the sea myth yacht week

The 5 tragic minutes that sank a superyacht

PORTICELLO, Italy — Survivors of a storm that sank a superyacht off Sicily recounted their ordeal to one of the doctors who rushed to their aid, with some saying it took mere minutes for the 180-foot ship to go down. 

Dr. Fabio Genco, head of the Palermo Emergency Medical Services, told NBC News on the phone Thursday that he arrived in the seaside village of Porticello before dawn Monday, about an hour after the $40 million Bayesian sank in the violent and sudden storm.   

Of the 22 people onboard, 15 survived despite storm conditions and darkness, climbing onto a lifeboat before being rescued by a nearby sailboat. The crew members have made no public statements so far, though some have been interviewed by investigators.

“They told me that it was all dark, that the yacht hoisted itself up and then went down,” Genco said, recounting what the survivors told him. “All the objects were falling on them. That’s why I immediately made sure, by asking them questions, if they had any internal injuries,” he said. 

It appears they had just minutes to abandon the sinking ship, Genco said. 

“They told me that suddenly they found themselves catapulted into the water without even understanding how they had got there,” he said, “And that the whole thing seems to have lasted from 3 to 5 minutes.”

Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, which owns Perini Navi, the Bayesian's shipbuilder, told Sky News that there were no flaws with the design or construction of the yacht. He said their structure and keel made boats like that “unsinkable bodies.”

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, he disavowed responsibility, blaming instead the actions of the crew. “Mistakes were made,” he said. 

Genco said one of his colleagues who arrived at the scene before him initially thought that only three people survived, but the coast guard reported there were other survivors and more emergency services were called in. 

When Genco arrived, he found scenes of panic and despair. 

“Unfortunately, we are used to such panic scenes because we are used to the shipwrecks that happen on Lampedusa ,” Genco said, referring to the island southwest of Sicily, where the wreckage of boats carrying migrants on the sea journey from North Africa to Italy are often found . 

Six of the passengers were declared missing Monday, and by Thursday, the bodies of five had been recovered from the wreck , some 160 feet underwater.

Among those who survived is Angela Bacares, wife of the British tech mogul Mike Lynch , whose body was recovered Thursday. 

Another survivor has been identified as Charlotte Emsley, 35. She told the Italian news agency ANSA that she had momentarily lost hold of her year-old daughter, Sofia, in the water but managed to retrieve her and hold her over the waves until a lifeboat inflated and they were pulled into safety.

Dr. Domenico Cipolla at the Di Cristina Children’s Hospital in Palermo is also part of a team of medical professionals treating the shipwreck survivors. He told the BBC on Wednesday that Emsley and her daughter, as well as the father of the child, who Cipolla said also survived, are continuing to receive psychological help. 

“Psychological support was constant and is constant even today, because basically it is the wounds of the soul that are the most in need of healing in these cases,” Cipolla said.

Genco also told NBC News that he was especially concerned about the child. “She did not understand anything. She was soaking wet and cold,” he said. 

Karsten Borner, the Dutch captain of the Sir Robert Baden Powell, a yacht that was anchored near the Bayesian, said by phone Wednesday that he saw a thunderstorm come in at around 4 a.m. local time (10 p.m. ET) Monday, followed by what looked like a waterspout, a type of tornado that forms over water. 

The International Centre for Waterspout Research noted on X that there was a “waterspout outbreak” off Italy on Monday, the day the Bayesian sank. 

“I turned on the engine and made maneuvers so that we wouldn’t collide with the Bayesian, which was anchored about 100 meters from us,” Borner said. “Then all of a sudden it disappeared. Then the wind calmed down, we looked around and saw a red flare.”

Borner said he got into his boat’s tender and saw a life raft with 15 people on it. Members of the crew were administering first aid. 

“I don’t know why it sank so quickly, but it may have something to do with the mast which was incredibly long,” he said. Questions have been raised about whether the mast was to blame for the accident as tall masts, even with the sails down, have more surface area exposed to the wind, which can contribute to tipping a vessel in a storm.

