This is how the yacht on which billionaire Mike Lynch was sailing sank

Five dead and one missing. This is the final count after the sinking of the Bayesian, the yacht on which the millionaire Mike Lynch, known as the ‘British Bill Gates’, spent the summer, and which was anchored off the coast of Palermo on the 19th when a waterspout attacked at night and capsized it. The ship was traveling with 22 people, 10 crew members and 12 passengers, including technology tycoon Mike Lynch, his wife, Angela Bakares (the only one rescued alive), and their daughter Hannah; Morgan Stanley International president Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy; and Lynch’s American lawyer Chris Morvillo, with his wife, Neda.

Authorities continue rescue efforts while experts explain what happened that fateful night. According to the Vesselfinder satellite tracking application, the ship left the Sicilian port on August 14 and its last record was on Sunday afternoon with a position of “anchored” east of Palermo. The ferry was hit by an overwater whirlwind, known as a ‘waterspout’, which flipped it on its side. “The wind was very strong: it was not normal, neither a tornado nor a tornado,” testifies Giuseppe Cefalu, a fisherman from Porticello who was one of the first to offer help after the ship sank. “Nothing like this has ever been seen here,” he added.

Two circumstances caused the tragedy: first, the boat’s doors and hatches were open due to the high temperature, so water quickly entered the boat’s interior as the boat capsized. Second, the 76-meter mast, the second tallest in the world, acted like a sail. “I think the wind hit the boat very hard and it turned sideways.”Yachting magazine editor Sam Jefferson explains Sailing today, “I think all the doors were open because it was hot, so there was enough open space that the boat filled with water very quickly. The mast pushed the boat strongly to one side. It acted almost like a sail. The boat was “filled with water before it returned to its normal position.”

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On the other hand, Andrea Ratti, professor at the Milan Polytechnic, where he directs the master’s degree in yacht design for architects and nautical engineers, explains: “The mast is intact. From a theoretical point of view, it is very difficult for it to break, even from a shape like that, but it is also true that the Bayesian suddenly found itself under a whirlwind and ascending and descending forces that also changed all the balance of a boat, as well as one built in this way and designed by a highly experienced professional like Ron Holland,” he said. “A ship like this would not have sunk so quickly without a leak. Perhaps broken windows, perhaps open doors … a considerable amount of water could have gotten in.”He assures.

Salvatore Cocina, Director General of Civil Protection of the Sicilian Region, assures this “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time”

While Rosario Maretta, professor of computational fluid dynamics at the University of Palermo, explains that “We have to ask ourselves why, with the weather reports suddenly deteriorating, the ship was at such an unsafe distance from shore in the middle of the night.”