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Who Owns the Superyachts in Below Deck

The yachts in Below Deck are the real shining stars of the TV show when you are a true sailing enthusiast.

Each spinoff highlights different locations from the Mediterranean hotspots to Australia and even northern Europe, and of course, different luxury yachts.

While it’s challenging to ascertain the identity of every superyacht owner featured in the “Below Deck” series due to privacy and confidentiality agreements, we do have information on a few. For the other yachts featured on the show, the owners have chosen to remain anonymous, maintaining their privacy while still allowing viewers to enjoy the luxurious and adventurous experiences on board.

The owners of below deck’s finest yachts

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Lady Michelle Yacht: Behind The Scenes

The Lady Michelle yacht became famous on the show Below Deck: Mediterranean season 6 where it was featured prominently. It’s worth noting that the Lady Michelle has since been renamed and is actually called the Next Chapter now. However, most people still know her as the Lady Michelle because of her time on the TV show. 

The yacht features naval architecture and was built by Italian yacht maker Benetti with design work done by Stefano Natucci and delivered back in 2003. She features a steel hull over an aluminum superstructure. It was refitted in 2022 and that was when the name was changed as well. 

Who Owns The Lady Michelle Yacht?

 In 2003 the Lady Michelle was purchased by entrepreneur Mike Fernandez.  He maintained ownership of the yacht even during its time on the show Below Deck. However, in 2022 the yacht was sold to a company called 1 Ocean Yachts. They are a yacht brokerage firm that also does yacht charter management and the Lady Michelle was renamed to the Next Chapter and added to their charter fleet.

How Big is the Lady Michelle/Next Chapter Yacht?

The Lady Michelle is by no means the biggest yacht in the world but it’s still a good sized vessel at 180.5 feet in length. According to the yacht specifications she features a 34 foot beam and her gross tonnage is 909 GT.

How Much Did the Lady Michelle Yacht Cost?

It’s believed that when the Lady Michelle sold in 2022 and was renamed the Next Chapter she sold for $18,950,000. That was the last published asking price for the yacht . Some sources claim that her initial price in 2003 was about $25 million. The annual cost to keep the yacht running is around $2 million. 

Can You Charter the Lady Michelle Yacht?

The Next Chapter/Lady Michelle is available for charter. The current price for a Lady Michelle yacht charter is about $325,000 per week. This number can change based on time of year and demand, however. Because the yacht is one of the more well known in the world thanks to its appearance on the show, it does tend to be popular.

How Fast is the Lady Michelle Yacht and What Engines Does She Have?

The Next Chapter uses a set of Caterpillar 3512 Diesel engines. Her cruising speed is about 14 knots with a top speed of 16 knots. She has a range of about 3,000 nautical miles at cruising speed.

What’s the Interior of the Motor Yacht Lady Michelle Like?

While the yacht was featured on Below Deck as we said and there was plenty of time for people to get a look at the interior and exterior, not all of that is applicable anymore. The refit of 2022 and subsequent sale to make it a charter yacht included a lot of changes to the overall look of the yacht. So if you think you know the Lady Michelle you may not, and the fact it’s called the Next Chapter now is symbolic of that. But, fortunately, the fact it is a charter now means the company wants you to know all of the features and amenities it has to offer, so we have a pretty good idea of the interior and how everything looks. 

As we said before, the interior and exterior were managed by Italian designer Stefano Natucci. As a charter vessel she has six cabins that can offer room for up to 12 guests. This includes 1 Master suite, 1 VIP cabin, 2 Double cabins, and 2 Twin cabins. There are also 14 crew on board to help make everyone’s time more enjoyable. 

The owner’s suite is also a split level to offer more space and views of the ocean. It features his and hers ensuite washroom facilities and offers a panoramic view of the ocean from the observation lounge. There’s also a private study 

When it comes to sleeping, guests enjoy a range of accommodations from the most luxurious with a king sized bed in the Master suite, to 3 queen sized in the VIP and doubles and then 4 singles and 1 pullman for those who are more inclined to rough it a little on a luxury yacht.

The interior was given traditional styling. This includes a lot of glossy wood finishes for a clean, shiny appearance. The color scheme is old school nautical blue and white for all the soft finishes like upholstery and pillows and so on. This, of course, matches the exterior paint on the hull.

