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Atomic is a 64m superyacht built in 2021 by VSY in Italy. Featuring an exterior design by Espen Oeino and an interior by Franck Darnet Design, Atomic is a remarkable feat of design, performance and liveability.

This winning combination culminates in a vessel situated at the top of its class when it comes to comfort, luxury and artistic creation. MY ATOMIC accommodates up to 12 guests across 6 staterooms, with 18 crew onboard, thus guaranteeing a 1:1 crew ratio and an unforgettable charter experience.

She also boasts cutting-edge technical and engineering solutions such as a Dynamic Positioning system and diesel electric thrusters, that further augment the perfect balance between design and governability. Some of ATOMIC’s highlights include an infinity pool on the sundeck aft and a fire pit, that will surely create a cosy atmosphere when overlooking some of the world’s most spectacular destinations.

ATOMIC has a cruising speed of 12 knots and a top speed of 17 knots.

• Yacht Builder VSY View profile
• Exterior Designer Espen Oeino View profile
• Interior Designer Darnet Design No profile available

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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.

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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

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VSY launches 64-metre motor yacht Atomic

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If you have any questions about the ATOMIC information page below please contact us .

Motor yacht ATOMIC is a striking 64m (83.8m/209’31’’) vessel built by the Italian shipyard VSY and launched in early summer 2019. Boasting timeless exterior design by Espen Oeino and elegant upper-class interiors by Darnet Design, she can accommodate up to 12 guests over a six-cabin layout. In addition, there is accommodation for a crew of 18.

NOTABLE FEATURES OF ATOMIC: ~Sundeck infinity pool and fire pit ~Dive centre with equipment for all 12 guests ~Indoor/outdoor private terraces off the Master suite ~Excellent environmental credentials ~Dynamic positioning system to maintain position without dropping anchor in environmentally sensitive regions ~Air conditioning ~Wi-Fi

Amongst her notable features is a dive centre with equipment for all 12 guests on board, a Master suite with indoor/outdoor terraces, an infinity pool and fire pit on the sundeck and excellent environmental credentials. Her accommodation sleeps a maximum of 12 guests over six en-suite staterooms, with an expert crew on board for a memorable and relaxing cruise.

The exterior styling from Espen Oeino has military features, most notable in her vertical windows on the main deck forward, sturdy appearance with a raked bow and cut-out sections in the lower deck aft which suggest a tender garage or a fold-down terrace off the beach club.

Exterior guest areas are balanced between forward and aft locations, with the main deck aft offering a shaded space for casual alfresco dining and outdoor living. The sundeck is the outdoor hub and is fitted with an infinity pool and a fire pit for continued outdoor use throughout the seasons and cooler climes.

The lower deck is the location of the dive centre, which has enough equipment for all 12 guests to go on a diving expedition together.

ATOMIC Specifications

The upper deck forward is the location of the Master suite, which enjoys panoramic forward views and indoor/outdoor terraces.

Four 200 kW generators power the thrusters and electric propulsion can be used for environmentally sensitive regions.

Yacht Accommodation

The accommodation layout sleeps 12 guests across 6 en-suite cabins: 1 Master suite and five further guest cabins. The Master suite is located on the upper deck forward and has indoor/outdoor private terraces as well as panoramic forward views through the glass windows.

Amenities and Extras

We do have available further amenity, owner and price information for the 63.80 m (209'31'') yacht ATOMIC, so please enquire for more information.

ATOMIC Disclaimer:

The luxury yacht ATOMIC displayed on this page is merely informational and she is not necessarily available for yacht charter or for sale, nor is she represented or marketed in anyway by CharterWorld. This web page and the superyacht information contained herein is not contractual. All yacht specifications and informations are displayed in good faith but CharterWorld does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the current accuracy, completeness, validity, or usefulness of any superyacht information and/or images displayed. All boat information is subject to change without prior notice and may not be current.

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This Yacht is not for Charter*

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ATOMIC yacht NOT for charter*

63.81m  /  209'4 | viareggio superyachts | 2020.

