Bayesian shipbuilder claims crew had the time to save lives

Giovanni Costantino, of Italian Sea Group, says Bayesian superyacht was ‘one of the safest in the world’ and reveals the doomed vessel took 16 minutes to take on water.

The 55m Bayesian superyacht is owned by Angela Bacares, wife of British technology entrepreneur Mike Lynch.

The chief executive of the firm that built the Bayesian superyacht has claimed the crew would have had time to avert disaster.

Giovanni Costantino, who leads the Italian Sea Group, suggested the doors of the vessel may have been left open during the freak tornado that hit the yacht on Monday morning.

The Italian Sea Group owns Perini Navi, the manufacturer of the Bayesian superyacht, which was built in 2008 and purchased by Angela Bacares, the wife of Mike Lynch, in 2014.

Costantino told The Times that the vessel was “like a pendulum” and designed to return upright even when tilted at an angle of 87.6 degrees – almost horizontal.

“That’s if there is no water inside the yacht, but I suspect there was,” Costantino said. “I have studied the tracking data which shows that at 3.50am on Monday, when it was at anchor, it moved 400m in four minutes, probably dragging the anchor and likely taking on water.

“A video taken from the shore then shows it on its side … where the lights on the mast fade and it goes down at 4.06am. The lights will have failed due to a short circuit, and that happens due to water.”

Costantino said he suspected a large door, low down on the hull, which was close to the engine room and used to enter the yacht from its tender, was left open.

Commenting on speculation the crew raised the yacht’s keel, rendering it less stable, he said: “I don’t see that as a factor since even when it’s up, the yacht can lean over at 73 degrees and still right itself.”

He also suggested the crew should have gathered the passengers at an assembly point.

“It’s absurd they were in their cabins,” Costantino said. “Local fishermen saw the storm was coming, why did no one on board the Bayesian realise? From 3.50am, the captain had four minutes to get the passengers out of their cabins.”

Questioning the crew’s judgment, he said: “They should have jettisoned the anchor, started the engine, pointed the bows to the wind and put the keel down.

“If they had done that, no one on board would have been afraid, they would have been back to bed in an hour and ready to push on with their voyage. Their fate gives me unending pain.”

The yacht’s captain has also spoken about the freak tornado that hit the vessel. James Cutfield, 51, told Italian media: “We didn’t see it coming.”

Prosecutors from the nearby town of Termini Imerese questioned Cutfield for more than two hours on Tuesday.

Originally from Auckland, New Zealand, he was described as a “well-respected” lifelong seafarer.

His brother, Mark Cutfield, said he had captained luxury yachts for eight years, worked on them since he was a teenager and was a “very good sailor”.

On Wednesday, Mark Cutfield told The New Zealand Herald that his brother was recovering in hospital and his injuries were not “too dramatic”.

The Times