Being a charter, the company in charge has packed the Next Chapter to the brim with all kinds of great features. Let’s take a look at some of the standouts.

Features and Amenities

Like any good luxury yacht, the Next Chapter has a wide range of activities, comforts and indulgences available for those who charter her. She also features a range of water toys that is a little more extensive than you may find on similar yachts. These include:

• A full gym with the latest equipment that is enclosed on the sundeck
• Deck Jacuzzi
• An open air cinema on deck for movie nights
• A saloon for socializing and enjoying drinks
• An elevator to move between the yacht’s four decks
• Two SeaDoo Spark Trixx WaveRunners
• The deck has an al fresco dining area
• Two seabobs
• Two Kayaks, 
• Fishing equipment
• Snorkeling gear
• Waterslides
• Two stand-up paddle boards
• Three tenders including a 45 foot Yamaha Seahunter Tournament Tender
• There’s an exterior bar on deck as well as a BBQ for drinks and entertaining under the sun or stars
• A swim platform

What Happened with the Lady Michelle Yacht Drug Bust? 

Being on the show Below Deck was not the Lady Michelle’s only brush with fame. Back in 2017 a boat of the same name also made international headlines after it was involved in a sizable drug deal. The boat, flagged as a fishing vessel , was discovered off the coast of South America with a remarkable 4.2 tonnes of cocaine on board. The street value at the time was pegged at about $125 million. 

While this boat was seized by both the US and the National Crime Agency, it was an unfortunate mix up with names that got the Lady Michelle yacht involved. This may also be part of the reason the newest owners changed the name, so as to distance themselves from what was, at the time, the largest drug seizure since 1999. You can imagine people who own the boat not wanting anyone to Google a potential charter and discover it was used as a boat to smuggle drugs, even though it was just a case of mistaken identity because they had the same name.

The Lady Michelle that had possession of the drugs was a 70 foot fishing vessel based out of St. Vincent and Grenadines. 

The Bottom Line

The Lady Michelle was built in the year 2003 for entrepreneur and philanthropist Mike Fernandez. It was featured on the sixth season of the show Below Deck: Mediterranean which gave the vessel some international attention. However, after it was sold in 2022 for about $18, 950,000 the vessel was retrofitted and also renamed the Next Chapter.

The Next Chapter is just about 180 feet in length and has a top speed of 16 knots. It’s available for charter at a cost of around $325,000 per week and has accommodations for a total of 12 guests. It features a number of luxury amenities and a lot of toys for those on board.

My grandfather first took me fishing when I was too young to actually hold up a rod on my own. As an avid camper, hiker, and nature enthusiast I'm always looking for a new adventure.

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Watch CBS News

Billionaire Businessman Mike Fernandez "Humbled By The Journey"

January 13, 2015 / 5:45 PM EST / CBS Miami

Follow CBSMIAMI.COM:   Facebook  |  Twitter

MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Mike Fernandez likes to show off his home. Not his multi-million dollar waterfront mansion in Coral Gables. He'd rather talk about the small home where he grew up in Cuba.

"I remember taking a fishing line and a guy put bananas on it and I reeled it up," Fernandez said as he looked at the painting of his childhood home. "It was fun but my dad probably smacked me in the head for doing it."

Fernandez has become a billionaire dealing in health care companies. But he still found time to write a book, "Humbled By the Journey".

The book details his 508-mile walk in Europe to raise money for Miami Children's Hospital and the Miami-Dade Early Childhood Initiative Foundation.  Fernandez trekked from the small French village of St. Jean Pied de Port to the Spanish town of Santiago de Compostela, a grueling pilgrimage dating back to the Middle Ages that took 32 days to complete.

Click here to watch Eliott Rodriguez's report. 

"Physically, it was very demanding," Fernandez said. "I was walking an average of 58,000 steps a day. I was doing 18 miles per day."

The book is also about Fernandez's journey from Cuba to the U.S.

As an army veteran, who considers himself a hardliner on Cuba, he favors President Barak Obama's opening to the island.

"For fifty plus years we have followed a policy toward Cuba that has not generated results," Fernandez said. "In business, you have to be pragmatic. In life you have to be pragmatic. So I think the position the U.S. has taken is long overdue."

Besides promoting his book, Fernandez is working on putting a giant American flag in downtown Miami. He's trying to convince city commissioners to back his idea to put up the biggest flag in the country.