The CCTV footage that emerged Tuesday showed the yacht’s 250-foot mast, believed to be one of the tallest aluminum sailing masts in the world, lashed by the storm as it appears to tilt to one side before disappearing.

Claudia Rizzo is an Italy based journalist.

Claudio Lavanga is Rome-based foreign correspondent for NBC News.

Yuliya Talmazan is a reporter for NBC News Digital, based in London.

Who was onboard tech mogul Mike Lynch's Bayesian yacht?

Topic: Disasters, Accidents and Emergency Incidents

Six people are missing, including a man dubbed the British Bill Gates, after a luxury yacht sank off the Sicilian coast.

British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch — freshly acquitted from a decade-long trial — had invited his work colleagues aboard a trip through the Mediterranean coast when a freak storm saw the yacht sink within moments.

Fifteen people escaped from the sinking vessel. The search for the missing continues.

Here's what we know so far: 

What happened?

The Italian coastguard said the yacht — the Bayesian — was anchored off the shore of port city Porticello, near the Sicilian capital Palermo, when it was hit by bad weather sometime after 4am on Monday, local time. 

Eyewitnesses said it vanished quickly beneath the waves shortly before dawn.

Managers of the sailing vessel Bayesian, Camper & Nicholsons, confirmed to the ABC that the Bayesian encountered severe weather and subsequently sank. 

"Our priority is assisting with the ongoing search and providing all necessary support to the rescued passengers and crew," they said. 

"The wind was very strong. Bad weather was expected, but not of this magnitude," a coastguard official told Reuters.

Sicily's civil protection agency head, Salvo Cocina, said a waterspout — a tornado over the water — could have struck the yacht.

"They were in the wrong place at the wrong time," Mr Cocina added. 

Storms and heavy rainfall had swept down Italy in recent days after weeks of scorching heat, lifting the temperature of the Mediterranean Sea to record levels and raising the risk of extreme weather conditions, experts told Reuters.

"The sea surface temperature around Sicily was around 30 degrees Celsius, which is almost 3 degrees more than normal. This creates an enormous source of energy that contributes to these storms," meteorologist Luca Mercalli said.

Rescuers recover the body of one of the people aboard the Bayesian.  ( AP: Lucio Ganci )

Captain Karsten Borner of the Sir Robert Baden Powell vessel told journalists he noticed the Bayesian nearby during the storm, but after it calmed he saw a red flare and realised the ship had simply disappeared.

Mr Borner said he and a crew member boarded their tender and found a lifeboat with 15 people, some of them injured, who they then took aboard and alerted the coast guard.

Search crews, including helicopters and divers, are continuing to search the wreckage, lying at a depth of 49 metres.

Specialist divers reached the ship on Monday but access was limited due to objects in the way, the fire brigade said.

The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch is deploying a team of four inspectors to Italy to conduct a preliminary assessment.

The Foreign Commonwealth and Development office said it was "providing consular support to a number of British nationals and their families".

Sicilian prosecutors have also opened an investigation into the event. 

Who is missing?

Lawyer Chris Morvillo (left), entrepreneur Mike Lynch, and Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloomer are among the missing. 

There were 12 passengers and 10 crew members aboard the yacht. 

Mr Cocina said the crew and passengers hailed from a variety of countries, including Britain, the United States, Antigua, France, Germany, Ireland, Myanmar, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain.

Of the 22, one man is confirmed dead and another six people are still missing. 

They are believed to be inside the hull, fire rescue spokesperson Luca Cari said.

Fabio Cefalù, a fisherman who said he responded to a flare from the vessel but found it sunk, said he stayed at the site for three hours without finding anyone.

"I think they are inside, all the missing people," he said.

Rescue teams recovered the body of the yacht's onboard chef on Monday, identified as Antiguan citizen Ricardo Thomas.

