Mike Lynch Boat Sinking Live: Fifth body found on Bayesian boat sunk off Sicily

Hatches and doors left open overnight on the superyacht Bayesian may have contributed to the Italian sinking, a sailing expert has said.

Sam Jefferson, editor of Sailing Today, believes the ship’s massive mast may have contributed to the fatal incident.

The ship is believed to have been hit by a tornado over the water known as a waterspout.

Weather records show that the temperature reached around 33C the day before the sinking, which may have led those on board to want to ventilate while they slept.

Mr Jefferson told the PA news agency: “I would have said the boat was hit so hard by the wind that it tipped over on its side.

“All the doors were open because it was hot enough hatches and doors were open that it filled with water very quickly and sank.

“The reason it knit so hard was because the mast was huge. It almost acted like a sail. (It) pushed the boat hard on its side. (The boat) filled with water before it was properly finished.

“It’s all speculation, but it’s the only logical explanation.”

Mr Jefferson added that such incidents were “incredibly rare” and described the chances of a boat being hit by a waterfall as “minimal”.

The yacht’s aluminum mast measures 72 meters, making it one of the largest sailing yachts in the world.

Carsten Boerner, the captain of another boat near the Bayesian, told news agency Reuters that he saw the vessel go “flat in the water, then down”.

Salvo Cocina of Sicily’s civil protection agency said: “They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Bayesian fell victim to a “high-impact” weather-related incident, said Matthew Shank, president of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, an England-based nonprofit organization that trains marine rescuers.

“If it was a watershed, I would classify it as a black swan event,” he told Reuters, meaning a rare and unpredictable event.

The survivors are resting in a hotel complex in Porticello.

Authorities are collecting witness statements from them there.

He feared he would die in a US prison, not because he was guilty – he spent £30m on legal fees to plead not guilty – but because winning a case against the US judiciary was unheard of in America. His chance of winning was 0.5 percent. However, 13 years later, after compiling extensive evidence to support his plea, he was acquitted in what felt like a miracle.

On his return to England, Lynch began to celebrate what he called his second life. In tears, she told an interviewer that even the traffic in London was magical. “I think it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Jonathan Margolis writes:

Only four of the five bodies found on Wednesday have so far been recovered, Sicily’s civil protection agency Salvatore Cocina said Wednesday evening, while the whereabouts of a sixth missing person remain unknown.

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah were six aboard when their ship capsized near the Sicilian capital of Palermo at 5am on Monday, caught in a violent storm.

Read the full story here:

Bayesian’s captain James Cutfield was a “very good sailor” and “highly respected” in the Mediterranean, his brother Mark told the New Zealand Herald.

51-year-old New Zealander survives shipwreck

The captain of a boat who helped rescue 15 people from the stricken Bayesian superyacht has described how his crew witnessed the devastation after leaving the life raft.

Carsten Borner said his ship, the Sir Robert Bibi, was about 150 to 200 meters from the Bayesian when the “severe” weather hit.

He said his boat was using its engine to stay afloat and the crew noticed Bayesian missing before a passenger on his boat caught fire.

Mr Borner said they sent out their tender, which found the life raft and brought its occupants back to his boat.

He said Sky News: “We couldn’t see them anymore, they disappeared from the radar and we were busy sailing our own ship. We couldn’t see the ship again, so we knew something was wrong.”

He said we found the lifeboat only when the tender was released.

He said: “It turned out to be a life raft of 12 people with 15 people, including a child. They came to our tender and we brought them back to our ship. There we took good care of them, giving them dry clothes, towels, blankets, tea and coffee and so on. He took care of them.

Mr Boerner said he had assisted the coastguard to launch a search and rescue operation for the other occupants of the Bayesian.

He said Bayesian’s captain told him the boat sank in two minutes, but he saw video showing it went down in 60 seconds.

He said: “The engineer and the captain had no explanation as to why she sank so quickly. My personal opinion is that it shouldn’t have ended up like this, it defies all logic.”

He questioned the safety of Bayesian’s 75-metre mast and added: “I don’t think it’s safe to build masts.”

Describing the strength of the storm and sea spray that hit his boat and Bayesian, he said: “They were so close, we were hit so hard, so strong, and so were they. It was intense, it was so strong.”