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Lynch Yacht Sinking Off Sicily Proves as Baffling as It Is Tragic

As bodies were recovered, the authorities and experts wondered how a $40 million, stable and secure vessel could have sunk so quickly.

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By Emma Bubola and Michael J. de la Merced

Emma Bubola reported from Porticello, Italy, and Michael J. de la Merced from London.

Two months after being cleared in a bruising legal battle over fraud charges, the British tech mogul Mike Lynch celebrated his freedom with a cruise. He invited his family, friends and part of his legal team on board his luxury sailing yacht, a majestic 180-foot vessel named Bayesian after the mathematical theorem around which he had built his empire.

On Sunday night, after a tour of the Gulf of Naples, including Capri, and volcanic islands in the Eolian archipelago, the boat anchored half a mile off the Sicilian coast in Porticello, Italy. It chose a stretch of water favored by the Phoenicians thousands of years ago for its protection from the mistral wind and, in more recent times, by the yachts of tech billionaires. The boat was lit “like a Christmas tree,” local residents said, standing out against the full moon.

But about 4 a.m., calamity unfolded. A violent and fast storm hit the area with some of the strongest winds locals said they had ever felt. Fabio Cefalù, a fisherman, said he saw a flare pierce the darkness shortly after 4.

Minutes later, the yacht was underwater. Only dozens of cushions from the boat’s deck and a gigantic radar from its mast floated on the surface of the sea, fishermen said.

In all, 22 people were on board, 15 of whom were rescued. Six bodies — five passengers and the ship’s cook — had been recovered by Thursday afternoon, including that of Mr. Lynch, an Italian government official said, adding that the search was continuing for his daughter.

It was a tragic and mystifying turn of events for Mr. Lynch, 59, who had spent years seeking to clear his name and was finally inaugurating a new chapter in his life. Experts wondered how a $40 million yacht, so robust and stable could have been sunk by a storm near a port within minutes.

“It drives me insane,” said Giovanni Costantino, the chief executive of the Italian Sea Group, which in 2022 bought the company, Perini, that made the Bayesian. “Following all the proper procedures, that boat is unsinkable.”

The aura of misfortune only deepened when it emerged that Stephen Chamberlain, 52, a former vice president of finance for Mr. Lynch’s former company and a co-defendant in the fraud case, was killed two days earlier, when he was hit by a car while jogging near his house in England.

Since June, the two men had been in a jubilant mood. A jury in San Francisco had acquitted both on fraud charges that could have sent them to prison for two decades. There were hugs and tears, and they and their legal teams went for a celebratory dinner party at a restaurant in the city, said Gary S. Lincenberg, a lawyer for Mr. Chamberlain.

The sea excursion was meant as a thank-you by Mr. Lynch to those who had helped him in his legal travails. Among the guests was Christopher J. Morvillo, 59, a scion of a prominent New York family of lawyers who had represented Mr. Lynch for 12 years. He and his wife, Neda, 57, were among the missing.

So, too, was Jonathan Bloomer, 70, a veteran British insurance executive who chaired Morgan Stanley International and the insurer Hiscox.

The body of the ship’s cook, Recaldo Thomas, was recovered. All the other crew members survived. Among them was Leo Eppel, 19, of South Africa, who was on his first yacht voyage working as a deck steward, said a friend, who asked not to be identified.

Since the sinking, the recovery effort and investigation have turned the tiny port town of Porticello, a quiet enclave where older men sit bare-chested on balconies, into what feels like the set of a movie.

Helicopters have flown overhead. Ambulances have sped by with the sirens blaring. The Coast Guard has patrolled the waters off shore, within sight of a cordoned-off dock that had been turned into an emergency headquarters.

On Wednesday afternoon, a church bell tolled after the first body bag was loaded into an ambulance, a crowd watching in silence.

The survivors were sheltering in a sprawling resort near Porticello, with a view of the shipwreck spot, and had so far declined to comment.

Attilio Di Diodato, director of the Italian Air Force’s Center for Aerospace Meteorology and Climatology, said that the yacht had most likely been hit by a fierce “down burst” — when air generated within a thunderstorm descends rapidly — or by a waterspout , similar to a tornado over water.

He added that his agency had put out rough-sea warnings the previous evening, alerting sailors about storms and strong winds. Locals said the winds “felt like an earthquake.”

Mr. Costantino, the boat executive, said the yacht had been specifically designed for having a tall mast — the second-tallest aluminum mast in the world. He said the Bayesian was an extremely safe and secure boat that could list even to 75 degrees without capsizing.

But he said that if some of the hatches on the side and in the stern, or some of the deck doors, had been open, the boat could have taken on water and sunk. Standard procedure in such storms, he said, is to switch on the engine, lift the anchor and turn the boat into the wind, lowering the keel for extra stability, closing doors and gathering the guests in the main hall inside the deck.

12 guests occupied the yacht’s six cabins. There were also 10 crew members.

Open hatches, doors and cabin windows could have let in water during a storm, according to the manufacturer.

Open hatches, doors and

cabin windows could

have let in water

during a storm,

according to the

manufacturer.

Source: Superyacht Times, YachtCharterFleet, MarineTraffic

By Veronica Penney

The New York Times attempted to reach the captain, James Cutfield, who had survived, for comment through social media, his brother and the management company of the yacht (which did not hire the crew), but did not make contact.

So far none of the surviving crew members have made a public statement about what happened that night.

Fabio Genco, the director of Palermo’s emergency services, who treated some of the survivors, said that the victims had recounted feeling as if the boat was being lifted, then suddenly dropped, with objects from the cabins falling on them.

The Italian Coast Guard said it had deployed a remotely operated vehicle that can prowl underwater for up to seven hours at a depth of more than 980 feet and record videos and images that they hoped would help them reconstruct the dynamics of the sinking. Such devices were used during the search and rescue operations of the Titan vessel that is believed to have imploded last summer near the wreckage of the Titanic.

After rescuers broke inside the yacht, they struggled to navigate the ropes and many pieces of furniture cluttering the vessel, said Luca Cari, a spokesman for Italy’s national firefighter corps.

Finally, as of Thursday morning, they had managed to retrieve all but one of the missing bodies, and hopes of finding the missing person alive were thin. “Can a human being be underwater for two days?” Mr. Cari asked.

What was certain was that Mr. Lynch’s death was yet another cruel twist of fate for a man who had spent years seeking to clear his name.

He earned a fortune in technology and was nicknamed Britain’s Bill Gates. But for more than a decade, he had been treated as anything but a respected tech leader.

He was accused by Hewlett-Packard, the American technological pioneer that had bought his software company, Autonomy, for $11 billion, of misleading it about his company’s worth. (Hewlett-Packard wrote down the value of the transaction by about $8.8 billion, and critics called it one of the worst deals of all time .) He had been increasingly shunned by the British establishment that he sought to break into after growing up working-class outside London.

He was extradited to San Francisco to face criminal charges, and confined to house arrest and 24-hour surveillance on his dime. In a townhouse in the Pacific Heights neighborhood — with security people he jokingly told associates were his “roommates” — he spent his mornings talking with researchers whom he funded personally on new applications for artificial intelligence. Afterward, he devoted hours to discussing legal strategy with his team.

Despite his persistent claims of innocence, even those close to Mr. Lynch had believed his odds of victory were slim. Autonomy’s chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, was convicted in 2018 of similar fraud charges and spent five years in prison.

During Mr. Lynch’s house arrest, his brother and mother died. His wife, Angela Bacares, frequently flew over from England, and she became a constant presence in the San Francisco courtroom during the trial.

After he was finally acquitted, Mr. Lynch had his eye on the future. “I am looking forward to returning to the U.K. and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field,” he said.

Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting from Pallanza, Italy.

Emma Bubola is a Times reporter based in Rome. More about Emma Bubola

Michael J. de la Merced has covered global business and finance news for The Times since 2006. More about Michael J. de la Merced

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Divers find 5 bodies during search of yacht wreckage off Sicily

The Associated Press

Italian firefighter divers bring ashore in a green bag the body of one of the victims of the U.K.-flag vessel Bayesian on Wednesday. The luxury sail yacht was hit by a violent sudden storm and sunk early Monday, while at anchor off the Sicilian village of Porticello near Palermo, in southern Italy. Salvatore Cavalli/AP hide caption

PORTICELLO, Sicily — Divers searching the wreck of a superyacht that sank off Sicily found the bodies of five passengers Wednesday and searched for one more as questions intensified about why the vessel sank so quickly when a nearby sailboat remained largely unscathed.

Rescue crews unloaded three body bags from rescue vessels that pulled into port at Porticello. Salvatore Cocina, head of the Sicily civil protection agency, said two other bodies had also been found in the wreckage for a total of five.

Who are Mike Lynch and the other people missing after a yacht sank in Sicily?

