inside the yacht

84 Luxury Yacht Interiors: Bedroom, Galley and Salon Pictures

Posted on Published: April 13, 2022  - Last updated: June 13, 2022

A yacht is really just a luxury floating home . When you’re talking 70 feet and larger, they’re a lot nicer than my house. As you’ll see in the luxury yacht interiors below, the quality and aesthetics are simply gorgeous. And we merely feature a small handful of such boats. There are thousands and thousands of these worldwide.

Our epic yacht interiors article is split into 5 galleries:  staterooms, guest bedrooms , salons and dinettes, kitchens and bathrooms. The point of this article is to merely give you a glimpse inside these ultra expensive boats… expensive to buy, run and maintain. Be sure to also check out our yacht decks galleries .

Related: Kayak Storage Ideas | Catamaran Apartment | Craftsman Floating Home | Large Floating Home

Yacht Primary Bedrooms (Staterooms)

We kick off our yacht interiors gallery with the stateroom. When it comes to the primary bedroom on these boats, no expense is spared. They are large, comfortable and stunning in design. These bedrooms are bigger than our primary bedroom.

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Yacht Guest Bedrooms (2 Beds)

Many guest bedrooms on a yacht have two beds so that it can accommodate more people. However, they are, as you’ll see below, still very, very luxurious. These are certainly cozy sleeping quarters.

Salon and Dinette Photos

My favorite room on the boat is the salon and/or dinette area. In many cases, the dinette doubles as the living room. Mega yachts have dedicated salons and dining areas. I love these superb lounge designs below in the cabin as well as the upper lounge areas.

I must admit that kitchens on these super yachts are fairly small. I guess the cooking is done by the staff and yacht owners prefer to have more space for bedrooms, deck space and lounge space. That makes sense given there really is limited space. Nevertheless, these kitchens are gorgeous and the yacht designers certainly didn’t skimp with respect to quality.

Most boats dedicate very little space to bathrooms. Not these. The primary bathrooms below are incredible. The smaller bathrooms are guest bathrooms. These luxury yachts are so large and spacious that even the bathrooms are both beautiful and comfortable to use.

Related: Yacht Decks | Gorgeous Mega Yacht Interior Design by Mojo Stumer Associates  | Houseboats

A rare look inside Nord, the $500 million megayacht of Russia’s richest man Alexei Mordashov. The 464 feet long tuxedo donning warship has palatial interiors. For extra fun, its garage has a hovercraft, a deep-diving submarine, ATV’s, a few Toyota Land Cruisers, and more.

The video shows us first-hand the elegance and enormousness of a megayacht in the truest sense of the term. From seemingly unending corridors to well-appointed interiors and the most insane tender garage, the Nord is a massive ship that’s impressive from the word go.

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All about the $40m bayesian yacht that capsized, leaving 6 dead and 1 still missing.

The massive superyacht Bayesian that sank off the coast of Italy on Monday won numerous awards for its sleek interior design — and was sold to its original owner for nearly $40 million.

The luxury sailing ship was carrying 22 people when it capsized and sank during a fierce storm early Monday.

The bodies of five of six missing passengers, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch , 69, have been recovered. His daughter, 18-year-old Hannah, is the only one of six known killed in the tragedy yet to be found, a source close to the rescue operation told Reuters.

The ship’s chef, Recaldo Thomas, has also been confirmed dead.

Divers continued searching the wreckage of the 184-foot-long, British-flagged vessel, previously called Salute, on Wednesday after discovering four of the bodies.

When it was built in 2008, the Bayesian had the tallest aluminum mast in the world, standing at 237 feet, earning it the award for best exterior styling at the World Superyacht Awards in 2009, the Telegraph reported.

The sprawling superyacht’s interior, decorated with sleek, minimalist furnishings created by Remi Tessier, has also won numerous awards.

The ship, which accommodated 12 guests, had a master bedroom and three double and two twin bedrooms.

It also featured beige sofas, dark wood furnishings, and a teak deck equipped with a large canvas awning to keep guests cool, according to the outlet.

Some of the ship’s styling, including thin brown pillars and miniature terra cotta sculptures, was inspired by Japanese culture.

What to know after a tornado sank the yacht Bayesian off the coast of Sicily:

• A superyacht capsized off the coast of Sicily after a tornado hit the area early Monday, killing seven passengers.
• British tech tycoon Mike Lynch was identified as one of the bodies pulled from the wreckage. His teenage daughter, Hannah, was the final one to be recovered.
• Lynch — known as “Britain’s Bill Gates” — had invited guests from Clifford Chance, a legal firm that represented him, and Invoke Capital, his own company, on the voyage,  according to the Telegraph . 
• Security camera footage shot from 650 feet from where the  Bayesian sank Monday  shows it disappearing.
• A rare and unexpected “black swan” weather event may have led to the  Bayesian’s speedy demise , maritime experts say.

The extravagant ship won best interior at the International Superyacht Society Awards in 2008 and was also voted one of the best large sailing yachts at the 2009 World Superyacht Awards, according to the outlet.

The yacht’s original owner, John Groenewoud, a Dutch real estate developer, reportedly bought the ship for £30 million ($39 million) when it was built. In 2014, he sold the ship with an asking price of £27 million ($35 million).

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The Bayesian is currently owned by Revtom, a company that listed Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, as its legal owner.

It was named after the Bayesian statistical model that helps financial investors calculate risk — the subject of Lynch’s PhD that later helped him build his empire.

The vessel, operated by yachting company Camper & Nicholsons, had twin 965hp MTU engines, which gave it a range of 3,600 nautical miles at 13 to 15 knots (14 to 17 mph).

RSB Rigging carried out rig service works on the ship with Astilleros de Mallorca, a shipyard facility in Palma, in November 2016.

The Bayesian returned in September 2020 for scheduled service works, including having its mast removed and reinstalled.

Steve Branagh, managing director of RSB Rigging, told the Telegraph: “At this time, our deepest sympathies go out to the friends and families of all those affected by this dreadful tragedy.”

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Step on board the 162.5m Eclipse - the second largest superyacht in the world

Designer Terry Disdale talks us through the four and a half years, nine decks and 162.5 metres of the world’s second largest superyacht.

Terry Disdale didn’t set out to design the biggest superyacht in the world. “No one ever said to me, ‘I want a 160 metre boat’,” he says over breakfast near his office in Richmond, London. “When the yacht was still on the drawing board, there was a rumour going round that someone was building an even bigger boat, and the owner was asked if he knew about it. He said he didn’t, and that he didn’t care. Breaking records was the farthest thing from his mind.”

What he did care about was helicopters – he wanted to carry more than one; and the pool – it had to be big. There were also some early discussions about low bulwarks and big windows, and that was the totality of the brief for what would become Eclipse . “To be given free rein is actually a dreadful thing,” says Disdale.  “I asked myself what I wanted: something timeless. How do you design something timeless that’s still going to look good and not be anaemic? It’s so easy to get carried away, but you’ve got to be able to look at it in 20 years and decide it still looks OK.” But that’s the trick, isn’t it? And the measure of a designer.

• The 25 largest yachts in the world

At least Disdale had some hooks on which to hang the design. “Part of what creates the yacht looking like that is you’ve got to land this huge helicopter on the front, so the superstructure is pushed back. The formation of the boat is built around helicopter usage. And we didn’t want the boat to look unbalanced when the helicopter is on the foredeck. Some boats have a foredeck that looks wrong whenever a helicopter sits there.”

The lines of the boat were dictated by another prerequisite: the two significant lifeboats demanded by Solas. The sheerline runs straight aft from the bow and steps up amidships, the high freeboard created giving visual support to the lifeboats. “If you’d had a different sheerline, the lifeboats wouldn’t have looked comfortable,” the designer says. This, plus the addition of a 15 metre pool aft on the main deck, meant that the overall length of Eclipse – 162.5 metres – was defined not by ego but by practicality.

“Everyone thinks that a boat starts with a sketch, some glamorous visual of the outside of the boat. But that’s not how things work in my office – we start with a plan, a general arrangement.” The project, from this first design stage to the boat’s launch at Blohm+Voss ’s Hamburg yard in 2009, took four and a half years – a remarkable achievement given the scale of the yacht, which was only overtaken as the world’s biggest in 2013 with the launch of 180 metre Azzam . 

