The key unanswered question is how this happened.
Perini Navi Press Office/Handout/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
The Baysian luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily on August 19th.
What started as a celebration on a luxury yacht off the coast of Sicily ended in tragedy on Monday, August 19. The 183-foot-long Baisian is said to have quickly sunk beneath the waves of the Tyrrhenian Sea after what the Italian Coast Guard called a “ferocious storm.”
Authorities said there were 22 people on board the boat, including 12 passengers and 10 crew members.
Fifteen people were quickly rescued after the Baysian sank, and by Friday, August 23, the bodies of all seven victims had been found after a complex and drawn-out search and rescue operation, sources told People magazine.
Among the dead were British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah.
Sicilian authorities are expected to release more information this weekend, so here’s what you need to know about the tragedy.
What is Bayesian Yachting?
Built in 2008 by Perini Navi and acclaimed for its interior design by Rémi Tessier and naval architecture by Ron Holland, the luxury vessel was refurbished in 2020 to include six suites that can accommodate as many as 12 passengers, plus living quarters for 10 crew members – the same size as the travel group that was on board when the yacht sank this week.
It was previously called Salute, but Bayesian appears to be a nod to Lynch’s background and a reference to the type of mathematical modeling used at his software company, Autonomy.
Notably, the Bayesian is touted to have the world’s largest “aluminum mast” at approximately 246 feet.
Other features included special design elements that, as one rental company put it, “prioritized outdoor entertaining,” such as a large covered salon. The interiors were also intended to “exude an intimate, pure, and natural feel,” according to the rental company’s description. Historic photos show rooms decorated in warmly lit neutrals and creams.
Perini Navi Press Office/Handout/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
The Baysian luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily on August 19th.
Where was the Bayesian Yacht when the storm hit?
According to the Italian Coast Guard, the Basian was off the coast of Porticello, on the northern tip of Sicily, when the disaster occurred on August 19.
A source close to the survivors previously told People magazine that passengers were celebrating after Lynch, who headlines have dubbed Britain’s “Bill Gates”, was acquitted in June of a US financial fraud trial linked to the 2011 sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion.
“That’s why he brought his closest friends and colleagues on the trip,” the source said.
Lynch himself has reflected on how his life has changed since emerging from the shadow of his legal troubles, telling Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper in late July that he feels like he’s been given a “second life.”
But “the question is what do you want to do with it?” he said.
Who was on board the yacht before it sank?
The 12 passengers included Lynch, his daughter Hannah and his wife Angela Bacalez, Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy Bloomer, New York City lawyer Christopher Morvillo and his wife, jewelry designer Neda Morvillo, Charlotte Gornski and her partner James, their daughter Sophie, and Ira Ronald, a colleague of Christopher Morvillo’s at his law firm.
The BBC reports that Ronald was also there with her partner.
The 10 crew members included cook Recardo Thomas, one of the seven who died, and reportedly James Cutfield and the captain. One deck steward was a 19-year-old South African who was on his first such voyage, according to The New York Times.
Perini Navi Press Office/Handout/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
The Baysian luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily on August 19th.
Handout/Vigili del Fuoco/AFP (via Getty)
Divers participate in a search and rescue operation for the crew of the Bayesian yacht, which sank off the coast of Sicily.
Who was rescued from the yacht?
Bacalez, Ronald and his partner, Gornski and their families, and nine other crew members survived the sinking, some of whom were “swiftly rescued by nearby boats,” the Coast Guard said.
Karsten Borner, the captain of a nearby boat, said he saw the yacht sink quickly.
“It all happened in a really short amount of time,” he told Italian news outlet Rai, according to the BBC.
“The storm had passed and we noticed the boat behind us had disappeared,” Borner told the BBC. “Then we saw a red flare, so my chief mate and I went over and found the life raft adrift. [with] There are 15 people in it.”
Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty
People embrace each other at Porticello pier near Palermo, Sicily, on August 22, three days after the sinking of the British-flagged luxury yacht “Bayesian.”
Who died in the sinking?
Italian authorities have yet to release the names of all seven victims, but a government official told Reuters that Lynch was among the dead and that the chef’s body had been identified to People magazine and other media by a local source involved in the investigation.
Five other passengers were initially listed as missing, but officials said five more bodies were later found at the scene of the crash: Lynch’s daughters Hannah, Jonathan and Judy Bloomer, and Christopher and Neda Morvillo.
Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty
Mike Lynch
Family Handout/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Hannah Lynch
Why did the Bayesian sink?
This has emerged as perhaps the key question in this tragedy, and the answer remains unknown.
One theory is that the ship was struck by a waterspout (tornado) and capsized, but there may have been other factors that contributed to the sinking.
“The cause is unclear. It could have been lightning, a small tornado, a plume of water, it’s not clear what happened,” a person close to the search effort told People magazine. “The most likely hypothesis is that the cause was indeed a tornado that started on land and then shot out from the coast and became a plume of water over the ocean moving at over 100 meters per hour.” [180 miles] In an hour, it was possible to virtually sink the ship with minimal damage to both the masts and the hull.”
“Eyewitnesses said the ship sank within minutes,” the person added.
The source said the ship’s upper hatches may have been open at the time of the accident, which would have allowed the vessel to fill with water quickly. It’s also possible that the vessel was rocking back and forth during the storm, allowing a large amount of water to enter through the hatches.
“This was the only thing that lifted the vessel and, according to several survivors who told investigators, literally caused the ship to sink in 60 seconds,” the source said.
Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty
Neda (left) and Christopher Morvillo
Sources close to the investigation told People magazine that another factor that caused the yacht to lose stability was its movable keel, an underwater blade designed to keep the vessel upright and stop it from rocking back and forth.
The 30-foot keel was reportedly retracted to about 13 feet when the storm hit, but natural history experts say it would have been odd to retract the keel in that spot if the crew knew bad weather was approaching.
The ship’s 236-foot mast may have also acted as a pendulum to rock the ship.
“This is an incredible story, both technically and factually,” Giovanni Costantino, head of Italian Sea Group, which now owns Perini Navi, the company that built the Bayesian in 2008, said, according to CNN.
In an interview with PEOPLE, Costantino was more cautious.
“Of course, I can’t say for sure. [what happened]”But what I am certain of is that the only reason a yacht, especially one with Perini Navigation technology, will sink is if it gets wet,” he says.
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Read the original article on People.
