Italian prosecutors will speak to the designers of the Bayesian superyacht and analyse the ship’s keel, while a video discovered in 2019 shows what should have happened when the ship was hit by a waterspout.
Five bodies were discovered yesterday as divers continued an urgent search for six people missing from the £30m yacht after it sank while at anchor at around 5am on Monday.
While 15 of the 12 guests and ten crew members managed to escape and reach a life raft, owner Mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Morgan Stanley International president Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, and Clifford Chance attorney Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda remained missing.
It was announced today that the search for Hannah Lynch continues as prosecutors prepare to investigate the ship’s keel, which was partially raised at the time of the storm.
The keel, which extends like a giant fin beneath the ship and acts as a counterweight to the tall mast, was not completely down despite bad weather having been forecast hours earlier.
The Bayesian (pictured) capsized during a severe thunderstorm on Monday morning.
CCTV footage shows a tornado pushing a large superyacht with a Bayesian-like mast style onto its side.
But instead of tipping over, the mast quickly returns to its upright position.
Experts told the Mail it is quite normal for the keel not to be fully lowered while a ship is anchored, but with storms forecast and portholes apparently open, questions are being raised about the cause of the tragedy.
And amid reports that prosecutors are seeking to speak to the ships’ designers (after Captain James Catfield was questioned for two hours on Wednesday), the company that built the ship has now claimed human error was to blame.
A video discovered in Auckland, New Zealand, shows what should happen if a ship like the Bayesian capsizes in the middle of a storm.
CCTV footage shows a tornado pushing a Large superyacht with a Bayesian-like mast style on its side.
But instead of capsizing, the mast quickly snaps back to its upright position, the Mail’s Robert Hardman reports.
It has not yet been confirmed whether the bodies recovered yesterday are those of Lynch or her 18-year-old daughter Hannah, although Italian media reports suggested they had both been found in the same cabin trapped between two mattresses.
The body of the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas, was found shortly after the tragedy.
Amid growing questions about how such a robust ship, which had previously sailed in Antarctica and was described as a “bulletbroof”, could have sunk, Giovanni Costantino, CEO of Italian Sea Group, has spoken out about the tragedy.
ISG bought the Bayesian’s construction company, Perini Navi, two years ago. Costantino said: “It was a human error, the yacht sank because water got in. Investigators will tell us from where exactly. The dynamics of the sinking are seen and read from AIS (Automatic Identification System) data and lasted sixteen minutes.
‘We have handed over this information to the Termini Immerse Public Prosecutor’s Office. The images show that the yacht was taking on water for four minutes.
“It only took another gust of wind to turn it over, which meant more water would come in. It then righted itself very briefly before sinking.”
Your browser does not support iframes.
Your browser does not support iframes.
A company spokesperson previously told MailOnline that “procedures were not followed” on the luxury vessel and that the sinking was due to “portholes being left open despite bad weather being forecast hours earlier”.
A spokesman said: ‘The Bayesian was built to very high standards and would not have sunk if the crew had followed proper procedures.
‘A storm had been forecast in advance, no fishing boats went out and yet the portholes were not closed, the yacht sank because it was engulfed by a huge amount of water through the open portholes.’
The spokesman added: ‘The Bayesian would have stayed afloat in any weather, even if rocked from left to right in gale-force winds, but it could never have remained in the water with its portholes open.
‘The design made the yacht extremely strong, but it could not stand upright because there was a large influx of water through the open portholes.
‘The yacht is built to withstand any conditions. The mast has nothing to do with what happened, it was built like that when it was launched and it was refitted in 2020 in Spain. The yacht sank because procedures in case of bad weather were not followed.’
The Bayesian was 56 metres long, had a 74-metre mast and was built in 2008. David Hutchinson, captain of her sister ship, the Rosehearty, told Boat International that she was “bulletproof”.
He told the trade publication: “We’ve been to Antarctica and Chile, and we’ve had 70-knot winds,” but they had never been in a situation he felt was unmanageable.
The Bayesiano sank within minutes after being hit by the tornado while anchored off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, Sicily, on Monday.
Bayesian Captain James Cutfield, 51, survived and is currently in hospital.
Prosecutors are investigating the theory that the yacht’s portholes and hatches were not closed in time before the storm, despite bad weather being forecast, and whether any of the crew are responsible.
Italian Sea Group completed the purchase of Perini Navi for €80 million in 2022 and a press release at the time said they were “extremely pleased” with the purchase which complements their “experience in the sailing yacht sector”.
