sy alithia yacht

The was obtained by applying the knowledge gained from racing and cruising boats sailing worldwide combined with principles gained from the modeling, design and in water racing and testing experience. By combining the hull shapes, foils and rigging developed on the race track into a hull shape capable of carrying the equipment and accommodations of a 150 - 160 tons world cruising yacht, real sailing speed, responsiveness and precise control was achieved.

The was designed by studying the effects of volume distribution with various beam/depth ratios of the canoe body and by analysing them from the perspective of comfort at sea, enhancing sea worthiness, and maximizing living space. For a fixed displacement the maximum waterline length on a moderate beam/depth ratio gave the highest performance shape while optimizing load carrying capacity and internal volume. Spreading displacement over a greater waterline is just better, changing seeming conflicts into common gains. The accompanying illustrates the effective distribution of volume.

Thus Alithia is notable in her , sleek freeboard and very long waterline. The high length/beam ratio is critical to making a very fast boat, that is not only seaworthy, but comfortable at sea. Straight, fair lines and the sleek hull shape ensure better tracking and less rolling in waves.

The minimizes the weight to be dragged and the resistance to the water flow. The displacement length ratio of 95 is indicative of a boat that creates little in the way of wave and really wants to sail.

With little bow wave and without the deep through amidships that is typical of cruising boats, the yacht remains well balanced when heeled, requiring less energy to sail past hull speed, and can be easily controlled by her cable steering.

Sailing downwind the yacht lifts out of the wave and starts surfing early. In gale conditions the waves will not roll over the stern, the boat stays drier and keeps steering power. In a close hauled and storm condition the yacht will be stiffer, pitch less with less windward helm and less exposure to knock downs. The narrow fine bow minimizes pitching and slamming, slicing through moderate waves with little disturbance, and giving a better motion up and over in big waves, to land softly on the u-sections forward.

The rig is designed around a large mainsail and an aggressively long boom to unleash the power of the mainsail and yet have it easily controlled by the furling boom- a combination of ease of sailing with performance. The carbon rig has a 160 foot high masthead with a non-overlapping jib, large staysail and high roach main. The large asymmetric spinnaker is for use reaching, and downwind racing. A whisker pole is used to wing out the jib for running in a breeze, where the boat will hit some of her highest speeds cruising.

The deck plan is of a low pilothouse on a flush deck was developed to best express the prowess of the boat. Hidden captive winches, flush hatches, and underdeck leads, provide safety and uncluttered walkways. The cockpit is sunk below deck level, inside a coaming, affording protection, yet a clear sightline from the wheel to the bow over the house. The sailing controls are aligned just forward of the wheels, port and starboard, assuring good communication and control of the boat by the helmsman and crew.

The yacht is a true high performance sailing machine.

Body of British tech magnate Mike Lynch recovered from sunken superyacht as search enters final stages

PORTICELLO, Italy — The body of British tech magnate Mike Lynch was recovered from the wreck of a superyacht that sank off Sicily , a source familiar with the matter told CNBC on Thursday.

The source said rescuers were still searching for Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, the l ast p er son missing from the luxury boat , which went down in what authorities said was a freak storm early Monday.

A massive search effort was launched, and four bodies were recovered from the 180-foot Bayesian on Wednesday after an operation hampered by the depth to which the wreck had sunk and the debris that blocked divers’ path through its narrow passages.

Salvatore Cocina, head of Sicily’s civil protection agency, confirmed to NBC News on Thursday morning that a fifth body had been recovered. And hours later, CNBC reported that the body of Lynch, regularly described in U.K. media as “Britain’s Bill Gates,” was among them.

The U.K.'s Royal Academy of Engineering said Thursday morning that it was “deeply saddened to learn of the death of Mike Lynch,” who is one of its fellows. “Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time,” the academy said in a statement on X .