The discovery made clear the operation to search the hull on the seabed 50 meters (164 feet) underwater had quickly turned into a recovery one, not a rescue, given the amount of time that had passed and that no signs of life had emerged over three days of searching, maritime experts said.

The Bayesian, a 56-meter (184-foot) British-flagged yacht, went down in a storm early Monday as it was moored about a kilometer (a half-mile) offshore. Civil protection officials said they believed the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout, and sank quickly.

Fifteen people escaped in a lifeboat and were rescued by a nearby sailboat. One body was recovered Monday — that of the ship’s chef, Recaldo Thomas, of Antigua.

Thomas was born in Canada, according to his cousin David Isaac, but would visit his parents’ homeland of Antigua as a child, moving permanently to the tiny eastern Caribbean island in his early 20s. Italian officials previously listed Antigua as the nationality of someone on board.

The fate of six missing passengers had driven the search effort, including British tech magnate Mike Lynch , his 18-year-old daughter and associates who had successfully defended him in a recent U.S. federal fraud trial.

Lynch’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Emergency services at the scene of the search for a missing boat, in Porticello, southern Italy, on Tuesday. Salvatore Cavalli/AP hide caption

What caused the ship to sink so quickly?

Meanwhile, investigators from the Termini Imerese Public Prosecutor’s Office were acquiring evidence for their criminal investigation, which they opened immediately after the tragedy even though no formal suspects have been publicly identified.

Questions abound about what caused the superyacht, built in 2008 by Italian shipyard Perini Navi, to sink so quickly, when the nearby Sir Robert Baden Powell sailboat was largely spared and managed to rescue the survivors.

Was it merely the case of a freak waterspout that knocked the ship to its side and allowed water to pour in through open hatches? What was the position of the keel, which on a large sailboat such as the Bayesian might have been retractable, to allow it to enter shallower ports?

“There’s a lot of uncertainty as to whether it had a lifting keel and whether it might have been up,” said Jean-Baptiste Souppez, a fellow of the Royal Institute of Naval Architects and the editor of the Journal of Sailing Technology. “But if it had, then that would reduce the amount of stability that the vessel had, and therefore made it easier for it to roll over on its side,” he said in an interview.

The captain of the Sir Robert Baden Powell sailboat, which came to the Bayesian’s rescue, said his craft had sustained minimal damage — the frame of a sun awning broke — even with winds that he estimated reached 12 on the Beaufort wind scale, which is the highest, hurricane-strength force on the scale.

He said he had remained anchored with his engines running to try to maintain the ship’s position as the storm, which was forecast, rolled in.

Search teams scour waters along Italy’s southwestern shore, where a luxury yacht sank

“Another possibility is to heave anchor before the storm and to run downwind at open sea,” Karsten Bornersaid in a text message. But he said that might not have been a viable option for the Bayesian, given its trademark 75-meter (246-foot) tall mast.

“If there was a stability problem, caused by the extremely tall mast, it would not have been better at open sea,” he said.

Yachts like the Bayesian are required to have watertight, sub-compartments that are specifically designed to prevent a rapid, catastrophic sinking even when some parts fill with water.

“So for the vessel to sink, especially this fast, you are really looking at taking water on board very quickly, but also in a number of locations along the length of the vessel, which again indicates that it might have been rolled over on its side,” Souppez said.

Italian coast guard and fire rescue divers continued the underwater search in dangerous and time-consuming conditions. Because of the wreck’s depth, which requires special precautions, divers working in tag teams could only spend about 12 minutes at a time searching.

The limited dive time is designed in part to avoid decompression sickness, also known as the “bends,” which can occur when divers stay underwater for long periods and ascend too quickly, allowing nitrogen gas dissolved in the blood to form bubbles.

“The longer you stay, the slower your ascent has to be,” said Simon Rogerson, the editor of SCUBA magazine. He said the tight turnaround time suggests the operation's managers are trying to limit the risks and recovery time after each dive.

“It sounds like they’re operating essentially on no decompression or very tight decompression, or they’re being extremely conservative,” he said.

Additionally, the divers were working in extremely tight spaces, with debris floating around them, limited visibility and oxygen tanks on their backs.

Search resumes for British tech magnate and 5 others after yacht sinks off Sicily

“We are trying to advance in tight spaces, but any single thing slows us down,” said Luca Cari, spokesman for the fire rescue service. “An electric panel could set us back for five hours. These aren’t normal conditions. We’re at the limit of possibility.”

“It’s not a question of entering the cabin to inspect it,” he added. “They’ve arrived at the level of the cabins, but it’s not like you can open the door,” he said.

The Italian coast guard said they had reinforced their dive teams and were using underwater remote-controlled robots, which can stay out for six or seven hours at a time and record the surroundings.

The lack of any signs of life and the recovery of bodies led outside experts to conclude that the search was now a recovery effort and investigation to determine how the tragedy had unfolded.

“I think the fact that there’s been quite a lot of diving presence around the vessel and that they haven’t been able to pick up any signs of life inside the vessel, is, is unfortunately, not a particularly good sign,” said Souppez.

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Divers search sunken yacht as entrepreneur, five others, remain missing off cost of Sicily

The deep-sea search for six passengers missing after a luxury yacht sank during a ferocious storm, including a prominent British tech entrepreneur and his daughter, continued Tuesday, with divers attempting to search the yacht as it lay on the ocean floor off the northern coast of Sicily.

But Italian officials acknowledged that, as time went on, the chance of finding the missing alive was getting slimmer.

“We have no memory of situations in which, with sunken vessels, people remain alive after 36, now [almost] 48 hours,” said Vincenzo Zagarola, a Porticello Coast Guard official. It was “difficult to imagine” people could still be alive inside the yacht’s hull underwater, Zagarola said.

So far, only one crew member has been confirmed dead in Monday’s disaster. The body of the yacht’s chef, identified as Canadian-Antiguan Recaldo Thomas, was found during initial recovery efforts. Fifteen people have been rescued.

Still missing are British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his teenage daughter, Hannah; Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy; and attorney Chris Morvillo , a partner at Clifford Chance in New York who represented Lynch in a recently concluded legal battle, and his wife, Neda.

Lynch, charged in the United States with fraud associated with his 2011 sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard, was acquitted on all counts in June. The voyage on the 183-foot Bayesian, owned by a company controlled by Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, was intended to be a celebration of his legal victory, Britain’s Telegraph reported.

Divers resumed work around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday but have struggled to enter the narrow passages of the cluttered wreck, fire rescue service spokesman said.

Tables and chairs were blocking entrances, and cables and wires were forming a “sort of mesh,” spokesman Luca Cari told the Washington Post. “At the moment we are working on land to plan for an intervention and above all to create new openings.” The divers were searching the yacht’s stern.

Divers have found “no indication” that any of the missing people are on the ship, he said, but one “operational hypothesis” is that individuals may still be inside their cabins, based on the early-morning time of the sinking.

Violent weather appears to have caught many by surprise. Zagarola, the Coast Guard official, said that they had only expected “strong gusts” on the day of the sinking and that no weather warnings had been issued.

One passenger, Charlotte Golunski, told Italian media of holding on to her 1-year-old daughter, Sophie, amid the storm.

“For two seconds I lost my baby in the sea,” she told Giornale di Sicilia. “Then I immediately hugged her again amid the fury of the waves.”

The 184-f00t-long British-flagged Bayesian was carrying 12 passengers and 10 crew members roughly half a mile from the Sicilian fishing village of Porticello when it encountered rough weather at about 5 a.m. Monday. Lightning flashed, thunder boomed, and waves thrashed the vessel.

A fisherman described the scene to the Italian news agency ANSA. “It was floating, still, then suddenly vanished,” Pietro Asciutto said. “I saw it sink with my own eyes.”

Golunski and her partner, identified by Italian media as James Emslie, had been invited onto the ship as Lynch’s guests. She told Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper that she held her daughter “afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upward to keep her from drowning.”

“It was all dark,” she said. “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 the others.” Eventually, Golunski, Sophie, Emslie and eight others were able to get onto an inflatable lifeboat.

The Sir Robert, a Dutch-flagged sailing vessel anchored nearby, responded immediately to help survivors before the Italian coast guard arrived.

Britain was expected to deploy a team of four inspectors to conduct a preliminary assessment into the disaster.

“We are providing consular support to a number of British nationals and their families following an incident in Sicily, and are in contact with the local authorities,” a foreign ministry spokesman said Tuesday.

Carl Sputh, a former yacht captain who now works as a broker for Northrop and Johnson, a yacht brokerage firm based out of Fort Lauderdale, said that sudden weather changes at sea were not uncommon.

“I was a captain for 27 years, and I can tell you that I’ve been in waterspouts and microbursts that are similar to what happened out there that night with them,” Sputh said in an interview. “You go from like zero wind and a beautiful night into 80 to 100 mile an hour winds out of nowhere. And it happens extremely fast, and they’re extremely violent, and then they’re over.”