Up to 20 engineers from Blue Ocean Yacht Management were present on site throughout the build, whipping it along to meet the aggressive delivery schedule. Disdale doesn’t recall any sleepless nights – “at least, no more than usual!” he laughs. The pressure of designing what was then the world’s top yacht – both inside and out – did obviously register, though. “It’s a huge responsibility building something of that magnitude, which is going to be under everyone’s magnifying glass. It’s not just ‘doing a job’, this thing is going to be scrutinised and analysed by everyone. There’s a responsibility to yourself as a designer.”

A decade from delivery, and more than 15 years from the moment Disdale first put pen to paper, he says he wouldn’t change a thing – and nor has the owner, who has kept Disdale’s designs largely unchanged. “For me, it’s more a clean piece of architecture than it is a piece of styling. The fact that you have a helipad on the front creates the superstructure to bow dimension, which is beautiful. If it wasn’t there, you wouldn’t have that length. And then when you get to the back of the boat, the swimming pool is dictating another piece of the story. I don’t know what I would change now. I don’t sit around saying, ‘I wish I did this or that’. Maybe I’d make the rear end look a bit more inviting, the way the staircases lead into the boat, but anti-piracy was a concern, plus there are a load of services and facilities back there. There’s a full-size pantry to serve the beach club, which very few boats have, and gull-wing doors with a pullout barbecue and pizza oven. There’s a lot you don’t see.”

Disdale’s long experience in the business means he is able to resist the temptation to force designs, or slavishly follow trends that flare and fade, leaving boats looking old before their time. “ Eclipse is a handsome boat, and it looks like a boat. It doesn’t make any pretence,” he says. “The key word is elegance. Very few boats can make that claim any more. Modern boats are purposeful, aggressive, macho, which has led to them all having snub noses. They look angry. You could paint them grey and stick a cannon on the front and it wouldn’t upset their stance at all. Eclipse is not like that.” It’s a familiar sermon from Disdale, who famously posts his 10 “design commandments” up round his office. “One of  the most important tools in your box is restraint. I can have complete freedom when designing a superstructure, but restraint is actually the most important thing – knowing when to stop gilding the lily. Don’t gild it! Use silver leaf.”

• Inside the Surrey home of legendary superyacht designer Terence Disdale  

The obvious benefit of a single designer being responsible for the interior and exterior of a yacht is a seamless flow between the two, and that is absolutely true of Eclipse , whose interior conforms to another one of Disdale’s mantras: “ beach house not penthouse ”. “If you’ve got a dining room with satin on the chairs and gold braid around them, but you live in a T-shirt and shorts, then you’re not comfortable,” he says. 

The pool is a vast entertaining space, with 3.2 metre overheads and a retracting glass sunroof. “The ambience of the pool is as important as how it looks. You’ve got to want to sit by it.” Or dance on it: the blue granite bottom of the pool rises up to sit flush with the deck. It can also be lowered a touch to create a paddling pool.

The interior of any boat should be about “pure relaxation”, says Disdale. “People are on vacation, people are chilled.” He relates one story of an Arab client in the 1980s, who he dissuaded from fitting gold taps to his superyacht. “I told him he already had a 65 metre on the quay – he had already made his statement. It was a process of trying to quieten his ostentation.” You get the feeling no such effort was needed with the owner of Eclipse . “He had already owned three yachts to our design, so consequently was very familiar with my way of working and the habitat I create.” It’s impossible to miss the very deliberate warmth of that habitat and a design miracle that, despite using broadly the same colour palette throughout, nowhere do you tire of the ochre-like shades. 

This uniformity wasn’t applied to the lobbies between decks: different artists were tasked with creating unique works to give each lobby a flavour, so there is no confusion about what deck you’re on – a problem when you have nine. One of these pieces is a wooden sculpture made up of seven pieces, the design for which was hand drawn by Disdale and sent to Japan for manufacture. It’s a stunning work and symptomatic of the detail shown throughout – even in more mundane pieces, like the sideboards in the cabins that were designed in Europe and crafted in Chile.

With no clear-cut brief on the yacht’s layout, Disdale was forced to second-guess, “but that’s my job”, he says. “You have to work out how people will move around the boat.” The benefit of an LOA like Eclipse ’s is the owner can swallow serious acreage without impacting the guest experience. It’s not about avoiding guests, but being able to operate independently of them.

It would be easy to mistake the guest suites for the owner’s own quarters, such is their footprint. There are 18 guest cabins in total, served by 100 crew. From the moment the guests arrive by chopper, mainly on the top helideck, they’re absorbed in the comfort of the boat and have access to the main stairwell and elevator. It’s a transition of which Disdale is particularly proud. “It came from understanding how a boat is used. When you get out of the helicopter, you’re blown to pieces, and then where do you go?” The answer is an intimate lounge, where you can freshen up before entering the interior proper. It also gives pilots somewhere to conduct safety briefings, he points out. Eclipse is able to travel with multiple helicopters on board because one can be housed in the forward hangar, one above it on the retractable platform and another on the sundeck.

At the other extremity of the boat, the convenience continues with a huge bathing platform and staircases that fold down into the water for easy boarding – even for those wearing full dive gear. The beach club wasn’t maxed out, with a comfortable lounge along the centreline preferred to a big open area that is harder to secure. Beyond, though, the lower deck opens up into a huge 77 square metre gym and spa area, complete with massage room, beauty salon, sauna, shower areas and the yacht’s second plunge pool. Visual interest is added by banks of portholes with views into the swimming pool, which dapple light across this whole space. Choosing somewhere to relax on deck is slightly harder – where do you start? The options are endless but special mention has to be made of the wood-burning fire pit on the upper deck – perfect for nights on deck under the stars.

Disdale and his team were present in June 2009 when the boat appeared from the giant drydock in Hamburg. No butterflies – he claims to have been pretty zen about seeing her free of scaffolding and plastic. “Although you design every part of it and you see it being built, nothing prepares you for the feeling you get when you actually see it in the flesh. The tug pulled it out and there was the thickness of a mattress between the wing stations and the shed walls. Literally – they tied mattresses to the stations. When it appeared I was gobsmacked.” As was the owner, pleasingly for the man who’d dedicated nearly five years to the project.

“It’s like cars,” explains the car fanatic. “I was talking about Lamborghinis the other day. They used to have the Miura, a beautiful car. But they replaced it with the Countach, which looks like it was carved from cheese. One is ageless and one looks stuck in time. Elegance is the most important thing. The Miura is elegant, the Jaguar E-Type is elegant.” He’s too modest to say but Eclipse belongs in that league – beautiful for ever.

First published in the April 2016 edition of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.

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Inside the £30m Bayesian superyacht

The superyacht that sank off the coast of Sicily had won multiple awards for its stylish interiors and design.

Mike Lynch , 59, and his teenage daughter, Hannah, are among the seven passengers and crew feared dead when his yacht, the Bayesian, sank off Porticello near the Sicilian city of Palermo.

Divers are searching the wreckage of the 184ft British-flagged vessel, which rests on the sea bed 160ft below the surface and 1,600ft from shore.

The Bayesian, previously called Salute, was built in 2008 by Perini Navi, an Italian shipyard, alongside yacht designer Ron Holland Design.

When launched, it had the tallest aluminium mast in the world, at 237ft , earning the accolade of best exterior styling at the World Superyacht Awards in 2009.

Inside, the sleek, minimalist furnishings were created by Remi Tessier. The French design house also designed the 240ft-long Nautilus, owned by Thierry Stern, the president of Patek Philippe, and the 177ft-long Parsifal III, made famous by the television show Below Deck Sailing Yacht.

The Bayesian, which accommodated 12 guests in its master, three double and two twin bedrooms, was furnished with a teak deck and beige sofas set against dark wood furnishings.

Thin brown pillars and miniature terracotta sculptures offered a Japanese influence, while a crescent canvas awning kept guests cool on the top deck.

The superyacht won best interior at the International Superyacht Society Awards in 2008, and was also voted one of the best sailing yachts over 45 metres at the 2009 World Superyacht Awards.

Its original owner was John Groenewoud, a Dutch real estate developer, who was said to have purchased Salute from Eric Albada Jelgersma for a reported €35 million (£30 million) when it was built.

Mr Groenewoud, he founder of Built to Build Real Estate, set out an asking price of $35 million (£27 million) and sold the yacht in 2014, according to Boat International.

The Bayesian is now owned by Revtom, a company that listed Angela Bacares, Mr Lynch’s wife, as its legal owner in April.

It was given the name because Bayesian was the subject of Mr Lynch’s PhD and the name of the statistical method that helped build his empire.

A former chief stewardess of the yacht has spoken of putting on themed occasions and games for the owner’s two daughters.

