Eyewitnesses to the horrific capsizing of a pleasure yacht packed with British tourists off the coast of Sicily this morning have told of the moment the vessel was battered by a ‘whirlwind’ that left one dead and several adrift in the sea.
A desperate hunt is now underway for survivors, including British and American tourists, after a freak storm sank the Bayesian – a 180ft luxury yacht – close to the port of Porticello, near Palermo, around 5am.
Fifteen of the 22 people on board, including a one-year-old baby and its mother, were rescued by a nearby vessel after the Bayesian capsized, but it is feared that those missing may have been trapped inside their cabins.
‘At about 3:55 we saw the whirlwind, after a quarter of an hour we saw a rocket 500 metres away from the dock,’ recounted Fabio Cefalù, a local fisherman who witnessed the tragic sinking of the yacht.
‘At about 4:35 we went out to sea to provide assistance, but we only saw the remains of the boat floating. There was no one in the sea.’
Another man interviewed at Porticello told Italian media how the unexpected storm seemed to have caught the crew unawares after the passengers had enjoyed a party.
‘That boat was all lit up… A beautiful boat where there had been a party. Evidently, they were surprised by the storm that suddenly hit and they were unable to avoid sinking… At about 4:30 in the morning, it was gone.’
Pietro Asciutto, a fisherman in Porticello, added: ‘The boat was still floating, then suddenly it disappeared. I saw it sink with my own eyes.’
The Sir Robert BP, a Dutch sailing ship which had been anchored close to the Bayesian, rescued the fifteen survivors.
Its captain, Karsten Borner, said his own vessel was battered by very strong gusts in the early hours of the morning, but that he managed to stabilise it while anchored by using the engine.
The crew later noticed the Bayesian nearby and manoeuvred to avoid hitting it.
‘We managed to keep the ship in position, and after the storm was over, we noticed that the ship behind us was gone.’
Borner said afterwards he and his first mate noticed a flare in the water, heading to smoke and light to find a life raft drifting in the sea.
‘Fifteen people inside. Four people were injured, three heavily injured and we brought them to our ship. Then we communicated with the Coast Guard and after some time, the Coast Guard came and later picked up injured people, and two hours later they picked up the other people,’ he said.
‘In the life raft, there was also a little baby and the wife of the (ship) owner. The owner and her child are still inside, I guess. So, of course, a big disaster here.’
Describing how the Bayesian sank, Borner said: ‘I figured it was a strong hurricane gust. Very strong. Very strong. And we have also been heeling a lot but the other ship, strange enough, was 55 metres (long), I think it had a 72-metre-long mast. They went flat on the water and then down. 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.’
The beautifully crafted Bayesian is an unmistakable vessel, sporting the second-tallest mast of any yacht in the world.
The passengers were mainly British, according to reports, while citizens from New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Canada, the US and two dual British and French nationals were also said to be on board.
A helicopter, coastguard vessels and firefighters were deployed this morning to search the scene of the wreck above and below water.
Expert divers discovered the hull of the ship on the seabed some 49 metres deep and about half a mile from the coast, according to Italian media, though they are yet to have discovered bodies on board.
The boat is thought to have arrived in Porticello overnight after a stop in Milazzo, around 100 miles up the coast towards the Italian mainland.
The vessel was at anchor near the port when the storm struck, witnesses told Italian news agency ANSA. With the anchor still down, the storm broke the mast, causing the vessel to lose its balance and capsize.
A one-year-old baby and her British parents were among those saved from the roaring seas by Borner and the coastguard.
The mother and her young child were taken to the Children’s Hospital of Palermo as a precaution, with the British woman undergoing treatment for a minor shoulder injury.
Meanwhile, the baby’s father was reportedly taken to a separate Palermo hospital, though it is unclear whether he had sustained more severe injuries.
The mother, who gave her name to Italian media as Charlotte, explained how she tried desperately to keep her baby alive before being rescued.
‘I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning.
‘It was all dark. In the water I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.’
The Bayesian can accommodate 12 passengers and 10 crewmembers, and was fully loaded at the time of the tragedy.
Harrowing images emerged showing search and rescue workers hauling a body of one passenger who drowned amid the storm aboard their vessel.
The nationality of the deceased is not yet known.
Coastguard patrol boats and firefighters brought those who were rescued to shore, and the survivors will be interviewed by authorities in the coming hours.
Among those survivors was the boat’s captain, who reportedly managed to save himself and is said to be very upset by the incident.
The 180ft yacht has a gross tonnage of 473 tons, and was built by the Perini Navi Viareggio shipyard in February 2008 before being refitted in 2020.
The deck area measures a whopping 436 square metres and the six cabins occupy an area of 143 square metres.
The boat has the second tallest mast in the world and the largest aluminium mast of 75 metres.
Sicily is currently under a weather warning for wind, with video showing strong gusts battering the coast this morning.
CCTV footage from around 4am this morning shows a torrent of wind and rain slamming into Santa Nicolicchia – an area of Porticello where Bayesian was anchored.