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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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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.

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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

Watch CBS News

5th body recovered from Mike Lynch's family yacht off Sicily as questions mount over luxury vessel's sinking

By Anna Matranga

Updated on: August 22, 2024 / 10:48 AM EDT / CBS News

Rome — Divers recovered the body of a fifth victim of the Bayesian superyacht wreck Thursday morning, Sicily Civil Protection Chief Salvo Cocina confirmed to CBS News, and the Reuters news agency cited Italian Interior Ministry official Massimo Mariani as saying it was the body of Mike Lynch, the British tech magnate whose wife owned the vessel.

Italian Coast Guard spokesperson Vincenzo Zagarola told CBS News that teams were still working to recover the body of the sixth and final person left missing when the boat went down. The six bodies had remained stuck inside the 184-foot luxury yacht for days after it sank early Monday morning off the coast of Palermo, Sicily in a severe thunderstorm.

Four bodies were retrieved Wednesday from the Bayesian, which was resting on the seafloor at a 90 degree angle at a depth of over 160 feet. The vessel's position and items that moved around inside the ill-fated yacht made recovery efforts slow and hazardous.

Italian authorities have not officially identified the remains recovered from the Bayesian, which belonged to Lynch's wife Angela Bacares. She was among the 15 people who managed to escape from the boat as it sank quickly on Monday morning, but Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah were among those left missing.

Another victim, the Bayesian superyacht's chef, was found dead soon after the boat capsized. 

Along with Lynch and his daughter, the technology mogul's American lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda, and British banker Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, were believed to have been trapped in the yacht when it sank.

Questions as to how the state-of-the-art boat could have gone down so quickly have mounted steadily since the accident. 

Italian media were reporting Thursday that, after questioning survivors and witnesses, Italian prosecutors had opened an official investigation into a possible "culpable shipwreck." No individuals had been named as potential suspects.

On Thursday, Giovanni Costantino, head of the Italian Sea Group, which owns the company Perini Navi, which built the Bayesian in 2008, blamed human error.

"A Perini ship resisted Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 [hurricane]. Does it seem to you that it can't resist a tornado from here?" he remarked to the newspaper Corriere della Sera. "It is good practice when the ship is at anchor to have a guard on the bridge, and if there was one he could not have failed to see the storm coming. Instead, it took on water with the guests still in the cabin. ... They ended up in a trap, those poor people ended up like mice."

One possible factor could have been that the ship's keel — a fin-like structure that sticks out from the bottom of the boat, designed to provide stability and counterweight to the huge mast — was not fully deployed. The yacht had a retractable keel that could be raised for entry into shallow harbors. But a raised keel at sea would have made the ship much more vulnerable to instability in the strong winds that struck early Monday morning.

When asked whether divers had seen the ship's keel in a raised position, a spokesman for the Italian Coast Guard told CBS News that only the prosecutor investigating the incident could confirm such information but that the Coast Guard "was not denying" it. 

The ship's captain, 51-year-old New Zealand national James Cutfileld, was questioned for two hours by prosecutors on Thursday, according to Italian media.

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One person dead and six missing after superyacht with 22 on board is sunk by tornado off coast of Italy

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch is among those unaccounted for after the ship was battered by a tornado off the coast of Palermo in the early hours of Monday morning.

Sunday 25 August 2024 08:46, UK

A man has died and six people are missing after a UK-flagged superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily in a tornado - with a prominent British businessman among those unaccounted for.

Technology tycoon Mike Lynch owned the 56-metre vessel (183ft), named Bayesian.

Mr Lynch, known as the "British Bill Gates", has been in the headlines in recent months over a high-profile fraud case.

In June, he was cleared of all charges by a US jury related to the sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

Mr Lynch's 18-year-old daughter Hannah is among those missing after his yacht sank, local media reports.

Follow live updates: People missing after superyacht sinks

Mr Lynch's wife Angela Bacares is confirmed to be among the 15 people who were rescued after the British-flagged yacht capsized at around 4.30am local time (3.30am UK time) on Monday.

One body has also been recovered, after being found close to the vessel, according to local media.

Read more: Everything we know so far about luxury vessel sunk by tornado Lynch's co-defendant dies after being hit by car days before yacht sinking

The boat was hit by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout, that struck where the yacht had been anchored during the storm.