Owner & Guests

Cabin Configuration

• Previous Yacht

Special Features:

• Elevator for easy access between floors
• Impressive 6,000nm range
• Premium wellness facilities, including spa and beach club
• Generous pool
• ABS (American Bureau of Shipping) ✠A1, Yachting Service, Ⓔ, ✠AMS, ✠ACCU classification

The 63.81m/209'4" motor yacht 'Atomic' was built by Viareggio SuperYachts in Italy at their Viareggio shipyard. Her interior is styled by design house Franck Darnet Design and she was delivered to her owner in September 2020. This luxury vessel's exterior design is the work of Espen Oeino.

Guest Accommodation

Atomic has been designed to comfortably accommodate up to 12 guests in 7 suites. She is also capable of carrying up to 18 crew onboard to ensure a relaxed luxury yacht experience.

Onboard Comfort & Entertainment

Her features include a spa, beauty salon, elevator, beach club, deck jacuzzi, WiFi and air conditioning.

Range & Performance

Atomic is built with a steel hull and aluminium superstructure, with teak decks. Powered by twin diesel Caterpillar (3516B) 16-cylinder 2,719hp engines running at 1600rpm, she comfortably cruises at 15 knots, reaches a maximum speed of 17 knots with a range of up to 6,000 nautical miles from her 163,000 litre fuel tanks at 12 knots. Atomic features at-anchor stabilizers providing exceptional comfort levels. Her water tanks store around 39,000 Litres of fresh water. She was built to ABS (American Bureau of Shipping) ✠A1, Yachting Service, Ⓔ, ✠AMS, ✠ACCU classification society rules, and is MCA Compliant.

*Charter Atomic Motor Yacht

Motor yacht Atomic is currently not believed to be available for private Charter. To view similar yachts for charter , or contact your Yacht Charter Broker for information about renting a luxury charter yacht.

Atomic Yacht Owner, Captain or marketing company

'Yacht Charter Fleet' is a free information service, if your yacht is available for charter please contact us with details and photos and we will update our records.

Atomic Photos

NOTE to U.S. Customs & Border Protection

Specification

M/Y Atomic

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Superyacht sinks latest: Search resumes for Mike Lynch's daughter - as investigators 'gather evidence for possible criminal probe'

Five bodies have been found and now identified in the search for those missing after a yacht sank off the Sicily coast, including that of tech tycoon Mike Lynch. Local investigators are gathering evidence for a potential criminal investigation into the sinking of the yacht.

Friday 23 August 2024 09:33, UK

• Superyacht sinking

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• Five bodies found in search of superyacht wreckage, taking number of confirmed deaths to six
• Search resumes for British tech tycoon's daughter
• Ashna Hurynag in Sicily: Investigators gather evidence for potential criminal probe
• Family of Jonathan and Judy Bloomer describe 'unimaginable grief'
• Explained: Inside the superyacht
• Live reporting by Samuel Osborne (now) and Brad Young  (earlier)

These pictures show rescue boats off the coast of Porticello, near where the luxury yacht sank, as rescue personnel resume search operations to find British tycoon Mike Lynch's daughter Hannah.

Search operations for the final person missing from the wreck of the superyacht continue, Italy's fire and rescue service has said.

It tweeted to say sea dives had resumed and added that "the long and delicate search operations for the last missing person continue".

The service shared pictures of rescue workers on boats preparing to dive.

The Italian coastguard hopes there will be progress today in the search for Hannah Lynch.

Asked if any developments were expected, spokesman Vincenzo Zagarola replied: "We trust."

Ms Lynch is the last tourist unaccounted for after six bodies were recovered since the sinking of the Bayesian on Monday.

A captain and maritime chartered surveyor has identified four potential issues that may have contributed to the yacht disaster.

Captain Ed Geary said retractable keels - a stabilising fin at the base of a boat - have "historic problems of failure".

"Whether the keel was up or down would have a serious impact on the stability of the vessel."

Second, he took aim at the UK's Maritime and Coastguard Agency rules.

"The MCA delegates the inspection and certification and survey of these commercial vessels - up to 12 passengers - to profit-motivated, surveying societies, certification societies.

"Unfortunately, the quality is not as high as it should be," he claimed, adding some of their personnel were "untrained, unqualified and inexperienced".

Captain Geary also took issue with comments made by Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group,

"The builder of boat initially blurted out that the boat was unsinkable, which is kind of hard to fathom considering the boat is sitting at 50m below the surface of water off the Italian coast."

But the captain agreed with Mr Costantino's claims the crew should have been alert.

