Rescuers Find Five Bodies Aboard the Sunken ‘Bayesian’ Superyacht

The underwater search of the 180-foot Bayesian has entered its third day, following its sudden sinking near the Sicilian port of Porticello. Five bodies have been recovered inside the yacht of the six missing members. The yacht’s owner Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah have been identified. The others include Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International, and his wife, Judy Bloomer; and attorney Christopher J. Morvillo and his wife, Neda Morvillo.

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The boat’s rapid sinking happened at about 4 a.m. local time on Monday, after a waterspout, or a small, localized tornado on the water, caused the vessel to heel over and eventually capsize, sending it about 165 feet to the bottom of the Mediterranean. Fifteen people were rescued by a nearby vessel. Authorities identified the body of Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian Antiguan, who worked as the sailing yacht’s chef.

The celebratory trip aboard Bayesian took place shortly after Lynch was acquitted of fraud charges in the U.S. in a long-running legal battle against accusations that he had defrauded Hewlett-Packard after he sold Hewlett his company, Autonomy, for $11 billion.

Boat International has quoted a crew member as saying that the boat was struck by a freak weather event, which caused it to heel 20 degrees on its right side. It continued to heel until it began to take on water and sank in just 12 minutes. “We just didn’t see it coming,” Capt. James Calfield told Italian media.

An anonymous superyacht captain speculated to Boat International that water entering through the top via open doors and windows could have caused the sinking, given that no breaches have been reported in the hull. Some witnesses have said that the mast snapped before the boat sank, but divers report the vessel is intact on the sea bottom.

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David Hutchinson, captain of Bayesian ’s sistership Rosehearty , both built by Perini Navi, told BI that it was “very difficult to understand what could have overwhelmed a vessel of that size, calling the sailing superyacht series “bulletproof.”

“We’ve been to Antarctica and Chile and we’ve had her in 70 knots of wind,” Hutchinson added. He mentioned that a key difference between the two vessels was Bayesian ’s 243-foot-tall mast, one of the tallest in the superyacht world. That would’ve made the vessel heavier and could have added windage during the storm.

Prosecutors in the Italian city of Termini Imerse are opening a formal investigation into the yacht’s sinking, according to The New York Times .

Dario Boote, a ship structures and naval architecture professor at the University of Genoa, told paper that he expects a series of lawsuits to determine responsibility. “Clearly, only once the wreck is raised will we know more,” he said.

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