Police divers have been trying to reach the hull of the ship, which is resting at a depth of 50 metres (163 feet) off Porticello, near Palermo.

During the rescue effort, divers saw "corpses through the portholes" of the wreck, Salvo Cocina, the head of the Civil Protection of Sicily, said.

“They were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he added.

The incident comes days after Stephen Chamberlain, Mr Lynch's co-accused in the fraud trial, died in a car collision in Stretham, Cambridgeshire.

Mr Chamberlain's lawyer said he was out running on Saturday when he was hit by a car.

Most on board yacht thought to be British

The boat had 12 passengers and a crew of 10 people. Four of the missing passengers are British and two are American, Italian news website la Reppublica reports.

Most of those on board were reported to be from Britain - including a mother and one-year-old daughter who are among those rescued.

Speaking to the Giornale Di Sicilia newspaper, Charlotte Golunski said: "For two seconds I lost my baby in the sea, then I immediately hugged her again amid the fury of the waves.

"I held her tightly, close to me, while the sea was stormy. Many were screaming. Luckily, the lifeboat inflated and 11 of us managed to get on board."

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Ms Golunski was reportedly given stitches for a chest injury following the ordeal. The father of the child also survived, Mr Cocina said.

Eight of the 15 people rescued and taken ashore at Porticello were taken to hospital, while the others were taken to a hotel.

The Italian coast guard said the boat had passengers from Britain, the US, and Canada.

Meanwhile, multiple Italian news outlets reported that people on the boat were from Britain, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and Ireland.

British-French citizens were also among those on the superyacht, according to reports.

'I saw it sinking with my own eyes'

Pietro Asciutto, a fisherman from Porticello who witnessed the storm, told local media: "I was at home when the tornado hit. I immediately closed all the windows. Then I saw the boat, it had only one mast, it was very big. I saw it suddenly sink."

He added: "I think the whirlwind came from Porticello... shortly afterwards I went down to Santa Nicolicchia Bay to get a better look at what was happening.

"The boat was still floating, then all of a sudden it disappeared. I saw it sinking with my own eyes."

Fabio Cefalu, another local fisherman, called rescue services after spotting the wrecked boat off Porticello.

He said: "Around 3.55am we witnessed the whirlwind. After a quarter of an hour, we saw a flare 500 metres away from the dock.

"Around 4:35am we went out to sea for the rescue, however, we only saw the remains of the boat floating. There were no men in the sea. So we immediately called the harbour master's office."

A spokesman for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said: "We are in contact with the local authorities following an incident in Sicily, and stand ready to provide consular support to British nationals affected."

Camper and Nicholsons, which provided yacht management services for the Bayesian, has confirmed the vessel sank at around 4.30am local time.

The company said in a statement: "The Italian coast guard is leading search and rescue operations, and has safely recovered 15 individuals. Efforts to locate the seven missing persons continue.

"Our priority is assisting with the ongoing search and providing all necessary support to the rescued passengers and crew."

Online charter sites listed the Bayesian as available for rent for up to €195,000 (about £166,339) a week.

Related Topics

• Superyacht sinking

Tech magnate missing after luxury superyacht sinks off Sicily in 'violent storm'

A British tech magnate and several other people are missing after a luxury superyacht sank near Sicily’s main city, Palermo, during a violent storm, Italian officials and sources familiar with the matter told CNBC . At least one person was killed.

Mike Lynch, who was regularly described in U.K. media as “Britain’s Bill Gates,” was not among those rescued, said the sources, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the situation. They added that Angela Bacares, Lynch’s wife, had been plucked from the waters off the Italian island.

Lynch was among six people who were unaccounted for, The Associated Press quoted Salvo Cocina of Sicily’s civil protection agency as saying. “They were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said. Cocina also confirmed that Bacares had survived.

Italy's coast guard said in a statement that the 184-foot sailboat, named the Bayesian, sank “due to a violent storm” off Palermo at around 5 a.m. local time (11 p.m. ET) with 22 people on board. Fifteen people were rescued, and six passengers were missing, it said.

American, British and Canadian citizens were among the missing, the statement said. The coast guard said in later statement that the ship’s cook had died. It did not give the cook's nationality.  

Karsten Borner, the captain of a ship that rescued the survivors, told reporters that there was a “strong hurricane gust, and we had to start the engine to keep the ship in an angled position,” according to Reuters.