Sky News has contacted the MCA for comment.

Investigators from the local public prosecutor's office are gathering evidence for a potential criminal investigation into the sinking of the yacht, says news correspondent Ashna Hurynag.

British investigators have said its too early to comment on their probe.

A "blame game" has already started, with the chief executive of the company that owns the firm that built the vessel "laying some of the blame at the feet of the crew and the captain on board", she adds.

In an exclusive interview with Sky News, Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, talked about human error and accused the crew of not being in a state of alert.

Meanwhile, the search continues for Hannah Lynch.

"Divers are starting to get ready, and those search and rescue teams have been on site for the past half an hour or so," says Hurynag.

"Tributes have been pouring in for the six people who are confirmed to have died in this tragic incident."

The search continues for 18-year-old Hannah Lynch, the final person missing from the wreck of the Bayesian.

The body of her father, technology tycoon Mike Lynch, was recovered yesterday, while his wife Angela Bacares survived.

Divers paused their efforts at 8pm off the coast of Sicily last night and were expected to resume at 6.30am (5.30am UK time) this morning.

A decision on whether to raise the sunken yacht from the seabed is "not on the agenda", but will be in the future, said a spokesman from the Italian Coastguard, Vincenzo Zagarola.

The wreckage of the Bayesian is resting on the seabed at a depth of 164ft.

It had been moored around half a mile off the coast of Porticello when it sank at about 5am local time on Monday.

Mr Zagarola said the Italian coastguard's working theory is still that the missing woman is inside the boat.

Welcome back to our live coverage of the yacht disaster, as the search continues for the last missing tourist.

Hannah Lynch, 18, the daughter of British tycoon Mike Lynch, is still unaccounted for, while her father has been confirmed dead.

He was among five bodies recovered and identified yesterday.

Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judith Bloomer, as well as lawyer Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo were also named as among the deceased.

Meanwhile, tributes have flooded in for the deceased, including from the families of the Bloomers and the Morvillos.

A senior oceanography lecturer told Sky News it's "unlikely" Ms Lynch was thrown from the Bayesian and more probable that she will be found somewhere inside the vessel.

An Italian fire service spokesman said emergency workers "would need a crystal ball" to know if and when another body will be discovered.

Meanwhile, an investigation is under way into the circumstances behind the sinking.

The chief executive of a firm which makes and sells yachts like the Bayesian said the sinking may have been due to a series of human mistakes and questioned why its crew were not in a "state of alert" when the storm hit.

We're pausing our coverage for tonight but here is a recap of what we know:

• The five bodies discovered in the wreckage of the sunken Bayesian have been identified;
• British tycoon Mike Lynch, Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judith Bloomer, lawyer Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo were all named;
• Mr Lynch's 18-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch remains unaccounted for;
• A senior oceanography lecturer has told Sky News it's "unlikely" she was thrown from the Bayesian and more probable that she will be found somewhere inside the vessel;
• Tributes have flooded in for the deceased, including from the families of the Bloomers and the Morvillos;
• The chief executive of a firm which makes and sells yachts like the Bayesian believes the sinking may have been due to a series of human mistakes and questioned why its crew were not in a "state of alert" when a storm hit;
• An Italian fire service spokesman says emergency workers "would need a crystal ball" to know if and when another body will be discovered;
• Mr Lynch had reportedly considered selling the Bayesian earlier this year but changed his mind when acquitted in a major fraud trial in the US.

As tributes are made to those who lost their lives aboard the Bayesian, investigations are getting under way into what caused the disaster.

A criminal investigation was opened in Italy after the tragedy, despite the fact no suspects have been identified publicly.

The UK's Marine Accident Investigation Branch is also investigating, though it is purely fact-finding.

Watch Sky News correspondent Laura Bundock explain the situation here...

Mike Lynch was one of the "most inspirational citizens" of Suffolk, says the Countess of Euston.

Clare, Countess of Euston, HM Lord-Lieutenant of Suffolk, says Mr Lynch was "quite simply a genius" who was "exemplary" in his position as a deputy lieutenant of Suffolk.

She said: "I join with so many others in mourning the shocking loss of Mike Lynch and all those who tragically lost their lives in Sicily this week. Mike was one of Suffolk's most inspirational citizens.

"He was quite simply a genius, a global leader in his field but so much more than that.

