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Luxury superyachts like the Baysian, which capsized and sank early Monday morning with more than a dozen people on board, are typically built to withstand extreme weather conditions, but not all are 100% guaranteed, one expert says.
Fox News Digital spoke with eSysman of the YouTube channel “eSysman SuperYachts” to find out what happened to the vessel.
The presenter, who publicly identifies himself as eSysman, told Fox News Digital that a high-performance yacht like the Bayesian should typically be able to withstand “extreme weather conditions,” but added that “there are always limits.”
“Of course, weather is taken into account when planning a voyage. Wind, wave size and wave frequency are studied and accurate weather forecasting is improving every year, but it’s still not 100%,” eSysman said, noting that ultimately the captain is in charge.
Who is Mike Lynch, the British tech entrepreneur who went missing after his yacht sank?
This photo, taken at approximately 20:00 GMT on Sunday, August 18, 2024, shows the British ship Baysian (left) and the Dutch sailing ship Sir Robert Baden-Powell anchored off the coast of the Sicily village of Porticello, near Palermo in southern Italy. (Fabio La Bianca/Baia Santa Nicolicia via The Associated Press)
The Baysian, famous for its 246-foot single aluminium mast – one of the tallest in the world – was lit up at night hours before it sank and was being offered for hire on online charter sites for up to 195,000 euros (about $215,000) a week.
Sicily’s civil defense authorities said a waterspout, a type of tornado over water, hit the area overnight.
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and five others are missing after their luxury superyacht sank in a freak storm off the coast of Sicily early Monday, authorities said.
Lynch’s wife and 14 others survived. Lynch is one of six people still missing after the chartered yacht he was on sank just after 4 a.m. off the coast of the Italian city of Porticello, near Palermo.
This screenshot from the handout, taken from a video provided by Corpo Nazionale dei Vigili dei del Fuoco, shows an Italian Coast Guard vessel at the scene of a sunken ship in Palermo, Italy, on August 19, 2024. (Corpo Nazionale dei Vigili dei del Fuoco, Getty Images)
“There’s always a chance that someone might survive, which is why search and rescue efforts continue no matter how unlikely it is,” Easisman said, “but survival times are short in cold water.”
If the vessel is caught in a strong wind, eSysman will: [they] The boat starts its engines and maneuvers itself into a position where the wind is over the bow, while keeping the sides and sides of the boat from fighting the wind.
“It is unclear whether the yacht was anchored or underway. Eyewitnesses reported that the vessel was anchored in the bay, but the missing position in AIS data indicates it was underway, so it is unclear which is correct,” eSysman said.
“AIS” stands for “Automatic Identification System” and is a short-range coastal tracking system used by ships.
According to their YouTube channel, the eSysman SuperYachts team is made up of current and former maritime professionals, and eSysman himself has over 20 years of experience in the industry, working on a variety of superyachts of all sizes, including some of the largest in the world.
The crew and passengers of the Baysian came from a variety of countries: in addition to the UK and the US, passengers and crew came from Antigua, France, Germany, Ireland, Myanmar, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain.
The UK Maritime Accidents Investigation Branch is sending a team of four investigators to Italy to carry out a preliminary investigation, and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it was “providing consular assistance to a large number of British nationals and their families”.
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Built in 2008 by Italy’s Perini Navi, the yacht has four double cabins, one triple cabin and one master suite, plus accommodations for crew, and can accommodate a total of 12 passengers, according to Charter World and Yacht Charters.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.