A former Bayesian crew member has been left bewildered about how the luxury superyacht could sink as it has withstood choppy seas in the Atlantic previously.
When guests were celebrating the acquittal of British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch aboard the £30million Bayesian, the 183ft yacht tragically sank off the coast of Italy.
It had been anchored offshore from Porticello, having sailed from the seaside village of Cefalu, when it was hit by a freak waterspout caused by bad weather and sank near Palermo.
Investigations are underway as to why the Bayesian sank when others in the vicinity remained afloat when disaster struck just before 5am on Monday.
The yacht’s former chief stewardess Monica Jensen, 48, said it is ‘a bit strange’ because she’s crossed the Atlantic on the boat and it withstood bad weather ‘all over’.
Last night, Mr Lynch – once dubbed the British Bill Gates and worth an estimated £852million and his daughter Hannah, 18 – who completed her A-levels this summer and has a place to read English at Oxford University – were among six missing and feared dead.
The body of one man, thought to be an onboard chef, has been found, while specialist divers fear those unaccounted for could be in the hull of the ship after getting trapped in their cabins.
And in an extraordinary twist, the tragedy comes days after Stephen Chamberlain, an ex-colleague of Mr Lynch – who he had successfully fought the fraud case with – died after being hit by a car.
It comes as:
An emergency and rescue service boat navigates on the sea near the site where the Bayesian sank when disaster struck just before 5am on Monday
Luxury sailboat Bayesian was docked off the coast of Porticello when a waterspout struck
The yacht’s former chief stewardess Monica Jensen, 48, (above) said it is ‘a bit strange’ the boat sank because she’s crossed the Atlantic on the boat and it withstood bad weather
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch (pictured above) is missing after his superyacht sank
Mike Lynch’s superyacht Bayesian (pictured) was anchored off the coast of Porticello
Ms Jensen worked on the Bayesian from November 2018 to October 2020 for a private owner, and said it was then sold.
She was onboard for two Caribbean seasons and cruised around Italy, Malta, Greece and the Balearics on the yacht.
She told The Telegraph: ‘It seems a bit strange. We have been in bad weather with it, crossed the Atlantic. It’s been all over. These things definitely don’t happen very often.’
Matthew Shank, chairman of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, told Radio 4 this morning: ‘There were weather warnings out that evening for intense thunderstorms. They are still incredibly rare weather events.
‘Given the rarity of these events there isn’t really much the captains or the crew could do to prepare for these events given how rare they are.
‘Reports that people who were in the life raft have had to enter the life raft from the water, and that indicates to me that this emergency has happened very, very quickly.
‘People haven’t had time to enter the life raft from the vessel, they’ve had to enter from the water.’
As the yacht began to sink, a member of the crew fired a distress flare which alerted vessels nearby.
Mr Shank added: ‘One of the captains from the anchorage said he saw the vessel there one minute and then the next minute the yacht was gone and all he saw was the red flare which indicates to me that this has been a catastrophic incident which has gone very quickly.’
The superyacht was docked off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, when a waterspout hit
A weather map shows how Mike’s Lynch’s yacht was buffeted by winds of up to 150mph
Italian Coast Guard Command teams and firefighters are carrying out search and rescue operations with helicopters and ships to find missing people after the yacht sank on Monday
The yacht – carrying 10 crew members and 12 passengers – had the world’s tallest aluminium mast at almost 250ft.
The enormous mast could have been what caused the vessel to capsize and sink rapidly, according to an expert.
It broke during the waterspout, causing the ship to sink after the weight of the mast took the hull beyond the ‘down-flooding angle’, technical consultant and nautical expert Gino Ciriaci told Italian website Corriere Della Sera.
The yacht is owned by Revtom, a company registered on the Isle of Man. Revtom’s legal owner is Angela Bacares, Mr Lynch’s wife.
Emergency divers found wreckage of the vessel at a depth of 187ft, where ‘through the portholes they saw corpses’.
In June, Mr Lynch won a 13-year legal fight and was cleared by a San Francisco court of conducting a massive fraud relating to a £8.64 billion sale of his firm, Autonomy, to US company Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
If found guilty, it could have landed him 25 years in a US jail.
To mark his freedom, Mr Lynch had invited guests from legal firm Clifford Chance as well as his own company Invoke Capital to celebrate on the yacht trip.