"A kind and compassionate man who was always ready to help, hugely generous, the best of friends, but it will be his warm and wonderful smile that will be impossible for me to forget.

"Mike was an exemplary Deputy Lieutenant of Suffolk serving both our late Queen Elizabeth II and our present King Charles III.

"Our heartfelt sympathy and condolences are with Angela and his whole family at this terrible time."

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Mike Lynch Among the Six Bodies Found After His Yacht Sinks Off Sicily

A s of Thursday, a total of 6 bodies have been found after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Italy on Monday morning, including that of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, according to the Associated Press .

The Bayesian yacht, which belonged to Lynch and sank after a severe storm, had 22 people aboard, 15 of whom were successfully rescued. A woman is the only one who remains missing, AP reported, and 18-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch, is still not accounted for.

The others who were previously missing had been identified as Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloomer ; and his wife, Judy Bloomer, Christopher Morvillo—an attorney for Lynch— and his wife,  . One body was found on Monday and has since been identified as Recaldo Thomas . 

Authorities have not officially identified all of the bodies recovered. 

TIME has reached out to the Sicilian civil protection agency for further comment. 

The accident occurred during a storm on Monday, and Italian Coast Guard officials said that the youngest person rescued was a 1-year-old child.

The Italian Coast Guard told TIME in a statement that a 56-meter yacht named Bayesian that was flying the U.K. flag sank around 5 a.m. local time following a violent storm. 

Italian media reported that the yacht was struck by a waterspout, a miniature version of a tornado, during the storm, causing the boat to capsize. 

The boat belonged to the Lynch family, a source familiar with the matter confirmed with TIME. Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, was confirmed to be among those rescued. 

In June, Lynch was found not-guilty of fraud after a nearly 13-year-long saga. where he faced the possibility of up to 25 years in prison. Lynch, who sold his company Autonomy to Hewlett Packard (HP) for $11.1 billion in 2011, was accused of serious accounting improprieties by HP after the acquisition. HP executives went on to write down $8.8 billion of the company’s value and accused Lynch of fraud. Lynch faced legal battles for over a decade before being acquitted by a California jury in June. His co-defendant, Steve Chamberlain, who was also acquitted in June, was killed after being hit by a car while jogging on Saturday. 

“I am looking forward to returning to the U.K. and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field,” he said when he was acquitted earlier this summer, per the Guardian. 

Of the 15 people rescued, eight were transferred to local hospitals, including the 1-year old child. They were all reported to be in stable condition, according to Italian media .

Specialist divers are now attempting to inspect the shipwreck for bodies, which is located at a depth of approximately 160 feet. The public prosecutor in the Italian city of Termini Imerese has opened an investigation into the incident.

The yacht was built in 2008 by the Italian shipmaker Perini, according to the website Yacht Charter Fleet . It was designed to carry up to 12 passengers and 10 crew members. The vessel was capable of reaching speeds of up to 15 knots and comfortably cruising at speeds of 12 knots. The ship had set sail from the Italian port of Milazzo on Aug. 14 and was headed toward another Sicilian port called Bagheria, where it was expected to arrive on Sep. 18 according to the website Vessel Finder .

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Divers faced with desperate conditions in search for survivors on sunken superyacht Bayesian

Rescuers able to stay under water for just 12 minutes at a time as they explore the site, article bookmarked.

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Cave-diving experts are among the rescuers still hoping to find survivors trapped underwater on the superyacht Bayesian , which was sunk by a tornado off Sicily.

It is thought that the only hope of survival for the six passengers who are still unaccounted for – tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter; Morgan Stanley executive Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy; and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda – is that they are in an air pocket on the doomed £30m vessel.

Among those assisting with the search are two cave divers who are attempting to navigate the dark, tight corridors of the “fully intact” yacht, which is now lying at a depth of 49 metres.

“They can stay under water for a maximum of 12 minutes, two of which are needed to go up and down,” emergency responder Luca Cari told Italian daily newspaper Giornale Di Sicilia .

“So the real time to be able to carry out the search is 10 minutes per dive.”

For latest updates on the sunken yacht, follow our live blog by clicking here .

The rescue divers have been able to enter the lounge of the luxury vessel via a ladder, but were still trying to access the rest of the yacht late on Tuesday.