"I'm not asking the city to give me one cent," he said. "I'm not even asking for the land. I'm going to take five to ten million dollars and put up our beautiful and inspiring flag. It's their land, their park, their flag. It's my nickel."

So far, Fernandez has not gotten much traction with the city commission on the flag project. But one thing he learned on his 500-mile pilgrimage is to not give up and to take things one step at a time.

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How a dream turned into a reality: owner of 37m Dreams shares his love for Ocean Alexander models

“We love to go places, but we hate to pack our suitcases. And here our house travels with us,” says Mike Wingate, the owner of 37.1-metre Dreams . Spending more than half a year on board his boat, Wingate’s decision to upgrade from his Ocean Alexander 90R to the Ocean Alexander 37L wasn’t one he took lightly. Now after over a year on board, he is happy that his new yacht ticks all of the boxes and he is a passionate advocate of the Ocean Alexander brand.

Wingate says that none of the other boat brands he’s owned in the past compare to what Ocean Alexander can offer. He stepped on board the Ocean Alexander 37L at a boat show, and it was love at first sight for both him and his wife. “Ocean Alexander’s quality and design of boats just fits us really well,” he explains.

Because of Wingate’s experience with Ocean Alexander models, he felt confident signing the contract almost right there and then, even though it was the first hull of a new flagship series. “I’m not allowed to go to boat shows anymore,” he laughs.

It might sound like a spur-of-the-moment purchase based on infatuation and the “immediate gratification” of buying a new boat that could be used right away, but Wingate says that’s far from the truth. “We live on this boat, eight months out of the year,” he says. For that kind of purchase, Wingate had to be certain he was buying something that would keep him — and his friends and family — comfortable for long periods at sea.

The 37L delivers this in spades. “It’s a floating condo on the water,” insists Wingate. He explains that he and his wife had a wish list while they were shopping around for their next yacht, and the 37L met all of their requirements.

One requirement was having a master stateroom on the main deck. On Dreams , tall glass windows encase the owner’s cabin in a full semi-circle, letting light pour in and offering uncompromising views whether the yacht is cruising or berthed. The cabin connects to an exterior deck seating area, where Wingate and his wife can enjoy some peace and privacy over a morning cup of coffee or an evening glass of chilled rosé. It’s a great space for a yacht which is regularly used for hosting large gatherings — a little slice of serenity for an owner to escape to whenever it’s needed.

Another key selling point was the galley. It is “a real galley and something that Americans are used to living in,” says Wingate. The galley is pride of place on the main deck, and it’s flooded with light thanks to large windows. This isn’t a galley that’s relegated to the bowels of the boat, designed for an invisible chef to cook meals in. This is like a galley on land, designed to be the heart of the yacht. As well as its good size and location, it’s also highly specced-out to ensure gourmet cuisine wherever Dreams cruises. “The galley could rival most luxury homes,” says Wingate.

Finally, Wingate was looking for an on-deck Jacuzzi, an attractive exterior and a high-volume interior, which he found on the Ocean Alexander 37L. He wanted the space for entertaining, as he has a lot of friends and family who love boating as much as he does. “The bridge deck is just massive,” says Wingate. It’s all one level, so Wingate says it’s perfect for gathering everyone in one place without anything feeling cut off or disconnected from the action.

But when it comes to privacy, Wingate says his Ocean Alexander can offer that as well. “This boat we love because all the crew are in the back of the boat,” he explains. “Where a lot of boats have the crew in the bow , and they have to enter in and out of the galley all the time. We like coming back to a boat where it’s private to us.”

One of the other things that has kept Wingate with the brand is the Ocean Alexander service centre in Fort Lauderdale, which he says is a huge peace of mind whenever Dreams sets off on an adventure. “They have been tremendous to work with on warranty work and getting items fixed quickly,” says Wingate.

Dreams cruises mostly around Miami, the Florida Keys the Bahamas. Although she is elegant at heart — with a classic profile that Wingate was instantly smitten with — she is still sturdy and Wingate feels like he’s in safe hands on board. For Wingate, she is the perfect home away from home that he had always dreamed of growing up in the Midwest.

Wingate says he doesn’t have any plans to go up another size anytime soon, but if he does, he is confident it will be within the Ocean Alexander family.