Monica Jensen, 48, worked on the 184ft superyacht from November 2018 to October 2020 and told The Telegraph: “I had a fantastic time.”

She said she was surprised to hear of the sinking because the boat had withstood the choppiest of seas, telling The Telegraph: “It seems a bit strange. We have been in bad weather with it, crossed the Atlantic. It’s been all over. These things definitely don’t happen very often.”

Ms Jensen said the crew would have been well drilled on the evacuation process, adding: “You can’t work on a boat without the right certificates, training, and you do drills monthly.”

The vessel, which was operated by Camper & Nicholsons, had twin 965hp MTU engines, giving it a range of 3,600 nautical miles at 13-15 knots.

RSB Rigging carried out rig service works on it in conjunction with Astilleros de Mallorca, a shipyard facility in Palma, in November 2016. The Bayesian returned in September 2020 for scheduled service works, with the mast removed and reinstalled.

Steve Branagh, the managing director of RSB Rigging, told The Telegraph: “At this time, our deepest sympathies go out to the friends and families of all those affected by this dreadful tragedy.”

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Boat of the Week: Meet ‘Boardwalk,’ Houston Rockets Owner Tilman Fertitta’s Showstopping 252-Foot Superyacht

This vessel has a long, instantly recognizable profile. but it's the myriad interior details—and the interplay of light and crystal—that define her., michael verdon, michael verdon's most recent stories, kevin costner cruised on this luxe 75-footer last summer. now it’s debuting at cannes yacht fest..

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At the end of February, Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta and his family held an annual Mardi Gras celebration, which they call the San Luis Salute. The event, which included local officials and celebrities, was headlined by the band Maroon 5. But the most visible VIP guest at the gala was Fertitta’s majestic new superyacht, Boardwalk.  

The 252-foot Feadship is indeed a showstopper. It was the largest vessel at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, and hundreds of people walking the docks took selfies against Boardwalk ’s towering stern, with a H130 helicopter perched on the top deck. Fertitta and his family enjoyed the show from the comfort of the yacht—from the main-deck’s rear cockpit lounge to be precise.

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It’s Fertitta’s favorite spot on his new yacht, a sanctuary protected from the wind and sun, but still exposed to the ocean. It’s also a microcosm of Boardwalk ’s very intricate design. The stern has the requisite lounges, bar and large flat-screen television, but that’s where it differs from other yachts. The ceiling has delicate curves, there are many lights embedded into the area above the bar, and the trim on the columns supporting the stern’s overhang is highly stylized.

The abundance of crystal and lighting define Boardwalk ‘s formal dining area.  Courtesy Fertitta Entertainment

“I don’t think any other owner pays as much attention to the details,” Fertitta told Robb Report during a visit to the yacht. “If you look at the bigger yachts, they really don’t vary much with standard features like ceilings and lighting.”

“Tilman came in with all the important details—all the details that really make the difference in this boat,” adds Amy Halffman, who worked closely with Fertitta on the design. “He’s an extreme detail man, down to the quarter of an inch.”

The Houston entrepreneur has made a highly successful career out of paying attention to the details. Named by Forbes as the “World’s Wealthiest Restaurateur,” the chairman of Fertitta Entertainment and chairman of Landry’s has an empire that also includes the Houston Rockets NBA team, multiple restaurants, Bentley and Rolls-Royce dealerships, and five-star hotels.

The contrast of the black stairwell with the white floors is dramatic, nicely offset by the custom stainless-steel inlays along the railings.  Courtesy Fertitta Entertainment

Fertitta’s Post Oak Hotel in Houston, in fact, provided inspiration for Boardwalk . “We spent a lot of time meeting at the hotel,” says Halffman. “He had a lot of input into that design, which is classy and elegant, so we decided to reflect that style on the yacht.”

This Feadship is actually Halffman’s fifth yacht project with Fertitta, the other four Boardwalks being a succession of ever-larger Westports, the most recent being 165 feet in length. After owning it for 12 years, “it felt like time for a larger project,” says Fertitta. “One that was more complex and elaborate.”

While upsizing by almost 100 feet sounds like a simple hull stretch, the Feadship has 1,848 gross tonnes of interior volume, compared to 492 on the last Westport—in other words, the latest Boardwalk has nearly four times as much interior as the last one. That makes not only for a very complicated build—something which bespoke builder Feadship is used to—but also a new mindset for the interior design, which the design team needed to wrap their heads around.

A more relaxed vibe in the owner’s office.  Courtesy Fertitta Entertainment

Halffman and design partner Frank Woll came up with the concept about four years ago, and then worked closely with the owner on the yacht’s many features. There are hundreds of features, seen and unseen, that distinguish the interior.

The most noticeable—arresting, in fact—is a whimsical, fantasy-like sculpture of a bronze female form with a dress of flowing crystals, diamonds and pearls. The work by Estella Fransbergen is strategically placed in the main entry. “She’s like a guardian angel,” says the sculptor, noting it took nearly two years to complete. “She was originally going to be placed by the staircase, but we moved her so she greets everyone.”

“I’d seen Estella’s work years ago and admired it,” says Halffman. “The torso of the woman’s body appealed to everyone and proved to be a launchpad for me. It played off all the other features.” They include an enormous crystal in the main foyer, pendant chandeliers in the formal dining area beside a case with crystal wear, and bespoke crystal light fixtures on the nearby stairway—which also has a beautiful stainless railing that resembles a feature from the last Boardwalk , but on a much grander scale.

The main salon, with detailed lighting overhead. Notice the backlighting on the rear bar.  Courtesy Fertitta Entertainment

The designers looked for striking but elegant stones—a white opal for the salon and an onice grigio for the sky lounge—mixed with Sapele, mahogany and other dark-stained woods that show contrast with the light-colored fabrics and tiling. The wine cellar even has a custom stainless-steel design that gives it a distinctive look. In all, 55 stones, marbles and tiles were used across the yacht.

Of course, all these stunning details were made possible by the ubiquitous placement of lighting, both direct and indirect, something that Fertitta understands with almost a scientific precision. His previous Westport had four times more lights than the yard had ever put on the 164-foot series. This Feadship paid even more attention to the lighting. Even the beach club, with its lounge and dedicated dive and watersports locker, has a stylish, deliberate look. The bar has a light fixture comprised of Swarovski crystals.

The yacht, though immense, is easy to navigate. Fertitta and longtime captain Tristan Judson paid attention to the functional aspects, creating an open foredeck where the two Hogdon-built tenders are stored, adding the ability to use the massive area for social occasions. The sundeck has a mosaic-tiled swimming pool, and above that is an observation deck with a mast. On that level, one gets a sense of how large Boardwalk really is, surrounded by smaller superyachts at the Fort Lauderdale show.

The intricate details on the day head—typically a forgotten space—give a sense of the how the design team approached the interior.  Courtesy Fertitta Entertainment

Still, the owner and his designers managed to keep a sense of intimacy throughout, installing what they call a “country kitchen” as the owner’s galley, to allow more informal meals and socializing than the main dining room, while retaining the yacht’s professional galley for the staff on another deck. Fertitta, who often works on board, has an office dressed with light-colored fabrics, lounges and glass doors to access the exterior decks.

The Feadship may not be Fertitta’s last yacht. Rumor has it that he’s talking to European yards about an even larger Boardwalk . When asked about it, he says simply: “I love to build things.”

Some other angles.

Courtesy Fertitta Entertainment

Courtesy Boardwalk

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Lynch Yacht Sinking Off Sicily Proves as Baffling as It Is Tragic

As bodies were recovered, the authorities and experts wondered how a $40 million, stable and secure vessel could have sunk so quickly.

• Share full article

By Emma Bubola and Michael J. de la Merced

Emma Bubola reported from Porticello, Italy, and Michael J. de la Merced from London.

Two months after being cleared in a bruising legal battle over fraud charges, the British tech mogul Mike Lynch celebrated his freedom with a cruise. He invited his family, friends and part of his legal team on board his luxury sailing yacht, a majestic 180-foot vessel named Bayesian after the mathematical theorem around which he had built his empire.

On Sunday night, after a tour of the Gulf of Naples, including Capri, and volcanic islands in the Eolian archipelago, the boat anchored half a mile off the Sicilian coast in Porticello, Italy. It chose a stretch of water favored by the Phoenicians thousands of years ago for its protection from the mistral wind and, in more recent times, by the yachts of tech billionaires. The boat was lit “like a Christmas tree,” local residents said, standing out against the full moon.

