Why did the yacht Bayesian sink? How the tragedy unfolded
A photo taken from the deck of the Bayesian at dusk showed an idyllic scene: calm blue seas and orange skies. Within hours it had turned into the stuff of nightmares as the superyacht, with 22 aboard including billionaire Mike Lynch, sank after being hit by a freak ‘tornado’.
The photograph taken from the deck of the Bayesian at dusk on Sunday depicted an idyllic scene, with calm blue seas, orange skies and a dipping sun.
Within hours it had turned into the stuff of nightmares as the superyacht, carrying 12 passengers and 10 crew, sank after being hit by a freak “tornado” off the coast of Sicily.
The tech tycoon Mike Lynch had planned the cruise as a celebration with family, employees and lawyers who supported him during his decade-long US fraud trial in which he had won a stunning victory in June.
Instead, the entrepreneur, 59, known as Britain’s Bill Gates, was last night missing, presumed dead, along with his daughter, Hannah, 18, who was to read English at Oxford. Jonathan Bloomer, 70, another British businessman and chairman of Morgan Stanley International, was also missing alongside his wife, Anne, and two others. Divers recovered the body of the yacht’s cook. Fifteen people including Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, were rescued.
Charlotte Golunski, 36, rescued her one-year-old daughter, Sophia, by holding her above her head in raging water. She told La Repubblica: “I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning. It was all dark. In the water I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.”
Golunski was a partner at Lynch’s company, Invoke Capital, and had worked at Autonomy, the company at the centre of his court case. Lynch was cleared of wire fraud after being extradited to the United States over the £8.6bn sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
Golunksi’s child emerged from the ordeal unscathed, although her mother said that she can still hear her “crying in her ears as they floated in the waves and their holiday sailing boat sank”.
Both were under observation last night at Palermo’s pediatric hospital.
Golunski’s partner, James Emsley, was also rescued. The trio had moved from their cabin in the early hours of yesterday, Golunski said, because of “thunder, lightning and waves that made our boat dance”.
A waterspout, a tornado that forms over water, toppled the aluminium mast, one of the world’s tallest at 248ft. It caused the boat to keel and take on water before sinking rapidly. Passengers asleep in the cabins were trapped. Those on deck were swept into the sea before 11 of them scrambled on to the lifeboat. They fired a flare and were rescued by a ship anchored near by. Golunski told the Italian newspaper Giornale Di Sicilia: “For two seconds I lost the baby in the sea, then I immediately held her again in the fury of the waves. I held her tightly, tightly to me, while the sea was raging.”
Absolutely stunning video of one of today's waterspouts in front of the Capo di Leuca area of Apulia. Imagine having such a thing slowly meandering in front of your window for five minutes. Video by Elena Severino.
— Federico Pavan (@PavanFederico00) August 19, 2024
WOTY for me, at least in Italy pic.twitter.com/usQg6HVdkq
Local fishermen described the effect of the storm. Pietro Asciutto said: “I was at home when the tornado struck. I immediately closed all the windows, then I saw the vessel, which had one mast and was very large. I saw it sink suddenly. I saw it sink before my eyes.”
Hours earlier, Ayla Ronald, 36, a Clifford Chance lawyer on the team that secured Lynch’s acquittal, posted a sunset photo on Instagram showing calm waters. Her father, Lin Ronald, said she had survived and had described the incident as an “awful situation”. He told The Telegraph: “She has only said to me that there are deaths, and she and her partner are alive.” He added that his daughter regarded Lynch as a good friend and that the trip had been a private party to celebrate their success in the case.
A doctor in Palermo, Domenico Cipolla, said the survivors were “constantly asking about the missing people”. He told Reuters that those rescued were “talking and crying all the time because they have realised that there is little hope of finding their friends alive”.
The superyacht had spent the past fortnight off the coast of Sicily. According to maritime data, the crew sailed around the islands of Lipari, Salina and Vulcano before dropping anchor each evening in picturesque ports.
Lynch, believed to be worth about £500m, had a special attachment to the yacht. A member of events staff who worked at his home in Chelsea, west London, said: “He had a miniature model of it and photos of it on the water in the hallway. When I asked him about it he told me about its size and how much his family loved spending time on it.”
A former stewardess described it as a busy vessel with its owners paying “most importance to entertaining their two daughters and their friends”.
It was a natural place for Lynch to relax, having defied the odds to win his case in California two months ago, with the spectre of a 25-year prison sentence lifted.
In an interview with The Sunday Times he had spoken of wanting to recover from exhaustion, take stock and spend time with his family.
Bayesian was celebrated as a masterpiece of engineering and opulence. Built in Italy by Perini Navi, one of the world’s leading yachtmakers, the 184ft vessel was launched in 2008 under the name Salute, which translates as “health” in Italian.
It is thought that the boat had cost at least £14m when new, and was available to charter for £166,000 a week.
By the time the vessel was refitted in 2020, it was no longer listed for private hire. The design, by the prominent yacht architect Ron Holland, included more than 30,000 sq ft of sail. Its interiors were created by Remi Tessier, who has designed suites for Claridge’s hotel in London.
The captains of the yacht were understood to rotate depending on the season. One former captain said the “main technical achievement on this boat was taming the world’s tallest aluminium mast, transforming its dynamic behaviour and stability when sailing and motoring”.
The ship had a clean safety record, with the mast and rigging assessed before the summer.
A former member of staff said that Lynch “clearly had a lot of pride” in the yacht. The pictures of it at his home in Chelsea – and a miniature model of the yacht – are now all that remain.
Additional reporting by Shayma Bakht, Tom Ball, Louisa Clarence-Smith and Ben Clatworthy
The Times
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