The still missing people include: 

• Mr Lynch's 18-year-old daughter, Hannah 
• Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of global financial services company Morgan Stanley International
• Chris Morvillo , a lawyer at the British multinational law firm Clifford Chance. He worked on Mr Lynch's lawsuit against Hewlett-Packard
• The identities of the remaining two missing are still unconfirmed

Who was rescued? 

Fifteen people escaped from the sinking ship. 

Eight have been hospitalised and others were taken to a nearby hotel.

Charlotte Golunski was among those rescued, recalling the harrowing moments she held her child Sofia above the waves.  ( Supplied: Facebook  )

Among those rescued were:

• Mr Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, who was the owner of the yacht
• Charlotte Golunski and her one-year-old daughter, Sofia. Ms Golunski is a partner at Mr Lynch's firm, Invoke Capital. She says she momentarily lost hold of Sofia in the water but managed to hold her up above the waves until the lifeboat was inflated
• Ms Golunski's husband James Emslie
• New Zealand captain of the yacht James Catfield. He told Italian newspaper La Repubblica the crew didn't see the storm coming
• A lone Dutch citizen was identified by the Dutch foreign ministry as being rescued, but was not identified

Who is Mike Lynch?

Mr Lynch, once hailed as Britain’s king of technology, was recently freed from a Silicon Valley lawsuit that tarnished his legacy. 

The 59-year-old Cambridge-educated mathematician created Autonomy , a search engine that could pore through emails and other internal business documents to help companies find vital information more quickly. 

He received the OBE for his innovation in 2006. 

He then sold the software to Hewlett-Packard (HP) for $US11 billion ($16 billion) in 2011, with Mr Lynch personally netting $US800 million. 

HP valued Autonomy at $US46 billion ($68 billion) in the months leading up to the deal.

Mike Lynch in 2019 leaving the High Court in London.  ( Reuters: Henry Nicholls/File Photo )

But the deal quickly turned sour after he was accused of forging the software's financial records to make the sale.

As part of a decades-long legal battle against HP, Mr Lynch was extradited to the UK on criminal fraud charges. 

He steadfastly denied any wrongdoing, asserting that he was being made a scapegoat for HP's own bungling. 

He was eventually cleared of all charges in June this year. 

Although he avoided a possible prison sentence, Lynch still faced a bill from a civil case in London that HP mostly won during 2022. Damages haven't been determined in that case, but HP is seeking $US4 billion. 

Following the San Francisco trial, Mr Lynch said he would return to the UK and do what he loved most: "[being with] my family and innovating in my field."

The holiday appeared to be something of a celebration after Mr Lynch's acquittal, with guests including some of the people who had stood by Lynch throughout the ordeal.

This picture shows the rescue operations off the Sicilian coast.  ( AP: Italian Coast Guard  )

In a separate act of tragedy, Mr Lynch's co-defendant in the trial, Stephen Chamberlain, died on Monday, after a road accident left him critically injured.

Mr Chamberlain — Autonomy's former vice-president of finance alongside Mr Lynch — was hit by a car in Cambridgeshire on Saturday morning and had been placed on life support. 

What is the Bayesian?

The luxury yacht is 56m long sailboat, with a 75m mast labelled as the tallest aluminium mast in the world.

It was previously named Salute when it flew under a Dutch flag.

The yacht, built in 2008 by the Italian firm Perini Navi, can accommodate up to 12 guests in six suites and a crew of 10, according to online specialist yacht sites. It was last refitted in 2020.

Online charter sites listed it for rent for up to 195,000 euros (about $AU 321,000) a week. 

This picture taken on Sunday shows the Bayesian (left) and the Duch sailboat Sir Robert Baden Powell anchored off the coast line.   ( AP: Fabio La Bianca/Baia Santa Nicolicchia )

The ship also won a string of awards for its design. 

Ms Golunski said the yacht had travelled through the Aeolian Islands, Milazzo and Cefalù before sinking. 

It is likely the yacht's name would resonate with Mr Lynch because his PhD thesis and the software that made his fortune was based on Bayesian theory.

• Work & Careers
• Life & Arts

Dream Makers & Yacht Brokers

Helping turn your dreams into reality since 1984.