But about 4 a.m., calamity unfolded. A violent and fast storm hit the area with some of the strongest winds locals said they had ever felt. Fabio Cefalù, a fisherman, said he saw a flare pierce the darkness shortly after 4.

Minutes later, the yacht was underwater. Only dozens of cushions from the boat’s deck and a gigantic radar from its mast floated on the surface of the sea, fishermen said.

In all, 22 people were on board, 15 of whom were rescued. Six bodies — five passengers and the ship’s cook — had been recovered by Thursday afternoon, including that of Mr. Lynch, an Italian government official said, adding that the search was continuing for his daughter.

It was a tragic and mystifying turn of events for Mr. Lynch, 59, who had spent years seeking to clear his name and was finally inaugurating a new chapter in his life. Experts wondered how a $40 million yacht, so robust and stable could have been sunk by a storm near a port within minutes.

“It drives me insane,” said Giovanni Costantino, the chief executive of the Italian Sea Group, which in 2022 bought the company, Perini, that made the Bayesian. “Following all the proper procedures, that boat is unsinkable.”

The aura of misfortune only deepened when it emerged that Stephen Chamberlain, 52, a former vice president of finance for Mr. Lynch’s former company and a co-defendant in the fraud case, was killed two days earlier, when he was hit by a car while jogging near his house in England.

Since June, the two men had been in a jubilant mood. A jury in San Francisco had acquitted both on fraud charges that could have sent them to prison for two decades. There were hugs and tears, and they and their legal teams went for a celebratory dinner party at a restaurant in the city, said Gary S. Lincenberg, a lawyer for Mr. Chamberlain.

The sea excursion was meant as a thank-you by Mr. Lynch to those who had helped him in his legal travails. Among the guests was Christopher J. Morvillo, 59, a scion of a prominent New York family of lawyers who had represented Mr. Lynch for 12 years. He and his wife, Neda, 57, were among the missing.

So, too, was Jonathan Bloomer, 70, a veteran British insurance executive who chaired Morgan Stanley International and the insurer Hiscox.

The body of the ship’s cook, Recaldo Thomas, was recovered. All the other crew members survived. Among them was Leo Eppel, 19, of South Africa, who was on his first yacht voyage working as a deck steward, said a friend, who asked not to be identified.

Since the sinking, the recovery effort and investigation have turned the tiny port town of Porticello, a quiet enclave where older men sit bare-chested on balconies, into what feels like the set of a movie.

Helicopters have flown overhead. Ambulances have sped by with the sirens blaring. The Coast Guard has patrolled the waters off shore, within sight of a cordoned-off dock that had been turned into an emergency headquarters.

On Wednesday afternoon, a church bell tolled after the first body bag was loaded into an ambulance, a crowd watching in silence.

The survivors were sheltering in a sprawling resort near Porticello, with a view of the shipwreck spot, and had so far declined to comment.

Attilio Di Diodato, director of the Italian Air Force’s Center for Aerospace Meteorology and Climatology, said that the yacht had most likely been hit by a fierce “down burst” — when air generated within a thunderstorm descends rapidly — or by a waterspout , similar to a tornado over water.

He added that his agency had put out rough-sea warnings the previous evening, alerting sailors about storms and strong winds. Locals said the winds “felt like an earthquake.”

Mr. Costantino, the boat executive, said the yacht had been specifically designed for having a tall mast — the second-tallest aluminum mast in the world. He said the Bayesian was an extremely safe and secure boat that could list even to 75 degrees without capsizing.

But he said that if some of the hatches on the side and in the stern, or some of the deck doors, had been open, the boat could have taken on water and sunk. Standard procedure in such storms, he said, is to switch on the engine, lift the anchor and turn the boat into the wind, lowering the keel for extra stability, closing doors and gathering the guests in the main hall inside the deck.

12 guests occupied the yacht’s six cabins. There were also 10 crew members.

Open hatches, doors and cabin windows could have let in water during a storm, according to the manufacturer.

Open hatches, doors and

cabin windows could

have let in water

during a storm,

according to the

manufacturer.

Source: Superyacht Times, YachtCharterFleet, MarineTraffic

By Veronica Penney

The New York Times attempted to reach the captain, James Cutfield, who had survived, for comment through social media, his brother and the management company of the yacht (which did not hire the crew), but did not make contact.

So far none of the surviving crew members have made a public statement about what happened that night.

Fabio Genco, the director of Palermo’s emergency services, who treated some of the survivors, said that the victims had recounted feeling as if the boat was being lifted, then suddenly dropped, with objects from the cabins falling on them.

The Italian Coast Guard said it had deployed a remotely operated vehicle that can prowl underwater for up to seven hours at a depth of more than 980 feet and record videos and images that they hoped would help them reconstruct the dynamics of the sinking. Such devices were used during the search and rescue operations of the Titan vessel that is believed to have imploded last summer near the wreckage of the Titanic.

After rescuers broke inside the yacht, they struggled to navigate the ropes and many pieces of furniture cluttering the vessel, said Luca Cari, a spokesman for Italy’s national firefighter corps.

Finally, as of Thursday morning, they had managed to retrieve all but one of the missing bodies, and hopes of finding the missing person alive were thin. “Can a human being be underwater for two days?” Mr. Cari asked.

What was certain was that Mr. Lynch’s death was yet another cruel twist of fate for a man who had spent years seeking to clear his name.

He earned a fortune in technology and was nicknamed Britain’s Bill Gates. But for more than a decade, he had been treated as anything but a respected tech leader.

He was accused by Hewlett-Packard, the American technological pioneer that had bought his software company, Autonomy, for $11 billion, of misleading it about his company’s worth. (Hewlett-Packard wrote down the value of the transaction by about $8.8 billion, and critics called it one of the worst deals of all time .) He had been increasingly shunned by the British establishment that he sought to break into after growing up working-class outside London.

He was extradited to San Francisco to face criminal charges, and confined to house arrest and 24-hour surveillance on his dime. In a townhouse in the Pacific Heights neighborhood — with security people he jokingly told associates were his “roommates” — he spent his mornings talking with researchers whom he funded personally on new applications for artificial intelligence. Afterward, he devoted hours to discussing legal strategy with his team.

Despite his persistent claims of innocence, even those close to Mr. Lynch had believed his odds of victory were slim. Autonomy’s chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, was convicted in 2018 of similar fraud charges and spent five years in prison.

During Mr. Lynch’s house arrest, his brother and mother died. His wife, Angela Bacares, frequently flew over from England, and she became a constant presence in the San Francisco courtroom during the trial.

After he was finally acquitted, Mr. Lynch had his eye on the future. “I am looking forward to returning to the U.K. and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field,” he said.

Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting from Pallanza, Italy.

Emma Bubola is a Times reporter based in Rome. More about Emma Bubola

Michael J. de la Merced has covered global business and finance news for The Times since 2006. More about Michael J. de la Merced

Inside the shocking Sicily yacht tragedy that left 7 people dead

There was a violent storm, but even then, luxury yachts are built to weather such events. so why did this boat sink off the coast of sicily, leaving seven people dead, by natalie finn | e news • published august 24, 2024 • updated on august 24, 2024 at 10:34 am.

Originally appeared on E! Online

Nobody was trying to reach the lowest depths of the ocean or otherwise test the boundaries of human endurance .

📺 Watch News4 now: Stream NBC4 newscasts for free right here, right now.

But what was supposed to be a routine pleasure cruise aboard a superyacht turned deadly all the same on the morning of Aug. 19 when the 184-foot Bayesian got caught in a storm and sank off the coast of Sicily .

"I can't remember the last time I read about a vessel going down quickly like that," Stephen Richter of SAR Marine Consulting told NBC News . "You know, completely capsizing and going down that quickly, a vessel of that nature, a yacht of that size."

Of the 22 people onboard, including crew, seven people died. The last of the bodies was recovered Aug. 23, an expectedly sad coda to what had already been a tragic week as the search for answers as to how this happened got underway.

And to be sure, every minute of the Bayesian's ill-fated outing is being fiercely scrutinized, starting with the general seaworthiness of the vessel itself.

Because, frankly, this was a freak occurrence.

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"Boats of this size, they’re taking passengers on an excursion or a holiday," Richter explained. "They are not going to put them in situations where it may be dangerous or it may be uncomfortable, so this storm that popped up was obviously an anomaly. These vessels that carry passengers, they’re typically very well-maintained, very well-appointed."

