Accident after waterspout: 56-metre-long "Bayesian" sinks off Palermo, six people missing

Waterspouts are not unusual in the Mediterranean at this time of year, but the high surface temperature of the water could have been responsible for the particularly high intensity of the mini-tornado off Sicily. The 56-metre-long "Bayesian" was anchored half a nautical mile from Porticello, a small coastal town ten nautical miles east of Palermo. There were reportedly 22 people on board at the time of the accident, twelve guests and ten crew members. One dead person, the cook, was found in the water by fire brigade divers, while 15 people, including a one-year-old girl and her mother, were rescued immediately - also thanks to Karsten Börner, the German captain of the 42-metre-long "Sir Robert Baden Powell".

How a witness and helper experienced the accident

The topsail schooner is offering summer cruises between Albania and Cannes for the 2024 season and anchored in the immediate vicinity of "Bayesian". Börner describes the incident in a video interview with the BBC. After seeing a flare, he and the chief mate set off and shortly afterwards found a life raft with 15 people in it: four injured, three of them seriously. They brought them on board and informed the coastguard. Börner says in the video: "I think it was twelve Beaufort in gusts. We had to start the engine to be able to hold the anchor position. When the storm was over, we realised that the ship had disappeared behind us."

According to the Giornale di Sicilia, the fire brigade divers dived down to the shipwreck at a depth of 49 metres from 7.30 a.m. on Tuesday after the night of the storm. Also on site are cave divers who, according to the regional newspaper, had reached the bridge in the evening but were unable to make any further progress due to furniture blocking the way.

Missing Mike Lynch probably celebrated acquittal

British tech billionaire and alleged "Bayesian" owner Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter are still missing. Also among the missing are the chairman of the bank Morgan Stanley International, Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife, as well as the US lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife. Lynch, 59, co-founded the software company Autonomy in 1996 and sold it to Hewlett-Packard in 2011. At the beginning of June 2024, Mike Lynch was acquitted by a court in San Francisco after several trials lasting a total of 13 years. He and his top managers had been accused of having cooked the books before the takeover. The meeting on board "Bayesian" is said to have been a celebration of the acquittal.

High water temperatures favour waterspouts

A large temperature difference between the water surface and the upper atmosphere is a prerequisite for the formation of waterspouts. If you are hit by such a mini-tornado, the consequences can be considerable, as wind speeds of hurricane force are possible in the immediate vicinity. These localised strong wind events repeatedly hit the Mediterranean in midsummer. Two Incidents in the Mediterranean region YACHT meteorologist Dr Michael Sachweh said back in 2018: "Both phenomena are due to the still unusually high water temperatures in the Mediterranean and the very active low-pressure areas that are currently passing through there." The surface temperature of the Mediterranean is higher than ever before for the second year in a row. Researchers at the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM) in Barcelona reported a daily average of 28.9 degrees in mid-August.

Supersailer with 72 metre long mast

The 56-metre-long "Bayesian" was launched in 2008 at Perini Navi in Viareggio, Tuscany, and is said to have had 18,000 litres of diesel in the bunker at the time of the accident. The special feature of the cutter-rigged sloop was its 74-metre-long mast, the longest in the world made of aluminium. The ex-"Salute" carried a sail area of almost 3,000 square metres, with all sails moving at the touch of a button. The modern interior with six guest cabins on the lower deck was designed by French designer Rémi Tessier.