The portal Vessel Finder has made the AIS track available (Automatic Identification System) of the Bayesian Yachtssunk on August 19th at 4.06am off Porticello (PA) due to bad weather, causing 7 victims including the British Mike Lynch And 15 survivors including the shipowner Angela BarcaresLynch’s wife. The positions, trajectory and orientation of the sailing vessel from the beginning of the accident until the shipwreck are therefore official. These data, together with the testimonies of the survivors and the reports of the divers, are in the hands of the Termini Imerese prosecutor’s office to try to reconstruct the dynamics of the disaster.
In the whole incident it would have lasted 16 minutesfrom 3.50 to 4.06. While the first reconstructions hypothesized an extremely rapid sinking, lasting just a minute, it now seems that the actual sinking could have lasted 6 minutesalthough the exact dynamics will have to be clarified by the investigations. In any case, in the 16 minutes of the disaster the yacht travelled approximately 360 meters at the mercy of strong winds and choppy waters.
The timeline of the shipwreck: what happened between 3:50 and 4:06
3:50 am: the boat is moored in the harbourwith the bow against the wind, about 600 meters from the port of Porticello. It begins to be hit by the storm: in the track you can see that the yacht is “tossed” repeatedly back and forth for tens of meters, mainly in a north-south direction.
3:59 am: being anchored, the sailboat swings around its position, but at a certain point the yacht would have lost its anchor and would have moved pushed by the strong gusts and waves. We note that at that moment the sailing ship was offering its side to the wind, which was blowing mainly in a NW-SE direction. The hull offered resistance to the gusts by being carried by the direction of the wind. At this point therefore the Bayesian was out of control and it is possible – but to be verified – that at this moment it has started to take on water.
4:03 am: from the AIS track the sailing vessel changes course slightly, always keeping the side offered to the wind.
4:06 am: after having skidded and moved out of control for a total of approximately 360 metersthe Bayesian emergency EPIRB device raises the alarm of the sinking, detected by the Cospas Sarsat station in Bari.
The possible dynamics of the disaster: the hypotheses
Based on the information currently available, an attempt is being made to reconstruct the events that occurred on the night of August 19. It is worth repeating that these are hypotheses that will have to be confirmed by investigators.
The testimonies of the survivors agree that the Bayesian would have sunk by the bowthen “head first”, then capsized and rested on the seabed on its right side. Divers reported that the left stern hatch of the wreck was open, while the side one was closed. The bodies that were found in the wreck they were on the port side of the yachttherefore the one higher than the direction of the capsizing of the sailing vessel. This would indicate – the conditional is always a must – that while the boat was sinking they tried to climb in search of air towards the rooms that were not yet flooded, but did not have time to exit the yacht and therefore remained trapped. The survivors, however, would have managed to save themselves because they were on the bridge – with the exception of chef Recalco Thomas, whose body was the first to be found – and managed to throw themselves into the sea.
According to the divers, the drift of the yacht (i.e. the movable keel) would have been raisedanother element that contributed to making the vessel unstable possibly causing water to enter the hull. Then there is the fact that the yacht’s engines were offmaking it impossible to regain control of the vessel.
The hypothesis of thewater inlet comes from another useful element for the investigations, that is the video captured by the surveillance camera of a nearby villa, which has been making the rounds in the media in recent days and which shows the lights on the yacht’s mast going out just before the sinking. The blackout would indicate a probable flooding of electrical panels or generators supporting the idea that the Bayesian had probably been taking on water for several minutes already.
The fact that the very close Dutch sailing ship Sir Robert Baden-Powell was located a very short distance from the Bayesian and did not suffer any damage would suggest that the shipwreck was due to a concatenation of human errors which prevented optimal management of the bad weather situation.