But in this case, a $40 million yacht sank, seven people are dead—including a billionaire tech mogul and his 18-year-old daughter—and morbid fascination doesn't need a second wind.

Here is how the story of the Sicily yacht tragedy has unfolded so far:

What happened to the yacht that sank off the coast of Sicily?

The Bayesian had set off from the Sicilian port of Milazzo on Aug. 14 at capacity with 12 guests and 10 crewmembers aboard.

The aluminum-hulled vessel was built in 2008 by Italian shipbuilder Perini Navi and registered in the U.K. Cruise sites listed it as available for charter at $215,000 per week, per the Associated Press.

On the morning of Aug. 19, the superyacht was anchored off the coast of Porticello, a small fishing village in the Sicilian province of Palermo (also the name of Sicily's capital city), when a violent storm hit.

The vessel "suddenly sank" at around 5 a.m. local time, seemingly due to "the terrible weather conditions," the City Council of Bagheria announced shortly afterward, per NBC News .

At the time, only one person was confirmed dead—the ship's chef—but six others were said to be missing. The 15 survivors—who managed to make it onto an inflatable life boat, according to emergency officials—were rescued that morning by the crew of another yacht that had been nearby when the storm hit.

"Fifteen people inside," Karsten Borner, the Dutch captain of the ship that was able to help (the Sir Robert Baden Powell), told reporters afterward, per Reuters. "Four people were injured, three heavily injured, and we brought them to our ship. Then we communicated with the coast guard, and after some time, the coast guard came and later picked up injured people."

When the storm hit, his boat ran into "a strong hurricane gust," Borner said, "and we had to start the engine to keep the ship in an angled position."

They "managed to keep the ship in position," he continued, but once the storm died down, they realized the other boat that had been behind them—the Bayesian—was gone.

The wreck ended up settling 165 feet below the surface, according to Italy's national fire department.

Fire officials said that divers, a motorboat and a helicopter were deployed to search for the missing.

Meanwhile, footage was captured of the ship capsizing on closed-circuit TV about a half-mile away from where it was anchored.

In the video obtained by NBC News, the illuminated 250-foot aluminum mast of the ship appears to list severely to one side before disappearing completely. Survivors recalled having just a few minutes to literally abandon ship.

Who were the seven people who died when the yacht Bayesian sank?

The tragedy initially became headline news because billionaire tech mogul Mike Lynch—"Britain's Bill Gates," some U.K. media called him—was among the missing. His body was ultimately recovered Aug. 22 .

"They told me that suddenly they found themselves catapulted into the water without even understanding how they had got there," Dr. Fabio Genco, head of the Palermo Emergency Medical Services, told NBC News Aug. 22. "And that the whole thing seems to have lasted from 3 to 5 minutes."

Genco said he got to Porticello about an hour after the Bayesian capsized.

Survivors "told me that it was all dark, that the yacht hoisted itself up and then went down," he said. "All the objects were falling on them. That’s why I immediately made sure, by asking them questions, if they had any internal injuries."

Why did the yacht sink?

Italian prosecutors are investigating to determine what transpired before the boat went down, according to NBC News.

Meanwhile, the CEO of shipbuilder Perini's parent company The Italian Sea Group defended the vessel itself as "unsinkable."

Perini boats "are the safest in the most absolute sense," Giovanni Costantino told Sky News Aug. 22 . What happened to the Bayesian "put me in a state of sadness on one side and of disbelief on the other," he continued. "This incident sounds like an unbelievable story, both technically and as a fact."

Costantino said it had to have been human error that led to the boat sinking, declaring, "Mistakes were made."

"Everything that was done reveals a very long summation of errors," he told newspaper Corriere della Sera Aug. 21, in an interview translated from Italian. "The people should not have been in the cabins, the boat should not have been at anchor."

The weather was "all predictable," he continued, adding that the storm "was fully legible in all the weather charts. It couldn't have been ignored."

The yacht's captain, identified as James Cutfield of New Zealand, was taken to Termini Imerese hospital for treatment. From there, he told La Repubblica, per Sky News , that he didn't see the storm coming.

Borner, the captain of the ship that rescued the 15 Bayesian survivors, told NBC News that he noticed the storm come in at 4 a.m. local time, and saw what looked to him like a waterspout, a type of tornado that forms above water.

The International Centre for Waterspout Research posted on X Aug. 19 that it had "confirmed 18 waterspouts today off the coasts of Italy. Some were powerful waterspouts, one of which may have been responsible for the sinking of a large yacht off of Sicily."

Borner said he didn't know why the Bayesian sank so quickly, guessing "it may have something to do with the mast, which was incredibly long." (A tall mast, even with its sails down, means there's more surface area exposed to wind, which can result in tipping.)

Confirming that one person was dead and six unaccounted for immediately following the wreck on Aug. 19, Salvo Cocina of Sicily's civil protection agency told reporters that a waterspout had struck the area overnight.

"They were in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.

The 59-year-old founder of software firm Autonomy had been on the trip with his wife Angela Bacares and their 18-year-old, Oxford-bound daughter Hannah to celebrate his recent acquittal in the U.S. on fraud and conspiracy charges stemming from the $11.7 billion purchase of his company by Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

In a bizarre turn of events, Lynch's co-defendant at trial, Stephen Chamberlain, the former vice president of finance at Autonomy, died after being taken off life support following a road accident on Aug. 17. Chamberlain's attorney told Reuters Aug. 20 that his friend and client had been out for a run when he was "fatally struck" by a car.

Meanwhile, multiple people who contributed to Lynch's defense were on the cruise with him and his family.

The bodies of Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer—who testified on Lynch's behalf—and his wife Judy Bloomer, as well as lawyer Chris Morvillo, a partner at the U.S. firm Clifford Chance, and his wife Neda Morvillo, a jewelry designer, were recovered on Aug. 21 .

In a LinkedIn post thanking the team that successfully defended Lynch, Morvillo wrote, per Sky News , "And, finally, a huge thank you to my patient and incredible wife, Neda Morvillo, and my two strong, brilliant, and beautiful daughters, Sabrina Morvillo and Sophia Morvillo. None of this would have been possible without your love and support. I am so glad to be home. And they all lived happily ever after…"

The first casualty confirmed Aug. 19 was the ship's Canadian-Antiguan chef, later identified as Recaldo Thomas.

"He was a one-of-a-kind special human being," a friend of Thomas told The Independent . "Incredibly talented, contagious smile and laugh, an incredible voice with a deep love of the ocean and the moon. I spoke to him nearly every day. He loved his life his friends and his job."

Hannah's body was the last of the missing six to be found , with divers bringing her remains ashore on Aug. 23.

Lynch and Bacares, who was rescued, also shared a 21-year-old daughter, according to The Times.

While awaiting trial, Lynch—who maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings—had spent 13 months under house arrest in San Francisco. Back home in London afterward, he admitted to The Times in July that he'd been afraid of dying in prison if he'd been found guilty. (He faced a possible 25-year sentence.)

"It's bizarre, but now you have a second life," he reflected. "The question is, what do you want to do with it?"

(E!, NBC News and Sky News are all members of the Comcast family.)

Inside the Shocking Sicily Yacht Tragedy: 7 People Dead After Rare Luxury Boat Disaster

There was a violent storm, but even then, luxury yachts are built to weather such events. so why did this boat sink off the coast of sicily, leaving seven people dead.

Nobody was trying to reach the lowest depths of the ocean or otherwise test the boundaries of human endurance .

But what was supposed to be a routine pleasure cruise aboard a superyacht turned deadly all the same on the morning of Aug. 19 when the 184-foot Bayesian got caught in a storm and sank off the coast of Sicily .

"I can't remember the last time I read about a vessel going down quickly like that," Stephen Richter  of SAR Marine Consulting told NBC News . "You know, completely capsizing and going down that quickly, a vessel of that nature, a yacht of that size."

Of the 22 people onboard, including crew, seven people died. The last of the bodies was recovered Aug. 23, an expectedly sad coda to what had already been a tragic week as the search for answers as to how this happened got underway.

And to be sure, every minute of the Bayesian's ill-fated outing is being fiercely scrutinized, starting with the general seaworthiness of the vessel itself.

Because, frankly, this was a freak occurrence.

"Boats of this size, they’re taking passengers on an excursion or a holiday," Richter explained. "They are not going to put them in situations where it may be dangerous or it may be uncomfortable, so this storm that popped up was obviously an anomaly. These vessels that carry passengers, they’re typically very well-maintained, very well-appointed."

