british billionaire yacht

Five Bodies Located After Superyacht Disaster in Sicily

Officials said divers have been limited to 12-minute underwater shifts off the Italian coast.

Josh Fiallo

Breaking News Reporter

Louiza Vradi/Retuers

Authorities in Sicily have located five bodies during rescue efforts after a superyacht sank in the Mediterranean Sea on Monday.

Rescuers were seen carrying four body bags ashore in the Italian city of Porticello, the Associated Press reported. A fifth body was also located the same day, Salvatore Cocina, the head of Sicily's civil protection service, told the news service.

A total of six people were reported missing after the disaster, leaving one person still unaccounted for.

Two of the bodies were identified as billionaire tech mogul Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported. The Italian press has not confirmed the deaths of either person.

Sources familiar with rescue efforts confirmed to The Independent that the bodies were found “behind two mattresses” inside the Bayesian by dive teams, which have worked in 12-minute shifts because of water pressure.

The Bayesian, an 184-foot sailing vessel, was struck by a waterspout and sank off the Sicilian coast around 5 a.m. Monday morning with 22 people aboard. That included Lynch, 59, as well as his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah.

Divers have worked in 12-minute shifts to reach the sunken yacht and search for bodies or survivors.

Louiza Vradi/Reuters

Four others were said to be among the missing on Monday, including the Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloomer; his wife, Judy Bloomer; Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo; and his wife, Neda Morvillo. The body of the Canadian chef Recaldo Thomas was the first found on Monday.

A source told the Independent that one of the bodies appeared to be that of a “heavily built man.” Photos showed first responders carrying a green body bag. Fifteen people, including Lynch’s wife, survived the terrifying ordeal.

Salvo Cocina, president of the Civil Protection Agency in Sicily, told the Daily Mail that rescuers won’t rule out the possibility of air pockets keeping someone alive—even as that possibility feels more and more unrealistic.

“The divers have not yet reached the cabins, so we have not yet given up hope that there may be air pockets in their keeping them alive,” she said.

The Bayesian was photographed from the Sicilian coast just hours before it sank early Monday morning.

Baia Santa Nicolicchia/Fabio La Bianca

Lynch is said to have been on a celebratory trip with his legal team and loved ones after being acquitted in a U.S. fraud trial in June, which is why so many bankers and attorneys were aboard.

The yacht’s 51-year-old captain, James Cutfield, was reportedly interviewed by police for more than two hours on Tuesday evening. His brother has attested that the Bayesian tragedy has nothing to do with his Cutfield, reported the New Zealand Herald .

CCTV footage released Tuesday shown the Bayesian’s final moments afloat, with a Sicilian villa owner claiming that vessel disappeared entirely in less than 60 seconds—seemingly not enough time for everyone aboard to abandon ship.

“You can see the ship disappear,” he told Giornale Di Sicilia . “There was nothing that could be done for the boat. It disappeared in a very short time.”

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast  here .

READ THIS LIST

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.

Five bodies found inside superyacht that sank off Sicily

PORTICELLO, Sicily — Divers recovered four bodies Wednesday from inside a superyacht that sank in a sudden storm off Sicily , Salvatore Cocina, director of the island's Civil Protection Agency, confirmed to NBC News.

Cocina later confirmed to Sky News that a fifth body had been found and was being brought to shore. One passenger remains missing.

The identities of the bodies were not immediately released. Their recovery follows a dayslong search in the deep waters off Italy where British tech tycoon Mike Lynch  and several others were believed to be trapped in the hull. Fifteen of the 22 people aboard survived.

The rest had been missing since early Monday, when the Bayesian was caught in the storm anchored off the coast of Porticello, a village near the Sicilian capital city, Palermo.

The body of the ship’s cook, identified as Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian Antiguan national, was recovered Monday. 

On Wednesday, NBC News witnessed what appeared to be at least three body bags being lifted from fire department boats after they pulled into port at Porticello. It was unclear whose bodies they were. Some were later transferred to ambulances and driven away from the dock.

Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah; Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy; and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda, are also missing. 

The Bayesian is owned by a firm linked to Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, who was among the survivors rescued by a nearby vessel after they got into a lifeboat.

Built by the Italian shipbuilder Perini Navi in 2008, the U.K.-registered yacht could carry 12 guests and a crew of up to 10, according to online specialist boating sites. Its nearly 250-foot mast is the tallest aluminum sailing mast in the world, according to CharterWorld Luxury Yacht Charters.  

Regularly described in U.K. media as “Britain’s Bill Gates,” Lynch was  acquitted of fraud by a San Francisco jury this year, stemming from the sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011.

The Mediterranean sailing vacation was designed to be a celebration for Lynch, who brought Bloomer, who testified in his defense, and Morvillo, one of his U.S. lawyers, on the trip.

Lynch's co-defendant Stephen Chamberlain was not aboard the Bayesian, but in what appears to be a tragic coincidence, a  car struck and killed  him Saturday as he was jogging in a village about 68 miles north of London, local police said.

Claudio Lavanga and Claudia Rizzo reported from Porticello. Henry Austin reported from London.

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

Claudia Rizzo is an Italy based journalist.

Henry Austin is a senior editor for NBC News Digital based in London.

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

British tech billionaire Mike Lynch confirmed dead after yacht sinking

U K tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, 59, has been confirmed dead after multiple days of search and rescue efforts, multiple news agencies report . The 183-foot super-yacht, Bayesian, capsized off the coast of Sicily around 5 AM local time on Monday morning during a violent storm. Lynch was one of 22 individuals on board, including passengers and crew, with 15 individuals rescued and one body found immediately following the events. Five more bodies, including Lynch's, have since been recovered. At this time, his daughter is the only person still missing, Reuters reports , citing sources close to the rescue operation. 

Lynch co-founded tech companies Autonomy and Darktrace and founded venture capital firm Invoke Capital. Following the $11 billion sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard , Lynch has spent the past decade-plus engulfed in a legal battle over allegations of inflating sales and misleading HP . A San Francisco jury acquitted him in June of all 15 counts of fraud. 

The yacht excursion was meant to celebrate Lynch's recent victory, with family, friends, and business associates joining him. Other members of the deceased include the yacht's chef, Neda and Chris Morvillo, a Clifford Chance lawyer who represented Lynch and Judy and Jonathan Bloomer, a non-executive chairman of Morgan Stanley International. Angela Bacares, Lynch's wife, escaped the wreckage and is safe. 

Lynch's co-defendant, Stephen Chamberlain, 52, also faced tragedy this week. The BBC reports he was hit by a car on Saturday, August 17, while out running in Cambridgeshire, England, and died from his injuries. 

UK Edition Change

• UK Politics
• News Videos
• Paris 2024 Olympics
• Rugby Union
• Sport Videos
• John Rentoul
• Mary Dejevsky
• Andrew Grice
• Sean O’Grady
• Photography
• Theatre & Dance
• Culture Videos
• Fitness & Wellbeing
• Food & Drink
• Health & Families
• Royal Family
• Electric Vehicles
• Car Insurance Deals
• Lifestyle Videos
• UK Hotel Reviews
• News & Advice
• Simon Calder
• Australia & New Zealand
• South America
• C. America & Caribbean
• Middle East
• Politics Explained
• News Analysis
• Today’s Edition
• Home & Garden
• Broadband deals
• Fashion & Beauty
• Travel & Outdoors
• Sports & Fitness
• Climate 100
• Sustainable Living
• Climate Videos
• Solar Panels
• Behind The Headlines
• On The Ground
• Decomplicated
• You Ask The Questions
• Binge Watch
• Travel Smart
• Watch on your TV
• Crosswords & Puzzles
• Most Commented
• Newsletters
• Ask Me Anything
• Virtual Events
• Wine Offers
• Betting Sites

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in

Blackbox sheds light on tragic final minutes of billionaire’s superyacht trip

Mike lynch had gathered his nearest and dearest to toast walking away a free man from a hp fraud trial, article bookmarked.

Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world

Sign up to our free morning headlines email, thanks for signing up to the morning headlines email.

It was supposed to be a summer celebration.

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch had gathered his tried and trusted lawyers who had been with him every step of the way helping him emerge unscathed from a gruelling 13-year legal battle. Twelve guests had flown into the picturesque Italian port of Porticello, near Palermo from the UK, the US,  Canada , New Zealand and Ireland, to mark the end of the fraud trial that had consumed much of their lives.

But now a manslaughter investigation  has been launched as Mr Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah were among the seven people who died after the vessel capsized during bad weather in the early hours of Monday morning.

Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judith Bloomer, Clifford Chance lawyer Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo also died.

Italian public prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio, from nearby town Termini Imerese said his office has opened an initial investigation into manslaughter and negligent  shipwreck .

The group had been welcomed on board the six luxurious suites of Bayesian, a 56-metre-long £30 million superyacht , by the ten crew. Boasting the tallest aluminium mast in the world - higher than Nelson’s Column - experts now speculate it may have caused her to topple and become pinned underwater in an unpredictable, ferocious storm.

The ship was named after the statistical method, the Bayesian inference, an 18th-century theory that helps forecasters predict outcomes more reliably. Mr Lynch based his entire PHD thesis around it, later amassing his huge fortune after selling his company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011.

He had improbably beaten the odds in a bitter US legal dispute with the technology giant, convincing a jury that he was not guilty of claims of massive fraud after a long legal fight that finally came to an end in June. Two months ago he emerged from court with tears in his eyes a free man he pledged to restructure extradition laws that brought him to the US in cuffs.

Disaster struck at around 5am when a freak tornado over the sea known as a waterspout rocked the superyacht, according to Sicily ’s civil protection agency. The crew fired off disaster flares causing local fishermen and others to navigate the storm to come to the aid of survivors.

The captain of a nearby boat said that when the winds surged, he had turned on the engine to keep control of his vessel and avoid a collision with the Bayesian, which had been anchored alongside him.

“We managed to keep the ship in position and after the storm was over, we noticed that the ship behind us was gone,” Karsten Borner said.

The other boat “went flat on the water, and then down,” he added. He said his crew then found some of the survivors on a life raft and took them on board before the coast guard picked them up.

This included a one-year-old girl named Sophie one of the 16 survivors, so far.

Her mother, Charlotte Golunski, 36, told how she battled to keep her child above the dark and raging Mediterranean while calling for help amid the awful piercing screams of other struggling guests and crew.

“For two seconds I lost the baby in the sea, then I immediately held her again in the fury of the waves,” she told Giornale di Sicilia. “I held her tightly, tightly to me, while the sea was raging. So many were screaming. Fortunately, the lifeboat inflated and 11 of us managed to get on it.”

This left six passengers unaccounted for - Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Morgan Stanley International non-executive chairman Jonathan Bloomer, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo, and their wives Judy and Neda.

The worn-out Captain of the yacht , James Catfield said simply: “We didn’t see it coming.”

“The wind was very strong. Bad weather was expected, but not of this magnitude,” a coast guard official in the Sicilian capital Palermo said the next day.

Local fisherman Giuseppe Cefalu told how he saw a “tornado” close to the port on Monday morning. Mr Cefalu said he and his brother Fabio saw a flare in the sky at around 5am.

The pair aided efforts to locate people in the water after the yacht vanished beneath the waves, but Mr Cefalu said he only saw cushions and a buoy.

He said weather conditions on the morning of the sinking were “fierce”, with “very strong” wind and rain.

The luxury superyacht is “practically intact” on the seabed despite sinking, Marco Tilotta, a firefighter diver from Palermo, has told Italian newspaper Il Messaggero.

He said in an interview that the multi-million yacht was lying on its side at a depth of 48 metres, but that divers were unable to gain access because of floating furnishings and other debris inside the yacht.

“The fear is that the bodies got trapped inside the vessel,” which was lying 49 metres deep, Salvatore Cocina, head of civil protection in Sicily , added.

“The biggest difficulty we have is due to the depth, which does not allow long times of intervention,” fire department diver Marco Tilotta told reporters. “We plan ... to search centimetre by centimetre.”

Now they enter a critical 24 hours according to Nick Sloane, a lead diver in the Costa Concordia wreck. He told Sky News that survivors might be trapped in air pockets inside the ship, but that time is running out fast to rescue them.

“They’ve got a very small window of time to try to find people stuck inside with hopefully an air pocket, and they could be rescued.

“If the yacht is on its side, it might have more air pockets than if it’s upright. She’s got quite a large keel, and that will deflect and put her on her side, I’m sure.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

New to The Independent?

Or if you would prefer:

Hi {{indy.fullName}}

• My Independent Premium
• Account details
• Help centre

Meet Mike Lynch, the British billionaire tycoon who’s gone missing after his yacht sunk in Italy

Tech tycoon Mike Lynch, one of  six people missing  from a sunken yacht off Sicily, had been trying to move past a Silicon Valley debacle that had tarnished his legacy as an icon of British ingenuity.

Lynch, 59, struck gold when he sold Autonomy, a software maker he founded in 1996, to Hewlett-Packard  for $11 billion in 2011 . But the deal quickly turned into an  albatross for him  after he was accused of cooking the books to make the sale and fired by HP’s then-CEO Meg Whitman.

He was  cleared of criminal charges  in the U.S. in June, but still faced a potentially huge bill stemming from a civil case in London.

A decade-long legal battle had resulted in his extradition from the U.K. to face criminal charges of engineering a massive fraud against HP, a company that helped shape Silicon Valley’s zeitgeist after starting in a Palo Alto, California, garage in 1939.

Lynch steadfastly denied any wrongdoing, asserting that he was being made a scapegoat for HP’s own bungling — a position he maintained while testifying before a jury during a 2 1/2 month trial in San Francisco earlier this year. U.S. Justice Department prosecutors called more than 30 witnesses in an attempt to prove allegations that Lynch engaged in accounting duplicity that bilked billions of dollars from HP.

The trial ended up vindicating Lynch and he pledged to return to the U.K. and explore new ways to innovate.

Although he avoided a possible prison sentence, Lynch still faced the civil case in London that HP mostly won during 2022. Damages haven’t been determined in that case, but HP is seeking $4 billion. Lynch made more than $800 million from the Autonomy sale.

Before becoming entangled with HP, Lynch was widely hailed as a visionary who inspired descriptions casting him as the British version of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

Lynch, a Cambridge-educated mathematician, made his mark running Autonomy, which made a search engine that could pore through emails and other internal business documents to help companies find vital information more quickly. Autonomy’s steady growth during its first decade resulted in Lynch being awarded one of the U.K’s highest honors, the Office of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2006.

In the months leading up to the deal that would go awry, HP valued Autonomy at $46 billion, according to evidence presented at Lynch’s trial.