He added that they had “watched the ship behind us not to touch them and we managed to keep the ship in position.” After the storm was over, he said, “we noticed that the ship behind us was gone.”

“Fifteen people inside. Four people were injured, three heavily injured, and we brought them to our ship, he said. “Then we communicated with the coast guard, and after some time, the coast guard came and later picked up injured people.”

One of the survivors, identified as Charlotte Emsley, 35, told the Italian news agency ANSA that she had momentarily lost hold of her 1-year-old daughter, Sofia, in the water but managed to retrieve her and hold her up over the waves until a lifeboat inflated and they were pulled to safety.

“I immediately hugged her again amid the fury of the waves. I held her tight, close to me, while the sea was stormy,” she said. “Many were screaming. Luckily, the lifeboat inflated, and 11 of us managed to get on it.”

The City Council of Bagheria said in a statement that a child of that age was being treated at a children’s hospital. It said that seven adults were taken to the emergency room but that “it seems that none are in serious conditions.” 

Lynch, 59, the missing tech entrepreneur, founded the enterprise software firm Autonomy and became the target of a protracted legal battle with Hewlett-Packard after the U.S. tech giant accused him of inflating the company’s value in an $11 billion sale. Extradited from Britain to the U.S. last year to stand trial, he was acquitted of fraud after a three-month trial.

Italy’s national fire department said in a statement that “divers, a motorboat and a helicopter” had been deployed to help with the search. The wreck was at a depth of around 165 feet, the statement said.  

Divers from the Sicilian city of Sassri and Naples, a city on the Italian mainland , were “arriving on site to search inside the sunken vessel,” it said. 

Built by Italian shipbuilder Perini in 2008, the U.K.-registered Bayesian has an aluminum hull and can carry 12 guests and a crew of up to 10, according to online specialist yacht sites. Online sites list the luxury vessel for charter for up to 195,000 euros (about $215,000) a week, the AP reported.

The boat left the Sicilian port of Milazzo on Wednesday and was last tracked east of Palermo on Sunday evening, with a navigation status of “at anchor,” according to the vessel tracking app Vesselfinder.

Fabio La Bianca, 40, took a picture of the boat at around 10 p.m. local time Sunday shortly after he closed his bar in nearby Santa Flavia. “Absurd tragedy tonight. I am lost for words,” he said Monday on Facebook.

Matteo Moschella is a London-based reporter for NBC News' Social Newsgathering team.

Henry Austin is a senior editor for NBC News Digital based in London.

What we know about the capsized superyacht off the Sicilian coast

Officials were caught off guard by ferocity of storm that sank ship.

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During a vicious storm before dawn on Monday, a superyacht carrying nearly two dozen people suddenly capsized while still anchored and sank within sight of a small Sicilian fishing village. A Canadian-born man who had been working as the on-board cook died, and several others are still missing.

The authorities have yet to determine what caused the yacht to capsize, but here's what we know about the ship.

Who was on board?

Twenty-two people — 10 crew and 12 passengers — were on board the anchored ship when it went down off the coast of Porticello, less than 20 kilometres from the Sicilian capital of Palermo. 

They included one of Britain's most recognizable tech entrepreneurs, Mike Lynch, his teenage daughter, his wife, one of his lawyers as well as the president of Morgan Stanley International.

Fifteen people were rescued, including Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares. Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, are among the six people unaccounted for. Luca Cari, a spokesperson for the local fire rescue service, said they are believed to be inside the hull of the sunken ship. 

The Italian coast guard said the missing included people with British, American and Canadian nationalities.

A passenger ship anchored nearby, the Sir Robert Baden Powell, found some of the survivors on a life raft and took them on board before the coast guard picked them up.

Rescuers later recovered the body of Recaldo Thomas , the ship's cook, who was born in Canada and lived in Antigua.

'It was a big disaster,' boater says of storm that capsized luxury yacht

Salvo Cocina of Sicily's civil protection agency said the missing include: Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International, and his wife as well as Chris Morvillo, one of Lynch's lawyers, with the firm Clifford Chance, and his wife.

Cocina said the crew and passengers were from a variety of countries, including France, Germany, Ireland, Myanmar, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain.

How bad was the storm?