Yachts like the Bayesian would have a retractable keel that helps balance the yacht when sailing and improves stability, Sputh added. Italian Bayesian was anchored offshore. If the ship was planning to move closer to shore soon, Sputh said, it would have been normal for the keel to be retracted, to allow for navigation in more shallow waters.

Bacares, Lynch’s wife, was among the 15 survivors, according to a person familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the situation. The Bayesian is owned by Revtom, a firm controlled by Bacares and registered on the Isle of Man, records show.

Ayla Ronald, a senior associate with Clifford Chance in London, also survived.

“We are in shock and deeply saddened by this tragic incident,” the firm said in a statement Tuesday. “Our thoughts are with our Partner, Christopher Morvillo, and his wife, Neda, who are among the missing.”

“Our utmost priority is providing support to the family as well as our colleague Ayla Ronald, who together with her partner, thankfully survived the incident.”

Bloomer, in addition to chairing Morgan Stanley International, joined the insurance group Hiscox last year as nonexecutive chair.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened by this tragic event,” Aki Hussain, the group’s chief executive, said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with all those affected, in particular our Chair, Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife Judy, who are among the missing, and with their family as they await further news from this terrible situation.”

Judy Bloomer worked with the British women’s health charity the Eve Appeal.

“Judy is a brilliant champion for women’s health and medical research, and has been an incredible supporter, committee member and trustee of our charity for over 20 years,” CEO Athena Lamnisos said in a statement Tuesday. “We are deeply shocked to hear the news that our very dear friend and her husband, Jonathan, are among those missing.”

The Bayesian was built in 2008 by Italian ship maker Perini Navi, according to the SuperYacht Times.

Three teams of divers, two from Italy’s coast guard and one from the fire brigade, are involved in the search-and-rescue operation, the coast guard said.

The yacht sank to a depth of more than 160 feet. The first attempt by fire brigade cave divers to search inside the yacht was unsuccessful, rescue authorities said.

On Tuesday evening, Zagarola said that despite the low odds, it would be “beautiful” to find the other passengers. “We are [still] looking for missing people.”

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4 bodies found inside the Bayesian, Mike Lynch family yacht, amid search

Four bodies were recovered inside the Bayesian superyacht on Wednesday, more than two days after it sank off the coast of Italy , setting off an exhaustive search for six missing people, including British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch .

Two of the bodies discovered earlier on Wednesday were brought to shore. One body recovered was a heavily built man, Reuters reported.

Six of the ship's 22 passengers, including Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, went missing after the yacht plunged under the water just before 5 a.m. on Monday as a storm swept across the area. Americans are among the missing, officials have said.

The U.K.-registered yacht belonged to Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, who was also on board and was rescued. The tech tycoon was recently acquitted on fraud charges after a year under house arrest.

Ricardo Thomas, the ship's cook, was found dead on Monday, according to the coast guard.

The rescue mission saw a diving team, helicopters and multiple coast guard ships deployed to search the water. Fifteen people were pulled from the water on Monday, and eight were hospitalized in stable condition.

A 'black swan event'? Experts puzzle over why Bayesian yacht sank

An investigation opened by local prosecutors into the cause of the disaster is ongoing. Experts have pointed to a water spout, a tornado over the water that can travel up to 120 mph, that formed during the storm, as well as the heavy weight of ship's mast, one of the largest in the world.

The 184-feet-long ship was made by Italian ship manufacturer Perini in 2008.

Lynch set off on the cruise late last month to celebrate his acquittal on fraud charges in the U.S. that marked a decade of legal challenges, the Associated Press reported .

One of his lawyers and a character witness for Lynch during the trial were also on board and vanished when the boat went down. Authorities have not yet disclosed the identities of the four people found.

Here are the passengers who were declared missing.

Mike Lynch and Hannah Lynch

Mike Lynch, 59, is co-founder of Britain’s largest enterprise software, Autonomy, which was sold to Hewlett-Packard in 2011, and founder of venture capital fund Invoke Capital. 

Sometimes known as “Britain’s Bill Gates,” Lynch was slapped with charges after HP said it had uncovered deceit and a major accounting scandal within the firm. He spent a year on house arrest after being extradited from the UK.

In early June, at the end of a 12-week trial, a San Francisco jury acquitted Lynch of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He was also cleared on a charge of securities fraud later that month.

Lynch and Bacares have two daughters and six dogs, all named after engineering parts, according to the U.K.’s Sunday Times in a profile of Lynch from last month.

Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, was also among the missing. She was preparing to study English literature at Oxford University, according to the Sunday Times. 

Hannah is the younger of Mike Lynch’s two daughters, the Times reported . Mike Lynch told the outlet that his daughters had grown up with their father being publicly accused of fraud. 

Jonathan Bloomer and Judy Bloomer

Jonathan Bloomer is the non-executive chairman of both Morgan Stanley International and the insurer Hiscox, among other companies. Bloomer acted as a character witness on Lynch’s behalf during his fraud trial. 

Hiscox Chief Executive Aki Hussain told Reuters in a statement that the firm was deeply shocked and saddened and their thoughts were with all those affected. 

Bloomer’s twin brother, Jeremy, told BBC that he is processing the news and the family is waiting to hear updates.

“He was my elder by half an hour, so, it means a lot when you lose a twin brother,” Jeremy Bloomer told BBC. “We’ll still wait and see, so it’s fingers crossed.”

Jonathan Bloomer’s wife, Judy, is a psychotherapist of nearly three decades and former teacher. She specializes in anxiety and stress. She studied English language and literature at Homerton College in Cambridge.

Christopher Morvillo and Neda Morvillo

A lawyer with Clifford Chance, Chris Morvillo was among the team that represented Mike Lynch during his trial. Morvillo is an American citizen. 

He was an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1999 to 2005, and he worked on the criminal investigation stemming from the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 

Morvillo was a graduate of Fordham University School of Law and Villanova University. 

Neda Morvillo, his wife, owns a hand-crafted jewelry company under her maiden name, Neda Nassiri. The company’s website said she has been designing and making jewelry for over 20 years.

In a post on LinkedIn after the conclusion of Lynch’s trial, Chris Morvillo acknowledged his family for their support during the case. 

“And, finally, a huge thank you to my patient and incredible wife, Neda Morvillo, and my two strong, brilliant, and beautiful daughters, Sabrina Morvillo and Sophia Morvillo.  None of this would have been possible without your love and support. I am so glad to be home. 

And they all lived happily ever after…."

Contributing: Reuters

'I'm a yacht expert - here's my theory on how Bayesian managed to vanish in 60 seconds'

Experts are continuing to look for those missing onboard the Bayesian yacht, which sank on Monday morning after being struck by a waterspout. Questions have been raised about why the vessel sank in Sicily

• 11:01, 21 Aug 2024

As expert divers continue their fierce search for missing passengers onboard the doomed Bayesian yacht , investigators on the ground are trying to figure out exactly what went wrong.

The £30m vessel, believed to be owned by billionaire business tycoon Mike Lynch , was battered by a fatal storm in the early hours of Monday, resulting in it 'quickly' capsizing into the depths of the Sicilian sea. Fifteen people have survived the freak accident, however six are still unaccounted for.

Those feared to be trapped inside the wreckage are Mr Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah , Morgan Stanley Bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, along with jewellery designer Neda Morvillo and her husband Chris Morvillo, who is a partner at Clifford Chance law firm.

Tragically, one crew member - chef Recaldo Thomas - has been confirmed dead. Some reports suggest that the boat's aluminium mast, reported to be the world's second tallest, snapped clean in half amid the 'waterspout' - rotating columns of destructive wind over water.

While this is yet to be verified, a yacht expert argues that the humongous mast could have played a major part in the sinking.

The superyacht was last tracked east of Palermo on Sunday evening, with its navigation status as "at anchor". Dan Green, 51, Research & Investigations lead at eSysman SuperYachts - a team made up of yacht crew who share insights on the vessels - said the 75m mast can cause issues in extreme weather .

"With bare poles (meaning no sails), the wind could have blown against the rig sideways to her anchor position causing the vessel to heal over (or lean) heavily," Dan told the Mirror . The UK-based expert explained that this type of superyacht has a lifting keel, which is ballasted - the main structural backbone of the ship filled with heavy material, which could have been raised, having a knock-on effect on the boat's stability.

"When these vessels are at anchor, especially in shallow areas, the keel is lifted to increase the draft (depth) to allow them to anchor or dock in marinas," he explained. "The keel when lowered increases the stability of the vessel.

"Especially when the yacht is underway using sails, as it counters the effects of the wind trying to push the vessel over. However it increases the draft (depth) of the yacht making it hard to get into some marinas (without hitting the sea bed/marina bottom).

"The lowered keel can increase the yacht's draft (depth) by 100 per cent. So, the keel is designed to be lifted up into the hull of the yacht. This allows them into more shallow water and marinas - however when raised, this reduces stability as the centre of gravity is raised, as the keel is also weighted with lead.