The trial also  presented contrasting portraits  of Lynch. Prosecutors painted him as an iron-fisted boss obsessed with hitting revenue targets, even if it meant resorting to duplicity. But his lawyers cast him as entrepreneur with integrity and a prototypical tech nerd who enjoyed eating cold pizza late at night while pondering new ways to innovate.

Latest in Success

Ford axes its DEI efforts: ‘We will not use quotas’

L’Oreal heiress has been dethroned as the world’s richest woman by the family dynasty that tops the Fortune 500

Warby Parker’s founders were told their startup would never work. Here’s how they built it into a $1.8 billion business anyway

Nvidia’s billionaire boss: ‘I used to clean bathrooms, and now I’m the CEO’

Yacht tragedy: Mike Lynch’s testimony in recent U.S. trial reveals a charismatic storyteller with a remarkable life story

Travis Kelce strikes lucrative $100 million Amazon podcast deal worth more than his football contract

Billionaire son of Irish parents and his daughter confirmed dead in Italy yacht tragedy

Mike lynch, who previously spoke warmly of his childhood summers in ireland, is among the seven victims of the bayesian yacht tragedy in italy..

Mike Lynch, the billionaire son of Irish parents, and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch are among the people confirmed to have died during the Bayesian yacht shipwreck in Italy on Monday, August 19 .

Mike's body was recovered on Thursday while his daughter's was recovered on Friday. They are among the seven casualties of what is being deemed a 'freak accident' that occurred at the port of Porticello in Sicily, Italy early on Monday.

"The Lynch family is devastated, in shock, and is being comforted and supported by family and friends," a spokesperson for the family said on Friday, August 23.

"Their thoughts are with everyone affected by the tragedy.

"They would like to sincerely thank the Italian coastguard, emergency services and all those who helped in the rescue.

"Their one request now is that their privacy be respected at this time of unspeakable grief."

Separately, Hannah's sister Esme said in a heartbreaking statement: "Hannah often burst into my bedroom and lay down with me.

"Sometimes beaming with a smile, sometimes cheeky, sometimes for advice. No matter what, she brought boundless love to me. 

"She was endlessly caring, passionately mad, unintentionally hilarious and the most amazing, supportive and joyful sister and best friend to me. 

"And on top of all this, she had even more love to give endlessly to all her friends and passion to give to her incredible studies and goals. 

"She is my little angel, my star."

Sign up to IrishCentral's newsletter to stay up-to-date with everything Irish!

Mike Lynch, sometimes referred to as the 'British Bill Gates,' was born to Irish parents - his mother, a nurse, was from Co Tipperary, and his father, a firefighter, was from Co Cork.

In an RTÉ Radio interview in 2015, Mike said: "I had lots of extended family in Carrick and I have very, very fond memories of holidays spent in Tipperary.

"It's a beautiful part of Ireland, down there. You've got the River Suir going through the town and you can imagine when you're a young boy going out there and being taken fishing and all sorts of things by the uncles, just wonderful."

In the same interview, Mike confirmed that he was born in Ilford in London, despite reports claiming that he was born in Ireland. He attributed the confusion to an error on his Wikipedia page.

Mike, who graduated from Cambridge, went on to say that his parents liked to encourage him, but that they also didn't let him get "too much of a big head."

• Irish national reportedly among survivors of tragic superyacht shipwreck in Italy

In 2011, Mike made an estimated $800 million when Hewlett-Packard bought Autonomy, the tech company he founded in 1996, for about $11 billion. The following year, however, Hewlett-Packard claimed Autonomy's value had been massively inflated and announced a writedown of $8.8 billion.

Mike denied the allegations.

The UK Serious Fraud Office investigated the allegations but announced in 2015 that it was ending its investigation with no action due to insufficient evidence.

In November 2018, Mike was indicted for fraud in the US along with Stephen Chamberlain, former vice president of finance at Autonomy. Mike submitted himself for arrest in February 2020 and was released on $10 million bail. Mike was extradited to the US - after his appeal against it was rejected - in January 2022.

Meanwhile, Hewlett-Packard launched civil action against Mike and Sushovan Hussain, Autonomy's CFO, in London's High Court in 2019, accusing them of artificially inflating "Autonomy’s reported revenues, revenue growth, and gross margins." Following a nine-month trial, the court ruled in Hewlett-Packard's favor. The judge said the amount of damages to be paid would be dealt with at a later date. The Associated Press reported this week that the US company was seeking $4 billion. 

Mike and Stephen's US trial began in March of this year and concluded in June. Both were found not guilty on all charges.

Stephen was fatally struck by a car in England on August 17, just days before Mike's tragic passing.

Salvo Cocina of Sicily’s civil protection agency told the Associated Press on Monday that a tornado over the water known as a waterspout struck the area overnight.

“They were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Cocina said

22 people - 10 passengers and 12 crewmembers - were on board. Mike was reportedly celebrating his recent acquittal with the people who had defended him at trial.

As well as Mike and his daughter Hannah, Christopher Morvillo, one of Lynch’s US lawyers, and his wife, Neda; Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley’s London-based investment banking subsidiary, and his wife, Judy; and Recaldo Thomas, the yacht’s chef, all perished.

Angela Bercales, Mike's wife and Hannah's mother, is among the 15 survivors of the tragedy. Early reports said an Irish national was also among the survivors. 

As is typical, an investigation into the sinking of the yacht has been launched and is continuing. 

Fall in love with Ireland this autumn - festivals that will fill your Irish heart

Gardaí keep tabs on masked "protection units" set up by anti-immigration groups

Ireland extends a céad míle fáilte to US visitors in town for Aer Lingus College Football Classic

WATCH: North American couple discover their ancestors at Irish Emigration Museum

The story of Chicago May, Irish Queen of crooks

Who was the Fairy King in ancient Celtic mythology?

Foster care and its roots in ancient, mythological Ireland

The Frightening Irish: Ireland's most horrifying emigrants

Desmond Guinness leaves estate of €26.5m including Leixlip Castle in his will

WATCH: “So happy to be in Dublin” - Coldplay shares sweet video ahead of Croke Park gigs

Mariah Carey’s mother - who “loved Ireland” - and sister pass on the same day

IRA "hooliganism" prevented Princess Margaret's 1968 visit to Ireland

British tech billionaire Mike Lynch is missing off the coast of Sicily after yacht sinks

Sky News understands the yacht is owned by the family of Mike Lynch who is reported to be missing after the accident involving the boat.

Sunday 25 August 2024 08:45, UK

• Superyacht sinking

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Holly Newton murder: Teenager guilty

'It was like going into a time warp'

UEFA president defends new CL format

Would an outdoor smoking ban work?

Carsley names England squad

Is the laughing gas ban working?

Push back on outdoor smoking ban

'We've got to take action'

'Please fight for mental health'

Govt considers extended smoking ban.

Mobility scooter user stabbed to death

Working closely with France is 'crucial'

How is laughing gas being policed?

Thursday's Press Preview

Chancellor quizzed over tax rises

Starmer outlines new treaty

Starmer 'won't reverse' Brexit

Jenrick vows to be new Tory leader

trending now in World News

Passenger destroys American Airlines counter with hammer after...

Retired couple lose life savings in bitter feud with neighbor...

Billionaire's wife didn't want to leave site of sunken Sicily...

Cruise passengers stranded in Ireland for three months after...

4-year-old museum visitor accidentally smashes Bronze Age jar —...

Teen decapitated in vicious shark attack off Jamaica coast: 'He...

US-made F-16 jet destroyed in crash after Russia launches missile...

