UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 6, 2025: Halit Yukay was laid to rest today in Istanbul. The 43-year-old was positively identified days after the Turkish Coast Guard discovered a body it believed might be his off the coast of Erdek, Turkey on August 23. Yukay’s body was in about 223 feet (68 meters) of water, near where the collision with the cargo ship occurred on August 4. Poor weather conditions initially prevented retrieving his body from the seafloor.
“This is my boating dream,” Yukay had said about establishing Mazu Yachts. Growing up in Istalbul, he fell in love with yachting at an early age. In fact, he began designing boats at the tender age of six, preferring to do that versus concentrate on his studies. Yukay moved to Florida when he was just 18 years old, with help from his family, and studied industrial design and yacht design. After moving back home, he worked for several builders, none of which afforded him the opportunity to design. “At that point, I said, ‘maybe it is the best that I have my own shipyard,'” Yukay remembered. Mazu Yachts opened its doors in 2011, when Yukay was just 29 years old. Every yacht since day one has originated from his drawings.
Mazu Yachts is continuing operations, and continuing to build his designs. Read on for our original story.
Halit Yukay, the founder and owner of the Turkish superyacht builder Mazu Yachts, went missing following an apparent collision between his boat and a cargo ship on August 4. The cargo ship’s captain is facing charges of causing death by negligence.
Turkish media initially reported Yukay missing on August 5. Subsequently, the Balıkesir Governorate’s office in the city of Balikesir, Turkey, confirmed the reports. According to a statement from that office, Yukay departed a marina in Yalova, Turkey, on the eastern side of the Marmara Sea, midafternoon on August 4. He was aboard his boat Graywolf, heading to Bozcaada, a Turkish island in the Aegean Sea. Family members contacted the emergency call center at 11:40 pm, indicating they hadn’t heard from him. Search and rescue personnel from the Coast Guard Southern Marmara Group Command therefore deployed.
Notably, the governorate’s office indicates, on August 5, a cargo ship off the coast of Turanköy in Balıkesir, Turkey, contacted the Coast Guard. The captain of the ship, Arel 7, reported seeing semi-submerged portions of a boat in the water. The Coast Guard dispatched units to the scene, including divers, who found no signs of Yukay. They did, though, confirm the wreckage was of Graywolf.
As the search continued today, the governate’s office says a tip came in about the ship captain, and that the Coast Guard had evidence of a collision. The Turkish newspaper Milliyet reports that the captain testified in court that he “suddenly felt a tremor.” He added, “I couldn’t understand it. I looked in front of me, and there were two pieces to my left and right.” Believing them to be wood, he piloted the ship through them. He notified the vessel’s company representative but not the Coast Guard, despite returning to the site before continuing onward. “In my state of mind at that moment, I couldn’t think,” he said. “I didn’t see or guess it was a boat because it was adrift in the middle of the sea and had nothing to do with us. There was no collision. We would have heard the sound; we would have noticed it.”
The judge released the captain with travel restrictions, under suspicion of causing death by negligence. Milliyet also reports that the Coast Guard discovered marks on the front of the ship, which anchored off Yalova. The investigation is continuing, with the Marmara public prosecutor’s office in charge. Recovered portions of Graywolf were taken to shore for further examination.
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