But in this case, a $40 million yacht sank, seven people are dead—including a billionaire tech mogul and his 18-year-old daughter—and morbid fascination doesn't need a second wind.

Here is how the story of the Sicily yacht tragedy has unfolded so far:

What happened to the yacht that sank off the coast of Sicily?

The Bayesian had set off from the Sicilian port of Milazzo on Aug. 14 at capacity with 12 guests and 10 crewmembers aboard.

The aluminum-hulled vessel was built in 2008 by Italian shipbuilder Perini Navi and registered in the U.K. Cruise sites listed it as available for charter at $215,000 per week, per the Associated Press.

On the morning of Aug. 19, the superyacht was anchored off the coast of Porticello, a small fishing village in the Sicilian province of Palermo (also the name of Sicily's capital city), when a violent storm hit.

The vessel "suddenly sank" at around 5 a.m. local time, seemingly due to "the terrible weather conditions," the City Council of Bagheria announced shortly afterward, per NBC News .

At the time, only one person was confirmed dead—the ship's chef—but six others were said to be missing. The 15 survivors—who managed to make it onto an inflatable life boat, according to emergency officials—were rescued that morning by the crew of another yacht that had been nearby when the storm hit.

"Fifteen people inside," Karsten Borner , the Dutch captain of the ship that was able to help (the Sir Robert Baden Powell), told reporters afterward, per Reuters. "Four people were injured, three heavily injured, and we brought them to our ship. Then we communicated with the coast guard, and after some time, the coast guard came and later picked up injured people."

When the storm hit, his boat ran into "a strong hurricane gust," Borner said, "and we had to start the engine to keep the ship in an angled position."

They "managed to keep the ship in position," he continued, but once the storm died down, they realized the other boat that had been behind them—the Bayesian—was gone.

The wreck ended up settling 165 feet below the surface, according to Italy's national fire department.

Fire officials said that divers, a motorboat and a helicopter were deployed to search for the missing.

Meanwhile, footage was captured of the ship capsizing on closed-circuit TV about a half-mile away from where it was anchored.

In the video obtained by NBC News, the illuminated 250-foot aluminum mast of the ship appears to list severely to one side before disappearing completely. Survivors recalled having just a few minutes to literally abandon ship.

"They told me that suddenly they found themselves catapulted into the water without even understanding how they had got there," Dr. Fabio Genco , head of the Palermo Emergency Medical Services, told NBC News Aug. 22. "And that the whole thing seems to have lasted from 3 to 5 minutes."

Genco said he got to Porticello about an hour after the Bayesian capsized.

Survivors "told me that it was all dark, that the yacht hoisted itself up and then went down," he said. "All the objects were falling on them. That’s why I immediately made sure, by asking them questions, if they had any internal injuries."

Why did the yacht sink?

Italian prosecutors are investigating to determine what transpired before the boat went down, according to NBC News.

Meanwhile, the CEO of shipbuilder Perini's parent company The Italian Sea Group defended the vessel itself as "unsinkable."

Perini boats "are the safest in the most absolute sense," Giovanni Costantino told Sky News Aug. 22 . What happened to the Bayesian "put me in a state of sadness on one side and of disbelief on the other," he continued. "This incident sounds like an unbelievable story, both technically and as a fact."

Costantino said it had to have been human error that led to the boat sinking, declaring, "Mistakes were made."

"Everything that was done reveals a very long summation of errors," he told newspaper Corriere della Sera  Aug. 21, in an interview translated from Italian. "The people should not have been in the cabins, the boat should not have been at anchor."

The weather was "all predictable," he continued, adding that the storm "was fully legible in all the weather charts. It couldn't have been ignored."

The yacht's captain, identified as James Cutfield of New Zealand, was taken to Termini Imerese hospital for treatment. From there, he told  La Repubblica , per Sky News , that he didn't see the storm coming.

Borner, the captain of the ship that rescued the 15 Bayesian survivors, told NBC News that he noticed the storm come in at 4 a.m. local time, and saw what looked to him like a waterspout, a type of tornado that forms above water.

The International Centre for Waterspout Research posted on X Aug. 19 that it had "confirmed 18 waterspouts today off the coasts of Italy. Some were powerful waterspouts, one of which may have been responsible for the sinking of a large yacht off of Sicily."

Borner said he didn't know why the Bayesian sank so quickly, guessing "it may have something to do with the mast, which was incredibly long." (A tall mast, even with its sails down, means there's more surface area exposed to wind, which can result in tipping.) 

Confirming that one person was dead and six unaccounted for immediately following the wreck on Aug. 19, Salvo Cocina of Sicily's civil protection agency told reporters that a waterspout had struck the area overnight.

"They were in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.

Who were the seven people who died when the yacht Bayesian sank?

The tragedy initially became headline news because billionaire tech mogul Mike Lynch —"Britain's Bill Gates ," some U.K. media called him—was among the missing. His body was ultimately recovered Aug. 22 .

The 59-year-old founder of software firm Autonomy had been on the trip with his wife Angela Bacares and their 18-year-old, Oxford-bound daughter Hannah  to celebrate his recent acquittal in the U.S. on fraud and conspiracy charges stemming from the $11.7 billion purchase of his company by Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

In a bizarre turn of events, Lynch's co-defendant at trial, Stephen Chamberlain , the former vice president of finance at Autonomy, died after being taken off life support following a road accident on Aug. 17. Chamberlain's attorney told Reuters Aug. 20 that his friend and client had been out for a run when he was "fatally struck" by a car.

Meanwhile, multiple people who contributed to Lynch's defense were on the cruise with him and his family.

The bodies of Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer —who testified on Lynch's behalf—and his wife Judy Bloomer , as well as lawyer Chris Morvillo , a partner at the U.S. firm Clifford Chance, and his wife Neda Morvillo , a jewelry designer, were recovered on Aug. 21 .

In a LinkedIn post thanking the team that successfully defended Lynch, Morvillo wrote, per Sky News , "And, finally, a huge thank you to my patient and incredible wife, Neda Morvillo, and my two strong, brilliant, and beautiful daughters, Sabrina Morvillo and Sophia Morvillo . None of this would have been possible without your love and support. I am so glad to be home. And they all lived happily ever after…"

The first casualty confirmed Aug. 19 was the ship's Canadian-Antiguan chef, later identified as Recaldo Thomas . 

"He was a one-of-a-kind special human being," a friend of Thomas told The Independent . "Incredibly talented, contagious smile and laugh, an incredible voice with a deep love of the ocean and the moon. I spoke to him nearly every day. He loved his life his friends and his job."

Hannah's body was the last of the missing six to be found , with divers bringing her remains ashore on Aug. 23.

Lynch and Bacares, who was rescued, also shared a 21-year-old daughter, according to The Times.

While awaiting trial, Lynch—who maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings—had spent 13 months under house arrest in San Francisco. Back home in London afterward, he admitted to The Times in July that he'd been afraid of dying in prison if he'd been found guilty. (He faced a possible 25-year sentence.)

"It's bizarre, but now you have a second life," he reflected. "The question is, what do you want to do with it?"

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“Not An Accident”: Bayesian Superyacht Sinking Victims Suffocated Inside Cabins Before Tragedy

Four of the seven victims killed in the Bayesian superyacht wreck were trapped alive inside the ship’s cabins and suffocated to death, according to their autopsies. 

Lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda, along with Morgan Stanley Bank International Chair Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, all died of asphyxiation after the yacht’s air pockets ran out of oxygen, not from drowning, Italian outlet La Repubblica reported .

The $33 million vessel ran into a sudden, violent storm off the coast of northern Sicily and sank in the early hours of August 19.

Autopsies conducted over the past two days on the four passengers found that neither had water in their lungs, stomachs, or trachea.

Four of the seven victims of the Bayesian superyacht tragedy suffocated to death after the vessel’s air pockets ran out of oxygen

Image credits: Merijn de Waard/SuperYacht Times

The results come amid  conspiracy theories suggesting a connection between the sinking of the yacht and the acquittal of Mike Lynch, one of its passengers.

Pathologists with the Palermo Institute of Forensic Medicine determined the four victims died of asphyxiation when the air pockets they tried to breathe in ran out of oxygen and “quickly filled with rising levels of toxic carbon dioxide.”

Their bodies were recovered on the left side of the cabins. Their positioning suggests they were seeking the last air pockets as the yacht was sinking.

Among the victims were also British tech magnate Mike Lynch, who had sailed to celebrate his acquittal from fraud charges in June in the US, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, and yacht chef Renaldo Thomas.