Officials had expected poor weather, but the severity of the storm caught them off guard.

The Italian Air Force's Centre for Aerospace Meteorology and Climatology registered intense lightning activity and strong gusts of wind in the area when the ship sank, according to its director. Col. Attilio Di Diodato told the New York Times he could not rule out that it had been a waterspout  — rotating columns of water that can form over the ocean.

Separately, Cocina told journalists that a waterspout had hit the area overnight.

"It could be that the mast broke or the anchor at the prow pulled it" as the mini tornado hit, fisherman Fabio Cefalu, who helped look for survivors, told The Associated Press.

Karsten Börner, the captain of the nearby ship that helped survivors, said he struggled to control his own ship during what he described as very strong winds.

'The ship behind us was gone,' says captain who rescued yacht passengers

A meteorologist said there was a higher risk of extreme weather in the Mediterranean Sea because recent storms and heavy rainfall after weeks of intense heat affected the water's temperature.

"The sea surface temperature around Sicily was around 30 C, which is almost three degrees more than normal. This creates an enormous source of energy that contributes to these storms," Luca Mercalli told Reuters.

"We can't say that this is all due to global warming but we can say that it has an amplifying effect."

What kind of yacht was it?

The Bayesian was 56 metres long — about half the length of an NFL football field. Perini, an Italian firm, built the ship in 2008.

It was named for English statistician Thomas Bayes, whose theories of probability influenced the software Lynch developed and with which he made his fortune.

Refitted in 2020, the ship was notable for its single 75-metre mast — one of the world's tallest made of aluminum. It was lit up at night, including just hours before it sank.

The boat left the Sicilian port of Milazzo on Aug. 14. It was last tracked east of Palermo on Sunday evening with a navigation status of "at anchor," according to vessel tracking app Vesselfinder.

According to the shipspotting.com website, the boat was owned by a firm called Revtom Limited. Lynch's wife is named as the sole shareholder of the firm on company documents.

Where is the wreck now?

Police divers spent the day trying to reach the hull of the ship, which was resting where it had been anchored at a depth of 50 metres off Porticello.

Rescuers returned to the site after 10 p.m. to see if it would be possible to search through the night, when weather conditions were expected to worsen, said Luca Cari with the fire rescue service.

The U.K. Marine Accident Investigation Branch is deploying a team of four inspectors to Italy to conduct a preliminary assessment.

With files from Reuters and The Associated Press

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One dead, six missing after luxury superyacht capsizes off Sicily coast

The boat, that was carrying tourists including British tech giant Mike Lynch, sank due to rough weather conditions.

One person has died and six remain missing after a luxury superyacht with 22 people on board sank off the Sicilian coast, according to Italian authorities.

The missing included British tech giant Mike Lynch, his daughter Hannah Lynch, his lawyer and others, Italy’s civil protection and authorities said on Monday. Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares and 14 other people survived.

Italy’s coastguard and firefighters brought 15 people to safety on Monday after the 50-metre (164-foot) sailboat capsized at about 5am (03:00 GMT) due to rough winds and choppy waters caused by a waterspout, Italian media reported.

One body was located in the wreck at a depth of about 50 metres, a coastguard spokesman told the AFP news agency. The victim is understood to be a man and was the yacht’s onboard chef, according to Italian media.

The boat was carrying 12 passengers and 10 crew members. The missing people were of British, American and Canadian nationality, the coastguard said.

A one-year-old girl was among those rescued, along with her mother.

A survivor identified as Charlotte Golunski said she had momentarily lost hold of her one-year-old daughter Sofia in the water, but then managed to hold her up over the waves until a lifeboat inflated and they were both pulled to safety, Italian news agency ANSA reported, quoting the mother.

“It was terrible. The boat was hit by really strong wind and shortly after it went down,” she added.

Eight people out of 15 rescued have been hospitalised, and all 15 are in stable condition, according to Italian news agency Adnkronos.

Watersprout

The chartered sailboat sank off Porticello, when a waterspout struck the area overnight, said Salvo Cocina of Sicily’s civil protection agency.

According to National Geographic, a waterspout roughly resembles a mini-tornado over a body of water. It likely occurred as storms and heavy rainfall have hit Italy in recent days – with floods and landslides causing damage in the north – after weeks of scorching heat.

