At dawn of the August 19, 2024 off the coast of Little Port (PA), the Bayesian yacht sank with aboard 22 people due to the bad weather, and inspections of the wreck are currently underway 49 meters deep. Of these, 15 were rescued and 6 have lost their lives, including the British billionaire Mike Lynchthe daughter Hannah Lynch and the ship’s chef Rewarm Thomas. The interrogation of the commander of the Bayesian, the New Zealander, took place on the evening of August 20th. James Catfieldduring which new elements have emerged that can help us clarify the causes that led to the sinking of the yacht. At the moment a picture seems to emerge in which several factors are added, in particular the movable keel not fully extendeda hatch left open with possible water ingress and the Failure to activate the security system which should have sealed the yacht. The violent and sudden nature of the probable meteorological phenomenon contributed to this downburst which was hitting that area of Sicily with very strong gusts of wind, which would not have given people in the Bayesian time to avoid the disaster.
What the Bayesian Yacht Looked Like
The Bayesian was one sailing and motor yachts flying the English flag. It was long 56 meterswide 11.5 meters and with a tall aluminum shaft 75 metersthe tallest of its kind in the world. The vessel was designed by naval architect Ron Holland and built by the Italian Perini Navi, it was launched in 2008 in Viareggio and refitted in 2020.
The hull is made of aluminum, as well as its superstructure, and under the hull there is a movable keel, that is, a structure that helps to give stability to the boat by offering resistance to the water. Depending on the inclination of the keel, the draft (i.e. the part of the ship that remains immersed in water) can range from a minimum of approximately 4 meters to a maximum of 9.8 meters approximately.
There is space on board the boat for 22 peoplethat is, 12 guests and 10 crew members. On the day of the disaster, the ship was full: in fact, the British billionaire was on board Mike Lynchnicknamed the “British Bill Gates” who, together with his family, had organized a prize trip for his collaborators. In fact, in June he had been acquitted on 15 counts of fraud.
The cause of the sinking of the sailing boat: probably a downburst
The night of the August 19, 2024 the Bayesian was at anchor at about 300 meters from the port of Porticelloin the province of Palermo. Around 04:00 in the morning, however, the area began to be hit by a violent wave of bad weather, and we can also clearly see this from the images captured by some surveillance cameras.
The area was hit by a very strong storm, with heavy rains but above all very violent gusts of wind. Witnesses on the scene speak of a possible whirlwinda hypothesis that cannot be excluded even if it seems more probable downburstthat is, a very strong localized air current that falls directly from the storm cloud and crashes to the ground at speeds that can even touch 200 km/hWhat is certain is that the boat found itself in a “blender” of ascending and descending currents at very high speeds.
The interesting thing is that a 100 meters away there was another ship, the Sir Robert Baden-Powell flying the Dutch flag, which however did not have any particular problems. But how is this possible? Well, we should not be surprised, because both downbursts and tornadoes can very well cause considerable damage here and do nothing 100 meters away.
Hypotheses on the dynamics of the sinking
Thanks to the images from a nearby surveillance camera we can see that at 4:30 in the morning the yacht sank in a very short time: in just a minute we see the mast to lean more and more until it disappeared completely under the water. The crew still had time to fire a signal rocket. Initially the Sir Robert Baden-Powell to provide first aid, and shortly thereafter the Coast Guard hey Firefighters.
Two days after the shipwreck, there is still no certainty about the exact dynamics of the disaster and what may have caused it. At first it was thought that bad weather had the ship’s mast brokethus unbalancing the entire structure. However, the divers found the tree still intact and attached to the ship, so this eventuality was discarded. Let’s therefore take an overview of the hypotheses that the prosecutor’s office is working on. Terms Imerese and which were presented by industry experts over the past two days.
The most likely hypothesis at the moment is that the movable keel of the yacht was not fully extended. The mobile keel in fact serves, a bit like a sail does with air, to offer resistance to the water while keeping the boat in balance. When the keel is deployed the boat is more stable, while when it is raised it is lessThe keel may not have been lowered due to lack of time, since downbursts are phenomena that occur without warning, or due to a technical failure, or due to an error in decision-making by the captain.
The questioning of Catfield also revealed that a hatch of the yacht may have been left open, allowing water to enter the vessel, destabilizing it. This would effectively explain how the Bayesian sank so quickly.
Other possible causes or contributory causes that are being discussed are the resistance offered by the vessel’s large mastwhich would have caused the overturning even with the sails closed, and a malfunction or a failure to activate the security system. An impact with the nearby has also been hypothesized dry of antsalthough at the moment it seems an unlikely hypothesis.
All these possibilities they are not excluded and could have occurred at the same time. We must wait for the investigations to be carried out to have a clear picture of the dynamics of the accident.
Conspiracy Theories About the Bayesian Sinking
One of the reasons why the story is arousing so much interest on the web and also in the international media is linked not so much to the dynamics of the disaster itself but to the main passenger of the yacht, that is Mike Lynch. As mentioned, Lynch was celebrating with his associates the acquittal on 15 counts of fraud. In this case he was also a co-defendant Stephen Chamberlain, Lynch’s deputy and former top manager of the IT company Autonomyand a few hours after the shipwreck it was learned that Chamberlain was just died in England after being hit by a car last Saturday night.
This coincidence is giving rise to all kinds of theories, for example that the two deaths were connected and were not accidental. At the moment however there is no evidence that can reliably correlate the two events.
We always remember that in cases like this, especially when there are people who have unfortunately lost their lives, establishing what happened and why It is only the task of the competent authorities.
