Could this be Wendi Deng Murdoch’s revenge, or just a case of son Lachie being a rotten skipper? 

US media reports say Rupert Murdoch is recuperating from a serious back injury suffered in a sailing accident aboard son Lachie’s tub just after New Year in the Caribbean (where it was sunny and warm, unlike freezing New York). Lachlan Murdoch’s yacht, Sarissa, is more than 42 metres long and reportedly cost $50 million.

Vanity Fair reported that the 86-year-old was hurt while holidaying on the yacht and ended up in hospital. The exact nature of the injury is not yet known.

The incident comes as 21st Century Fox is in the midst of a planned $US52.4 billion sale of film and television assets to Disney, and more recently amid rumours that former wife Wendi could be a Chinese spy.

Murdoch clearly hasn’t learned much, nautically speaking, from boat ownership. He sold his 184-footer Rosehearty US$30 million in 2013 just three months after divorcing Deng Murdoch. Their wedding was held on board another yacht, Morning Glory in 1999 (which he promptly sold to Italian pantsman Silvio Berlusconi), and his 78-foot Sayonara won the Sydney to Hobart in 1995 and 1998, so you’d think he would know something by now about messing around in boats and ducking when the boom swings or the wind shifts.