The others missing were Lynch's associates, who had successfully defended him in a blockbuster U.S. fraud trial earlier this summer: Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International and the British insurance firm Hiscox, and his wife, Judy; and a well-known New York City defense attorney, Christopher Morvillo, and his wife, Neda.

The body of Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian Antiguan national who was the ship’s cook, was recovered shortly after the accident Monday. 

Fifteen of the 22 people onboard survived.

Waves gently crashed against the rocks of Porticello, a port near the Italian island’s main city, Palermo, with the sea calm as rescuers brought ashore green body bags Wednesday — a stark contrast to just three days ago, when officials believe the yacht was hit by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout.

The vessel was anchored about a half-mile offshore when it sank, leaving divers to search its hull on the seabed 164 feet underwater.

The dock has swarmed for days with journalists, photographers and curious onlookers taking photos with their smartphones as rescue teams traveled to and from the site of the wreck.

Claudio Lavanga reported from Porticello and Yuliya Talmazan from London.

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

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

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Holly Patrick | jueves 22 agosto 2024 09:40 BST

Captain of boat that rescued Bayesian survivors details mega-yacht sinking ‘within two minutes’

The captain of a boat who helped rescue survivors from the Bayesian superyacht has recalled how the boat sank "in just two minutes" off the coast of Sicily on Monday, 19 August.

The vessel sank in a severe storm , with the bodies of five people recovered from the wreckage.

Tech tycoon Mike Lynch has been identified as one of the bodies recovered, along with Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judith Bloomer, lawyer Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo.

The boat’s chef Recaldo Thomas was confirmed dead on Monday,

"We couldn't see them anymore, they disappeared from the radar," captain Karsten Borner told Sky News of the moment the boat sank.

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‘the killer’ was bucket list stuff for nathalie emmanuel and omar sy.

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Omar Sy and Nathalie Emmanuel at the Los Angeles premiere of 'The Killer' at Regal LA Live in Los ... [+] Angeles, California.

Director John Woo's remake of his action classic The Killer ticked off several career bucket list moments for stars Nathalie Emmanuel and Omar Sy. It really hit home when the pair experienced their own trademark bird moment—a trademark visual motif of the filmmaker where the creature is in flight during an action sequence.

"I feel like I may or may not have messed up a take in that because I had that 'I can't believe this' moment as it was happening," Emmanuel laughs as we chat in a suite in Beverly Hills. "I was like, 'I'm not supposed to be smiling, but I know I am.' It happened, and the penny dropped. You’re in a John Woo movie, and the birds were there in flight, and you're like, 'Oh, this is amazing.'"

"You just said it perfectly. It's on the bucket list," Sy added. "While it was happening, you can't help but slip out of character for a moment. Inside, you're like a little kid, jumping and screaming. It's amazing to have that experience."

Here’s What ‘The Killer’ Is About

The Killer sees Woo reimagine his 1989 Hong Kong classic. In the role previously owned by Chow Yun-fat, Emmanuel plays Zee, an assassin who is given the job of killing a young blind singer. She refuses and instead catches the attention of Sy's police investigator. Before too long, Zee has the cops on her tail, as well as her shadowy mentor and handler. The Killer is now streaming on Peacock.

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Today’s nyt mini crossword clues and answers for thursday, august 22, bayesian yacht: bodies of entrepreneur michael lynch and morgan stanley chief recovered in italy.

"It was a safe bet because if you go with the director who did the previous movie, and he took a long time to think about remaking it, you feel very safe following him without any safety net," Sy enthuses. "He knows the previous one better than anyone. He knows exactly where he wants to go now. It was safe for us to watch and rewatch the original movie again and again because we were sure this was going to be different."

"Of course, part of that is because of Nathalie being the killer this time. That was going to change the story, and she would add what she brings. Also, this version takes place in Paris. Even though the original movie is a classic, and we almost know it by heart, we knew we would go somewhere else with it."

