A onetime tightrope walker turned international businessman has won almost £500,000 damages after his "bespoke" luxury yacht ran aground and sank like a stone while he holidayed in Majorca.

Brian Henry Austen, a colourful director of the Moscow and Chinese State Circuses, was at the helm of his cherished yacht - "Temptation 2" - when she went aground in July 2008.

The 60-foot vessel was "manoeuvring at slow speed" though the busy waters of the Bay of Santa Ponsa when disaster struck.

Mr Austen, 67, of Oaksey, near Malmesbury, was skippering the boat with his wife and son on board but had to abandon ship.

She sank after her hull was catastrophically breached and a team of divers had to salvage her.

Temptation 2 had only come down the slipway for the first time ten months before, but she had to be shipped back to England for repairs - costing more than £450,000.

Mr Austen claimed damages from the yacht's builders - Pearl Motor Yachts Ltd, who only make between two and six yachts each year for their clients.

He argued the vessel was not of 'reasonably satisfactory quality' being unfit for use as a luxury pleasure craft.

At the High Court, Pearl Yachts admitted that the yacht had not been built entirely to contractual specification in that part of its laminate hull was thinner than it should have been.

However, the company insisted that that had 'made no difference' and that Termptation 2 would have sunk on grounding in any event.

Mr Austen's barrister, James Wathey, described parts of the yacht's hull as "perilously thin".

And now Mr Justice Eder has come down in Mr Austen's favour, ruling that, had the hull been of the correct thickness, it would not have fractured as it did.

He awarded the businessman and the yacht's co-owner, Michael Austen, most of the cost of the repairs, as well as damages for loss of use of the yacht and other losses.

The total pay-out came to about £490,000.

Mr Austen, who has been dubbed the "Mr Big of British circus" in show circles, has forged a career both as a gifted entrepreneur and big top impresario.

He ran away with Count Lazard's Anglo American Circus at the age of 15 before acquiring a variety of exotic circus skills - including wire-walking, knife throwing and bare-back riding.

Along with more conventional business interests, he has been linked to a number of UK and international circuses - in particular the Chinese and Moscow State.