Yacht Maker Slams Crew’s “Incredible Mistake” As Body Of Mike Lynch’s Daughter Found After 5 Days

The body of UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch’s daughter has been found following five days of search after a yacht sank off Sicily on August 19. Giovanni Costantino, the CEO of The Italian Sea Group, said "the boat suffered a series of indescribable, unreasonable errors.” Costantino said the superyacht crew made an "incredible mistake" in not preparing for the storm, even though it was announced in a forecast earlier. Security camera footage of the ship from the shore showed the lights on its mast going out, which Costantino said indicated a short circuit. Meanwhile, a criminal investigation was opened immediately after the tragedy, despite the fact no suspects have been identified publicly.

#mikelynch #italy

Video: Reuters/AP

0:00 - Introduction
0:33 - Body of Mike Lynch’s Daughter Found After Yacht Sank Near Sicily
1:32 - CEO of Yacht Maker Claims “series of Indescribable Errors…”
4:36 - Probe Launched Into Lynch’s Superyacht Tragedy

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[ashleymoore]

Took on water - hatches open on a storm on a boat with A/C
Anchored at 50 meters ?
Open hatches in a storm .
Keel raised in a storm ?
All the crew were out in 60 seconds .
Guests not woken up .
Its not looking great .

[MrBaerchen]

I wonder what mistakes were made if the reports in the press are correct?
Didn't follow the weather report? Didn't make the ship storm-proof?
Didn't gather the passengers in a central location? Didn't leave the anchorage to avoid hitting the lee shore? and keep the bow in the wind.
Didn't lower the keel? etc. etc. These are all mistakes that I would expect to see on a charter boat after over 40 years of experience on the water. Or was the captain unable to assert himself against the owner???

[quakerninja]

Mark Twain said a ship is like a prison with a chance of drowning.

[ella_max]

When will we stop using the word "unsinkable"? Man is no match against Mama Nature.

[wendyknight]

I’ve sailed small yachts in the Mediterranean. The latest report says the boat went down bow first; not surprising as it was tethered to 250m heavy chain, streaming off with huge wind speeds, so wherever water poured in, once the bow was tilted down, even a few degrees, the water would flood the bow and accelerate the downward trajectory.

[hessranch]

Someone wasn’t watching the weather close enough.

[CodeLeeCarter]

I've worked on these yachts, and there's always a 24-hour watch, especially at night. The crew is responsible for monitoring all potential threats to the vessel, keeping a close eye on the radar to detect if the anchor drags and the boat starts drifting toward rocks and watching for any unauthorized attempts to board. It looks like someone failed to secure the vessel properly when the storm hit.

[charles]

When I saw that CCTV footage, the first thing I thought was "HAARP"

[Boondog]

Mother Nature Slams a Water Spout on top of a yacht, then everybody starts accusing everyone else about mistakes. Who would think about this could happen but it did. My Prayers for the people Lost.

[nadbarr]

I heard the local fisherman knew of the storm coming in...why didn't the captain and crew??

[kevindevilliers]

The mast did not snap. Its in perfect order. The divers have said so.

[d.s]

Its very simple to im a captain 22 years, you have weather warnings, you tell them it’s not safe to be onboard atleast woman and kids children, go ashore the severe weather goes it will be safe, and obviously secure the vessel for the worst with or without them on board IT IS SAFETY FIRST NO MORE . Why would you want to be on severe weather on a yacht near the coastline when you easily can be safe on land

[Olichi]

The Captain and crew survived for the most part so I don't see the need for speculation. There are many eye witnesses and the hull is intact. The true story will emerge. No need for all the uninformed BS.

[jonhamilton]

The engineers of the Titanic thought that it was unsinkable too.

[GH-cpwc]

Why would ANYONE remain on an anchored yacht knowing a dangerous storm was approaching when there was undeniable safety available on nearby land?

[khutt]

I was an engineer on a motor yacht, it was never explained to me that guests lives were more important than mine, if it had been, I would have walked off.. A ship no matter how big is a confined space, always check, how do I get out of here, it's more important than the quality of the carpets.

[slagletoby]

The only way to avoid this tragedy was to anchor 100 meters to the right. Can’t blame a crew or a manufacture when Mother Nature is the culprit. It’s remarkable that most of the people actually survived.

[chrischamberlaine]