Emmanuel continues, "It speaks to John wanting to explore a completely different energy this time around. The fact that I am obviously a woman and that changes the energy immediately. Even the way that she does her killing and how she lives her life is very much informed by that. With the original being such a classic, so iconic, we could enjoy it as it is, and then take everything that we love from it and be inspired by that."

"I knew that's what I wanted to do when I watched the original film. I love Chow Yun-fat's performance and wanted to be inspired by it. I also wanted to bring everything that we love about John Woo because he inspired a whole genre of cinema. Without John, the action genre wouldn't be what it is, so I wanted to take all that in. I also wanted to think independently about who Zee is and who I wanted her to be."

Nathalie Emmanuel as Zee in 'The Killer.'

John Woo Wanted To Make ‘The Killer’ More Human

Something Woo wanted to do this time around was explore Zee as a human being.

"She has a lot of emotions," Emmanuel enthuses. "With many of the classic action stereotypes, everyone's very steely, and they have this sternness, and he was like, 'I want vulnerability and that conflict in her to be really evident.' I loved that he wanted to approach it in that way."

Both Sy, known for Jurassic World and Lupin , and the British actress, known for Game of Thrones and several Fast and Furious movies, have been lifelong fans of their director.

"The first John Woo I ever watched was Face/Off , and then I went backward in his catalog to The Killer ," she recalls. "I am trying to remember what the next one was. The Killer came out the year I was born, so I had to wait to watch that."

"It was The Killer for me, but I remember I didn't see it in the theater," Sy adds. "I got it from one of those rental places, and it was on VHS. I remember watching it with my friends almost weekly because it was like something new for us. We had never seen anything like it, so we watched it frequently."

‘The Killer’ Is Packed With Jaw-Dropping Action Sequences

As with the original vision, Woo's new take on his source material is action-packed. Both Emmanuel and Sy are no strangers to physical roles; however, The Killer was a whole new experience.

"It's pretty intense. The training was quite extensive, and it evolved and changed a lot because John was very involved with that process. He's collaborating with the stunt team, the choreographers, and coordinators, and John is also very open to how the actors feel about how that character might fight or do things," she explains. "It's a real collaboration. It's very balletic and almost like a dance in how you interact with the camera when you're shooting. It's very technical, specific, and quite intimate with the camera. If you're kicking, punching, rolling, and spinning, you would think the cameras would be a safer distance away, but he's right in there. Honestly, it's often the case that your move dictates what the camera does, not vice versa. It's crazy."

(Left to right) Nathalie Emmanuel, Omar Sy, and director John Woo on the set of 'The Killer.'

However, there were several moments when the action was so precise that both Emmanuel and Sy thought it might take forever to capture the shot. One such sequence involved a gun on a bench that got flipped into the air, and the actress needed to catch it.

"I was so nervous about that," she recalls. "It was practical, so they rigged a table to throw the gun. I feel like I can either do it or it's the opposite, and I fumble it, but I got that quite quickly. I was like, 'Oh my God. I can't believe I did that.' For example, I'm not a good bowler, but I hit a strike, and I'm like, 'Did everyone see that?' It was like that. On a set like this, you can't dictate where the gun's going to go because there was a man falling on it to cause the actual thing to flip. It was surprising because we weren't on take 15 or 20. It happened in much fewer takes, and that was a surprise to everybody, especially me."

Sy adds, "The one that was a bit complicated for me was the stunt in the police station when we grabbed the big banner and had to slide down. That was actually really complicated, so when we had one good take, we were happy. The gunshot with the motorcycle was also complicated, so when we had one good one for that, too, we called it."

"The timing of that was very hard," Emmanuel continues. "I spent quite a while thinking that was actually a real graveyard, and we might be disrespecting the people who were laid to rest there. I felt a bit weird about that, but then someone said, 'It's not real, Nathalie,' and that made me feel better."

(Left to right) Sey (Omar Sy) and Zee (Nathalie Emmanuel) in 'The Killer.'