Italian Coast Guard Command teams and firefighters are carrying out search and rescue
Experienced cave divers for deep sea recoveries continue the rescue operation
Emergency response teams are seen at the harbour near where the boat sank Monday morning
In a cruel twist, it was revealed last night Mr Lynch’s ex colleague and co-defendant in his fraud trial, Stephen Chamberlain (pictured), died in hospital after being hit by a car on Saturday
The father of Ayla Ronald, who was part of Mr Lynch’s legal team, confirmed that the sailing trip was supposed to be a celebration of the tycoon’s acquittal.
But yacht sank as a fierce storm battered the area overnight on Sunday.
Mr Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, 57, who was among the rescued recalls the boat suddenly ’tilted’ at around 4am, before glass began shattering.
The superyacht had been lit up and illuminating the night sky when a waterspout – a whirling column of air and water mist – unfolded nearby.
Witnesses have described the moment the yacht went down as very sudden, claiming it was as if it just ‘disappeared’.
‘The boat was all lit up. Around 4.30am, it was no longer there,’ said one.
‘A normal joyous vacation day at sea turned into tragedy’.
The Italian Coastguard said in a statement that a nearby boat offered assistance to people before emergency services arrived.
The Sir Robert BP, a Dutch sailing ship which had been anchored by the Bayesian, is believed to have rescued the 15 survivors.
The British-flagged Bayesian is thought to have arrived in Porticello before it sank
The Bayesian, which was previously known as the Salute, was a vessel built in Viareggio, Tuscany, by luxury shipmaker Perini Navi in 2008
Chairman of Morgan Stanley International, Jonathan Bloomer (pictured), and his wife are yet to be found
Lynch’s attorney Christopher Morvillo (pictured) and his wife Nada are also missing
Karsten Borner, the captain of the boat, described how his vessel was battered by strong gusts, with his team working to stabilise it and manoeuvre it to avoid hitting the Bayesian nearby.
Two more passengers on board the Bayesian who are still missing are the chairman of Morgan Stanley International, Jonathan Bloomer and his wife.
Mr Bloomer is a close friend of Mr Lynch and was confirmed missing by Italian Authorities alongside his wife.
According to his Linkedin profile, Mr Bloomer is the chairman of insurance provider Hiscox and was formerly the chief executive of Prudential before being ousted in a boardroom coup in 2005.
The other two yet to be found are Mr Lynch’s attorney Christopher Morvillo and his wife Nada.
Attorney Gary Lincenberg said Morvillo and his wife ‘are presumed to be passed away’ after the yacht went down near Sicily.
Tragically, the body of a man was found floating alongside the sunken vessel on Monday.
Experienced cave divers for deep sea recoveries continue the rescue operation for missing people who were on board a sailboat that sank off Porticello, near Palermo, Sicily, Italy
Divers search for the missing people, including British entrepreneur Mike Lynch, after a luxury yacht sank off Sicily, Italy August 19
Authorities identified the man as Canadian Ricardo Thomas, who was working as the boat’s chef and was the only crew member unaccounted for.
His body was recovered, and police divers spent the day trying to reach the hull of the ship, which was resting at a depth of 163 feet off Porticello where it had been anchored, rescue authorities said.
British mother Charlotte Golunski and her one-year-old baby called Sofia were reported to be among those rescued by a nearby sailboat, with Dr Cipolla confirming that they were treated at the Di Cristina hospital.
‘By the way, I know that there were some young people on board, some very young people. They are very tired and they continually thank us for the care and attention we are giving them and the little girl. They are very tired but they are very sweet people,’ Dr Cipolla said.
Ms Golunski, 36, has described how she momentarily lost her daughter in the ‘fury of the waves’, before finding her and managing to get them both to safety.
Nautical maps show the last known location of the Bayesian just after 2am local time on Monday, when it was at anchor
Charlotte Golunski, 36, and her young daughter Sofia were two of 22 people aboard the superyacht when it was battered in a storm before sinking on Monday morning
‘I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning,’ Ms Golunski said.
‘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.’
The mother, who is in hospital with her baby where she received treatment for a minor shoulder injury, abrasions and a ‘wound that needed stitching’, according to Dr Cipolla, described the ordeal as ‘terrible’, detailing how ‘in a few minutes the boat was hit by a very strong wind and sank shortly after.’
Ms Golunski and her little girl were taken to be assessed at the Children’s Hospital in Palermo. The baby is said to be doing fine and is unharmed, with tests only carried out as a precaution.
Five other people were taken to the Bagheria territorial emergency point. Others reportedly required no hospital treatment, and spoke to authorities about what happened as the incident is being investigated.
