Sicily Superyacht Sinking: What Really Caused It?
When a waterspout hit this sloop off the the coast of Porticello the results were fatal.
Above: Parisfal, the sister ship to Bayesian. Image via Vesselfinder.
Sicily's Sunken Yacht: What We Know About The Tragedy So Far
On August 19th, four days ago, at 4am, a Perini Navi supersized sloop worth $39 Million, Bayesian, sank off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo. Of 10 crew members and 12 passengers onboard, six confirmed deaths and one person missing.
UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch organized the trip to mark his recent victory in a 13-year £8 billion fraud acquittal. He was accused of an $9 billion fraud linked to the sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard.
Divers searching the wreck of a superyacht that sank off Sicily have identified and recovered bodies brought up from the wreck so far, including that of Mike Lynch and his wife, his lawyer Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda, Jonathan Bloomer, the chair of Morgan Stanley International, and his wife Judy and Chris Morvillo, a lawyer working for London-based law firm Clifford Chance and his wife, Neda, a jewelry designer. Also on board was the Bayesian's chef Recardo Thomas, an Antiguan citizen.
Divers are still searching for the body of Mike Lynch's eighteen-year-old daughter Hannah. The wreckage may need to be hoisted out of the water to retrieve it.
What Happened During Those Early Hours?
A 3.50am on Monday the Bayesian began to shake violently in a turbulent storm. Then came the sound of glass smashing, followed by the lights tripping. Within 16 minutes, the alleged unsinkable yacht descended to the depths of the lightless ocean.
Security camera footage of the ship taken from the shore shows the lights on its mast going out. Watch the CCTV footage of the boat sinking, courtesy of The Times.
Karsten Borner, Captain of the Sir Robert Baden Powell, docked near the Bayesian, described how he had noticed inclement weather around 3am. "We started our engines to keep the ship in position and had the other yacht behind us. A moment later, she was gone, and it couldn't be clear what happened," he said, according to AP Newsroom. After seeing a red flare Borner fired by a crew member, his ship's tender went to rescue survivors from the water, one of which was a mother holding her one-year-old baby in the air.
According to The Sun, witnesses reported seeing a tornado later clarified as a swirling cloud of air known as a waterspout striking the ship. Officials have confirmed that large volumes of water entering the boat are what caused it to topple over. What needs to be clarified at this stage is how the water entered the vessel.
Initially, there was speculation that the mast could have broken and pierced the hull, flooding it with water; however, that theory has been debunked since the divers and crew confirmed that the ship was not dismasted. AIS data also confirms that the vessel was dragged 358 metres through the water during the storm. While an emergency GPS signal was finally emitted to the coastguard station in Bari at 4:06 am, sadly, they were alerted too late. The yacht had already descended into the water, with the guests trapped inside their cabins.
For as long as tragedies exist, conspiracy theories follow. There was an ill twist of fate days before this event. Mike Lynch's co-defendant, Stephen Chamberlain, was involved in a US trial and was associated with selling his software company to Hewlett-Packard. He died after being hit by a car while out running in Cambridgeshire on Saturday morning.
Bayesian Shipyard Perini Navi Comments
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of the Italian Sea Group, who bought Perini Navi two years ago, is in a state of disbelief and says that the story is "Unbelievable both technically and as a fact" and claims that the ship is unsinkable and that the sinking happened as a result of an artificial error.
In the video, Constantino addresses questions about the structural integrity of the 'unsinkable' ships. He claims that Perini Navi's sailing ships are incredibly safe for two reasons. The first is that they have very little surface area, compared with a yacht facing into the wind, combined with a drift keel fitted to prevent the vessel from drifting to leeward. "From the images it looks as if the yacht had been taking on water for four minutes. All it took was another gust of wind to turn her over, which meant more water coming in. She then straightened very briefly before going down." says Costantino. However, it needs to be clarified at this stage which images he is referencing.
Costantino said the primary cause of the yacht's sinking was "A massive amount of water coming through open portholes," perhaps for as long as 16 minutes. Whether he knows that the portholes were open or not is murky since he has no information to back this up. He also listed what he believes were a series of crew errors: the stern hatch was allegedly left open, the ship's keel not being fully lowered, guests not directed out of their cabins, and most importantly, pre-empting the oncoming storm and preparing accordingly.
Diving Search Mission
The yacht was discovered on its side, approximately 165 feet below the surface. Divers searching for the missing bodies could only remain underwater for a limited time. Their mission was made more complex by broken furniture and fixings obstructing tight spaces inside the hull.
What Type Of Boat Sank?
The 185-foot (56-meter) British-flagged "Bayesian" is a flybridge sloop delivered in 2008. Ron Holland Design carried out the supersized sloop's naval architecture and constructed with an aluminum hull and superstructure. Its mast stands at a teetering 242 feet, making it the world's largest aluminum mast. These classic-style sailing sloops are often seen racing in The Bucket in St. Barth and built to strict European certification standards. It is unheard of for a vessel of this size and with the structural integrity that the shipyard is renowned not to withstand stormy weather, as verified by captains of similar ships.
Revtom owns Bayesian, a company registered on the Isle of Man, under the late Angela Bacares name, Mike Lynch's wife.
The yacht's name, Bayesian derives from the Bayesian theory, Mike Lynch's PhD thesis and the software that made his fortune was founded on.
Once a thorough investigation has been carried out in conjunction with first-hand reports of the survivors, these burning questions will be answered.
"Great dreams should never come to an end," said Giovanni Costino, Founder and CEO of The Italian Sea Group, the shipbuilder. These words have taken on a whole new meaning. Our thoughts are with the victims' families and loved ones during this difficult time.
Stay tuned with boats.com to find out more about this tragic and incredibly rare case.
If you are interested in sloops you might be interested in Royal Huisman Turns One Colossal Hull: The World's Largest Sloop