‘The Killer’ Is Not Short On Icons

Something else that made the actress feel good was a nod to her British heritage in the form of a mention of legendary British retail giant Marks and Spencer.

"It was written in the script; I loved that," she laughed. "As a British person, I felt like, 'Yes, this is hilarious, but also, it's a really solid store to go get a suit from.' So, I was like, but, you know, obviously, Tessier, the character in the movie, is a specific, very high-end tailor in Paris, so that line really made me laugh. I loved that I got to say it because it brought my Britishness into the movie."

In addition to Sy and Emmanuel, The Killer boasts a cast that includes Sam Worthington, Saïd Taghmaoui, Tchéky Karyo, and soccer legend turned actor Eric Cantona, who plays a crime boss. Rarely starstruck, both actors relished getting to be in the same room as the sporting icon.

"We didn't have any scenes together, but I went on set to see him because I wanted to have that picture and be like, 'I'm in the movie with him.' I couldn't wait for the movie to come out," Sy admits. "He's a legend, and I'm a football fan, so I love Eric Cantona because of that, but he's also now an amazing actor. I was so happy and proud to be in a movie with him, so I had to go and meet him."

Emmanuel concludes, "I definitely get a lot of street cred when someone's like, 'Wait, Eric Cantona is in your movie?' and I'm like, 'Yeah, of course he is.' He's this legend. He's not just in the film; he's really great in it."

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How did the superyacht Bayesian sink? Experts say weather was just one factor

Divers searching for 6 missing people locate 5 bodies inside wrecked yacht's hull.

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A complicated search effort is underway deep beneath the surface of the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Italy, where a superyacht sank early Monday during a fierce storm. 

Dive crews are attempting to enter the wreck of the Bayesian, a 56-metre long British-flagged luxury vessel, which is sitting in some 50 metres of water near the Sicilian fishing village of Porticello.

Fifteen of the 22 passengers and crew members on board were rescued. Divers searching for six people considered missing, including British businessman Mike Lynch, located five bodies inside the yacht's hull on Wednesday, and retrieved four of them from the water.

Searchers previously recovered the body of Recaldo Thomas, the ship's Canadian-Antiguan cook, in the water not far from where the Bayesian sank.  

• Diving team finds 5 bodies in Sicily yacht search
• Canadian dead, several others missing after superyacht capsizes off Sicilian coast

Questions have emerged about why a boat designed to handle severe weather sank so rapidly and whether or not some of its features could've been a factor in its demise. Maritime experts say investigations may, in time, reveal what led to the disaster.

"There needs to be an investigation as to why this happened, what went wrong and, you know, how to prevent it in the future cases," said Simon Boxall, an oceanographer and senior lecturer at the University of Southampton in England.

Canadian dead, others missing after superyacht sinks near Sicily

How did the bayesian sink so quickly.

Grainy footage from closed-circuit cameras on the shore broadcast on the website of the Giornale di Sicilia newspaper showed the Bayesian's majestic mast just before it disappeared. 

Karsten Borner, captain of the Sir Robert Baden Powell, which rescued the survivors who managed to get into a lifeboat, told The Associated Press he was close enough to be able to see the Bayesian as the storm came in.

"A moment later, she was gone," he said.

The survivors told the rescuers they went flat on the water "and were sunk in two minutes."

Boxall said vessels rely on being able to steer and navigate stormy seas, but the Bayesian was anchored and stationary, which likely made it more vulnerable to the storm and, potentially, a waterspout , or mini tornado that creates a whirlwind over the surface of the sea. 

He said it was also dark, meaning "you wouldn't see this sort of very unique event coming towards you."

CCTV footage shows yacht Bayesian as deadly storm strikes

"It's a freak of nature," Boxall said. "I think the fact that so many have survived, so far, is probably a miracle."

Tom Sharpe, a retired Royal Navy commander and defence commentator, told CBC News the weather was likely not the only issue.