"It has an adverse effect on the stability of the yacht. Another effect of the keel being in the up position is the vessel will not self-right if it leans far over.

"If you add to that the possibility of hatches being opened on the vessel that would explain why it's saying so quickly." He added: "I would be very interested to know if the keel is in the up or down position - searchers should be looking at the position of the keel."

Survivor James Catfield, who captained the boat, said on Tuesday: "We didn't see it coming." He was described as "limp" as he waited outside an emergency room after he was freed from the sunken vessel .

Meanwhile a local witness in Porticello said: "That vessel was all lit up. At around 4:30 in the morning, it was gone. A beautiful vessel where there had been a party. A normal holiday day spent happily at sea turned into a tragedy. The vessel was not far from the port. It would have taken very little to raise the anchor and head for the port. Evidently they were surprised by the storm that suddenly hit and they were unable to avoid the sinking."

Matthew Schanck, Chairperson for the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the sinking would have likely happened 'very, very quickly'. Highlighting the rarity of such an incident, he explained: "There isn't really much the captain 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.

"My understanding is that the flare has gone up from the life raft, according to the reports. We don't know if the vessel had time to send out any electronic distress signals, to use its radio or any other equipment to alert the authorities, but the eyewitness accounts from the shore and the anchorage state they saw the red flare.

"One of the captains from the anchorage said he saw the vessel there one minute and then the next minute the vessel 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."

Mr Schanck also told GB News: "It's sort of unprecedented, really, to have a vessel of that size, being certified and commercially operated, to suffer such a significant event in weather that was pretty severe by all accounts, but should have been within the limits of the vessel itself."

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Update: Divers Retrieve 5th Body From Mike Lynch Yacht Sunk Off Sicily

Italian search and rescue teams have retrieved a fifth body from a sunken yacht off Sicily, where British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and Morgan Stanley International chair Jonathan Bloomer are among those feared to have died.

The body was recovered Thursday morning as search on the wreck resumed for a fourth day, according to an Italian official briefed on the operations who asked not to named. No statements identifying any of the bodies have so far been issued officially.

A total of six people likely were trapped and died inside the Bayesian when it was hit by a tornado near Porticello, Sicily, on Monday, according to authorities. Adding to the complexity of the search mission is the “narrowness of the spaces” inside the sunken yacht and “the presence of many objects,” the coast guard said.

Overall, of the 22 passengers in the boat, 15 were rescued on Monday and one victim was formally identified.

Yacht Insurer OMAC Is Hull Carrier for Sunken Yacht in Sicily, Sources Say

Authorities are meanwhile investigating exactly how the luxury yacht sank — and why it sank so quickly — in the early hours of Monday morning, with the captain and other survivors answering questions from the local prosecutor’s office, according to local media.

The UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch said it’s also probing the incident, with questions surfacing around the expansiveness of the yacht’s mast and the state of the hull.

“Right now there is no evidence that the mast has been snapped,” coast guard spokesman Vincenzo Zagarola told Bloomberg News. “We can also say that, so far, there is no evidence that the hull has been broken. But we don’t have a clear idea yet of the full damage.”

Crews aided by military ships, remote controlled underwater vehicles and helicopters have been searching for missing passengers since Monday. Six guests, including Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, and nine crew have been rescued. The body of Recaldo Thomas, the ship’s chef, was found soon after the Bayesian sank.

Lynch and his daughter Hannah, Bloomer and his wife Judy, and Clifford Chance partner Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda were identified as the missing passengers on Tuesday by authorities in Sicily.

Lynch, 59, and his family were celebrating his recent acquittal from fraud charges with a small group of advisers when the violent storm struck. The charges stemmed from Lynch’s sale of his software firm Autonomy Corp. to Hewlett Packard Co. in 2011. The Silicon Valley giant went on to accuse Lynch of accounting failures. He’d spent years working to clear his name in court and restore his reputation as one of Europe’s most successful entrepreneurs.

A little over two months before the yacht accident, a San Francisco jury found Lynch not guilty of criminal charges that he duped HP into overpaying for his company. He was still fighting HP in a civil case in London, where a British judge held him responsible for creating the illusion of a company much larger and more successful than it really was.

Rescue workers have had difficulties gaining access to the yacht 48 meters below the surface, citing the depth and position of the vessel’s hull.

“The search will go on as long as necessary,” Zagarola told Bloomberg. “For sure the whole hull will need to be inspected meter by meter.”

Top photograph: An Italian Coast Guard rescue boat during the search for survivors following the sinking of the Bayesian yacht, in Porticello near Palermo, on Aug. 20, 2024. Photo credit: Alerto Pozzoli/AFP/Getty Images

• Morgan Stanley’s and Hiscox’s Bloomer Among Those Missing After Yacht Sinks

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CCTV video appears to show the moment the "Bayesian" yacht disappears as it capsizes in Palermo, Italy. Aug. 20, 2024

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Who Are The 6 Missing In Luxury Yacht Disaster Off Sicily?

Tech entrepreneur mike lynch, who built britain's biggest software company autonomy, and his 18-year-old daughter hannah are missing..

Rescue boats are searching for the missing people.

An intense storm sank a luxury yacht off Sicily's coast on Monday, killing one man and leaving six missing, including British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his daughter. Fifteen people escaped before the yacht sank.

Here are details about the missing passengers.

MIKE LYNCH AND DAUGHTER HANNAH

Tech entrepreneur Lynch built Britain's biggest software company, Autonomy. Often dubbed Britain's Bill Gates, the 59-year-old was lauded by shareholders, scientists and politicians when he sold it to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011.

But in late 2012, HP said it had found a massive accounting scandal at the business, and wrote off $8.8 billion of its value. Lynch spent the next 12 years trying to clear his name and was acquitted on all criminal charges just weeks ago in the United States.

After the sale of Autonomy, Lynch founded Invoke Capital, a technology venture capital fund.

Lynch's daughter Hannah, 18, is also missing. A Sunday Times profile of Lynch last month said Hannah was preparing to study English literature at the University of Oxford.

His wife, Angela Bacares, who owns the vessel, was also aboard it but was rescued.

JONATHAN BLOOMER AND WIFE JUDY BLOOMER

Jonathan Bloomer appeared as a character witness in Lynch's legal case earlier this year. Bloomer has been non-executive chair of Morgan Stanley International since 2016, and is the chair of international specialist insurer, Hiscox.

He was also chief executive of insurance and investment company Prudential from 2000 to 2005.

He studied physics at London's Imperial College in the 1970s, according to his LinkedIn profile.

One of Bloomer's former employees wrote on LinkedIn he was "always a friendly, approachable and engaging man".

Hiscox Chief Executive Aki Hussain said in a statement on Tuesday they were deeply shocked and saddened and their thoughts were with all those affected, in particular Bloomer and his wife Judy, who was also aboard the yacht.

Judy, who studied English language and literature at Homerton College in Cambridge, has worked as a psychotherapist for nearly 30 years, specialising in anxiety and stress. She started her career as a teacher.

CHRISTOPHER MORVILLO AND WIFE NEDA MORVILLO

American Christopher Morvillo, a partner at law firm Clifford Chance in New York City, was part of Lynch's defence team, fighting a long legal battle to acquit his client. His first ever post on LinkedIn was around two months ago to celebrate the court victory.

"None of this would have been possible without your love and support," Morvillo wrote to his family in the post, including his wife, Neda Morvillo.

Before joining Clifford Chance in November 2011, Morvillo worked as a principal at Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello PC, providing advice on white collar criminal defence and regulatory matters.

Morvillo, who studied law at Fordham University, also worked as an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York between 1999 and 2005, assisting in the criminal investigation arising out of the Sept. 11 attacks.

David Oscar Markus, a criminal defence lawyer and podcast host, interviewed Morvillo last week. He wrote a blog describing him as a "superstar lawyer".

"Chris dedicated over a decade of his career to obtaining justice for Mike Lynch," Markus wrote. "He got it and then for this to happen.... it's tough to find the right words."

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Morvillo's wife, Neda, is the owner of a luxury jewellery line under her maiden name, Neda Nassiri. According to the company's website, she has been designing and hand-crafting jewellery in New York for over two decades.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Yacht Sank in Sicily Due to ‘Endless Chain of Errors,' Ship Maker's Owner Speculates: ‘Everything Was Predictable’

"A series of activities should have been done to avoid finding oneself in that situation," argues Giovanni Costantino, who owns the firm that built the vessel in 2008

• Giovanni Costantino — who is the CEO of The Italian Sea Group, the company that now owns Perini Navi, which built the  Bayesian  in 2008 — blames an "endless chain of errors" for the luxury yacht’s sinking on Monday, Aug. 19
• "Everything was predictable. I have the weather charts in front of me here," Constantino told Italian newspaper  Corriere della Sera  of the storm the boat was caught in
• "An unsinkable ship but from the crew an endless chain of errors," the CEO claimed to the outlet

The sinking of the luxury Bayesian  yacht off the coast of Sicily this week  resulted from an "endless chain of errors" by the crew, the ship maker's CEO is speculating.

