A CANADIAN billionaire is to be asked to tighten up safety procedures on his luxury yacht following the death of a Windermere deckhand.

Assistant Coroner for Cumbria Alan Sharpe is to write to fashion entrepreneur Lawrence Stroll asking him to review his procedures around boat access, working hours and record keeping on his £65m superyacht Faith.

The remarks came at an inquest into the death of Michael Hanlon, who died while working on board the boat.

Mr Hanlon was just weeks into his dream job working as a deckhand on Faith when he drowned while it was docked in southern France two years ago.

Serious concerns about procedures were raised at the inquest into the 22-year-old’s death after it emerged he was locked out of the 62-metre yacht, popular with celebrities, upon returning from a night out with friends. 

It heard he may have slipped to his death from the boat while trying to climb up to an ‘unofficial emergency entrance’ on the upper deck.

The hearing heard claims from his family that he was ‘overworked’ from long shifts in the days leading up to his death.

Mr Sharpe recorded a verdict of accidental death and will now write to Mr Stroll regarding safety procedure.

Afterwards the family said: “The circumstances in which Michael died are still not clear and its obvious there are lessons to be learned by the industry, its governing bodies, officers and crews. 

“The marine industry has such resources at its disposal that it should not have to compromise the safety of its crew. Life is sacrosanct and there is no excuse for ignoring the governing body regulations.

“The coroner will be making recommendations to the boat owners and other maritime agencies about potential future procedural changes to protect anyone and everyone that operate at sea within this sometimes dangerous and unpredictable environment.”

During the seven-hour long inquest, Mrs Hanlon said her son had worked two night shifts immediately before his death.

The boat was sailing from the Caribbean across the Atlantic to the seaside town of Antibes and Mr Hanlon had only slept for around two hours before being woken to prepare the yacht for arrival, the hearing was told.

It was intended to go on to collect Catherine Zeta-Jones and her husband Michael Douglas before taking them the short distance to Cannes Film Festival.

“I understand that the boat has to be pristine on arrival but that cannot be at the cost of your crew,” said Mrs Hanlon.

Captain Lars van Dinther came under questioning from Mr Hanlon’s father Bob about the protocol for keeping records of crew member’s work and rest hours.

The skipper admitted he was unaware of the hours that Mr Hanlon had worked in the week before he died but added: “I have no concerns over the procedure on getting on the boat at night.”

He said there was a coded locker with a spare key to gain entry and that crew members can also ring a bell, wake up the captain or watch officer or wait at the crew door for another member to let him in.

“The door on the upper deck would have been a poor choice and wasn’t an agreement I knew about,” said captain van Dinther.

The hearing was shown CCTV footage from the marina, known as Millionaire’s Quay.

Exhausted from a gruelling work schedule, it showed Mr Hanlon returning to the boat alone after meeting friends at around 11.30pm on Saturday April 6 2013.

However the boat was locked and he was seen to be walking around the decks for around 45 minutes.

A statement was read out from the watchman who said all doors were locked at 10pm.

The exact circumstances as to how he ended up in the water are unclear but the family believe he fell while trying to climb up to a door on the sun deck which was ‘common knowledge’ among the crew.

Although Mr Hanlon had been drinking alcohol, Mr Sharpe ruled out that it played a part in his death.

The accident is believed to have happened shortly after midnight. His body was discovered by divers on Monday afternoon.

Mrs Hanlon claimed the family felt manipulated by the French authorities to agree a version of events to allow his body to be released.

“They suggested he had gone and sat on top of the deck to have a cigarette, was tired and had fallen in,” she said. “That was the line of enquiry they wanted us to follow. If we didn’t go along with that version we wouldn’t be allowed to fly him home.

“We would have agreed to anything because we were in such a state of shock.”

She said it was not until an autopsy showed injuries to his hand that the family became convinced he was awake when he fell and had tried to soften the fall.

Crucial footage of a fisherman who it is believed heard a splash was not released for the inquest despite attempts to gain the footage from the coroner’s office.

Mr Sharpe added the investigation was limited because he was in the hands of the French authorities.

“It is likely that tiredness did contribute to the fall whether that be failing to appreciate the danger he was in or he took a false step at some point,” he said.

“There are many other matters which would have meant Michael was still alive today. If he had a key, if there was a night-watchman, if he had returned with another crew member.”

A video was shown to the court of Mr Hanlon’s love of life and Mrs Hanlon described him as ‘funny, witty and a charmer.’

“We saw him grow from our bouncy little boy into a responsible young chap with a lot of skills and technical ability and responsibility,” she said.

The talented sailor was working on the luxury vessel as part of his degree with the UK Sailing Academy (UKSA).

Since his death, tens of thousands of pounds has been raised in Mr Hanlon’s memory to fund scholarships at UKSA.