He says it's rare that a weather event like this takes down a boat. 

"There's nearly always a sequence [of events]," he said in an interview from Guildford, England, explaining that everything from safety protocols to the culture on board the vessel needs to be taken into account. 

Was the boat's design part of the problem?

The Bayesian was built in 2008 by Italian luxury yacht maker Perini Navi.

Andrea Ratti, a nautical design professor at Milan Polytechnic, told Reuters that a boat the size of the Bayesian could only sink so rapidly by taking on a huge amount of water. 

He suggested that one or more portholes, windows or other openings may have been broken or smashed open by the waterspout, letting in water. There has also been media speculation that a major hatch might have been inadvertently left open.

Reports have also highlighted that the Bayesian featured a 72-metre mast — one of the tallest in the world. 

Ratti said an unusually tall mast is not by itself an element of vulnerability in a storm. 

A second expert, structural engineer Filippo Mattioni, was also skeptical about the suggestion the boat may have sunk due to a broken mast, which likely would have caused major damage smashing against the hull.

Fire department diver Marco Tilotta told the newspaper Il Messaggero that the wreck was "apparently intact," with "no gashes, no signs of impact." However, only half of the hull is visible to divers.

The Bayesian also had a retractable keel — the fin-like structure under the hull that helps stabilize boats and acts as a counterweight to the mast. 

Both Ratti and Mattioni wondered if the yacht had been anchored with the keel up, reducing the vessel's depth under water and making it less stable. Ratti said strong winds might have caused the boat to start oscillating wildly, "like a pendulum," putting exceptional strain on the mast.

Sharpe pointed out that a mast the size of the Bayesian's is designed for a massive sail, and without that sail raised and catching the wind, the gusts likely would've had a negligible impact on the aluminum pole.

• What we know about the capsized superyacht off the Sicilian coast

He instead suggested the anchor may have played a pivotal role.

"My kind of working assumption is that she was probably a bit further in at anchor, and it's very likely, in these sort of conditions, that her anchor dragged," he said. 

In such a situation, he said, a crew is better off steering toward the anchor to stabilize the vessel or raising the anchor and heading out to sea to ride out the storm.

"They might have got caught in that middle ground where they're not on a particularly good anchorage, but the anchor is now controlling the bow of the ship."

Sicily superyacht rescue: What divers are up against | About That

What caused the extreme weather.

Although Sharpe says the weather is unlikely the sole cause of the sinking, he notes the Mediterranean isn't the calm sea often pictured in travel brochures. 

"It can get pretty nasty," he said.

The type of storm that struck Monday is fuelled by warm water and the Mediterranean is warmer than ever, said Boxall, noting there's been about a three and a half degree increase in the 20-year average temperature.

'The ship behind us was gone,' says captain who rescued yacht passengers

Climatologists say global warming is making such violent and unexpected tempests more frequent. 

Luca Mercalli, president of Italy's meteorological society, said the sea surface temperature around Sicily in the days leading up to the shipwreck was about 30 C. 

"This creates an enormous source of energy that contributes to these storms," he told Reuters.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Senior Writer

Nick Logan is a senior writer with CBC based in Vancouver. He is a multi-platform reporter and producer, with a particular focus on international news. You can reach out to him at [email protected].

With files from The Associated Press and Reuters

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What we know about the Bayesian superyacht that sank

The Bayesian, which capsized in the early hours of Monday, was an award-winning yacht with the second-tallest mast in the world.

News reporter @niamhielynch

Thursday 22 August 2024 10:07, UK

The Bayesian, an award-winning superyacht, sank during bad weather off the coast of Sicily in the early hours of Monday.

On Thursday, authorities confirmed divers had found the bodies of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, Morgan Stanley International boss Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy, and one of Mr Lynch's lawyers Chris Morvillo, and his wife Neda.

Recaldo Thomas, the on-board chef, was the first to be confirmed dead earlier this week.

