Simon Cowell ‘rescues’ sinking yacht passengers in St Tropez

Media mogul Simon Cowell proved the old sea adage that ‘yachts always look out for one another,’ earlier this week.

According to reports, the star of TV’s X Factor sent his superyacht’s tender vessel to rescue a crew stranded off the coast near Saint-Tropez, earlier this week.

The 52-year-old impresario was sailing along the French Riviera with his ex-girlfriend, 1980s pop star Sinitta, when he received a May Day message from a sinking boat.  

But it was an SOS signal from an altogether more unlikely source which brought the sinking of the yacht international attention: a post on Sinitta’s Twitter feed.

The British-American singer tweeted: “OMG!! Just had a May Day message, 35ft boat sinking… SC [Cowell] has sent us to help and rescue nine people on board!”

Sinitta posted on her Twitter that the sinking superyacht was a “Slipstream look alike boat,” in reference to Simon Cowell’s own sleek 196ft (60m) vessel.

Slipstream, which was built in 2009 at France’s CMN Shipyard, is available to charter in the Caribbean via yacht agent Burgess at high and low rates of €343,000 or €315,000.

Both Cowell and Sinitta are well-experienced in the superyacht lifestyle. Some media reports claim that Sinitta was aboard Cowell’s tender during the rescue.

The singer posted another message roughly an hour after her first tweet: “Everyone OK, no-one hurt. Captain won't let boat sink, petrol in sea etc would cause major problems and fines. No tide, so hole plugged.”

This isn’t the first time that Simon Cowell, who is placed 10th in Forbes' Highest-Paid Celebrities list with an estimated worth of £57m, has made headlines during his August superyacht break in Saint-Tropez.

David Walliams, Cowell’s co-star from the UK reality show Britain's Got Talent, drew media attention earlier this month when he mooned at Cowell from aboard Elton John’s superyacht.

For further information about chartering Slipstream visit, www.burgessyachts.com