With new units already under construction, the Ocean Alexander 37L can offer the same levels of luxury and enjoyment to any other discerning yacht owners. For those who prefer to see it for themselves, arrangements can be made to visit the yacht in Florida today by contacting Ocean Alexander directly here.

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Exiled russian oligarch’s 257’ superyacht amaryllis seen towed through palm beach.

The Amaryllis being towed past the former mansion of Henry Flagler, built in 1902

By John Jannarone and Alan Hatfield

The 257’ superyacht Amaryllis apparently owned by exiled Russian oligarch Andrey Borodin was towed past Palm Beach, FL on Friday morning, according to a visual account by CorpGov .

The yacht, whose owner is frequently cited as Mr. Borodin by enthusiast publications, moved slowly through the Lake Worth lagoon where bridges were raised for its passage. A towboat with flashing lights about 150 feet ahead pulled the Amaryllis , built by German shipyard Abeking & Rasmussen in 2011.

While CorpGov could not officially confirm Mr. Borodin as the owner of the vessel, his wife, socialite Tatiana Korsakova, has posted dozens of Instagram photos and videos aboard the Amaryllis. A yacht broker interviewed by CorpGov confirmed that Ms. Korsakova is indeed aboard the Amaryllis in the photos and videos.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tatiana Korsakova (@tati_vk)

The sighting comes as billions of dollars in Russian-owned yachts have been seized around the world as a result of international sanctions. CNN has published an extensive list of seized vessels, which were taken in harbor cities including Mallorca, Spain and London.

However, it is unclear if the Amaryllis was being seized or voluntarily towed. Very large yachts often choose to be towed because bridges are required to raise for them, according to the yacht broker.

The former Bank of Moscow chief was granted political asylum in the UK in February 2013 after fleeing what he alleged to be politically-motivated fraud and embezzlement charges. Mr. Borodin would go on to be tried and convicted in abstentia in Russian Court in 2018, but not before managing to enlist a number of prominent American lawmakers to lobby Washington for a U.S. visa. Despite Russian extradition requests to the UK government, Borodin’s controversial attempts to make large donations to the NHS, and the uncovering of an assassination plot against his life, the fugitive banker remains overseas, having been granted access to his Swiss bank accounts and having made several notable London real estate purchases during his time in exile.

Mr. Borodin is widely listed as a billionaire, but his total wealth remains difficult to confirm accurately, with the governments of Switzerland and the Bahamas having been asked to help the Russian government in its legal case. In 2012, Borodin purchased the UK’s then-most expensive home, an 80-hectare 18th-century estate in Oxfordshire, for upwards of $217 million. In 2017 he was granted access to personal Swiss accounts holding a reported $378 million. The Amaryllis was purchased for a reported $120 million.

Mr. Borodin did not immediately respond to an emailed query from CorpGov , while the FBI declined to comment. An emailed query to The Department of Homeland Security was not returned.

www.CorpGov.com

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Luxury yachts and other myths: How Republican lawmakers echo Russian propaganda

Two senior Republican lawmakers, the chairs of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees, say their colleagues are echoing Russian state propaganda against Ukraine.

Researchers who study disinformation say Reps. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, are merely acknowledging what has been clear for some time: Russian propaganda aimed at undermining U.S. and European support for Ukraine has steadily seeped into America’s political conversation over the past decade, taking on a life of its own.

McCaul, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Puck News he thinks “Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base.”

Turner, chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told CNN that anti-Ukraine messages from Russia are “being uttered on the House floor.”

For the past decade, since Russia’s first military incursion into Ukraine in 2014, Moscow has spread propaganda and disinformation in a bid to undercut U.S. and European military support for Ukraine, according to U.S. and Western officials.

Some of the arguments, distortions and falsehoods spread by Russia have taken root, mostly among right-wing pro-Trump outlets and Republican politicians, researchers say, including that Ukraine’s government is too corrupt to benefit from Western aid and that the Biden family has alleged corrupt ties to Ukraine.

Russia, in keeping with traditional propaganda techniques, seeks to make its case and tarnish Ukraine through a mixture of outright falsehoods, half-truths, inferences or simply amplifying and promoting arguments already being made by American or European commentators and politicians, researchers say.

The propaganda is sometimes spread covertly, through fake online accounts, or openly by Russian officials and state media. As a result, the origin of some allegations or criticisms is often opaque, especially when a certain accusation or perception has gained wide acceptance, leaving no clear fingerprints.