Mr Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, was rescued along with 14 others - including Charlotte Golunski, a mother who told la Repubblica she held her one-year-old baby above the waves to save her from drowning.

Mr Lynch's 18-year-old daughter Hannah is still missing.

But what do we know about the ship?

The British-flagged 56-metre ship - previously called the Salute - was built in 2008 by Italian shipyard Perini Navi, and refitted in 2020.

More on Superyacht Sinking

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• Superyacht sinking

Its 72-metre mast was the world's tallest aluminium mast, and the second-tallest overall. The yacht could reach a maximum speed of 15 knots and weighed 543 tonnes.

The French design house Remi Tessier fitted out the Japanese-style interior decor, with touches of light and dark beige and dark wood furnishings, as well as a teak deck.

It won the best exterior styling at The World Superyacht Awards in 2009, and best interior at the International Superyacht Society Awards 2008.

It had six guest bedrooms - one master, three doubles, and two twins - holding 12 people, and could carry another 10 crew members.

Pictures show air conditioning units in several of the bedrooms, which could counter expert claims open windows may have caused water to rush in and tip the boat over faster.

Shipspotting.com says it was owned by a firm called Revtom Limited. Mike Lynch's wife, Ms Bacares, is named as the sole shareholder of the firm on company documents.

Read more from Sky News: Lynch's co-defendant dies after being hit by car We can learn from Lynch's unsuccessful prosecution

The yacht's name would resonate with Mr Lynch because his PhD thesis and the software that made his fortune involved a statistical method known as Bayesian inference, based on an 18th-century theory, which helps forecasters predict outcomes more reliably.

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It was listed for rent for up to €195,000 (£166,000) a week, according to online charter sites.

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Alithia is a custom sailing yacht launched in 2002 by Abeking & Rasmussen.

Abeking & Rasmussen (A&R) is an esteemed German shipyard with a global reputation for highest quality custom made motor yachts from 45 to 125 metres.

Alithia measures 39.80 metres in length, with a max draft of 6.00 metres and a beam of 8.38 metres.

Alithia has an alustar hull with an aluminium superstructure.

Winch Design is an award-winning design studio, established in 1986 as a specialist exterior and interior yacht designer, by Andrew Winch and his wife Jane.

Alithia also features naval architecture by Tripp Design Naval Architects.

Performance and Capabilities

Alithia has a fuel capacity of 12,000 litres, and a water capacity of 3,950 litres.

Accommodation

Alithia accommodates up to 10 guests . She also houses room for up to 6 crew members.

Other Specifications

Alithia has a hull NB of 6456.

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• Exterior Designer Winch Design View profile
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At Least 1 Dead and 6 Missing After Yacht Sinks Off Sicily

Fifteen other people were rescued. Expert divers were called in to carry out search operations in the deep water. Among the missing was a British software mogul, Mike Lynch.

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By Elisabetta Povoledo

At least one person was killed and six others, including a British software mogul, were missing on Monday after a sailing yacht carrying 22 people sank during a violent storm off the coast of Sicily, Italian officials said.

The yacht sank after a storm “with strong winds” struck around 5 a.m., according to Luciano Pischedda, the Italian Coast Guard official overseeing the rescue operations. The vessel had been anchored about a half-mile off Porticello, about 12 miles east of the Sicilian capital, Palermo.

Camper & Nicholsons, managers of the sailing yacht, said in an emailed statement that there were 12 guests and 10 crew onboard.

The authorities have yet to determine what caused the yacht to sink. “This will be ascertained later,” Mr. Pischedda said, adding that several crew members were in the hospital and had not spoken to investigators.

Among the dead and missing, four were British, two were American, and one was a man with dual citizenship from Canada and Antigua, he said.

One of those unaccounted for is Mike Lynch, a British software mogul who was acquitted in the United States in June of fraud, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about it.