The businessman wanted to celebrate with those who had been closest to him during the 10-year judicial ordeal.

Image credits: Jonathan Brady/PA Image

The remaining post-mortem analyses on Lynch, his daughter, and Thomas will be carried out on Friday (September 6).

Angela Bacares, Lynch’s wife and Hanna’s mother, reportedly tried to warn those below deck that the ship was sinking.

As she told Italian media, she and Lynch had been woken around 4 am after the  superyacht suddenly tilted in a violent storm. 

Becares was reportedly injured when she stepped on broken glass, and she wasn’t able to reach the cabins as they quickly filled with water.

The mother was one of the 22 passengers and crew members on the  yacht who survived after being rescued from a raft.

Morgan Stanley Bank International Chair Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy, died of asphyxiation inside the superyacht’s cabins on August 19

Image credits: staceyitv

The vessel was anchored close to the coast, 300 meters from Porticello, when it was hit by a waterspout—a whirlwind that develops at sea—created by a heavy thunderstorm that took place near Palermo at around five in the morning. 

Experts have noted that the sinking represents an extremely rare occurrence, given the boat’s size and the captain’s inability to predict the extreme weather.

“There were weather warnings out that evening for intense thunderstorms. They are still incredibly rare weather events,” explained Matthew Shank, chairman of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council. “It was unprecedented.”

The vessel was hit by a waterspout, a whirlwind that develops at sea and is created by a heavy thunderstorm, in northern Sicily

Image credits: Jonathan Brady/PA Images

“I’ve never heard of a 56-meter (183 ft) boat being sunk like this,” Stewart Campbell, the editor-in-chief of Boat International, said during an  interview with the BBC .

“This is a supremely well-made and capable  trans-oceanic vessel . They are designed to withstand extreme weather.”

While the storm was anticipated, winds were higher than expected, stated Campbell. 

“The forecast was of a light offshore breeze. None of my colleagues in the industry expected this. They are all as shocked as I am,” he added.

Salvatore Cocina, the head of Sicily’s Civil Protection, said that the force of the storm caused the Bayesian’s  mast to break in half , causing damage to the hull and resulting in the boat becoming unbalanced. Its 72-meter (237 ft) mast was the world’s tallest aluminum mast and the second-tallest overall, as per Sky News.

Lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda, were also among the victims

Image credits: Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan

The Sir Robert, a nearby Dutch sailing ship, was anchored just meters away from the Bayesian and managed to escape from the storm unharmed.

The autopsies of the four victims have reignited  conspiracy theories suggesting a connection between the events leading up to the tragedy and the deaths of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and those close to him.

Lynch was accused of inflating the value of his development company, Autonomy, before selling it for $11.1 billion to the US corporate giant HP.

Since 2012, the magnate has faced a total of 15  charges (one for conspiracy and 14 for fraud). He was acquitted last June.

The bodies of British tech magnate Mike Lynch, who had sailed to celebrate his acquittal from fraud charges, and his daughter, Hannah, were also recovered

Image credits: The Royal Society/Wikimedia Commons

What has fueled theories is that 48 hours before the Bayesian sank, Lynch’s co-defendant and friend, Stephen Chamberlain, died after being run over while jogging in Stretham, Cambridgeshire.

The main conspiracy involves claims that the businessman and his co-defendant were both killed as revenge, although it’s not clear by whom or why.

“That was a deliberate clean murder; we will never get to the bottom of it. Mike Lynch just won his case,” an X user wrote.

“The problem with this story is that there was a smaller boat moored near the Bayesian – and it had no problem riding out the storm…” another said.

A third user added: “There is no way this guy and his co-defendant died in two separate random accidents just days after winning an almost unwinnable case.”

Italian prosecutors are investigating the boat’s captain, James Cutfield, ship engineer Tim Parker Eaton, and sailor Matthew Griffith for possible manslaughter and shipwreck charges

Image credits: Breed Media/SuperYacht Times

Image credits: guardiacostiera

Italian prosecutors are reportedly investigating the boat’s captain, James Cutfield, ship engineer Tim Parker Eaton, and sailor Matthew Griffith for possible manslaughter and shipwreck charges.

Giovanni Rizzuti, one of two legal representatives appointed to defend Cutfield,  said the captain has been “deeply affected by this ordeal.”

“We are currently assessing, with other legal representatives, the defense strategy and examining the technical aspects of the case.”

“May their souls rest in peace,” a Facebook user wrote

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Four Bayesian victims SURVIVED superyacht sinking but died in air bubble, autopsies show

• Summer Raemason
• Ellie Doughty
• Published : 23:22, 4 Sep 2024
• Updated : 8:27, 5 Sep 2024
• Published : Invalid Date,

FOUR victims in the Bayesian superyacht tragedy survived the initial sinking but later died in an air bubble inside the wreck, their autopsies have revealed.

The £14million vessel was caught up in a storm off the coast of northern Sicily on August 19, capsizing and sinking to the sea floor in mere minutes.

Autopsies have been carried out on Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy, Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda - four of the seven people who died when the yacht sank.

British billionaire Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah, as well as yacht chef Recaldo Thomas, also died and their autopsies will take place tomorrow.

The post-mortem reports suggested both couples died after oxygen ran out in an air bubble below deck, as reported by Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

Previous reports suggested Chris and Neda - whose autopsies were carried out first - both died by drowning.

Bayesian victim Mike Lynch’s widow could face £3BN claim against family

Cause of death of two Bayesian victims revealed after €14m vessel sank

Divers recovered five of the six missing passengers - including Lynch - in one cabin on the left side of the yacht which settled on its right side on the sea floor.

A judicial investigation into the yacht tragedy is ongoing.

The luxury vessel was caught up in a horror storm which caused it to sink in the early hours of the morning.

Of the 22 onboard, 15 survived with 11 including Mike Lynch's wife rescued on an inflatable life raft.

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The captain of the doomed Bayesian, James Cutfield, 51, is being investigated for manslaughter .

Kiwi Cutfield, along with two other members of his crew, are being investigated by Italian authorities for culpable shipwreck and multiple manslaughter.

Prosecutors are also probing ship engineer  Tim Parker-Eaton, from Clophill, Beds, and sailor Matthew Griffith, 22  under the same charges.

The investigation does not imply guilt or mean formal charges will be brought against any of the men.

At a press conference at the Termini Imerese Courthouse on Saturday, Chief Prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio said there may have been “behaviours that were not perfectly in order with regard to the responsibility everybody had.” 

His team will probe if hatches were left open, allowing water to flood in.

They will also look into whether the crew raised the alarm before escaping. 

He vowed to “discover how much they knew and to what extent all the people (passengers) were warned.”

Mr Cartosio added: “There could be in fact the question of homicide. But this is the beginning of the inquiry, we cannot exclude anything at all…We will establish each element’s (crew) responsibility.

"For me, it is probable that offences were committed — that it could be a case of manslaughter.”

The body of Mike Lynch and his four guests, Chris, Neda, Jonathan and Judy were found in the first cabin on the left.

Lynch’s  18-year-old daughter Hannah  was the last passenger to be discovered in the third cabin.

The survivors of the wreck, including Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, 57, left Sicily in a private jet last Sunday.

Inside The Bayesian's final 16 minutes

By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter

Data recovered from the Bayesian's Automatic Identification System (AIS) breaks down exactly how it sank in a painful minute-by-minute timeline.

At 3.50am on Monday August 19 the Bayesian began to shake "dangerously" during a fierce storm, Italian outlet  Corriere  revealed.

Just minutes later at 3.59am the boat's anchor gave way, with a source saying the data showed there was "no anchor left to hold".

After the ferocious weather ripped away the boat's mooring it was dragged some 358 metres through the water.

By 4am it had began to take on water and was plunged into a blackout, indicating that the waves had reached its generator or even engine room.

At 4.05am the  Bayesian fully disappeared  underneath the waves.

An emergency GPS signal was finally emitted at 4.06am to the coastguard station in Bari, a city nearby, alerting them that the vessel had sunk.

Early reports suggested the disaster struck around 5am local time off the coast of Porticello Harbour in Palermo, Sicily.

The new data pulled from the boat's AIS appears to suggest it happened an hour earlier at around 4am.

Some 15 of the 22 onboard were rescued, 11 of them scrambling onto an inflatable life raft that sprung up on the deck.

A smaller nearby boat - named Sir Robert Baden Powell - then helped take those people to shore.