Toronto’s 1st black female police superintendent demoted after...

British tycoon mike lynch was celebrating acquittal in ‘biggest-ever fraud’ trial when bayesian yacht capsized.

British tycoon Mike Lynch was celebrating a “second life” after his recent acquittal in “one of Silicon Valley’s biggest-ever fraud cases” with his family and legal team when their superyacht capsized in Sicily.

Lynch — who’s been dubbed the British Steve Jobs — had invited white-collar lawyer Christopher Morvillo and others from law firm Clifford Chance for a trip on the Bayesian after he was cleared in the federal case, according to a report by the Telegraph .

The three-month trial played out in San Francisco federal court and centered on allegations that Lynch schemed to inflate his software company Autonomy’s revenue when he sold it to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011. Within a year, the US tech company was forced to down-value Autonomy’s worth by $8.8 billion.

A jury found the Irish-born Lynch, 59, not guilty on all 15 conspiracy and wire fraud charges on June 6. Clifford Chance referred to the trial as “one of Silicon Valley’s biggest-ever fraud cases.”

“We are thrilled with the jury’s verdict, which reflects a resounding rejection of the government’s profound overreach in this case. The evidence presented at trial demonstrated conclusively that Mike Lynch is innocent,” Morvillo and his co-counsel Brian Heberlig said in a statement.

“This verdict closes the book on a relentless 13-year effort to pin HP’s well-documented ineptitude on Dr. Lynch. Thankfully, the truth has finally prevailed. We thank Dr. Lynch for his trust throughout this ordeal and hope that he can now return home to England to resume his life and continue innovating.”

Lynch had  told the Sunday Times of London  after the acquittal and being released from 13 months of house arrest in the US that he had a second shot at life.

“It’s bizarre but now you have a second life. The question is, what do you want to do with it?”

And just last week, Morvillo described on a legal postcast how he and Lynch were riding a high over the rare federal acquittal.

Morvillo described how the whole defense side of the courtroom “erupted” when the foreman read out the not guilty verdict after the 12-year legal saga finally came to a close.

Lynch’s wife — Angela Baraces, 57, who survived the boat accident Monday — was so ecstatic she screamed and ran from the courtroom benches into the well to hug her husband, Morvillo said.

“It was this electric moment, I’ve never seen anything like it in a courtroom before,” he continued. “Grown people sobbing, hugging … people clapping, it was remarkable.”

Lynch’s win is extremely unusual in federal criminal cases. In fact, only less than 1% of federal cases ended in acquittal in 2022, according to the Pew Research Center.

Morvillo said the day the trial ended, they had a big party “that lasted into the small hours of the morning.”

“To have this vindication after all of these years was incredible,” Morvillo said.

The celebrations continued with Lynch’s Italy trip aboard the 160-foot luxury sailboat — which was carrying 22 people made up of 10 crew and 12 passengers — sank off the coast of Porticello, Italy, after a storm hit at sunrise Monday. 

The body of the vessel’s chef, Ricardo Thomas, has been recovered, 15 passengers survived and the search continues for the six remaining passengers who are considered missing — including Morvillo and Lynch.

Others among the missing are Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, Jonathan Bloomer, a chairman at Morgan Stanley International, and Bloomer’s wife, Judy.

Lynch took the stand in his defense at trial, blaming HP for botching the merger by failing to carry out proper due diligence. He also pointed the finger at his CFO Sushovan Hussain, claiming the finance officer was in charge of all the finances and accounting decisions.

The feds called more than 30 witnesses in their failed effort to convict Lynch. They included Leo Apotheker, the former HP CEO who was fired weeks after the Autonomy deal was announced.

Bloomer — the chairman of Morgan Stanley’s London-based investment banking subsidiary and the chairman of the Hiscox Group — testified in Lynch’s defense as Lynch had appointed him to Automony’s board of directors to chair the audit committee on the HP deal starting in 2010.

Bloomer’s wife Judy is also among the missing.

Ayla Ronald, a New Zealand national who worked at Clifford Chance on Lynch’

s case, had also been invited to the festivities and survived the Bayesian accident, the firm confirmed.”We are in shock and deeply saddened by this tragic incident,” read Clifford Chance’s statement. “Our thoughts are with our Partner, Christopher Morvillo, and his wife Neda who are among the missing, and with their families.”

“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,” the statement continued. “Our thoughts extend to the other passengers and crew and all those affected.”

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 seven passengers.
• British tech tycoon Mike Lynch was identified as one of the bodies pulled from the wreckage. His teenage daughter, Hannah, was the final one to be recovered.
• 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.

Ronald’s father, Lin Ronald, told the Telegraph said his daughter was “part of the legal team that were invited to go sailing as a result of the success in the recent United States court case.”

Lynch’s co-defendant and a former finance exec at Autonomy, Stephen Chamberlain, was also acquitted of all charges at the trial.

Just days before the yacht capsized, Chamberlain  died on Saturday  after getting hit by a car while he was out running in Cambridgeshire, England.

Hussain was convicted at a 2018 trial related to the doomed HP deal and was released from prison in January after serving a five-year sentence.

HP won a lawsuit fought in London in 2022 against Lynch and Hussain, but their legal penalties have yet to be decided. The US tech giant is seeking $4 billion in damages.

With Post wires

Advertisement

• Entertainment

Tragedy at sea: Daughter of the British billionaire among six dead

24 August 2024 10:01

The body of Hannah Lynch, daughter of a British billionaire, was found in the cabin of the sunken yacht Bayesiana. Five other bodies, including her father’s, were discovered in a separate part of the luxury boat. Investigators are determining what caused the yacht's sinking, which was considered "unsinkable."

At the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, 50 metres below the surface, the body of 18-year-old Hannah Lynch , the daughter of well-known tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, was found.

The tragedy occurred after the sinking of the yacht Bayesian , on which the teenager travelled with her father and others. Fire Chief Bentivoglio Fiandra reported at a press conference that in addition to Hannah, five other people lost their lives. Their bodies were found in a separate part of the yacht .

Prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio, leading the preliminary investigation, does not rule out that the cause of the tragedy could be involuntary manslaughter but emphasizes that it is still too early to draw final conclusions.

Investigators have already questioned the yacht’s captain, James Cutfield . During the storm, the yacht capsized on one side. The fire department revealed that people tried to seek shelter in the part of the vessel facing the surface.

The Lynch family, in mourning, issued a statement expressing their gratitude to the Italian Coast Guard and all services involved in the search operation.

Hannah’s sister, Esme, shared personal memories, describing her as a loving, caring, and passionate person . In her words, she paints a picture of Hannah as a fantastic sister and friend.

Tragedy in the Mediterranean Sea. A luxury yacht sank

During the search operation, which involved 27 divers, the bodies of all the missing were found . The tragedy impacted not only the Lynch family but also significant passengers, including the chairman of Morgan Stanley International, Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife, and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his spouse.

The sinking of the yacht Bayesian has become the subject of international interest, mainly since it occurred during a trip celebrating Mike Lynch’s acquittal in a fraud case in the United States .

The development of events in this case will be closely monitored. Investigators' main task is to determine what led to the sinking of the yacht considered "unsinkable" by the manufacturer .

• Updated Terms of Use
• New Privacy Policy
• Your Privacy Choices
• Closed Caption Policy
• Accessibility Statement

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset . Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions . Legal Statement . Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper .

