The mystery of Bayesian, the 56-meter Perini sunk in Palermo
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Bayesian, the 56-meter Perini Navi sloop with the world’s largest aluminum mast, sank tonight shortly after 4 o’clock.
A tragedy for which rescue operations are still underway.
Of the 22 people on board, including guests and crew, only 15 were rescued.
From the first reports that appeared in the press , it seems that a waterspout suddenly struck it and caused it to sink. This is an unclear reconstruction, which leaves us puzzled by the little information available to date. 
Bayesian, the 56-meter Perini sloop sunk in Palermo
Bayesian, formerly Salute, is a 56-meter Perini Navi that was launched from the Viareggio shipyard in February 2008.
Refurbished in 2020, the hull and superstructure of this superyacht is entirely aluminum, as is her 72.27-meter mast.
It has a minimum draft of 4.05 meters, with the keel up, and a maximum of 9.83 meters, and when fully loaded weighs 543.4 tons.
There is room on board for 12 guests plus 10 crew members, for a total of 22 people, exactly those on board during tonight’s tragic accident.
What we know about the incident
Last night, after skirting Cefalù, Bayesian arrived in Porticello anchoring in the roadstead about 300 meters from the harbor, alongside other smaller boats.
During the night, while the guests were sleeping,
a violent waterspout hit the area, forcing a neighboring vessel, as reported by its captain, to turn on its engines to maintain its position. ”
We were planning to go to the Arenella harbor in Palermo but were hit by a storm,” said
Karsten Börner, commander of the Sir Robert Baden Powell -. we tried to hold the position with the engines running. Appena the storm ended we realized that the boat next to us was gone.
We saw a red flare coming from the area of the boat, so my first officer and I got into the tender and went to rescue.
We rescued 15 castaways, including a little girl.”
Among the survivors of the shipwreck were those who said that Bayesian capsized while the guests were sleeping in their cabins, immediately finding themselves in the water.
The boat then allegedly sank in a very short time.
What happened to Bayesian?
Difficult to reconstruct at the moment the dynamics of the accident.
From the AIS tracing (source MarineTraffic) it would seem to rule out the possibility that the boat ended up on the Scoglio della Formica, a submerged mountain about 1 mile from Porticello harbor that from a depth of more than 60 meters emerges in two “tips” the sea surface.
However, it is not explained how a modern ship of this size could sink because of the wind.
Especially since if the boat had been anchored, it would naturally have positioned itself with its bow in the wind.
Could there have been a structural failure? From an initial inspection by the fire department it would appear that Bayesian’s hull, now resting on the seabed at a depth of 49 meters, is intact.
No cracks or damage to the keel, just the mast that snapped.
reconstruction that leaves room for many questions and which will have to be investigated by the Termini Imerese Public Prosecutor’s Office, which has opened an inquiry to ascertain the exact dynamics of the Bayesian shipwreck. Giacomo Barbaro
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6 thoughts on “The mystery of Bayesian, the 56-meter Perini sunk in Palermo”
Non mi sembra un grosso mistero…. aveva la chiglia su.
Was the keel up or down when this tragic event happened?
A keel up would have likened the boat to flip on the side and take in water. But still, there must be major flaws in the security design for this to happen. Let’s wait and see. All my thought to the missings.
How could the skipper report that he had not seen the storm coming? The alarm of a storm was given four days before…in such case wisdom suggests to find shelter in a harbour
Hot night so every hatch open, boat held in capsized position by waterspout for long enough to fill the boat with sea-water via doorways/hatch openings?Extremely bad luck if no-one on watch or awake enough to hear the water/wind which still would given little or no warning.
Such a sad occurrence for those on board and families at home
The boat had a centreboard keel, if that was up at the moment of the tornado, she could tilt of 90° all of a sudden and water could get in and sink her.
There is never any mention about the centerboard position. The 9.8 m board would have kept the yaht upright but must have not been lowered.