Preferred Yachts Display Center

Visit us at the harborage marina in charming downtown saint petersburg.

Get Results, List With Us

Since 1984, preferred yachts has earned a stellar reputation, one client at a time.

A Yacht Show Every Day

Explore in person 7 days a week or virtual tours online, 24 hours a day.

Take a 3D Virtual Tour of Our Listings

View our listings from the safety and comfort of your home.

Power or Sail - Big or Small

Explore one of florida's largest displays of brokerage yachts.

3D Virtual Tours, Display Center.

5 Reasons to list with us.

Our Team is Awesome!

Office Hours

OPEN MONDAY – SATURDAY, 9am – 5pm Sunday, by appointment

Information

Call (727) 527-2800 Put our Awesome Team to work for you

The Preferred Yachts Difference

We are full time professional yacht brokers, with a real office, in a real marina with real listings and a sincere passion to help our clients realize their boating dreams. Preferred Yachts is committed to the highest level of ethical, professional and knowledgeable representation for our clients.

Our Team is Awesome at Listings and Sales

Our membership in The IYBA is your assurance of professional and ethical representation as well as fair and standardized Listing and Selling Agreements. Through IYBA, We have a cooperative relationship with the best brokers in the business in order to find a buyer for your yacht or to find your next one.

Connect with Preferred Yachts

Sign up and

GET 20% OFF

Your first boat rental

Welcome to Sailo !

Your code is:

Enjoy 20% off

• Explore boats
• Text (910) 447-2456 Call (910) 447-2456

Departure date

Trip duration, multiple days (less than 1 week), weekly trip show boats that have weekly prices. most weekly boats outside of the us are available only saturday to saturday., boat length: 5ft -, manufacturer, boat build year: -, weekly trip, price: $ - $, 55 boat rentals in st petersburg: yacht charters.

In addition to the best offers we have for boat and yacht charters in St. Petersburg, FL, see also options available for rent in these nearby locations:

• 54 boat rentals in St. Petersburg, FL
• 54 boat rentals in Historic Old Northeast, St. Petersburg, FL
• 54 boat rentals in United Central, St. Petersburg, FL
• 54 boat rentals in Greater Pinellas Point, St. Petersburg, FL
• 54 boat rentals in Gulfport, FL
• 51 boat rentals in Pinellas Park, FL
• 54 boat rentals in Saint Petersburg Beach, FL
• 54 boat rentals in St. Pete Beach, FL
• 54 boat rentals in Yacht Club Estates, St. Petersburg, FL
• 54 boat rentals in Tierra Verde, FL

Rent a Boat in St Petersburg, Florida with Sailo!

Looking for a boat rental in St. Petersburg, Florida? A boating trip is always a great way to experience St. Petersburg. Choose your perfect St. Petersburg yacht charter with Sailo and set a course for adventure! When you rent a boat in St. Petersburg, you can choose your own itinerary and explore at your leisure. Want to relax on deck? Prefer to do some fishing? Or maybe you just want to escape the crowds? Find your ideal yacht rental in St. Petersburg with Sailo.

Private boat rentals in St. Petersburg

Explore the beauty of Florida state from St. Petersburg by a yacht charter. You’ll find 39 boats to rent in St. Petersburg with Sailo, for the best choice. Set sail on one of our sailboat rentals in St Pete . You can also choose from catamaran charters in St Pete , available to rent. What better way to discover the shores of Florida than from the deck of a luxury motor yacht? Browse the motor boat rentals in St Pete on Sailo for your ideal boating trip. You’ll also find a party boat in St Pete , perfect for groups of 13 or more available in Florida.

How to rent a yacht in St. Petersburg, Florida?

Wondering how to find the best boat charter in St. Petersburg for a memorable experience on the water in Florida? We have created a set of advanced filters to help you navigate easily our database of St. Petersburg yacht rentals and find the one for you. First pick a start date and then choose your trip duration. You can go for an extraordinary of 2, 4 hours or full day experience. Next, select the number of guests, the type of boat and the price range you are comfortable with. The crew filter helps you narrow down the results to the boats with the captain included in the price, or bareboats that you’ll captain yourself. Choose the boat you want in Florida, to view more pics, read description and reviews. Message the owner if you have any questions or continue with your booking request.