"This episode sounds like an unbelievable story, both technically and as a fact," Giovanni Costantino — who leads The Italian Sea Group, the company that now owns Perini Navi, which built the  Bayesian  in 2008 — said,  according to CNN .

While speaking to  Italian newspaper  Corriere della Sera , Costantino said he believes those on board should not have been in their cabins, as he claims they were, when the Bayesian sank in the early hours of Monday, Aug. 19. 

Many details of why the yacht went into the water so quickly remain unclear and it's not yet known what the passengers and crew were doing before tragedy struck.

PERINI NAVI PRESS OFFICE/HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The 183-foot British vessel sank around 5 a.m. local time on Monday after a "violent storm" while near Porticello, the Italian coast guard said in a statement that was previously obtained by PEOPLE.

"Everything that has been done reveals a very long sum of errors. The people should not have been in the cabins, the boat should not have been at anchor. And then why didn't the crew know about the incoming disturbance?" Costantino said in his interview, translated from Italian.

"The passengers reported an absurd thing, namely that the storm came unexpected, suddenly. It's not true. Everything was predictable. I have the weather charts in front of me here. Nothing came suddenly ... Ask yourself, why was no fisherman from Porticello out that night? A fisherman reads the weather conditions and a ship doesn't? The disturbance was fully readable in all the weather charts. One could not not know," he argued.

"An unsinkable ship but from the crew an endless chain of errors," the CEO asserted.

The coast guard has said 22 people were aboard the  Bayesian  when it sank — 12 passengers and 10 crew — and that 15 of those were subsequently rescued.

The body of the yacht's chef, Recaldo Thomas, was recovered nearby. 

ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty

Costantino's comments came as it was reported that five bodies had been found in the search for the missing six people as of Wednesday, Aug. 21, a source close to the rescue operations confirmed to PEOPLE. Authorities have said that their work is ongoing. 

An Italian government official, Massimo Mariani, reportedly named one of the dead as British tech tycoon Mike Lynch . The other bodies have not yet been publicly identified by authorities. 

Lynch was celebrating with family and friends on the yacht following his acquittal in a fraud trial in June, PEOPLE previously reported.

Costantino offered his view of how the tragedy could have been avoided: "To begin with, in a weather alert situation it was inappropriate to have, as I read, a party. Not that evening. The hull and deck needed to be secured by closing all doors and hatches, after putting the guests at the ship's meeting point as per emergency procedure. Then start the engines and pull up the anchor or release it automatically, put the bow to the wind and lower the keel.

"The next morning they would have departed with zero damage." 

Jonathan Brady/PA Images via Getty

When discussing whether the crew were at fault, Costantino reiterated to the Italian outlet that he believes "errors were made."

"A series of activities should have been done to avoid finding oneself in that situation," he said. "I as the ship's captain would have moved, but even if for some reason I had to stay there, I would have managed those weather conditions which then, let's face it, weren't so crazy."

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Costantino contended that there would have been "a zero risk if the correct maneuvers had been made and if situations that compromised the ship's stability had not occurred," adding to the newspaper that reports that the boat went down in seconds is "nonsense." He believes the yacht would have "went down" after water "started to enter" within "six minutes."

The remaining missing  Bayesian  passengers are Lynch's daughter Hannah as well as Chairman of Morgan Stanley International  Jonathan Bloomer, his wife, Judy , and New York City-based lawyer  Christopher Morvillo and his wife, Neda , sources have said.

Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, was among those rescued, PEOPLE previously reported.

Related Articles

Body of British tech magnate Mike Lynch is among those recovered from yacht wreckage, officials say

The Italian coast guard says the body of British tech magnate Mike Lynch is among those recovered off the coast of Sicily from the wreckage of a superyacht whose builders had called unsinkable

PORTICELLO, Sicily -- The Italian coast guard said Thursday the body of British tech magnate Mike Lynch is among those recovered off the coast of Sicily from the wreckage of a superyacht whose builders had called unsinkable.

One woman remains missing. She has not been identified, but Hannah Lynch, Lynch's 18-year-old daughter, is reportedly unaccounted for . The family had been celebrating his recent acquittal on fraud charges with the people who defended him at trial in the United States.

Five others were recovered by rescue crews following Monday's tragedy.

The Bayesian, a 56-meter (184-foot) British-flagged yacht, went down in a storm early Monday as it was moored about a kilometer (half a mile) offshore. Civil protection officials said they believe the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout , and sank quickly.

Termini Imerese Public Prosecutor’s Office investigators were collecting evidence for a criminal investigation, which they opened immediately after the tragedy despite no formal suspects having been publicly identified.

The chief executive of The Italian Sea Group, which owns the Bayesian's manufacturer, told the AP in an interview on Thursday that superyachts like these are “designed to be unsinkable."

“And it is unsinkable not only because it is designed in this way, but also because it is a sailing ship and sailing ships are the safest ever,” CEO Giovanni Costantino said.

Costantino added that “obviously they must not hit the rocks violently, discarding the hull, and they must not take in water,” suggesting the second possibility was the most likely in this case.

Costantino also noted that sailing ships require “a greater competence” to be guided compared with motor boats.

Investigators are now looking at why the Bayesian, built in 2008 by Italian shipyard Perini Navi, sank while a nearby sailboat remained largely unscathed . Fifteen of the 22 people aboard survived by escaping in a lifeboat, including a mother who reported holding her 1-year-old baby over the waves to save her. They were rescued by the sailboat Sir Robert Baden Powell.

The sailboat's captain, Karsten Borner, said his craft sustained minimal damage — the frame of a sun awning broke — even with winds that he estimated had reached 12 on the Beaufort wind scale, the highest hurricane-strength force on the scale.

He said he had remained anchored with his engines running to try to maintain the ship’s position as the forecast storm rolled in.

“Another possibility is to heave anchor before the storm and to run downwind at open sea,” Borner said in a text message. But he said that might not have been possible for the Bayesian, given its 75-meter (246-foot) tall mast.

“If there was a stability problem, caused by the extremely tall mast, it would not have been better at open sea,” he said.

Yachts like the Bayesian are required to have watertight compartments that are specifically designed to prevent a rapid, catastrophic sinking even when some parts fill with water.

Lynch is the only person confirmed dead; the other bodies have not been formally identified by the Italian coast guard.

Besides Hannah Lynch, those missing are Christopher Morvillo, one of Lynch’s U.S. lawyers, and his wife, Neda; Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley’s London-based investment banking subsidiary, and his wife, Judy.

The body of chef Recaldo Thomas was the first to be recovered , on Monday. His death was confirmed by his family.

Friends of Thomas, best known as “Rick,” paid tribute to him on Thursday at a favorite bar in the Caribbean Island of Antigua. Cooking for Lynch was supposed to be one of Thomas' last jobs before retiring, his cousin, David Isaac, told the AP.

Divers have struggled to find the bodies in the yacht’s hull on the seabed 50 meters (164 feet) underwater.

“We would need a crystal ball to know when we'll be able to find the next body," said Luca Cari, spokesperson for the fire rescue service.

“It's very difficult to move inside the wreckage. Moving just one meter can take up to 24 hours,” Cari said.

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Sailing yachts like Mike Lynch's are 'unsinkable bodies', CEO of boat manufacturing firm says

Bayesian superyacht which sank off Italy is an "unsinkable" vessel, Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, said.

By Ashna Hurynag, news correspondent and Eleonora Chiarella, producer

Thursday 22 August 2024 15:27, UK

Vessels like Mike Lynch's stricken superyacht are "unsinkable", according to the chief executive of the firm which makes and sells them.

Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, told Sky News there are no flaws with the design and construction of the Bayesian superyacht which capsized in a storm off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, on Monday.

Five bodies were found by divers on Wednesday - taking the number of confirmed dead to six.

The Italian Sea Group also owns the firm that built British tech tycoon Mr Lynch's Bayesian, and Mr Costantino said the vessels "are the safest in the most absolute sense".

"Being the manufacturer of Perini [boats], I know very well how the boats have always been designed and built," he said.

"And as Perini is a sailing ship... sailing ships are renowned to be the safest ever."

He said their structure and keel made them "unsinkable bodies".

Read more on this story: Why search of superyacht wreck has been so difficult Hero mum 'slept with baby on deck when storm sank yacht'

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Mr Costantino said news of the sinking "put me in a state of sadness on one side and of disbelief on the other".

"This incident sounds like an unbelievable story, both technically and as a fact," he said.

It is understood Italian prosecutors investigating the incident are continuing to hold interviews with the survivors.