Inside the shocking Sicily yacht tragedy that left 7 people dead

There was a violent storm, but even then, luxury yachts are built to weather such events. so why did this boat sink off the coast of sicily, leaving seven people dead, by natalie finn | e news • published august 24, 2024 • updated on august 24, 2024 at 10:34 am.

Originally appeared on E! Online

Nobody was trying to reach the lowest depths of the ocean or otherwise test the boundaries of human endurance .

But what was supposed to be a routine pleasure cruise aboard a superyacht turned deadly all the same on the morning of Aug. 19 when the 184-foot Bayesian got caught in a storm and sank off the coast of Sicily .

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"I can't remember the last time I read about a vessel going down quickly like that," Stephen Richter of SAR Marine Consulting told NBC News . "You know, completely capsizing and going down that quickly, a vessel of that nature, a yacht of that size."

Of the 22 people onboard, including crew, seven people died. The last of the bodies was recovered Aug. 23, an expectedly sad coda to what had already been a tragic week as the search for answers as to how this happened got underway.

And to be sure, every minute of the Bayesian's ill-fated outing is being fiercely scrutinized, starting with the general seaworthiness of the vessel itself.

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Because, frankly, this was a freak occurrence.

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"Boats of this size, they’re taking passengers on an excursion or a holiday," Richter explained. "They are not going to put them in situations where it may be dangerous or it may be uncomfortable, so this storm that popped up was obviously an anomaly. These vessels that carry passengers, they’re typically very well-maintained, very well-appointed."

But in this case, a $40 million yacht sank, seven people are dead—including a billionaire tech mogul and his 18-year-old daughter—and morbid fascination doesn't need a second wind.

Here is how the story of the Sicily yacht tragedy has unfolded so far:

What happened to the yacht that sank off the coast of Sicily?

The Bayesian had set off from the Sicilian port of Milazzo on Aug. 14 at capacity with 12 guests and 10 crewmembers aboard.

The aluminum-hulled vessel was built in 2008 by Italian shipbuilder Perini Navi and registered in the U.K. Cruise sites listed it as available for charter at $215,000 per week, per the Associated Press.

On the morning of Aug. 19, the superyacht was anchored off the coast of Porticello, a small fishing village in the Sicilian province of Palermo (also the name of Sicily's capital city), when a violent storm hit.

The vessel "suddenly sank" at around 5 a.m. local time, seemingly due to "the terrible weather conditions," the City Council of Bagheria announced shortly afterward, per NBC News .

At the time, only one person was confirmed dead—the ship's chef—but six others were said to be missing. The 15 survivors—who managed to make it onto an inflatable life boat, according to emergency officials—were rescued that morning by the crew of another yacht that had been nearby when the storm hit.

"Fifteen people inside," Karsten Borner, the Dutch captain of the ship that was able to help (the Sir Robert Baden Powell), told reporters afterward, per Reuters. "Four people were injured, three heavily injured, and we brought them to our ship. Then we communicated with the coast guard, and after some time, the coast guard came and later picked up injured people."

When the storm hit, his boat ran into "a strong hurricane gust," Borner said, "and we had to start the engine to keep the ship in an angled position."

They "managed to keep the ship in position," he continued, but once the storm died down, they realized the other boat that had been behind them—the Bayesian—was gone.

The wreck ended up settling 165 feet below the surface, according to Italy's national fire department.

Fire officials said that divers, a motorboat and a helicopter were deployed to search for the missing.

Meanwhile, footage was captured of the ship capsizing on closed-circuit TV about a half-mile away from where it was anchored.

In the video obtained by NBC News, the illuminated 250-foot aluminum mast of the ship appears to list severely to one side before disappearing completely. Survivors recalled having just a few minutes to literally abandon ship.

Who were the seven people who died when the yacht Bayesian sank?

The tragedy initially became headline news because billionaire tech mogul Mike Lynch—"Britain's Bill Gates," some U.K. media called him—was among the missing. His body was ultimately recovered Aug. 22 .

"They told me that suddenly they found themselves catapulted into the water without even understanding how they had got there," Dr. Fabio Genco, head of the Palermo Emergency Medical Services, told NBC News Aug. 22. "And that the whole thing seems to have lasted from 3 to 5 minutes."

Genco said he got to Porticello about an hour after the Bayesian capsized.

Survivors "told me that it was all dark, that the yacht hoisted itself up and then went down," he said. "All the objects were falling on them. That’s why I immediately made sure, by asking them questions, if they had any internal injuries."

Why did the yacht sink?

Italian prosecutors are investigating to determine what transpired before the boat went down, according to NBC News.

Meanwhile, the CEO of shipbuilder Perini's parent company The Italian Sea Group defended the vessel itself as "unsinkable."

Perini boats "are the safest in the most absolute sense," Giovanni Costantino told Sky News Aug. 22 . What happened to the Bayesian "put me in a state of sadness on one side and of disbelief on the other," he continued. "This incident sounds like an unbelievable story, both technically and as a fact."

Costantino said it had to have been human error that led to the boat sinking, declaring, "Mistakes were made."

"Everything that was done reveals a very long summation of errors," he told newspaper Corriere della Sera Aug. 21, in an interview translated from Italian. "The people should not have been in the cabins, the boat should not have been at anchor."

The weather was "all predictable," he continued, adding that the storm "was fully legible in all the weather charts. It couldn't have been ignored."

The yacht's captain, identified as James Cutfield of New Zealand, was taken to Termini Imerese hospital for treatment. From there, he told La Repubblica, per Sky News , that he didn't see the storm coming.

Borner, the captain of the ship that rescued the 15 Bayesian survivors, told NBC News that he noticed the storm come in at 4 a.m. local time, and saw what looked to him like a waterspout, a type of tornado that forms above water.

The International Centre for Waterspout Research posted on X Aug. 19 that it had "confirmed 18 waterspouts today off the coasts of Italy. Some were powerful waterspouts, one of which may have been responsible for the sinking of a large yacht off of Sicily."

Borner said he didn't know why the Bayesian sank so quickly, guessing "it may have something to do with the mast, which was incredibly long." (A tall mast, even with its sails down, means there's more surface area exposed to wind, which can result in tipping.)

Confirming that one person was dead and six unaccounted for immediately following the wreck on Aug. 19, Salvo Cocina of Sicily's civil protection agency told reporters that a waterspout had struck the area overnight.

"They were in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.

The 59-year-old founder of software firm Autonomy had been on the trip with his wife Angela Bacares and their 18-year-old, Oxford-bound daughter Hannah to celebrate his recent acquittal in the U.S. on fraud and conspiracy charges stemming from the $11.7 billion purchase of his company by Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

In a bizarre turn of events, Lynch's co-defendant at trial, Stephen Chamberlain, the former vice president of finance at Autonomy, died after being taken off life support following a road accident on Aug. 17. Chamberlain's attorney told Reuters Aug. 20 that his friend and client had been out for a run when he was "fatally struck" by a car.

Meanwhile, multiple people who contributed to Lynch's defense were on the cruise with him and his family.

The bodies of Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer—who testified on Lynch's behalf—and his wife Judy Bloomer, as well as lawyer Chris Morvillo, a partner at the U.S. firm Clifford Chance, and his wife Neda Morvillo, a jewelry designer, were recovered on Aug. 21 .

In a LinkedIn post thanking the team that successfully defended Lynch, Morvillo wrote, per Sky News , "And, finally, a huge thank you to my patient and incredible wife, Neda Morvillo, and my two strong, brilliant, and beautiful daughters, Sabrina Morvillo and Sophia Morvillo. None of this would have been possible without your love and support. I am so glad to be home. And they all lived happily ever after…"

The first casualty confirmed Aug. 19 was the ship's Canadian-Antiguan chef, later identified as Recaldo Thomas.

"He was a one-of-a-kind special human being," a friend of Thomas told The Independent . "Incredibly talented, contagious smile and laugh, an incredible voice with a deep love of the ocean and the moon. I spoke to him nearly every day. He loved his life his friends and his job."

Hannah's body was the last of the missing six to be found , with divers bringing her remains ashore on Aug. 23.

Lynch and Bacares, who was rescued, also shared a 21-year-old daughter, according to The Times.

While awaiting trial, Lynch—who maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings—had spent 13 months under house arrest in San Francisco. Back home in London afterward, he admitted to The Times in July that he'd been afraid of dying in prison if he'd been found guilty. (He faced a possible 25-year sentence.)

"It's bizarre, but now you have a second life," he reflected. "The question is, what do you want to do with it?"

(E!, NBC News and Sky News are all members of the Comcast family.)