Early in the war, a false story boosted by Russian propaganda — that the U.S. had helped Ukraine build biological weapons labs — gained traction on right-wing social media and was touted by then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Russia also is conducting a parallel propaganda campaign in Europe. Belgium’s prime minister said Thursday that his government is investigating alleged Russian bribes to members of the European Parliament as part of Moscow’s campaign to undermine support for Ukraine. Czech law enforcement officials last month alleged that a former pro-Russian member of Ukraine’s parliament, Viktor Medvedchuk, was behind a Prague-based Russian propaganda network designed to promote opposition to aiding Ukraine.

Here are some examples of Republican lawmakers using arguments often promoted by Russian propaganda:

Buying yachts

When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with members of Congress behind closed doors in December to appeal for more U.S. help for his country’s troops, some lawmakers raised questions about Ukraine allegedly buying yachts with American aid money.

Zelenskyy made clear that was not the case, according to Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a strong supporter of arming Ukraine. “I think the notion of corruption came up because some have said we can’t do it, because people will buy yachts with the money,” Tillis told CNN. “[Zelenskyy] disabused people of those notions.”

Where did the yacht rumor come from?

Pro-Russian actors and websites promoted a narrative alleging Zelenskyy bought two superyachts with U.S. aid dollars. One Russia-based propaganda site, DC Weekly , published a story last November that included photos of two luxury yachts, called Lucky Me and My Legacy , which it alleged were bought for $75 million.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a vocal opponent of military aid to Ukraine, in November retweeted a post about the alleged yacht purchase from the Strategic Culture Foundation, a Russian-based propaganda outlet directed by Russia’s intelligence services, according to the Treasury Department. The U.S. has imposed sanctions on the organization, accusing it of spreading disinformation and interfering in U.S. elections.

Another outspoken critic of aid to Ukraine, Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, also made a similar claim.

In a December interview with former President Donald Trump’s White House adviser Steve Bannon, Vance claimed that members of Congress wanted to cut Social Security benefits to provide more aid to Ukraine, and that money would allegedly be used for Zelenskyy’s ministers to “buy a bigger yacht.”

“There are people who would cut Social Security, throw our grandparents into poverty. Why? So that one of Zelenskyy’s ministers can buy a bigger yacht?” Vance said. “Kiss my ass, Steve. It’s not happening.”

The tale of Zelenskyy’s luxury yacht, however, turned out to be totally false . The yachts cited in the DC Weekly article remain up for sale , the owners told The Associated Press.

Two academics at Clemson University, disinformation researchers Darren Linvill and Patrick Warren, found that DC Weekly ran numerous stories copied from other sites that were rewritten by artificial intelligence engines. The articles had bylines with fake names along with headshots copied from other online sites. DC Weekly appeared to be a Russian effort to launder false information through a seemingly legitimate news site as part of an attempt to undermine U.S. support for Ukraine, according to the researchers .

Asked by reporters about Vance’s comments, Tillis said: “I think it’s bullshit. ...If you’re talking about giving money to Ukrainian ministers — total and unmitigated bullshit.”

Greene’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Vance’s spokesperson said the senator was making a rhetorical point about how he opposed sending U.S. assistance to what he sees as a corrupt country, but was not asserting the yacht stories online were accurate.

Vance’s office referred NBC News to an earlier response to the BBC on the same topic:

“For years, everyone in the West recognized that Ukraine was one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Somehow everyone forgot that just as we started sending them billions of dollars in foreign aid.”

Enabling ‘corruption’

Russian state media for years has painted Ukraine as deeply corrupt, and has argued that the U.S. and its allies are wasting money and military hardware by assisting such an allegedly corrupt government.

“This is absolutely a line that they have pushed, and then once it appears in the Western ecosystem, other [Russian] media picks it up and it gets recycled back,” said Bret Schafer, a senior fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy.

This line of argument has gained traction partly because Ukraine does face a genuine corruption problem.

Russia’s effort to focus attention on corruption in Ukraine reflects a long-established propaganda method of using facts or partial truths to anchor a broader assertion or accusation, sometimes making a leap in logic, Schafer and other researchers said. Russia’s message amounts to: Ukraine is corrupt, therefore U.S. and Western aid will be stolen and wasted.

Schafer said it was ironic for Russia, a country mired in corruption and kleptocracy, to be leveling accusations about corruption.