The Bayesian disaster - in very simple terms for the layperson.
This is a one in a million tragedy but we should examine the facts and learn from them.
Bayesian boasts the second highest mast in the world at 75 metres on a length of 56m. She has a lifting keel to enable her to get into shallow areas. Fully down it gives a draft of 9.83m and raised a draft of 4m. A sailing yacht has a keel to counter the heeling moment generated by the power of her sail plan.
I’m sorry to say that size matters to a superyacht owner and naval architects are seduced into providing solutions. As yacht size increases the resistance of the hull reduces in proportion, so less sail area is required to adequately power longer yachts. But these floating fashion items are driven by appearance and bragging rights - and you lose prestige if someone has a bigger mast than you. Always the status pecking order questions are – how big – how fast – what cost – and is it black? If you designed Bayesian with a reasonable sail area and a ‘normal’ mast she would not look impressive – which is what superyachts have to be.
The stability of a yacht has to be sufficient to counter the power of the rig but, as mast heights increase, the keels can often become so deep that the places of interest are restricted hence the lifting keel solution. Stability comes from two factors – the hull form and the ballast keel which acts like a pendulum. As the yacht heels the volume of the immersed hull section produce a buoyancy force which resists heeling. Initially the keel gives little force but as the angle of heel increases ‘physics’ makes the keel contribution significant (leverage). The greater the keel length, the greater the effect. The combination of the hull buoyancy on the heeled side and the keel on the ‘windward’ side produces the force necessary to keep the yacht from capsize. If the keel of Bayesian was retracted it would lose a significant six meters of moment arm or leverage from its probable 200 tons of keel bulb.
When we design yachts we calculate the stability, or righting lever, as a function of heeled ‘bouyancy’ force and the ballast moment arm combined. (the GZ) This can be plotted on a graph to show the stability at any heel angle and identifies the angle at which stability becomes negative causing the yacht to capsize. Normally an ocean yacht will experience a negative point at about 120/30 degrees of heel. With a lifting keel this point is greatly reduced maybe to less than 90 degrees.
Well designed oceanic yachts over 10m with normal ballast keels generally do not capsize due to wind because the, as the yacht heels, the wind spills from the sails and the keel develops an increasing righting moment. It is mainly wave systems which produce capsizes.
If Bayesian was at anchor with the keel raised and no sails set the crew would have every confidence that she could remain safe in most normal wind conditions. But its centre of gravity would be higher than if the keel was down. Every captain at this level has passed an exam on stability and would be aware of his vessels stability graph.
Many years ago I sat at Cremorne and watched a spiralling williwaw race across Sydney harbour and pass through Mosman. This twister was only about 30 metres wide but it destroyed houses and overturned cars in its path. A few feet away nothing was harmed. The power inside a twister is intense and powerful with the wind is coming from every direction
One problem of large rigs is windage, even with no sails. Wind pressure increases to the square. A 20mph wind gives 1lb per sq foot pressure. In a fresh gale at 40mph the wind pressure is 4.1 lb sqft . In a moderate twister of 100mph the wind pressure is 25.6 lbs sqft. Internally twisters are often in the 200mph range causing 100 lbs + sqft pressures. This was the sort of event that hit Bayesian. You cannot plan or design for this sort of event.
In their write up about the yacht Peri Navi wrote – “To optimise sailing performance of the powerful Cutter Rig sail plan, Salute (later Bayesian) has modified keel and rudder lines to improve her stability in keeping with the higher centre of gravity the tall mast produces.”
But this yacht had three furling sails forward and a big boom with the weight of a furled mainsail inside all above the centre of gravity. Also there were large communication domes on the spreaders. Even without sails the wind pressure coefficients for Bayesian would have been abnormally large when hit by the wind force of varying direction in a twister. Once she was knocked down beyond her stability limit with the keel up she stood no chance and, laying flat to the water, her deck openings, which are more like a hotel than a ship, would have allowed a flood of water aboard and she would founder. This would happen in a couple of minutes. The observation of a lightning strike can be discounted because these vessels are grounded and any damage from a strike would have caused a slow sinking at worst – not a capsize and founder.
The individuals within a professional crew with sailing experience may have sensed the wind and motion of the vessel changing and quickly reacted to instinctively save themselves in the seconds they had. My guess is that some were already on deck alarmed by the general conditions.The guests would have found themselves totally disoriented in flooding cabins, in darkness with the walls, doors and passageways at ninety degrees to the norm. They had practically no chance because it would be completely beyond their experience. The crew would have been unable to be of any help due to the speed of the unexpected event.
I have been a professional yacht designer and builder for fifty years specialising in lifting keel yachts. My son, a professional navigator, was Third Officer on a ketch superyacht with masts 100m tall; a yacht so big, at 88metres, that it was almost beyond human handling even with the machinery on board. But of course it is the biggest and most expensive’ etc etc. What we have here is a one off accident which is a wake up call to an industry where common sense has departed as yachts get more silly in size and design.
In summary Bayesian was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. A freak accident which the designers and crew would have little chance to predict. If the keel had been down she would have probably survived the knock down. But the crew would have experience of her basic stability which would be adequate for normal conditions.
Any enquiry must examine the design factors such as the keel design and the stability vanishing point in the condition she was at the time of the accident; keel up, tank loadings and rig factors for windage (WPC) and centre of gravity etc. And a calculation of the wind force required to heel the boat to 90 degrees in the condition at the time of the accident.
All forms of transport have had these unpredictable one off events leading to changes of regulations and professional practice. Titanic, Boeing, 1955 Le Mans, the 1952 Farnborough crash, the 1979 Fastnet – all have made a difference and these events all came unpredicted and out of the blue often at a time of complacency. Chris Freer – yacht designer – August 2024

[EbenBransome]

The yacht builder is responding so aggressively and so quickly that one might almost think they were seeking to prejudice the police investigation. The only proper response to such a disaster is "We will await the results of the enquiry."

[virginiaschilz]

There is a lot more to this" Story". These people on board.... Were involved in a trial.... The other person who couldn't go... Died in a car crash...