Yacht sinks: Missing tech billionaire's co-defendant died in car crash days before Italy disaster

Stephen chamberlain, 52, was vice president of finance at mike lynch's autonomy corp..

Moment luxury yacht sinks off coast of Italy caught on camera, with 6 presumed dead

Grainy CCTV footage shows the moment a storm struck the Bayesian luxury yacht, which sank Aug. 19, 2024, off the coast of Italy. Six people are missing, officials say. (Giornale di Sicilia)

A co-defendant of British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch was killed in England after being struck by a car just days before Lynch and five others went missing when a luxury superyacht sank off the coast of Italy on Monday, authorities confirmed Tuesday.

Divers brought three bodies in bags ashore from the yacht Wednesday, and two other bodies were found in the wreckage, The Associated Press reports, citing an Italian official. It was unclear whose bodies were found.

Stephen Chamberlain, 52, was a former Autonomy Corp. executive who was acquitted alongside Lynch in June of charges in a multibillion-dollar fraud case related to Hewlett Packard’s $11 billion takeover of Lynch’s company.

A body was recovered from the sunken yacht off the coast of Porticello, near the Sicilian city of Palermo, Italy, Aug. 21, 2024. The body's identification has not been announced. (REUTERS/Louiza Vradi)

Divers brought a second body bag ashore Wednesday. (REUTERS/Louiza Vradi)

Chamberlain "was fatally struck by a car on Saturday while out running" in Cambridgeshire, his lawyer Gary Lincenberg said in a statement.

"He was a courageous man with unparalleled integrity. We deeply miss him," Lincenberg said. "Steve fought successfully to clear his good name at trial earlier this year, and his good name now lives on through his wonderful family."

MOMENT LUXURY YACHT SINKS OFF COAST OF ITALY CAUGHT ON CAMERA, WITH 6 PRESUMED DEAD

Stephen Chamberlain was confirmed to have been killed when a car struck him while he was running on Saturday. (Stephen Chamberlain via Reuters)

Chamberlain, formerly a vice president of finance at the company, was accused of artificially inflating Autonomy’s revenues and making false and misleading statements to auditors, analysts and regulators.

Chamberlain’s family released a statement through Cambridgeshire Police, saying he "was a much-loved husband, father, son, brother and friend."

"He was an amazing individual whose only goal in life was to help others in any way possible," the statement said.

Chamberlain was acquitted of fraud charges along with British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, pictured above. (Reuters/Henry Nicholls/File Photo)

Police said the driver, a 49-year-old woman, remained at the scene in the village of Stretham, England, and was assisting with the investigation.

WHO IS MIKE LYNCH, THE BRITISH TECH ENTREPRENEUR MISSING AFTER YACHT SANK?

The strange coincidence of Chamberlain’s death occurred just days before Lynch and five others, including Christopher Morvillo, one of Lynch’s lawyers who defended him in the fraud case, and Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer, who testified in Lynch’s defense, went missing when the Bayesian superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily early Monday.

The other three people still missing are believed to be Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Bloomer’s wife Neda, and Morvillo’s wife Judy.

Recaldo Thomas, a chef who died in the yacht disaster off Sicily's coast, poses for a selfie in this picture obtained from social media. (Recaldo Thomas/via Reuters)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Ten crew members and 12 passengers, including British, American and Canadian nationals were onboard when the vessel capsized. One man's body was recovered, identified as onboard chef Recaldo Thomas, an Antiguan citizen. Fifteen people were rescued, including a 1-year-old girl, authorities said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Antisemitism Exposed

Fox News' Antisemitism Exposed" newsletter brings you stories on the rising anti-Jewish prejudice across the U.S. and the world."

By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use , and agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can opt-out at any time.

You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!

• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Newsletters
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My watchlist
• Stock market
• Biden economy
• Personal finance
• Stocks: most active
• Stocks: gainers
• Stocks: losers
• Trending tickers
• World indices
• US Treasury bonds
• Top mutual funds
• Highest open interest
• Highest implied volatility
• Currency converter
• Basic materials
• Communication services
• Consumer cyclical
• Consumer defensive
• Financial services
• Industrials
• Real estate
• Mutual funds
• Credit cards
• Balance transfer cards
• Cash back cards
• Rewards cards
• Travel cards
• Online checking
• High-yield savings
• Money market
• Home equity loan
• Personal loans
• Student loans
• Options pit
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing

New on Yahoo

• Privacy Dashboard

Billionaire Yacht Was Piloted Recklessly Before Deadly Sinking, Its Builder Warns

The builder of the sunken superyacht owned by British billionaire Mike Lynch, who died with six others after the vessel went down earlier this week , is blaming an "endless chain of errors" for the maritime disaster.

Flying under a British flag, the 184 foot Bayesian was built in 2008 by Italian builders Perini Navi and should've been "unsinkable" had proper procedures been followed, argues Giovanni Costantino, CEO of the Italian Sea Group, which owns the yacht manufacturer.

"Everything that has been done reveals a very long sum of errors," Costantino told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in an interview, as translated by People . "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?"

Red Sky at Morning

An investigation into the sinking is ongoing. It's believed that a small waterspout , or a waterborne tornado, struck the vessel as it was anchored off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, around 5 am local time on Monday, according to  CNN .

At some point after encountering the fierce winds, the ship's towering mast — the second tallest aluminum mast in the world — snapped, before the vessel appears to have capsized and sank with 22 people on board.

Costantino argues — pretty bluntly, we have to say — that the crew and passengers should've anticipated the stormy conditions.

"The passengers reported an absurd thing, namely that the storm came unexpected, suddenly," he said in the interview, per People . "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?" he added. "A fisherman reads the weather conditions and a ship doesn't? The disturbance was fully readable in all the weather charts."

Batten Down

Their errors didn't end there, according to Costantino, who said in the interview that there would've been "zero risk" had the right maneuvers been made.

The captain and crew, he further explained to the New York Times , should've turned on the engine, lifted anchor, steered the boat into the wind, and lowered the keel for extra stability, while the passengers should've been gathered in the deck's main hall.

Another precaution would be shutting all the doors and hatches on the ship's side and stern. Costantino claimed that the Bayesian could list, or tilt to one side, to 75 degrees without capsizing, and shouldn't have sunk. But if some of those doors and hatches were left open, he told NYT , the ship could've taken on water too quickly.

As it stands, it's unclear how many of these procedures were executed. The ship's captain, James Cutfield, survived the ordeal and was questioned by authorities, but has not spoken to the media.

It's worth noting that Costantino's arguments could be seen as trying to exonerate his company of any wrongdoing. That being said, the speed at which a vessel of Bayesian's size and reputation sank has stunned sailors and investigators , who are trying to understand why most of the crew survived while six passengers perished.

More on nautical terrors: Orcas Strike Again, Sinking Yacht as Oil Tanker Called for Rescue

Recommended Stories

Divers uncover the 6th missing body after luxury superyacht sank in freak storm off sicily. here's what we know about the incident..

It's been five days since the Bayesian, a luxury superyacht, sank after being caught in a violent storm.

Controversial California bill to prevent AI disasters heads to Newsom despite pushback from Big Tech

California state lawmakers passed a controversial AI safety bill, SB 1047, that's been dividing tech firms, AI startups, and venture capitals.

