova yacht in Trinidad and decided to join in. She was enthusiastic about working on the yacht and blogged about her experience seeing the world on the Germania Nova. Her blog's motto was "Live life for today, you never know what tomorrow will bring".

The news of her death was confirmed by Niall Robinson, partner at Hill Robinson Yacht Management which charters the Germania Nova. He said: "We are desperately sad to confirm that a tragic accident has occurred on Germania Nova leading to the fatality of a crew member. The crew member’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 under way"

Bethany's family are all in different parts of the world. Her mother, Sarah, is in Trinidad, her father, Dave, is in the Netherlands and her brother, Bryn, is in Antigua. A GoFundMe page has been set up to raise more than £9,000 to help alleviate part of the financial stress so that they wouldn't have to worry about the cost of coming together for Bethany's burial.

She has been described as "a generous person and a ray of sunshine who brought laughter and music into the lives of those she met".