“I was at home when the tornado struck,” fisherman Pietro Asciutto told ANSA. “I immediately closed all the windows. Then I saw the boat, it just had one mast, it was really big. I saw it suddenly sink.”

Another witness quoted by the agency said: “The boat was all lit up. Around 4:30 am, it was no longer there. A beautiful boat where there was a party. A normal joyous vacation day at sea turned into tragedy.”

Storms and heavy rainfall have swept down Italy in recent days after weeks of scorching heat, which had lifted the temperature of the Mediterranean sea to record levels, raising the risk of extreme weather conditions, experts said.

“The sea surface temperature around Sicily was around 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), which is almost 3 degrees more than normal. This creates an enormous source of energy that contributes to these storms,” said meteorologist Luca Mercalli.

“We can’t say that this is all due to global warming but we can say that it has an amplifying effect,” he told Reuters.

Italian prosecutors in the nearby town of Termini Imerese have opened an investigation to look into what had gone wrong.

Meanwhile, fire department divers are scouring areas around the boat, which was flying a British flag. Helicopters are also aiding rescue efforts, authorities said.

Camper & Nicholsons, the managers of the yacht, said in a statement that they were “assisting with the ongoing search” for the missing people.

A UK foreign ministry spokesperson said British officials were in contact with local authorities and are willing to provide consular support to its citizens who were affected.

ANSA said the boat, named “Bajesian”, had been moored in the port at Porticello and had set sail on Sunday evening.

The vessel was built by Italian shipbuilding firm Perini Navi in 2008.

Captain presumed dead, 6 rescued after boat capsizes on Columbia River

HOOD RIVER Ore. (KPTV) - After over a day of searching for a boat captain who went missing Wednesday when his boat capsized, the search has been classified as a recovery mission.

Six people who were aboard the boat were pulled from the water and taken to shore. Two of the people rescued were taken to the hospital.

The captain of the ship, the only other person on board, is missing, according to Hood River Police. He has been identified as 26-year-old Michael Shufeldt of Woodland, WA. He is now presumed dead after not being found near the boat.

At about 11:30 a.m., the Hood River County Sheriff’s Office and multiple other law enforcement agencies responded to the call of a capsized boat in the Columbia River near the mouth of the White Salmon River.

The boat was found at about 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Columbia River at a depth of about 40 feet near the mouth of the White Salmon River. Attempts to recover the boat are still ongoing.

Search and rescue attempts continued Thursday with additional resources, but Shufeldt was not found.

The fishing guide boat capsized because of reportedly rapidly deteriorating weather conditions.

Condtitions at the time the boat capsized were said to be treacherous, and the commercial guide boat capsized after taking a large wave over the stern of the boat.

Preliminary evidence suggests that it was a tragic accident.

The Hood River County Sheriff’s Office is continuing the search efforts but now characterizes the search as a recovery mission.

The investigation found that the boat was a 24′ North River fishing boat that had been last seen in the area of the green navigation buoy near the White Salmon inlet.

The names of those involved have not been released by the sheriff’s office out of respect for the families involved.

Copyright 2024 KPTV-KPDX. All rights reserved.

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Could Open Hatches or a Large Mast Have Contributed to Sicily Yacht Sinking? What We Know So Far

Questions remain about what exactly led a large luxury yacht to seemingly sink in minutes off the coast of Sicily

Abigail Adams is a Human Interest Writer and Reporter for PEOPLE. She has been working in journalism for seven years.

Lo Bianco/Anadolu via Getty

As the search for the missing continues , questions remain about what exactly led a large luxury yacht to seemingly sink in minutes off the coast of Sicily — and investigators are still looking for answers more than 48 hours later.

There were 22 people on board when the  Bayesian , a 183-foot vessel, sank around 5 a.m. local time on Monday, Aug. 19, off the coast of Porticello, the Italian coast guard said in a statement that was previously obtained by PEOPLE.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, 15 people were rescued, according to the coast guard. Six people were declared missing after the yacht sank — and five bodies have since been found in the wreckage — while a body was also separately retrieved near the vessel and later identified as chef Recaldo Thomas.

One theory is that the boat capsized after being struck by a waterspout (which refers to a tornado over the water), though there may have been more factors at play that contributed to the sinking. 