Generative AI coding startup Magic lands $320M investment from Eric Schmidt, Atlassian and others

Magic, an AI startup creating models to generate code and automate a range of software development tasks, has raised a large tranche of cash from investors including ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt. In a blog post on Thursday, Magic said that it closed a $320 million fundraising round with contributions from Schmidt, as well as Alphabet's CapitalG, Atlassian, Elad Gil, Jane Street, Nat Friedman & Daniel Gross, Sequoia, and others. In July, Reuters reported that Magic was seeking to raise over $200 million at a $1.5 billion valuation.

I tested dozens of beauty products this month — I'm buying these 5 for myself

From a universally flattering, Drew Barrymore-fave lipstick to a quick eye-bag fix, these quality, editor-approved finds actually work.

EU officials believe Telegram lied about user numbers to skirt regulation

The EU believes that Telegram may have deliberately understated the number of users it has in the bloc to avoid stricter regulation.

X caught blocking links to NPR, claiming the news site may be 'unsafe'

X, the Elon Musk-owned platform formerly known as Twitter, is marking some links to news organization NPR's website as "unsafe" when users click through to read the latest story about an altercation between a Trump campaign staffer and an Arlington National Cemetery employee. On Thursday X users began to notice that a link to the NPR story about the Arlington Cemetery event, when clicked, would display the following message: "Warning: this link may be unsafe" followed by the URL of the web page in question, https://npr.org/2024/08/29/nx-s1-5092087/trump-arlington-cemetery-altercation-tiktok.

Flying through Seattle's hacked airport

Several days after the Port of Seattle announced a "possible" cyberattack on its systems, Seattle-Tacoma Airport is still largely offline, causing chaos among travelers and acting as a standing warning against taking cybersecurity lightly. The outage resulting from the recent hack has not, fortunately, caused planes to fall out of the sky or Air Traffic Control to double-book a runway. Rather than catastrophe, what we have now — and for the foreseeable future, since authorities have offered no timeline for restoration — is an object lesson in why we have rules about where we put our eggs.

GitHub Copilot competitor Codeium raises $150M at a $1.25B valuation

A startup whose product competes with GitHub Copilot and other AI-powered coding assistants has achieved unicorn status. On Thursday, Codeium said it closed a $150 million Series C round led by General Catalyst that values the company at $1.25 billion post-money. Codeium's co-founder and CEO, Varun Mohan, told TechCrunch that Codeium hasn't even touched the $65 million Series B tranche it raised in January yet.

Netflix’s Wallace and Gromit movie features a ‘smart gnome’ robot in a teaser clip

Netflix and the BBC have released a charming teaser for Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. The stop-motion animated movie features a “smart gnome” called Norbot.

I fit 12 days' worth of stuff in my carry-on thanks to these compression packing cubes

I'll do anything not to check a suitcase.

This compact Rubbermaid scrubber took my dingy grout from orange to white

The $20 doodad buffs grimy surfaces 60 times a second to give your arms a much-needed break.

I'm a frizzy-haired shopping pro — here's why the Dyson Airwrap is worth the money

Is this popular styling tool worth the hype (and steep price tag) or did it leave me in dis-'tress'?

France formally charges Telegram founder, Pavel Durov, over organized crime on messaging app

After spending four days in police custody, the founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, was put under formal investigation in France on Thursday for a wide range of criminal charges. On Tuesday, the court in charge of the investigation -- the Paris criminal court -- shared a list of charges that led to Durov’s arrest on August 24 after he stepped off his private jet at France’s Le Bourget Airport. The main charges are accusations of running a company that has been complicit in storing and distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and facilitating drug trafficking and organized fraud and other illegal transactions.

Helen Mirren, 79, preps her skin with L'Oreal's moisturizing serum — down to $18

Save 50% on the salve A-listers and dermatologists adore: 'Ultimate multitasker in skincare.'

Salesforce CEO on robot sales agents, Microsoft's AI letdowns, and big earnings beat

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says his company remains as committed to profit growth and AI innovation as ever.

Dark circles? This Labor Day deal brings these under-eye masks to just $7 for 20

Puffiness is no match for tea tree oil and collagen — and by using Yahoo's exclusive code, you're saving nearly 50%.

Shohei Ohtani bobblehead night: Dodgers star makes MLB history after catching first pitch from his dog

Dodger fans love Shohei Ohtani — and his dog. They got plenty of both on Wednesday.

Born from San Francisco's AI hackathons, Agency lets you see what your AI agents do

After a long week of coding, you might assume San Francisco's builders would retreat into the Bay Area's mountains, beaches or vibrant clubbing scene. In the last few years, San Francisco has exploded with AI hackathons. "There's no better place in the world to build the most ambitious project of your life than San Francisco," says Agency AI co-founder Alex Reibman.

One of Bolt's proposed new backers, The London Fund, has been scrubbing its web page

One-click checkout tech company Bolt is still waiting to find out if shareholders will sign off on a proposed funding round with stipulations that founder Ryan Breslow would return as CEO. In the meantime, Axios’ Dan Primack did some digging around on The London Fund, a firm that is supposed to provide up to $250 million in “marketing credits” to Bolt as part of the proposed transaction. Turns out that a number of that firm’s so-called portfolio companies don’t appear to be portfolio companies at all.

HP prints an earnings miss, CEO weighs in on AI PCs and cost cuts

HP CEO Enrique Lores shares when his business may begin printing improved results.

MORE SECTIONS

• Dear Deidre

MORE FROM THE SUN

• Newsletters
• Deliver my newspaper
• Sun Vouchers
• The Sun Digital Newspaper
• Racing Members Enclosure
• Fabulous Clothing

Co-defendant of ‘UK’s Bill Gates’ dies in hospital after being hit by car days before Mike Lynch went missing on yacht

• Emily-Jane Heap
• Ryan Merrifield
• Published : 20:37, 19 Aug 2024
• Updated : 8:45, 20 Aug 2024
• Published : Invalid Date,

MISSING British billionaire tycoon Mike Lynch's ex-colleague and co-defendant in his US fraud trial has died in hospital after being hit by a car, it has emerged.

Stephen Chamberlain was fatally struck by the vehicle on Saturday morning and died yesterday, just hours before Lynch disappeared after a yacht he was sailing on sunk on Monday.

Chamberlain was flown to hospital following the incident in Cambridgeshire.

But it's understood his life support was switched off on Sunday.

A source told The Telegraph: “Our dear client and friend Steve Chamberlain was fatally struck by a car on Saturday while out running.

“He was a courageous man with unparalleled integrity, and we deeply miss him.  He fought successfully to clear his good name, which lives on through his wonderful family.”

READ MORE ON THE SEARCH

What we know about Mike Lynch - British billionaire missing after yacht sinks

'UK Bill Gates' & daughter feared dead after hosting party on doomed £14m yacht

Chamberlain, Autonomy’s former vice president of finance, had faced the same US charges of fraud and conspiracy as his former boss Lynch for allegedly scheming to inflate the company’s value before it was sold.

Both had been acquitted of all charges by a jury in San Francisco in June.

After leaving Autonomy in 2012, Chamberlain had worked for cybersecurity firm Darktrace and volunteered as a finance director for football club Cambridge United.

YACHT DISASTER

The luxury vessel Bayesian was caught in a freak whirlwind off the coast of Sicily around 4am on Monday.

Most read in The Sun

Oasis ticket prices REVEALED - but fans blast costs 'not very working class!'

Smoking ban plan CONFIRMED by PM with cigarettes to be banished from pub gardens

Horror as toddler, 2, 'snatched from pram' in front of mum at TK Maxx store

Top chef, 41, who worked with Gordon Ramsay is fighting for life after attack

Most of the 12 passengers and 10 crew were in their cabins.

