The majestic Bayesian Superyate, who smoked last year in Sicily, killing seven people, was probably beaten by an intense wind gust and sank in a matter of minutes, according to a preliminary investigation by the British maritime authorities.
When the storm approached, a young man crushed on the clock delayed when he woke up the captain and insisted on advertising a spark video in his feed of social networks, according to the investigation.
The result was the minutes of catastrophe, from when the pattern woke up until the ship went down, that the storm started a protective awning on the bridge, pushed the huge yacht all the way on Elambulando and the members of the crew in cascade through the cabins.
“The findings indicate that the extreme wind experienced by Bayesian was enough to tear down the yacht,” said Captain Andrew Moll, the chief inspector of marine accidents for the Marine accident research branch, a British agency. “Once the yacht had cured beyond an angle of 70 degrees, the situation was unrecoverable.”
The report indicated that the characteristic of the Bayesian signing, its gigantic mast, one of the highest in the world, increased the vulnerability of the boat overturning in strong winds. The New York Times published similar findings last year in his own investigation of the accident and discovered that Bayesian was an atypical case. All the other ships of the same series, of the same Italian manufacturer, had two masts instead of one.
The company said that when it operated correctly, Bayesian was “instead.”
The external experts who read the report of the government agency also pointed to the mast and said that the general stability of the boat, from their ballast to its super structure, was questionable in the best case.
“You have this obscenely tall mast, so the center of gravity of the boat is very high,” said Tad Roberts, a Canadian naval architect with decades of experience in yacht design. “The reality is that you have configured this system to fail.”
Several passengers who survived the dump were seriously injured before being thrown into the sea, according to the report. A couple escaped from their cabin climbing on a set of drawers to reach the cabin. With the boat he turned completely on his side, that was now a hatch on the roof. As the boat progressed, crew members crossed the sea and helped save the passengers they could reach.
Seven people trapped under the roof died: Michael Lynch, a magnate of British technology; His teenage daughter, Hannah; Four of Mr. Lynch’s friends, including an outstanding lawyer and his wife; And the sailboat chef.
The report, published at the time of Midnight London on Thursday, occurs in the midst of several simultaneous investigations. The Sicilian prosecutors have launched their own investigation and appointed the captain of the yacht and two crew members as suspects.
The British authorities warned that a more complete image will emerge only after Bayesian is raised from his resting place in a 160 -feet in depth cove, right next to the port of Porticello, a small fishing community in Sicily. Researchers because to inspect the helmet, but the rescue process that had stopped this month to stop last week after one of the various died while working underwater.
The basic discovery of the report is that the bursts of storms that hit the super total mast, which increased 237 feet, and their rig, were enough to overturn and sink the container in minutes. The wind forces were powerful enough to tear down the yacht, they even thought that the candles were rolled at that time, the researchers found.
These calculations, with slightly different technical assumptions, closely follow a study by Guillermo Gefaell, a Spanish naval engineer, and one of his colleagues, Juan Manuel López, who was first informed by the Times.
“The most important thing is that this ship was not prepared to drive a wind or 60 club or more,” Faell said in an interview on Wednesday, specifically referring to when the wind hits the boat from one side, the candles are rolled up and the throat is up. “The crew could not have done anything. They did much, with the people who saved.”
According to the weather analysis at the time of the accident, the winds probably reached speeds of at least 64 knots, or 74 miles per hour, enough to turn the boat. The report also said that “the tornadic water peak and descending works were possible.”
The 10 -page report is written in dry and technical language. Even so, it offers a feeling of imminent fatality.
The drama USA last June after Mr. Lynch was acquired in a high-risk criminal trial in which he was accused of fraudulently inflating the value of his software company when he sold it to Hewlett-Packard for $ 11 billion. To celebrate his victory, the organized of several cruise ships in the Bayesian, a glamorous 184 -foot long supereyate that drew look wherever it was. The boat was registered in the United Kingdom, one of the reasons why the British authorities are investigating.
On August 14, according to the report, the Bayesian sailed from the port of Milazzo in Sicily. Twelve passengers and 10 crew members were on board. The cruise ended on the morning of August 19.
On the last night, the Bayesian crew received advertisements of thunderstorms and decided to motivate Porticello, which is in a protected cove. The Bayesian captain, James Cutfield, a captain experienced in New Zealand, told his crush that they woke up if the winds increased above 20 club, or 23 miles per hour.
At 3 in the morning of August 19, only a few hours before Mr. Lynch and his guests had to leave the yacht and return home, the Watchhand on the clock saw Thunderclouds approaching, according to the report. At 3:55 AM, Matthew Griffiths, who is just over 20 years old, recorded a video of the storm that was approaching and published it on Instagram. It has been pointed out that the wind had increased to 30 club – 10 more than the threshold to awaken the captain. At 4 in the morning, he woke the captain.
That was an intense fight between the crew and guests. According to the report, the chief engineer prepared the boat to maneuver in the wind, which would make it more stable. The captain hastened to the Fly bridge, from where he could direct. Angela Bacares, the wife of Mr. Lynch and the owner of Bayesian, left his cabin and went to the bridge to verify if the taxis organized at 8 am that morning would have to be canceled due to the weather.
The wind suddenly increased, according to the report, and before the captain had the opportunity to turn the boat in the right direction, “it became violently 90 degrees.”
In the following minutes, the Superyatht sank. Several crew members were initially trapped under water in the air pockets, but managed to free themselves and swim from the ship. Then they took the passengers from the sea and took them out to a life raft, where they helped to bandage wounds. The survivors were soon rescued by another yacht in La Cala, an old converted tugboat that resisted the storm very well.
An operation manual on board the Bayesian, called “Stability Book”, did not contain critical data that the boat was dangerously prone to overturned if it was beaten by strong winds while it was anchored. In that condition, the boat guard was essentially down, with its high retractable throat and open motor ventilations, which could pay in the water with the boat next to it.
The researchers also found that the so -called “angle of disappearance stability”, the angle at which the boat can no longer be 70.6 degrees, much less than forever the sailboats that can be lean on their sides, up to 90 degrees of sides still, at 90 degrees.
Mr. Roberts said Bayesian’s design was “sadly missing.”
The Italian Sea Group, a ship construction company that bought Perini Navi, Bayesian manufacturers, declined to comment. A representative of the Lyches said the family was commenting either.
The report did not mention the manufacturer’s claim, repeated for weeks, that a large hatch on the left side of the helmet had been left inappropriately open by the crew, allowing the water to rush and sink the ship. The report made it clear that the ship sank on its right side and that the crew closed a series of squirts when it hit the storm.
The family of Recaldo Thomas, the chef who died, known as Rick, said they were worried about the findings.
They said in a statement provided by their lawyer that the report described a series of failures: “Bayesian design and navigability certification, as well as in the management of some of the crew.”
The Thomas family said that “they firmly believe that Rick died doing his job and that his death was prevention.”
Elisabetta Povledo Rome contributed reports