Jonathan Brady/PA Images via Getty Images

"The dynamics aren't clear — lightning, mini tornado, water spout, it's not clear exactly what happened," one person close to the search efforts tells PEOPLE. "The most likely hypothesis is that the cause was indeed a tornado that began at land and then sped out off coast and became a waterspout at sea with a speed of more than [180 miles] per hour, to the point that it managed to practically sink the ship whilst causing minimum damage to both the mast and the hull."

"Eyewitnesses said the boat went down in minutes," this person adds.

The source says the vessel’s upper hatches could have been open at the time of the disaster, which would have caused the boat to quickly fill up with water. The source also says that large amounts of water may have flowed onto the ship through the hatches as the vessel rocked back and forth during the storm.

“This would be the only thing that could cause the hull to rear up which, as several survivors told the investigators, made the ship sink in literally 60 seconds​​​​​​​​​​​​​​,” the source says.

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The boat’s 236-foot mast may also have also played a role in allowing the boat to rock, similar to a pendulum.

Speaking with the BBC , Matthew Schanck, chair of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, said that the large mast may have acted more like a sail during the strong winds.

As for whether it broke, Karsten Borner, a captain on a nearby boat who saw what happened and helped rescue survivors , told an Italian newspaper that he did see the mast "bend and then snap," according to the BBC .

"The evidence that we are getting from the divers is the vessel is basically intact, lying on its side reportedly," Schanck, the chair of the outside search and rescue council, said while speaking with the BBC. "If the mast was broken, that would be a significant thing that would be reported."

 ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images

 Another factor that could have caused the yacht to lose stability was its movable keel, which is an underwater blade designed to help keep boats upright and prevent them from swaying back and forth, the source close to the investigation tells PEOPLE. They say that the 30-foot keel was allegedly retracted to about 13 feet when the storm hit, while natural experts say it would have been strange to retract the keel at that location if the crew knew bad weather was approaching.

Speaking with USA Today , meteorologist Rick Shema said that while the waterspout "was an uncommon occurrence" that "these things happen, especially in warmer water."

Schema went on to note that on the day the ship sank, the water was about 3 degrees hotter than on average, which can likely be attributed to climate change.

One person still remains missing as crews continue to investigate the fatal incident, a source close to the investigation previously told PEOPLE.

The six people who disappeared after the storm are British entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah, New York City-based lawyer Christopher Morvillo and his wife, Neda, as well as Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy.

Authorities have not confirmed the identities of the five victims already removed from the wreckage. 

Search efforts are ongoing, officials say, including inspection of the wreck. 

Related Articles

6 rescued, 1 still missing after fishing boat capsizes on Columbia River

• Updated: Sep. 26, 2024, 7:56 a.m.
• | Published: Sep. 26, 2024, 6:31 a.m.

Northwest news from The Oregonian/OregonLive.

• The Oregonian/OregonLive Public Safety Team

Six people were rescued after a fishing boat capsized on the Columbia River on Wednesday, but another person remains missing, the Hood River Sheriff’s Office reported.

Rescuers arrived at the 24-foot boat near the mouth of the White Salmon River within 15 minutes of a 911 call coming in. They quickly pulled the six fishers out of the water, officials said. Two were taken to a local hospital.

Officials have not released any details about what happened or the names of those rescued.

The search for the missing person, who also hasn’t been publicly identified, will resume Thursday morning, the sheriff’s office said.

The search on the water by multiple law-enforcement and civilian vessels was aided by a Hood River County Sheriff’s Office plane and a Coast Guard helicopter.

-- The Oregonian/OregonLive

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2 adults, 2 children rescued after duck hunting boat capsizes in Douglas County

File photo of water. (Photo by Ernst Haas/Ernst Haas/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

OSAKIS TOWNSHIP, Minn. (FOX 9) - A hunting group that included two adults and two children were rescued by authorities after their duck hunting boat capsized in a Douglas County, Minnesota lake. 

What we know

According to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, around 6 a.m., authorities responded to a report of two adults and two children who had their duck hunting boat capsized on Bird Lake. The four were able to hold onto the boat until rescue units arrived. 

Law enforcement says the group was having a hard time staying afloat as their waders were filling up with water. 

All the hunters were ultimately rescued, and were treated at the scene for hypothermia exposure. 

According to authorities, nobody in the group was wearing life jackets at the time, and there were not enough life jackets in the boat for everyone. 