Six people are still missing, including Lynch and his daughter Hannah, 18, as well as friend and Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer.

Lynch, 59,  was on board the £14million vessel along with guests from his legal firm and his company Invoke Capital to celebrate a US jury clearing him of fraud.

He  had spent a year under house arrest in the States and recently spoke of his fear that he would die in jail if found guilty.

Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, 57, survived the tragedy but was seen in a wheelchair on Monday evening after suffering horrific injuries to both feet, believed to be from broken glass.

She reportedly told doctors they were woken at 4am as the 180ft  boat tilted sharply before a scene of “confusion as glass shattered” and “everything slipped”.

The yacht was anchored outside the harbour at Porticello near the Sicilian capital Palermo.

Witnesses say that strong winds snapped the 246ft sail mast — the world’s second tallest  — unbalancing the vessel and causing a list.

The captain of nearby Dutch boat the Sir Robert BP told how he helped to pull survivors from the water —  including three who were seriously injured —  before the coastguard arrived on the scene.

Karsten Borner said the Bayesian “went flat on the water and then down”, adding: “There was a light and we saw that the ship was aside and then we saw a triangle. So I think she went back down.”

Local fishermen also raised the alarm with port authorities.

Pietro Asciutto told reporters he watched the boat capsize, adding: “I was at home when the tornado hit.

“I immediately closed all the windows. Then I saw the boat, it had only one mast, it was very large. I saw it sink suddenly.

Who is Mike Lynch?

By Georgie English

Entrepreneur Mike Lynch is still believed to be missing hours after a £14m luxury yacht capsized in a tornado off the coast of Sicily.

The tech tycoon, dubbed "Britain's Bill Gates", was one of the 22 people sailing onboard the £166,000 a week vessel, the Telegraph reported this afternoon.

Lynch, 59, sold Autonomy Corporation - a tech company for $11b to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

He has also been involved in Invoke Capital and cybersecurity company Darktrace.

He was awarded an OBE for his services to enterprise in 2006.

Born in Ilford, Lynch had a firefighter father from County Cork and a nurse mother from County Tipperary.

Away from work, Mike is married to wife Angela Bacares and the pair have two children together.

In 2023, the Sunday Times rich list set the couple's value at £852m.

Just weeks ago, Lynch was acquitted of criminal charges by a jury in San Francisco after a 12-year legal battle over the $11bn sale of his firm, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

He was extradited to the US on fraud charges back in 2023 with a judge setting his bail at £79m.

US Marshsals took Lynch into custody at Heathrow, putting him in chains and bundling him on board a United Airlines flight.

However, he had a few things in his favour.

The nature of the case led to a boring and turgid trial, including painstaking parades of emails, reports and spreadsheets filled with jargon, leaving jurors glassy-eyed.

One was even dismissed because he repeatedly fell asleep.

Lynch argued that any questionable activity was entirely immaterial in the context of a thriving business bringing in hundreds of millions a year.

While his lawyers claimed the books were approved by outside accountants and that, by British standards, the deals in question were appropriately accounted for.

Lynch was used as the final witness and rather than going "right for the jugular", as his head lawyer Brian Heberlig said, the prosecutors simply "reviewed a chronology of documents, with no probing questions". The jury agreed.

“Shortly after I went down to get a better look at what was happening. The boat was still floating, then suddenly it disappeared. I saw it sink with my own eyes.”

He stayed on site for three hours but saw no sign of any survivors.

It is feared those unaccounted for may have been trapped inside their cabins as the yacht was struck by violent winds and rain overnight.

Helicopters, boats and firefighters continued to  search for the missing last night.

A man’s body found alongside the shipwreck is thought to be Canadian Ricardo Thomas, who was the yacht’s cook.

Four Brits and two Americans remained unaccounted for.

French captain Matthew Griffith was among the 15 people rescued.

The tragedy comes two months after dad-of-two Lynch, born in Ilford, East London, was found not guilty on 16 counts of wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy, following a trial in San Francisco.

He was extradited to the US in 2023 over the £8.5billion sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

He was accused of inflating the company’s value.

Lynch, compared to Microsoft magnate Bill Gates , faced 20 years in jail and said he feared dying behind bars if found guilty.

After being cleared he insisted: “It’s bizarre, but now you have a second life. The question is, what do you want to do with it?”

One of the survivors of the tragedy is Ayla Ronald, 36, a senior associate at the Clifford Chance law firm, who was part of Mr Lynch’s legal team.

She and her partner Matthew Fletcher, who was also on board, were understood to have escaped the sinking uninjured.

Her father Lin Ronald, who works in yacht sales in Christchurch, New Zealand, told The Sun: “Ayla sent me a text a few hours ago to say she was alive and well, as is her partner Matthew.

“She was invited to go sailing by Mike Lynch to celebrate winning his recent United States court case.

“It was supposed to be a celebration cruise of sorts. I believe they had only been sailing a couple of days.”

Who are the six still missing from the Bayesian yacht tragedy?

By Ellie Doughty , Foreign News Reporter

THE BAYESIAN superyacht was hosting a lavish party for 12 guests, with 10 crew also onboard.

After 15 people were rescued from the water on Monday, six people remain missing and one has been found dead.

Italian authorities said the man recovered near the yacht wreckage was the chef working onboard.

Four of the missing are British and two are American.

Mike Lynch, 59, and his daughter Hannah, 18, are among the four Brits lost at sea.

International chairman of bank giant Morgan Stanley, Brit Jonathan Bloomer, 70, is also missing along with his wife.

As is top New York lawyer Chris Morvillo, a solicitor at major firm Clifford Chance who worked for Mike Lynch, and his wife.

Yacht firm Camper & Nicholsons, which manages operations on the Bayesian, said there were a total of 12 guests and 10 crew.

The majority of passengers were understood to be from the UK.

Citizens from New Zealand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Canada , the US and two dual British-French nationals were also on board.

Eight of those rescued  were receiving treatment in hospital last night, according to the Italian Coastguard. None was thought to be in a serious condition.

Among the injured are the lawyer Ms Ronald; Sasha Murray, 29, of  Ireland; James Catfield, 51, from New Zealand, and Myin Kyaw Htun, 39, from Myanmar. 

Divers were understood to have reached the yacht’s hull, which is 160ft below the water and around half a mile from the coast.

An eyewitness, who said there had earlier been a party on the yacht, told a  website: “The vessel wasn’t far from the port.

“It didn’t take much to raise the anchor and head for the port.

“Evidently, they were surprised by the storm that suddenly hit and were unable to avoid the sinking.”

The yacht, under a  British flag,  was previously named the Salute. Italian prosecutors confirmed they had opened an investigation into the sinking.

The public prosecutor’s office in Termini Imerese has also opened a file on the tragedy.

Staff working for Mr Lynch were unwilling to comment at his Georgian manor house  in Pettistree near Woodbridge, Suffolk.

The tycoon and his wife were thought to have lived at Loudham Hall for the last 15 years.

READ MORE SUN STORIES

Jermaine Jenas 'to RETURN to TV as he's handed career lifeline' after being axed

Tommy Fury breaks silence on 'false allegations' after Molly-Mae split

On Monday the gates at the top of the long drive to the 16th-century property remained closed as details emerged of the yachting tragedy.

One member of staff said on an intercom: “I’m afraid we can’t comment at the moment.”