How much does it cost to rent a boat in St. Petersburg, FL?

St. Petersburg boat charters for daily trips are available at an average of €1100 per day in Florida. Cheaper boats (sometimes with no captain included) may be rented for €250. Our St. Petersburg premium charters may have price tags up to €6500, with crew, fuel, docking fees and other extras added to your budget.

Can I pay in installments for my Sailo boat rental?

A lot of our boat owners allow payment in installments, particularly for the weekly boat charters in St. Petersburg. First installment is always charged at the time the booking is confirmed. To find out if a boat has an installment plan, reach out to the boat representative and ask details via 'Message Owner' before you submit the booking or check out the Payment Schedule at top of the booking page.

Because we love the ocean

Sailing is a great way to experience nature. So we like to remind everyone that keeping nature as beautiful as possible involves a little effort from all of us. Some of our tips for responsible boating include:

• Don’t litter or throw waste overboard - take rubbish home and dispose of it responsibly
• Eco-friendly sunblock can help prevent damage to marine life
• buy local and sustainable food products

However long you’re sailing for, a little goes a long way. Read more about responsible boating.

Popular locations to rent a boat in Florida :

• Miami yacht rentals
• boat rentals Fort Lauderdale
• boat rentals in Key West
• Key Largo boat rentals
• boat rental in Marathon, FL
• rent a boat in Islamorada
• Marco island boat rental
• boat rentals in Tampa, FL
• boat rentals in Miami Beach
• boat rental in Cape Coral, Florida
• boat rental in Fort Myers
• boat rental Naples, FL
• boat rentals in St. Petersburg, FL
• boat rentals in West Palm Beach
• boat rental in Hollywood, Florida
• boat rentals in Miami, South Beach

Popular boat types in Florida among renters:

• party boat rental in Miami, FL
• catamaran rentals in Miami, FL
• sailboat rentals in Florida
• catamaran charter in Key West
• sailboat rentals in Miami
• sailboat rentals in Fort Lauderdale
• FAQ and Policies
• Accessibility Statement
• Boat Rentals
• Boat Calculator
• Discover Boating
• Community questions
• Referral Program
• British Virgin Islands
• La Paz, Mexico
• Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
• Key Largo, FL
• St. Vincent and Grenadines

Advertisement

Supported by

Search Resumes for British Mogul and 5 Others After Yacht Sinks Off Sicily

The body of the vessel’s cook was recovered while divers searched the hull of the Bayesian for passengers, including the tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch.

• Share full article

By Elisabetta Povoledo

Deep-sea divers with Italy’s firefighter corps resumed their search on Tuesday for six missing passengers — including a British software mogul and his daughter — of a yacht that sank off the coast of Sicily the previous day.

Twenty-two people were on board the 180-foot British-flagged sailing yacht, the Bayesian, which was anchored near the port of Porticello, when it was hit by what witnesses described as a waterspout, a small tornado on water, during a sudden and violent storm.

Fifteen people who managed to get to a raft were rescued by the captain of a nearby sailing cruise ship. The body of the yacht’s cook, identified by news outlets as Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian Antiguan, was recovered on Monday. But several people are still unaccounted for, according to Salvatore Cocina, an official with Sicily’s civil protection agency.

Those still missing are Mike Lynch, a British technology entrepreneur; his daughter Hannah; Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International; his wife, Judy Bloomer; Christopher J. Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance; and his wife, Neda Morvillo.

Mr. Lynch was acquitted of fraud in a U.S. trial in June, ending a high-profile, decadelong legal battle against accusations that he had defrauded Hewlett-Packard when he sold his company, Autonomy, to Hewlett for $11 billion.