What we don't know

Authorities did not say how the boat capsized. 

No other injuries were reported. 

Captain missing, 6 people rescued after fishing boat capsizes on river, officials say

HOOD RIVER Ore. ( KPTV /Gray News) - The captain of a fishing guide boat is the only person missing after the ship capsized Wednesday on a river in Oregon.

The Hood River County Sheriff’s Office along with other law enforcement agencies responded to a call of a capsized boat in the Columbia River near the mouth of the White Salmon River around 11:30 a.m.

Officials said six people on the boat were pulled from the water and taken to shore. Two of those rescued were taken to the hospital.

The captain of the ship was the only other person on board. He is still missing, according to Hood River Police.

Investigators said the boat was a 24-foot North River fishing boat last seen in the area of the green navigation buoy near the White Salmon inlet.

The sheriff’s office has not released the names of the people involved out of respect for the families.

The investigation and search for the captain will continue.

Copyright 2024 KPTV via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

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2 adults, 2 children rescued after boat capsizes in Douglas County

Four people were rescued after their boat capsized in Douglas County Saturday morning.

According to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, officials received a 911 call at 6:08 a.m. that two adults and two children had capsized their duck hunting boat on Bird Lake in Osakis Township.

All four hunters were able to hold onto the boat while a Douglas County Sheriff’s Office Water Patrol boat and Dive Team Airboat responded to the scene. As officials were responding, it was reported that the hunters were having a hard time staying afloat because their waders had filled with water.

Deputies arrived on scene and were able to rescue all four people, who were treated for hypothermia exposure, according to officials.

The sheriff’s office states that none of the hunters were wearing life jackets and there were not enough life jackets for everyone in the boat.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office reminds all people out on the water to wear or have a life jacket immediately accessible and to make sure there is one for each person.

Search for missing boat captain on Columbia River now a recovery mission, police say

A boat captain who went missing on the Columbia River late Wednesday morning after his boat capsized is presumed to be dead, according to the Hood River Sheriff's Office.

As of Thursday evening, the search for the boater, identified as Michael Shufeldt of Woodland, Washington, is now being described as a recovery mission.

At around 2 p.m. Thursday, Shufeldt's vessel was located with help from the Skamania County Dive Team. The boat was at a depth near 40 feet near the mouth of the White Salmon River, on the north side of the Columbia River. The boat has yet to be recovered.

Information gathered indicates the sinking was a result of deteriorating weather conditions. The commercial vessel capsized after taking a large wave over the stern.

It was reported that six people were on the boat and rescued from the water, with two taken to a hospital.

"Conditions at the time of the accident were treacherous, and preliminary evidence suggests a tragic accident," a news release said.

Elliott Deins is an outdoor reporting intern for the Statesman Journal. You can reach him at [email protected]

9 dead as boat carrying migrants capsizes off Spain’s Canary Islands

Spanish authorities say nine people have died and another 48 are missing after a boat carrying migrants capsized during a rescue operation near the Canary Islands

MADRID — Nine people have died and another 48 are missing after a boat carrying migrants capsized during a rescue operation near the Canary Islands , Spanish authorities said Saturday.

Spain’s maritime rescue service said that the tragedy occurred after it was alerted to the presence of a small boat loaded with people some 6 1/2 kilometers (4 miles) from the island of El Hierro. The boat turned over when too many people moved to one side during the rescue attempt, according to a statement by the rescue service.

Rescuers have saved 27 people and confirmed nine dead.

The service said that the scue operation was made more difficult because it was carried out during the night and under gusts of winds that reached 20 knots. Rescue craft and helicopters of the maritime rescue service, the Civil Guard, the Red Cross and the local government all participated in the operation.

The Atlantic route for migrants from West Africa to the Canary Islands is one of the deadliest in the world . While there is no accurate death toll because of the lack of information on departures from West Africa, Spanish migrant rights group Walking Borders estimates the victims are in the thousands.

Over 26,000 people have arrived via sea to the Canary Islands so far this year, compared to some 14,000 in the same period last year.

Located nearer to Africa than mainland Spain, the archipelago seen by most as a step toward continental Europe. Many come from Mali as well as youth from Senegal , Mauritania and other West African countries seeking better job opportunities abroad or fleeing violence and political instability.

Follow AP coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/migration