Republican Rep. Mary Miller has said she strongly opposes more assistance for Ukraine because it amounts to sending cash to “corrupt oligarchs.”

“With Zelensky coming to DC this week to ask for more money, I will continue to vote AGAINST sending your tax $$ to corrupt oligarchs in Ukraine for a proxy war that could have ended in ‘22,” Miller wrote in a post on X in December.

The Illinois lawmaker also echoed another assertion that often appears in Russian media, that the Biden administration allegedly undermined efforts by Russia to avoid war with Ukraine.

 “A peace deal was on the table that [Ukraine] and [Russia] were both ready to sign, but Biden said NO,” she wrote.

There was in fact no proposed peace agreement that Russia and Ukraine were prepared to sign before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to U.S. and European officials. As Russian troops massed on the border of Ukraine, Western governments urged Russia not to invade and warned there would be economic and diplomatic consequences.

Reuters has reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a possible deal to avert a war that had been discussed with Kyiv by Russia’s envoy to Ukraine. The Kremlin said the report was inaccurate and has said Russia tried for years to arrive at an understanding with Ukraine.

As for corruption in Ukraine, Zelenskyy has vowed to tackle the problem, sacking senior officials in some recent cases. But some civil society groups have criticized his approach and Ukrainians say corruption is the country’s second-most serious problem, after the Russian invasion, according to a poll conducted last year.

In an annual survey, Transparency International said Ukraine made progress toward addressing the issue and now ranks 104th out of 180 countries on its Corruption Perceptions Index , climbing 12 places up from its previous ranking.

Ukraine is not alone among countries that receive U.S. and other foreign aid but struggle with corruption. Supporters of assisting Ukraine argue it would undermine America’s influence in the world and its humanitarian efforts if Washington withheld foreign aid from every country where there were reports of corruption.

Miller’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The Biden family and Ukraine

Republicans have repeatedly alleged that President Joe Biden and his son Hunter have corrupt ties to Ukraine, and that they sought $5 million in bribes from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma to protect the firm from an investigation by Ukraine’s prosecutor general.

There is no credible evidence for the allegations. A key source for the accusations against the Bidens is a former FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, who was arrested in February on federal charges of fabricating the bribery claims. Smirnov says he was fed information by Russian intelligence.

Republicans had heavily promoted Smirnov’s allegations against the Bidens, seeing them as crucial to a planned impeachment effort against the president that has since fizzled .

“In my estimation, that is probably the clearest example of Russian propaganda working its way into the American political system,” said Emerson Brooking, a resident senior fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council.

GOP Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona cited the false bribery allegations in expressing his opposition to providing assistance to Ukraine.

“In exchange for … bribe money from Ukraine, Joe Biden has dished out over $100 billion in taxpayer money to fund the war in Ukraine. I will not assist this corruption by sending more money to the authoritarian Ukrainian regime,” Gosar said in a statement in October.

Gosar’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Dan De Luce is a reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit. 

Syedah Asghar is a Capitol Hill researcher for NBC News and is based in Washington, D.C.

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Everyone from the sunken yacht off Sicily has now been accounted for

Bill Chappell

Dive and recovery teams searched for a final missing person off Porticello harbor near Palermo on Aug. 22, three days after the British-flagged luxury yacht Bayesian sank. ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images/AFP hide caption

Italian authorities say the bodies of all seven people who died after a sailing yacht sank on Monday have now been recovered. The final discovery was announced on Friday; the other six bodies had been found after the calamity.

Tech mogul Mike Lynch is among the people whose bodies were recovered from the sailing yacht, called Bayesian. The massive yacht sank in a violent storm along the shore of Sicily early on Monday.

Italian divers on Friday recovered the body of Lynch’s daughter Hannah, 18, who was the last person unaccounted for.

Lynch’s body was identified on Thursday, according to The Associated Press and other news outlets, citing the Italian coast guard. The agency did not immediately respond to messages from NPR.

The sea rescue operation included 123 dives, according to the Italian fire brigade . Robotic craft have also been used in the search.

Local newspaper Giornale di Sicilia reports that Lynch’s daughter, Hannah, 18, is believed to be the only remaining missing person from the calamity.

15 people survived the catastrophe

Bayesian, with a length of more than 180 feet, had 22 passengers and crew aboard when it sank in the pre-dawn hours of Monday morning. Eyewitness accounts cited a waterspout — a highly localized spiraling storm that’s essentially a marine tornado. One body was found, and 15 survivors made it to safety. That left six people unaccounted for.