• Bayesian yacht sinks
• missing person

10 of the most impressive superyachts owned by billionaires

From a sailing yacht owned by a russian billionaire industrialist to the luxury launch of the patek philippe ceo, here are the best billionaire-owned boats on the water….

Words: Jonathan Wells

There’s something about billionaires and big boats . Whether they’re superyachts or megayachts, men with money love to splash out on these sizeable sea-going giants. And that all began in 1954 — with the big dreams of Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

Onassis, keen to keep his luxury lifestyle afloat when at sea, bought Canadian anti-submarine frigate HMCS Stormont after World War II. He spent millions turning it into an opulent super yacht, named it after his daughter — and the Christina O kicked off a trend among tycoons. To this day, the world’s richest men remain locked in an arms race to build the biggest, fastest, most impressive superyacht of all. Here are 10 of our favourites…

Eclipse, owned by Roman Abramovich

Built by: Blohm+Voss of Hamburg, with interiors and exteriors designed by Terence Disdale. Launched in 2009, it cost $500 million (the equivalent of £623 million today).

Owned by: Russian businessman Roman Abramovich, the owner of private investment company Millhouse LLC and owner of Chelsea Football Club. His current net worth is $17.4 billion.

Key features: 162.5 metres in length / 9 decks / Top speed of 22 knots / Two swimming pools / Disco hall / Mini submarine / 2 helicopter pads / 24 guest cabins

Sailing Yacht A, owned by Andrey Melnichenko

Built by: Nobiskrug, a shipyard on the Eider River in Germany. The original idea came from Jacques Garcia, with interiors designed by Philippe Starck and a reported price tag of over $400 million.

Owned by: Russian billionaire industrialist Andrey Melnichenko, the main beneficiary of both the fertiliser producing EuroChem Group and the coal energy company SUEK. Though his current net worth is $18.7 billion, Sailing Yacht A was seized in Trieste on 12 March 2022 due to the EU’s sanctions on Russian businessmen.

Key features: 119 metres in length / 8 decks / Top speed of 21 knots / Freestanding carbon-fibre rotating masts / Underwater observation pod / 14 guests

Symphony, owned by Bernard Arnault

Built by: Feadship, the fabled shipyard headquartered in Haarlem in The Netherlands. With an exterior designed by Tim Heywood, it reportedly cost around $150 million to construct.

Owned by: French billionaire businessman and art collector Bernard Arnault. Chairman and chief executive of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods company, his current net worth is $145.8 billion.

Key features: 101.5 metres in length / 6 decks / Top speed of 22 knots / 6-metre glass-bottom swimming pool / Outdoor cinema / Sundeck Jacuzzi / 8 guest cabins

Faith, owned by Michael Latifi

Built by: Similarly to Symphony above, also Feadship. With exteriors designed by Beaulieu-based RWD, and interiors by Chahan Design, it cost a reported $200 million to construct in 2017.

Owned by: Until recently, Canadian billionaire and part-owner of the Aston Martin Formula 1 Team , Lawrence Stroll. Recently sold to Michael Latifi, father of F1 star Nicholas , a fellow Canadian businessman with a net worth of just under $2 billion.

Key features: 97 metres in length / 9 guest cabins / Glass-bottom swimming pool — with bar / Bell 429 helicopter

Amevi, owned by Lakshmi Mittal

Built by: The Oceanco shipyard, also in The Netherlands. With exterior design by Nuvolari & Lenard and interior design by Alberto Pinto, it launched in 2007 (and cost around $125 million to construct).

Owned by: Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, chairman and CEO of Arcelor Mittal, the world’s largest steelmaking company. He owns 20% of Queen Park Rangers, and has a net worth of $18 billion.

Key features: 80 metres in length / 6 decks / Top speed of 18.5 knots / On-deck Jacuzzi / Helipad / Swimming Pool / Tender Garage / 8 guest cabins

Odessa II, owned by Len Blavatnik

Built by: Nobiskrug, the same German shipyard that built Sailing Yacht A . Both interior and exterior were created by Focus Yacht Design, and the yacht was launched in 2013 with a cost of $80 million.

Owned by: British businessman Sir Leonard Blavatnik. Founder of Access Industries — a multinational industrial group with current holdings in Warner Music Group, Spotify and the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat — he is worth $39.9 billion.

Key features: 74 metres in length / 6 guest cabins / Top speed of 18 knots / Intimate beach club / Baby grand piano / Private master cabhin terrace / Outdoor cinema

Nautilus, owned by Thierry Stern

Built by: Italian shipyard Perini Navi in 2014. With interiors by Rémi Tessier and exterior design by Philippe Briand, Nautilus was estimated to cost around $90 million to construct.

Owned by: Patek Philippe CEO Thierry Stern. Alongside his Gulstream G650 private jet, Nautilus — named for the famous sports watch — is his most costly mode of transport. His current net worth is $3 billion.

Key features: 73 metres in length / 7 guest cabins / Top speed of 16.5 knots / Dedicated wellness deck / 3.5 metre resistance pool / Underfloor heating / Jet Skis

Silver Angel, owned by Richard Caring

Built by: Luxury Italian boatbuilder Benetti. Launched in 2009, the yacht’s interior has been designed by Argent Design and her exterior styling is by Stefano Natucci.

Owned by: Richard Caring, British businessman and multi-millionaire (his wealth peaked at £1.05 billion, so he still makes the cut). Chairman of Caprice Holdings, he owns The Ivy restaurants.

Key features: 64.5 metres in length / Cruising speed of 15 knots / 7 guest cabins / Lalique decor / 5 decks / Oval Jacuzzi pool / Sun deck bar / Aft deck dining table

Lady Beatrice, owned by Frederick Barclay

Built by: Feadship and Royal Van Lent in 1993. Exteriors were created by De Voogt Naval Architects, with interiors by Bannenberg Designs. She cost the equivalent of £63 million to build.

Owned by: Sir David Barclay and his late brother Sir Frederick. The ‘Barclay Brothers’ had joint business pursuits including The Spectator , The Telegraph and delivery company Yodel. Current net worth: £7 billion.

Key features: 60 metres in length / 18 knots maximum speed / Monaco home port / Named for the brothers’ mother, Beatrice Cecelia Taylor / 8 guest cabins

Space, owned by Laurence Graff

Built by: Space was the first in Feadship’s F45 Vantage series , styled by Sinot Exclusive Yacht Design and launched in 2007. She cost a reported $25 million to construct.

Owned by: Laurence Graff, English jeweller and billionaire businessman. As the founder of Graff Diamonds, he has a global business presence and a current net worth of $6.26 billion.

Key features: 45 metres in length / Top speed of 16 knots / Al fresco dining area / Sun deck Jacuzzi / Breakfast bar / Swimming platform / Steam room

Want more yachts? Here’s the handcradfted, homegrown history of Princess…

Become a Gentleman’s Journal member. Find out more here.

Become a Gentleman’s Journal Member?

Like the Gentleman’s Journal? Why not join the Clubhouse, a special kind of private club where members receive offers and experiences from hand-picked, premium brands. You will also receive invites to exclusive events, the quarterly print magazine delivered directly to your door and your own membership card.

Further reading

Riding the wave: the Wajer 44 S is catnip for water sports enthusiasts

The luxury yachts of the world's royal families

Editor’s Picks: Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra 150M, Brunello Cucinelli Trousers, KEF LSX II LT Speakers

A free newsletter worth opening.

To receive the latest in style, watches, cars and luxury news, plus receive great offers from the world’s greatest brands every Friday.