Mr. Lynch and the others went missing days after Mr. Lynch’s co-defendant at the fraud trial, Stephen Chamberlain, a former vice president of finance at Autonomy, was fatally struck by a car on Saturday while out for a run, his lawyer, Gary S. Lincenberg, said in a statement.

Prosecutors in the Italian city of Termini Imerese, east of where the yacht sank, are opening a formal investigation into the yacht’s sinking. Reached by telephone, the chief prosecutor declined to comment.

The search for the missing passengers began on Monday but was suspended late that night as crews found themselves limited to the bridge deck and items like furnishings “obstructing passage,” the firefighters’ corps wrote on social media .

When divers resumed the search on Tuesday, ships trawled the waters near the site, the corps said in a statement. The Italian Coast Guard also said in a statement that search operations were “continuing unabated,” with the deployment of helicopters. There was no evidence that gasoline was leaking from the yacht, the Coast Guard said.

The yacht was lying on its right side in about 165 feet of water, meaning that divers, working in pairs, could stay underwater for only about 12 minutes at a time, said Luca Cari, a spokesman for the firefighters’ corps.

Divers were seeking a safe point of access to the vessel’s cabins. “Obviously, everything fell and the space is very tight,” Mr. Cari said, adding that the divers were having to remove obstacles, like furnishings and electrical wiring, that were “completely blocking passages.”

The firefighters’ corps said in a statement that it was impossible to verify whether people were inside the hull.

Mr. Cari said that several divers had been part of the search-and-rescue operations when the Costa Concordia, a cruise liner, capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio in 2012, killing 32 people. It is considered one of the worst maritime disasters in modern Italian history.

“It’s like the Costa Concordia, but much smaller,” Mr. Cari said in a telephone interview, comparing the search operations. “In the Costa Concordia, we came across many obstacles but we somehow were able to overcome them. Here, the obstacles block the passages and have to be removed.” He added, “This makes it more difficult.”

Crews were also trying to raise the yacht, which experts will examine to try to determine why it sank. Until then, experts can only hypothesize what happened.

Karsten Borner, the captain of a ship, the Sir Robert Baden Powell, which picked up the Bayesian’s 15 survivors, said in an interview that when the wind picked up around 4 a.m. Monday, the Bayesian was about 490 feet behind his vessel. Once the wind wound down, he said, he could not see the yacht anymore.

“My theory was that she was capsized first and then went down over the stern,” Mr. Borner said.

Dario Boote, a ship structures and naval architecture professor at the University of Genoa, said: “Now I imagine that a whole series of lawsuits will be triggered, obviously to ascertain whether there is any responsibility, as always happens very unpleasantly in these situations.” He said, however, that in this case, responsibility might be hard to determine. “Clearly, only once the wreck is raised will we know more,” he added.

Several fishermen told Italian news outlets that they had witnessed a waterspout. Peter Inness, a meteorologist at the University of Reading, said they were relatively common in the Mediterranean, though their occurrence and intensity are unpredictable.

“Until one actually forms, you can’t start telling people where it is,” Mr. Inness said, or “how to get out of the way.”

The inclement weather — with lightning intermittently streaking through the sky — made it hard to know exactly why the yacht sank. Col. Attilio Di Diodato, director of the Italian Air Force’s Center for Aerospace Meteorology and Climatology, said the agency had registered intense lightning activity and strong gusts of wind in the area at the time the boat sank.

The Bayesian had one of the tallest aluminum masts in the world, according to its builder, Perini Navi. “Having a tall aluminum mast would not make it the safest port to be in case of a storm,” said Andrea Ratti, associate professor of nautical design and architecture technology the Politecnico di Milano. The type of intensity unleashed by a violent lightning storm “could have created a significant shock wave,” he added.

He, too, cautioned that “a lot of questions will remain until we have other elements at our disposal.”

Modern yachts are built to withstand meteorological events of reasonable intensity, and all international naval registers suggest that new ships be designed for higher waves and more frequent and extreme weather events.