Since then, the Italian Coast Guard has been working to find survivors -- and as time passed, what started as a rescue effort became a recovery operation to retrieve bodies from inside the sunken ship.

The Palermo Coast Guard told NPR that the operation has been complicated by the depth and position of the hull, which lies on the seabed at a depth of around 50 meters, about a half-mile from the port in Porticello, Sicily.

Who were the missing people?

The six passengers who had been unaccounted for include Lynch and his daughter, along with Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife. Judy. A lawyer for Lynch named Chris Morvillo, and his wife, Neda, were also missing in the days after the yacht sank.

One member of the crew -- Recaldo Thomas, the yacht’s chef -- also went missing. Local news reports have suggested it was Thomas’ body that was found soon after the ship sank.

Who survived the sinking?

Survivors include Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, along with Charlotte Golunski, who works at Invoke Capital, Lynch’s venture capital firm. Golunski was on the ship with her daughter, Sofia, who had just celebrated her first birthday.

In an interview with La Repubblica , Golunski said that as the ship sank, she used all her strength to hold her arms above water and prevent Sofia from drowning. Sofia’s father was also onboard and survived.

Ayla Ronald, a lawyer who worked on Lynch’s fraud case, and her partner also escaped the wreck. Other survivors include several crew members, including two women in their early 20s who were part of the ship’s staff.

Who was Mike Lynch?

Lynch, 59, was the founder of Autonomy, a search engine and software company. Hewlett-Packard bought Autonomy for $11 billion in 2011, but Lynch then faced accusations — and then federal fraud charges — that he had misrepresented his company’s financial health and prospects. Lynch denied the claims, saying HP was blaming him for its own problems.

This past June, a lengthy trial in San Francisco ended with Lynch’s acquittal of all charges against him , after he testified on his own behalf. The sailing voyage along the coast of Sicily has been portrayed as a celebration of the end of the court case.

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Naufrage du yacht de Mike Lynch en Sicile : le marin de garde la nuit du drame a indiqué que l’alerte avait bien été donnée

Le naufrage du yacht appartenant au magnat britannique de la tech, Mike Lynch, a causé la mort de sept personnes, dont le propriétaire du bateau, au large de la Sicile. Ce dimanche 1er septembre, les médias italiens révèlent que le marin de garde la nuit du drame avait effectivement donné l’alerte.

Le marin de garde lors du naufrage du yacht Bayesian en Sicile , appartenant au magnat britannique de la tech Mike Lynch, a donné l’alerte en raison de conditions météo défavorables. Selon les médias italiens, Matthew Griffith a surveillé le vent qui a atteint 20 nœuds (près de 40 km/h) et a immédiatement réveillé le capitaine.

"J’ai surveillé toute la soirée les conditions météo, en particulier le vent, et j’ai réveillé immédiatement le capitaine qui a pris en main les opérations. Il a donné l’ordre de réveiller tous les autres ", a-t-il expliqué.

L’alerte donnée

Le drame, survenu le 19 août, a entraîné la mort de Mike Lynch, 59 ans, ainsi que de six autres personnes. Les procureurs italiens enquêtent sur des éventuels délits de naufrage et d’homicides involontaires .

Le capitaine James Cutfield, néo-zélandais et parmi les 15 survivants, a confirmé avoir été réveillé par Griffith. "J’ai ordonné d’informer les autres car la situation ne me plaisait pas" , a-t-il déclaré au Corriere della Sera .

Par la suite, le voilier s’est incliné brusquement, entraînant plusieurs membres d’équipage en mer. "Nous avons réussi à remonter à bord et nous avons cherché à faire une chaîne humaine pour sauver ceux qui arrivaient jusqu’au pont" , a raconté Griffith. Il a précisé que le capitaine était le premier de la chaîne et a "aidé tout le monde, les dames, la maman avec sa petite fille" .

Mini-tornade

Le naufrage a été causé par une mini-tornade alors que le yacht de 56 mètres était ancré au large de Porticello, près de Palerme. Le corps du cuisinier a été retrouvé peu après, et ceux de Mike Lynch , sa fille de 18 ans , et de quatre autres personnes ont été retrouvés par les plongeurs les jours suivants .

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