On Tuesday they questioned the captain for more than two hours to help reconstruct what happened and provide useful technical details.

Four British inspectors are also in Porticello and have begun a preliminary assessment of events.

It is understood they will look at all relevant aspects of the incident, including the design, stability, and operation of the vessel. They will also examine the effects of the weather conditions experienced.

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News

Twenty-two people were on board the vessel, 15 of whom were rescued - including Briton Charlotte Golunski and her one-year-old daughter Sofia.

Divers will resume efforts on Thursday morning to bring ashore a body they found earlier. One more person remains missing.

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Breaking news, chilling footage shows bayesian superyacht slowly disappearing from view during raging storm.

Security camera footage from 650 feet from where the Bayesian superyacht sank Monday shows it slowly disappearing.

In the chilling video, the lights from the boat go out of view as the storm rages.

A witness told Giornale Di Sicilia that they rushed to watch the tape after learning about the ship.

What to know after a tornado sank the yacht Bayesian off the coast of Sicily:

• A superyacht capsized off the coast of Sicily after a tornado hit the area early Monday, killing six passengers and leaving one missing.
• British tech tycoon Mike Lynch was identified as one of the bodies pulled from the wreckage. His teenage daughter, Hannah, is still missing.
• Lynch — known as “Britain’s Bill Gates” — had invited guests from Clifford Chance, a legal firm that represented him, and Invoke Capital, his own company, on the voyage,  according to the Telegraph . 
• Security camera footage shot from 650 feet from where the  Bayesian sank Monday  shows it disappearing.
• A rare and unexpected “black swan” weather event may have led to the  Bayesian’s speedy demise , maritime experts say.

“Of about 20 cameras installed in the house, only one was not disturbed by the wind and rain. You can clearly see what is happening,” the witness said.

“There was nothing that could be done for the boat. It disappeared in a very short time.”

9 superyacht crew members share what it's really like working for a billionaire on board

• Superyachts are luxurious, but working on them isn't.
• Insider polled superyacht crew members to find out what it's really like working for a billionaire on board.
• They said their days are spent fulfilling requests and keeping the yacht in top shape — but it really all depends on the superyacht owner.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories .

While working on a superyacht sounds glamorous, in reality it can be anything but.

Insider polled superyacht crew members to get an inside look at life on board. When asked what working for a millionaire or billionaire is really like, they agreed on a few things, like long hours.

Many superyacht  crew members wake up before dawn to start their day, which typically involves a lot of cleaning and catering to the requests of owners and guests.

Read more: The super rich are hoarding cash — instead bartering yachts, $30 million mansions, and caviar to ride out the pandemic

But while some superyacht owners are demanding, others are less so — it really all depends on their personality. Some crew members said that owners and guests are more like regular people than you'd expect.

Here's what life on board looks like, according to nine superyacht crew members.

Note: Insider was able to verify each crew member's identity, but we refrained from publishing their full names to protect their privacy.

Working on a yacht can be lucrative.

Insider previously reported that deckhands earn an average of $3,083 to $3,574 a month, depending on the boat size. Captains reportedly get paid even more — they earn $7,750 to $19,961 a month on average.

Kate Lardy of the Sun Sentinel reported that a captain in Fort Lauderdale once spent a total of $14,255 on day workers, who are hired temporarily for onboard services, during a two-month period.

But it's also tiring and demanding.

One captain who works on a 120-foot boat alluded to tiring conditions. Working for a billionaire is "demanding," he said, with hours that begin very early — before 6 a.m. — and end very late.

Yacht crew members have to meet high expectations.

One electronic technical officer who works on a 223-foot yacht stressed the pressure of delivering top-notch service while remaining level-headed.

Working on a yacht involves "very, very long days with little rest and expectations to perform at the highest levels of service while not losing your cool under pressure," he said.

They have to work hard to keep yachts spotless.

Guests and owners can be messy and dirty — and it's up to the crew to make sure it doesn't look that way. A mate on a 92-foot yacht said he had to wake up before guests or other crew members to get the yacht's exterior ready for the day.

"They expect it to look like no one has touched it," he said. "So any rain or dew, water spots, bird crap, or salt spray has to be continuously cleaned, not to mention having to constantly wipe stainless [steel] and glass when guests move around the boat. They leave smudges and fingerprints everywhere.

"By the time I start at the top of the boat and move around drying the boat, washing windows, and prepping water toys, depending on where the guests are, it's time to clean behind them."

He said he then has to be available for whatever the day brings, whether guests want to take the tender out or play with water toys, the interior crew needs help with service, or any maintenance issues need to be addressed.

There's a lot of cleaning, smiling, and snacking.

Nic, a chief stewardess, shared her typical daily itinerary, which extends from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., with a one-hour break for a power nap.

There's constant snacking, as she doesn't always have time to sit and eat, she said. She's also "always thinking and planning ahead for the next meal or excursion," like what guests "need to take with them and what they need upon return," she said.

"Always thinking of ways to make the day special and 'perfect' (as much as possible)," she said.

She added: "Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, and lots of smiling. Behind the scenes, a lot of running around and working at high speed, throwing stuff into drawers and sorting it out later when you have time, laughing, and keeping crew spirits high. Never-ending laundry."

Work is easier when the owners are away, which is often.

Billionaire owners actually don't spend a lot of time on their multimillion-dollar yachts. Neither do the guests who charter them.

"Owners or guests are typically not on the boat all that much, so most of the time the crew has the boat to themselves," said Michael, a former yacht captain who worked on yachts ranging from 130 to 170 feet.

"Work is pretty easy and consists of general maintenance and keeping the boat in perfect/ready state for when the owner does show up. If you have a good crew it can be very enjoyable. If you do not, it can be very stressful and miserable."

Everything depends on the owner's personality.

Some crew members get lucky working for generous yacht owners, while others get treated like the help.

"It's hard work and long days when they are on board," said Martin, the captain of a 155-foot yacht. "It really depends on the owner. Some have treated me like family, and some have treated me like a servant."

But sometimes it's not the owner who's difficult.

A chef on a 150-foot motor yacht also said that working for a billionaire could be unpredictable, as every boat and owner is different.

But it's not the owner of the yacht who's always difficult to work for.

"Bear in mind that the captain is every bit as much your boss as the owner is, and sometimes the captain is a bigger pain in the ass than the billionaire owner," she said.

Yacht owners are just your everyday people on vacation — with more money.

According to Mark, the captain of a 114-foot yacht, billionaire owners are just like normal vacationers. Kind of.

"They're just people holidaying, but with more money and toys to fill their days," he said.

They can be more down-to-earth than expected, but their spontaneity can be frustrating.

"It's really nice to find out that some of the wealthiest people you'll work for are actually more down-to-earth and normal like any person you'd meet on the street," a stewardess on a 112-foot sailing yacht said. "The saying is 'money screams, wealth whispers.'"

She added: "A typical day involves turning heads, beds, and laundry for guests and crew, which can be a lot if you're a department of one. Food and beverage service three times a day. A lot of plans and schedules change on the fly depending on the owners and their wants and whims, which can be a bit frustrating."

• Main content

Reddit Lore: Have You Heard The One About The Whistler?

Some things that go down on Reddit wind up being mentioned in passing for years afterward. Creepy Catalog’s Reddit Lore series will investigate the scariest urban legends in the site’s history.

The first story we’ll cover is the legend of The Whistler, a creepy story a commenter told about hearing whistling as a child, and then again 10 years later in a completely different location. As an adult, the user hears the whistling again, on a canoe with his girlfriend as a storm approaching. This time, he thinks to get some video evidence.