But “this seems a case of an unreasonable extreme event,” said Emilio Fortunato Campana, an expert in Naval Hydrodynamics at Italy’s National Research Council. “In that case, no ship is 100 percent safe,” he added. “I think the Titanic showed that nothing is unsinkable.”

Elisabetta Povoledo is a reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years. More about Elisabetta Povoledo

THE YACHT WEEK EXPLAINED

What's Included

Scroll to see all included items arrow-right

Every yacht that sets sail on Yacht Week includes a Skipper on board. They are the masters of the ocean and will be your guide, navigator and after a week on deck, a good friend too!

Yacht accommodation
 (6 nights)

You'll be staying on a gorgeous yacht and sail alongside fellow Yacht-Weekers as part of an epic flotilla. You’ll wake up to views that’ll make you question whether or not you’ve actually woken up yet!

Access to all exclusive events

Experience our yearly theme on our Original routes & themes like Dockside Disco in our Exotic destinations, as well as our legendary raft parties.

International DJs

From daytime circle rafts to island parties beneath the stars, you’ll be dancing to the rhythm of our iconic resident DJ’s. Keep an eye out for our special music weeks where we collaborate with music labels who focus on specific genes. Not to mention the world - renowned artists who perform during the Ultra and Drumcode Routes! Read more about this here.

Stereo speakers onboard

We’ll keep you bopping and bouncing all week with a stereo speaker system on board your yacht.

Final yacht cleaning

The last thing you want to do at the end of the best week of your life, is scrub a deck down. That’s why we take care of ALL the dirty work. You can spend the extra time gloating to your mates!

Towels & bed linen

Leave those towels and sheets at home, we've got you covered.

Every Yacht comes equipped with a dinghy anytime you need to get to shore.

Festival VIP

On our Ultra route , your VIP festival tickets are included.

Food and drink extras

Scroll to see all 3 packages arrow-right

Food - Cabin Booking

A host and food is included in all cabin booking, excluding Classic Monohull. They will cook 6 breakfasts, 6 lunches and 2 dinners during the week. On the nights when you eat on land, please remember to include your skipper and host in your dinner plans, as they will also need feeding.

See here for more information.

Alcoholic and soft drinks are not included in any booking. You will shop for all your drinks on check in day, or can order a drinks package. Grabbing some from duty free can also be a great way to save some cash.

See here to add a Drinks Package.

Food - Yacht Booking

Food is not included for any full yacht bookings. Head to the supermarket on check in to buy your provisions for the week. If you choose to add a host, they will take care of meal plans and shopping. They will cook 6 breakfasts, 6 lunches and 2 dinners during the week.

Additional costs

Scroll to see all 7 additional costs arrow-right

Port fees & fuel

Port fees are payable on arrival at each island you visit. These vary depending on yacht size, location and dates. Both Fuel and Port Fees go towards the kitty amount.

*See the Cost Estimation Wheel below for an estimated kitty amount.

Water & Water Taxis

Your yacht will be topped up with water. Some nights you will be away from dock, you’ll need to grab a water taxi so take you to the events.

Yacht Deposit

If you have booked a full yacht, The Charter Companies require payment of a refundable deposit on the first day. See here for more information.

Cabin Damage Waiver Fee

If you have booked a cabin you have two options, a non-refundable damage waiver fee or a refundable security deposit payment. See here for more information.

Transfers to & from airport

You’ll need to make your own way to the marina from the airport - if you are taking a taxi, make sure to take out cash first!

Tipping is customary in the marine industry. So if your skipper and host have given you an amazing week, please consider tipping them for their services.

Alcohol & eating out

Some nights you will eat out in the local bars and restaurants. Remember Your Skipper and Host need watering and feeding while you're away from the yacht!

Additional Activities

You will have some free time to explore the islands and take part in activities the islands have to offer, including:

Estimated yachting costs

Cost estimation.

€1,950 total

€195 total per person

group For Full Yacht Bookings Prices are based on 10 guests. For Cabin bookings prices are based on 6 - 8 guests.

Excited and ready to go?

Save your summer and sign up

We promise not to spam you