His wife, Angela Bacares, was rescued. Mr. Lynch, who once was described as Britain’s Bill Gates, had fought for more than a decade against accusations that he had defrauded Hewlett-Packard when he sold it his company, Autonomy, for $11 billion. The legal battle represented one of the biggest fraud cases in Silicon Valley history.

Salvatore Cocina, a top official with Sicily’s civil protection agency, said that Mr. Lynch’s daughter, Hannah Lynch, was also among the six people missing. All were passengers on the yacht, the Coast Guard said.

Mr. Cocina said the body that had been recovered was that of the yacht’s cook.

A passenger ship sailing under the flag of the Netherlands, the Sir Robert Baden Powell, anchored nearby, provided immediate assistance to the 15 surviving passengers, Mr. Pischedda said.

Karsten Börner, the captain of the Sir Robert, said in a telephone interview that he’d had to steady his ship to “keep it in position” during what he described as very strong winds. During the storm, the yacht seemed to disappear, he said. “At a certain moment she was gone behind us,” he said.

After the wind dropped down, “we couldn’t see the yacht any more, and then we saw a red flare,” he added. When he and a colleague went to check out the flare’s position, they spotted a “life raft adrift with 15 people on board, one of them a baby and four people injured,” he said. They were taken aboard the Sir Robert and Captain Börner contacted the Coast Guard, which brought the survivors to shore.

Captain Börner said he didn’t know when the ship went down because the storm made it difficult to see clearly. The wind was “really violent,” he said.

For the most part, the survivors didn’t speak much he said. “They were all under shock,” he said. “It was a bad, bad situation.”

Monday’s storm surprised experts with its intensity.

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 of the accident.

“It was very intense and brief in duration,” he said of the storm. He could not rule out that it had been a waterspout, or small tornado, but nevertheless called it “an important event.”

Italy’s firefighter corps said that its divers had started carrying out a search and rescue mission at dawn.

On Monday afternoon, expert divers with the firefighter corps arrived in Porticello to search the sunken vessel, which was under about 165 feet of water.

Operations at that depth, were “complicated,” and required specialized divers, said Luca Cari, a spokesman for the firefighters.

Fabio Cefalù, a fisherman in Porticello, told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that he saw a waterspout — a sort of mini-tornado — that lasted “about 12 minutes” off the shore of Porticello shortly before 4 a.m.

Around 4:10, he said he saw a red flare go off “about 500 meters from the shore.” He said he waited for the weather to calm down, and went out about 20 minutes later to the site where the flare had gone off.

“We found only the cushions, and a few planks” floating in the water, he told the newspaper. There was no sign of the ship, and he immediately called the coast guard.

The boat, identified by Italian officials as the Bayesian, is an Italian-made 56-meter-long sailing yacht first launched in 2008, according to the website marinetraffic.com , which tracks ships. It sails under the flag of Britain, and was built by Perini Navi, an Italian luxury yacht maker.

Eight of the 15 passengers who were rescued were taken to hospitals in Palermo, the coast guard said. Camper & Nicholsons, the managers of the yacht, said its priority was to “provide all necessary support to the rescued passengers and crew.”

Giuseppe D’Agostino, the mayor of Santa Flavia, which includes Porticello, said the survivors would be cared for at a local hotel. The city had also brought them immediate necessities, like toiletries and clothes.

He said in a telephone interview that he had not spoken to the survivors since “they’re in shock.”

The youngest passenger onboard, a 1-year-old girl named Sophie, was taken to the Di Cristina hospital in Palermo with her mother, Charlotte, who had some scrapes and cuts, said Domenico Cipolla, director of the pediatric emergency room at the hospital.

Sophie’s father was in the hospital’s adult emergency room and had been in contact with his wife and daughter by phone, Dr. Cipolla said. He was not permitted to release the family’s surname. Both mother and child were in good condition apart from “great emotional stress” he added in a telephone interview.

“We’re comforting them more than curing them,” he said.

Michael J. de la Merced contributed reporting.

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