Let’s start with the original post:

I’ve been waiting a long time to tell Reddit the full story of The Whistler. This story requires many details, but it is unexplainable, creepy, and 100% true. I also have video evidence. When I was about 8 years old I was taking my dog for a walk through the neighborhood with my mom. It was maybe 11pm. We live next to a swamp/woods area on the edge of our neighborhood in Lansing, Michigan. I remember it being very silent and slightly windy. From down in the swamp we heard somebody whistling at us. It sounded sort of like a bird, but each whistle was different enough where the lack of consistency made it human-like. The whistle sounded higher, then lower. I can’t really describe it. My mom had a concerned, slightly terrified look on her face and grabbed my hand and said that we should go inside quickly. I didn’t understand because I was too young, but seeing my mom freak out made me freak out too. After a while, though, I kind of forgot about it. Two years later, I was taking my dog out again, late at night. There is a large bush that could easily obscure a person behind it just next to the front door. As I was finishing the walk, the whistling noise started again, same pitches, same inconsistent, human-like tones. As soon as I heard it, a chill went down my spine as I remembered exactly the feeling of seeing my mom, terrified, looking down into the swamp at something I couldn’t see (maybe she couldn’t either). I ran inside as fast as possible. Years went by and I thought about it less and less. I told only a handful of people, and eventually it slipped from my mind. Fast forward to last summer: I’m 24, started dating my girl Sarah. We moved out to South Dakota for work. For Independence day, we decided to go to Pierre, SD and watch the fireworks along the bank of the Missouri river. There was a free camping spot behind a hospital where you could pitch your tent, hang out, and see the fireworks up the river. We were near the end of the campground and there were very few people around us. As it was getting dark, the fireworks began. They were pretty far away, so the illumination they brought was very little. Thus, we had to sit right at the edge of the river to be able to see them. A huge thunderhead was moving in and a storm was imminent, so the air seemed electric and the wind was picking up. The atmosphere was eerie to say the least. The police boats herded all the other boats off of the river and had left our area to do that elsewhere. Most of the other campers walked up the river to have a better view of the fireworks, but Sarah and I stayed back and were drinking PBR tallboys and kicking it. Suddenly, we heard the sound of a paddle methodically dipping into the water. We saw a figure steering a canoe about 20m off shore. Sarah decided to go get more beers from the car, leaving me alone to stare at this mystery person. And then, of course, they whistled at me. My entire body was frozen and covered in goosebumps. It was the exact same whistler from my childhood, more than a decade earlier. I looked at the figure, but it was much too dark to discern who it could be. They were wearing a hat. When they were perpendicular to the shore from me, they stopped paddling, turned the canoe to face directly at me, and whistled right at me. I was so frightened I stood up and shouted at them “who are you?!?” They didn’t say anything, just whistled a couple more times, turned the canoe 180 degrees, and paddled out of sight. I’m a videographer, so I already had my camera by my side and was taking video of the fireworks. As the canoe was almost out of sight, I grabbed my camera and got a shot of them whistling as they went away. When Sarah came back from getting beers, she was very confused as to why I was so freaked out. When I explained, she was freaked out a bit too. I was convinced we would both be murdered that night. How did this whistling person follow me, after 14 years, all the way to South Dakota? Was it a coincidence? Why was it the same whistling noise?! Who was that person and where did they go?!?! So many questions still unanswered. To this day I’m more afraid of being outside in the dark where I might hear that whistling again. I’m open to any explanations.”

The user then posted a link to a video of The Whistler:

After causing a lot of Reddit users to speculate in the comments, OP finally confronted his mother about how fearful she was the first time they encountered The Whistler together. She doesn’t remember:

“It’s been a while and I apologize for that. I’m back in the US now and I asked my mom about it. I sat her down and played the video for her. She honestly doesn’t remember anything like that happening. I wish I had something more exciting to say. Alas, it must remain a mystery.”

A commenter pointed out that this experience sounds similar to the Venezuelan legend of “El Silbon” (The Whistler):

“The legend is that of a young man who killed his father as a revenge because he had killed his wife and called her a “whore”. After this event, his grandfather had him tied to a pole in the middle of a field and whipped him, had his wounds cleaned with “aguardiente”(drinking alcohol) and released him with two rabid and hungry dogs but before release he cursed him to carry his father’s bones for the rest of eternity. He has a particular whistling similar to Music Notes CDEFGAB in that order, going up to F and then going low to B. It’s said that when the whistling is heard closely there is no danger, because he is really far, but when the whistling sounds far he is really close.It’s also said that the whistling announces the death of those who hear it. He can be anywhere at any tine. It seems that the only thing that can save the person that hears it from afar is the bark of a dog, because he is afraid of it, also of chili peppers and whips.The soul takes revenge on womanizing men. Many inhabitants of Los Llanos speak of seeing him, particularly during summer, season in which the venezuelan savannah sears under the strength of drought and El Silbon sits in the stumps of trees and gathers dust with his hands. But he is primarily encountered in times of humidity and rain, when the spectre roams hungry for death and avid to punish the drunk, the whoremongers and from time to time an innocent victim. It’s said that he sucks on the navel of drunk men when he finds them alone to drink the alcohol that they drank and he rips apart the whoremongers, he takes off the bones and puts them inside the bag in which he carries his dad’s remains. Some versions say that he looks like a long giant, six meters tall who walks from treetop to treetop, while he emits his terrifying whistling and rattles inside the dusty old bag, the pale bones of his misfortuned father, or as some claim, his multiple victims. Other versions state that he presents as the shade of a tall and slender man with a hat, specially to drunk people. It is said that, El Silbon, may appear near a house on some nights, leaving the bag on the floor and counting the bones one by one. If one or more people hear him, nothing will happen, but if no one hears, by dawn a family member will die in his sleep. In the Colombian eastern Llanos, where he is called “El Silbador”, they believe it’s the wandering soul of a party loving womanizer who died in solitude, and people claim that he seeks the company of someone who dares ride horseback late at night. But this kind version is an exception because, also in Colombia, some others say he chases pregnant women, that his whistling penetrates the ear, chills, and that, if someone hears a high pitch tone it omens the death of a woman, while a low pitch tone omens the death of a man. In any case, that woman or man is generally someone known by the one that heard the whistling.

This is the whistling sound said to be made by the Venezuelan Whistler:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2AWtkWDvb4

Plenty of people in the comments section have had similar encounters with a Whistler of their own:

“Ok, your whistler story completely freaked me the fuck out. Ever since I was little I would randomly hear somebody whistling outside and if I was inside my house it would be so loud I would always go out trying to see who was doing it. I’ve never seen anybody doing it. I watched your video and the whistle I always hear is the whistle, that high then low one. It always just repeats that. I hear it at different houses, I’ve heard it in different cities and states, and I still hear it now as an adult.”

Others pointed out that The Whistler sounds a lot like a certain kind of Chickadee, however the pitch in the videos of that birds call doesn’t match up with what we see in the original vid:

For what it’s worth, OP posted this 3 years ago and he’s still around and posting to Reddit, so if it was a death omen it wasn’t very accurate. My money’s on a weird coincidence, but this whole story still gets under my skin.

Read more Spooky .

About the author

Emily Madriga

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• Stupid Human Tricks While Boating/Fishing

FUNNY Boating Stories (not really stupid, just funny) Let's hear yours!

• Thread starter croSSed
• Start date Apr 27, 2007

Petty Officer 1st Class

• Apr 27, 2007

Like the thread title says, post something here that happened to you that was not really stupid, but was funny. You know, you were operating your craft in a reasonable, safe manner, and something happened that - after it happened, at least - was funny. Here's mine: I was in my 20's and was on vacation in early August with my family at a lake that we frequented on vacation. We were coming in in my dad's 16' runabout after an afternoon of fishing. The boat was a closed bow number with a walk-through windshield allowing you to use the bow as a walk-way. The boat also had a cleat near the middle of the bow deck for tieing off. I'm piloting the boat, and my dad gets up on the bow and sits down, intending to jump off the bow onto the dock to get our tow vehicle, while I backed away after he made the transition from boat to dock. I'm idling in expertly, right on target for him to safely jump up onto the dock. When I get about 10' from the dock, out of the blue my dad suddenly turns to me and starts saying, "back-up! back-up!" I look at him and say, "why, what's the matter?" We're clear to get to the dock. I see no problems as we are headed in. He says, VERY animatedly, "Just back up!" He has somewhat of a panicked look on his face; my interpretation of it at the time was that I must be doing something VERY wrong in my navigational efforts to safely get us to the dock. I'm thinking, "what in the world is the matter?" A guy on the dock notices the commotion and starts saying to my dad, "hey everything's alright, I got you", while holding out his hand in offer of support. My dad says to me, "JUST BACK UP!!" So, in frustration, I ram the thing in reverse and back away. Once we get a few yards from the dock, my dad turns around towards me with a pained expression on his face, and reaches for his groin. "&%^*", he says, "I caught my scrotum on the cleat! It feels like I should be bleeding!" I TOTALLY fall off my seat laughing. TG  

Lieutenant Junior Grade

• May 4, 2007
• Nov 21, 2007

Re: FUNNY Boating Stories (not really stupid, just funny) Let's hear yours! must have hurt:redface:  

wildmaninal

Lieutenant commander.

Re: FUNNY Boating Stories (not really stupid, just funny) Let's hear yours! Go figure old thread again. Yup that would suck. And I know what you mean about operating somebody elses belongings or equipment in your case it was your father's boat, in my case it was my father's tractor with a front end loader. I know how to drive the darn tractor dad, and I can't lower the loader down anymore or else I'll end up crushing you, he gets agrevated when I operate the thing at a safe speed or in the direction of my own, one time "I just said you do it" "I'm done" and walked off.  

jay_merrill

Vice admiral.

