1 dead, 6 missing — including 2 Americans — after tornado sinks yacht, the Bayesian, off Sicily

A luxury superyacht capsized off the coast of Sicily after a tornado hit the area early Monday, killing one passenger and leaving six others missing — including a tech tycoon known as “Britain’s Bill Gates,” officials said.

The Bayesian — a 184-foot luxury sailboat with 22 people aboard — sank off the port of Porticello when it was hit by a violent storm at sunrise, the Italian coast guard said.

The boat was found 160 feet beneath the water’s surface, and the coast guard deployed divers to search the submerged vessel for survivors.

One body, believed to belong to the ship’s chef, was found near the wreck, local media reported.

Six others were missing as of Monday morning, including the vessel’s owner, British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, sources told Reuters and t he Independent .

Mom of baby rescued from capsized superyacht the Bayesian describes how she saved little girl from wreck

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, were among the missing, according to Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacaras, the Telegraph reported.

Bacaras, who is the sole shareholder of the firm that owns the yacht, was rescued along with 14 others from the yacht.

One of the survivors, Giornale Di Sicilia, 35, described how she and her 1-year-old daughter survived the harrowing experience.

“For two seconds I lost my baby in the sea, then I immediately hugged her again amid the fury of the waves,” she said.

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

The captain was also among the survivors, an Italian coast guard spokesperson told CNN.

Tech tycoon Mike Lynch, teen daughter among missing after deadly tornado sinks massive yacht Bayesian off coast of Sicily

A helicopter and rescue boats from the coast guard, carabinieri, fire rescue and civil protection service were at the scene early Monday searching for those who had not been accounted for, according to the Australian Associated Press.

The massive yacht, the Bayesian, flies under the British flag and can reach a maximum speed of 15 knots (17 mph).

Twelve of its passengers were guests while 10 were crew.

The boat left the Sicilian port of Milazzo on Aug. 14 and was last tracked east of Palermo on Sunday evening, according to vessel tracking app Vesselfinder.

Lynch, often referred to as “Britain’s Bill Gates,” is one of the UK’s most prominent tech entrepreneurs.

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He founded enterprise software firm Autonomy, which he sold for $11 billion to Hewlett Packard for $11.7 billion in 2011.

However, HP later sued Lynch claiming he overstated the value of the company, and ultimately took a $8.8 billion writedown on the purchase, later blaming “accounting irregularities” for overpaying for Autonomy.

Last year Lynch was extradited to the US to stand trial for fraud charges over HP’s allegations, but he was acquitted last June. The jaunt on the Bayesian was intended as a celebration of the tech magnate’s acquittal, according to the Telegraph .

Lynch had invited guests from the legal firm that represented him, Clifford Chance, and Invoke Capital, his own company, on the voyage, the outlet reported.

The doomed vessel was on its way to Palermo, originally departing from Positano, a village on the southern Amalfi Coast, on July 30, according to marinetraffic.com .

Its last docking location was in the town of Milazzo on Wednesday.

The ship’s manufacturer, Perini Navi, says on its website that the Bayesian’s aluminum mast is the tallest in the world — measuring nearly 250-feet.

With Post wires

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