• Dec 15, 2007

Re: FUNNY Boating Stories (not really stupid, just funny) Let's hear yours! Not strictly a boating story but related: My grandfather lived on a beautiful saltwater pond in New England. We spent all of our summers there no matter where we were living at the time. That meant, of course, that all the family pets came too. One summer we had a new cat that was essentailly full grown by the summer. Grand-dad's dock extended out into the water about 100 feet and had an L-shaped end with bench seat on it. I was sitting on it watching a seagull that had landed on a post a few feet away, waiting to see if I was going to come up with any of the remains that we often fed them after cleaning fish. The cat, which was at the head of the dock, began a stalking approach towards the bird as I watched. As it got closer, the bird began to eyeball it with a semi-interested look. Soon enough, our cat was within striking range and bolted into a full fledged run and flying leap at the seagull. With a couple of flaps of its wings, the gull basically elevated in place while the cat sailed underneath it straight into the pond, and then landed right back were it had been all the time. I think I damn near fell into the pond myself, laughing at this. The bird just sat there looking at the cat in the water and the cat kept giving out the most miserable meows you have ever heard. BTW, cats are actually excellent swimmers and it made it back to shore just fine.  

Re: FUNNY Boating Stories (not really stupid, just funny) Let's hear yours! LOL jay_merrill, I could visualize that seen. That would of been a good one to send to America's funniest videos. Poor kitty kitty lol.  

Re: FUNNY Boating Stories (not really stupid, just funny) Let's hear yours! That is good jay. You really should keep a video cam on that cat... that would have definately been the 10,000 dollar winner right there.  

Re: FUNNY Boating Stories (not really stupid, just funny) Let's hear yours! True, but it happened in about 1965 so I'm out of luck on that one. If only I could replay the very vivid memory of it that I have in my mind! It was just one of those things that stay with you forever.  

SpinnerBait_Nut

Honorary moderator emeritus.

Re: FUNNY Boating Stories (not really stupid, just funny) Let's hear yours! Not too worry. I'd say most of us have done that one time or another. My usual mental lapse is to forget to unhook the winch strap after I remove the safety line that I use on the bow to back up the winch strap. There are a bunch of old timers who hang out most every day at my local boat launch, critiqueing everything that everyone does. Boy, do I feel dumb as they chuckle at me trying to figure out why the boat won't launch before it hits me what I have done!  

Re: FUNNY Boating Stories (not really stupid, just funny) Let's hear yours! There's always something to bring ones head back down to size.  

Supreme Mariner

• Dec 21, 2007

Re: FUNNY Boating Stories (not really stupid, just funny) Let's hear yours! good one spinner! hope the gave ya a trophy! best transome dive? or mabe fastest voice change? (after hitting the cold water) cheers and hope ya dont hafta dive again!  

More fish than mountain goat

• Dec 31, 2007

Re: FUNNY Boating Stories (not really stupid, just funny) Let's hear yours! Was on a dive charter once when one of the other divers was gearing up. He had all the gear on and was ready to go over the side, expect for his 'tail-flap'. He leaned against the railing on the side of the boat, pulled his tail-flap up and rolled over.... To his surprise, and everybody else's amusement, he was now suspended 3 feet above the water, just hanging there. He'd pulled his tail-flap over the hand rail. We all ROFLMAO.... Chris.........  

• Jan 3, 2008

Re: FUNNY Boating Stories (not really stupid, just funny) Let's hear yours! Oddest thing thing saw was while out fishing10 miles out in the middle of Lake Erie. Very calm and hot day. Not a ripple on the water. There were many boats out trolling with their downriggers and planer boards. You had to constantly watch your course so you didn't get crossed up. I go past one boat and there kid in the water behind the boat with a life jacket. He is tied to the boat by a rope and being dragged along as the boats trolls for walleye. I thought my self trolling for sharks if he wasn't in a fresh water lake.  

Petty Officer 2nd Class

Re: FUNNY Boating Stories (not really stupid, just funny) Let's hear yours! Growing up, my parents had a weekend lakehouse we frequented during the summer. I invited a friend to come up one weekend who had just moved to Texas from MA. He had never been in a boat, swam at a lake, or even knew the concept of a water ski. He warmed up to it fast and soon wanted to try out the "zip sled" - a long blue plastic device one laid on while the boat towed you. It had a subtle upturned nose that dictated the top from the bottom though. Dad chucked it into the water and my friend clamored on top of it to get ready. No one thought to check for it being the right side up. He was hanging onto the handle and nervously said "go!". Dad hits the gas on our old Sea Sprite and we take off. Within seconds the boat is straining and slowing and it was then I noticed the rope leading to the zip sled is angled towards the bottom of the lake. When he took off, the sled bit into the water and went straight under taking my friend with it. After a second the rope started moving upward and soon the sled appeared back on the surface with a gasping and sputtering kid trying to catch his breath. My dad was roaring with laughter but my friend did NOT think it was funny and later confessed he suspected he was a victim of some sort of Texas hazing deal. He was content to just ride in the boat after that.  

Chief Petty Officer

• Jan 6, 2008

jasonh said: Growing up, my parents had a weekend lakehouse we frequented during the summer. I invited a friend to come up one weekend who had just moved to Texas from MA. He had never been in a boat, swam at a lake, or even knew the concept of a water ski. He warmed up to it fast and soon wanted to try out the "zip sled" - a long blue plastic device one laid on while the boat towed you. It had a subtle upturned nose that dictated the top from the bottom though. Dad chucked it into the water and my friend clamored on top of it to get ready. No one thought to check for it being the right side up. He was hanging onto the handle and nervously said "go!". Dad hits the gas on our old Sea Sprite and we take off. Within seconds the boat is straining and slowing and it was then I noticed the rope leading to the zip sled is angled towards the bottom of the lake. When he took off, the sled bit into the water and went straight under taking my friend with it. After a second the rope started moving upward and soon the sled appeared back on the surface with a gasping and sputtering kid trying to catch his breath. My dad was roaring with laughter but my friend did NOT think it was funny and later confessed he suspected he was a victim of some sort of Texas hazing deal. He was content to just ride in the boat after that. Click to expand...

Seaman Apprentice

• Jan 7, 2008

• Jan 13, 2008

Re: FUNNY Boating Stories (not really stupid, just funny) Let's hear yours! Back in 1986 I bought a brand new Smokercraft "Big Fisherman". It might have been the second or third time I had it in the water. Well anyway, I'm out on the Pecatonica River (anybody know where that river is) fishing away and get caught in a real heavy downpour. Of course the boat has no bilge pump, so after several minutes I am about ankle deep in water. So I have the brilliant idea of planing the boat out and pulling the plug to let the water drain out. Good idea I thought at the time. So I get the boat planed out and pull the plug and the water is running out just fine. Well I had laid the plug on the bench beside me and lo and behold it rolled off the bench and into the water in the bottom of the boat and I can't find it. I am cruising down the river wide open when suddenly I come to a 90 degree bend in the river and I have to slow down, so you know what happens then, the water comes gushing back into the boat. I get around the bend and try to open her up again, by this time the boat has so much water in it the motor just kind of lugs along. I finally get back to the boat landing with the boat full of water, what a sight. So anyway I get my boat trailer backed into the water and start cranking the boat onto the trailer, man is it heavy with all that water in it. I get cranked about half way on to trailer and all of a sudden SNAP, the rope breaks and the boat starts sliding off the trailer back into the river. Oh no I am going to lose my brand new boat, I am thinking, when all of a sudden two guys show up and save the day and help me get the boat out of the water. One of the guys asks me what happened and I tell him and of course they start rolling on the ground laughing. It really was funny. Needless to say the next day I go out and buy a bilge pump.  

Big Ron said: Back in 1986 I bought a brand new Smokercraft "Big Fisherman". It might have been the second or third time I had it in the water. Well anyway, I'm out on the Pecatonica River (anybody know where that river is) fishing away and get caught in a real heavy downpour. Of course the boat has no bilge pump, so after several minutes I am about ankle deep in water. So I have the brilliant idea of planing the boat out and pulling the plug to let the water drain out. Good idea I thought at the time. So I get the boat planed out and pull the plug and the water is running out just fine. Well I had laid the plug on the bench beside me and lo and behold it rolled off the bench and into the water in the bottom of the boat and I can't find it. I am cruising down the river wide open when suddenly I come to a 90 degree bend in the river and I have to slow down, so you know what happens then, the water comes gushing back into the boat. I get around the bend and try to open her up again, by this time the boat has so much water in it the motor just kind of lugs along. I finally get back to the boat landing with the boat full of water, what a sight. So anyway I get my boat trailer backed into the water and start cranking the boat onto the trailer, man is it heavy with all that water in it. I get cranked about half way on to trailer and all of a sudden SNAP, the rope breaks and the boat starts sliding off the trailer back into the river. Oh no I am going to lose my brand new boat, I am thinking, when all of a sudden two guys show up and save the day and help me get the boat out of the water. One of the guys asks me what happened and I tell him and of course they start rolling on the ground laughing. It really was funny. Needless to say the next day I go out and buy a bilge pump. Click to expand...

• Jan 18, 2008

Re: FUNNY Boating Stories (not really stupid, just funny) Let's hear yours! ....