Mr Cari explained how the divers had identified a 3cm thick glass window on the Bayesian through which they believe they could gain better access.

By Tuesday evening, divers had managed to smash through the glass using jacks made by a local blacksmith, Giornale Di Sicilia reported.

However, the newspaper added rescue teams had so far been unable to reach the ship’s cabins, which is set to take a while as entrances may be blocked.

A preliminary search of the command bridge found a mess of cables, but nothing of the missing guests.

“The spaces inside the sailing ship are very small, and if you encounter an obstacle it is very complicated to move forward, just as it is very difficult to find alternative routes,” Mr Cari added.

Divers have managed to open a hole in the hull of the sunken superyacht, according to Italian media.

Marco Tilotta, an inspector with the diving unit of the Palermo fire brigade, was one of the first to make the treacherous dive in the Tyrrhenian Sea and discovered the first casualty – the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas, “on the stern side, in the open”.

He told Il Messeggero : “The vessel is apparently intact. It is placed on its side, on the starboard side. It has no tears or signs of impact.

“We did an inspection of both the bow and stern. Now it’s the turn of the diving group from Rome and Sassari to enter right inside the yacht. We can dive up to 50 metres, but by law we can enter as long as the exit is visible. Then, it’s up to the diving colleagues, who have a specific specialisation and different equipment.

“Some of them have operated precisely in the case of the Costa Concordia ,” he added, referring to the cruise ship that capsized in shallow waters off central Italy in 2012, killing 32 people.

Mr Tilotta dismissed rumours that bodies could be seen through the luxury yacht’s portholes, saying that only “condensation, debris and bottles” were so far visible to divers.

On how the boat could sink, he hypothesised: “Perhaps they did not have time to manage the tornado, which was extremely intense, sudden and very localised, with a very strong wind. One might think that such a large yacht could still have been capsized. But they really had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Rescue teams are using jet skis and helicopters to scour the coastline and the water for any sign of survivors, but Karsten Borner, the skipper of a boat that was moored alongside the Bayesian , claimed that the yacht sank within “two minutes” as people slept. The working hypothesis is that they are still submerged on the vessel somewhere.

Divers have not yet confirmed whether the yacht’s enormous 72-metre aluminium mast snapped during the storm.

Nick Sloane, who worked on the Costa Concordia salvage operation, said rescue divers are entering a “critical” 24 hours to rescue anyone who might have survived.

His comments come as the Italian coastguard said they believe the missing six are trapped in the ship.

Mr Sloane said: “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. You’ve got a maximum of two to three days to try to get someone out, so the next 24 hours are critical.

“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.”

On land, some of the 15 survivors were seen leaving hospital on Tuesday.

Charlotte Golunski, her husband James Emsley, and their baby daughter, Sofia, left the Di Cristina Children’s Hospital in a black van. They were accompanied by an officer from the British embassy.

One expert at the scene said an early focus of the official investigation would be whether the yacht’s crew had closed access hatches into the vessel before the storm struck.

They said the investigators would look at whether appropriate measures had been taken, given the forecasts for bad weather overnight.

Mr Borner, whose yacht was moored near to the Bayesian , said that although there had been warnings of possible thunderstorms, there had been no indication that they would be particularly violent.

“Thunderstorms can turn out good or bad, and this one was a real violent squall ... very violent, very intense, a lot of water, and I think a turning system like a tornado,” he said.

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Deep seas and tight spaces impede search for 6 missing after yacht sinks off Sicily

PORTICELLO, Sicily (AP) — Police divers resumed searching Tuesday for six people believed trapped in the hull of a superyacht that sank in deep seas off Sicily, including British tech magnate Mike Lynch, who was celebrating his recent acquittal on fraud charges with the people who had defended him at trial.

The luxury sailboat, off Porticello near Palermo, was about 50 meters (164 feet) underwater — far deeper than most recreational divers are certified for and a depth that requires special precautions. Recovery crews could only stay for 12-minute shifts, a measure that slowed efforts to reach the cramped inside of the wreck.

Divers tag-teamed the shifts and were using a remote-controlled underwater vehicle, or ROV, to help in the search. They hadn’t been able to access the below-deck cabins because they were blocked by furniture that shifted during the violent storm that struck the vessel early Monday. Rescue crews said they assume the missing six are in those cabins because the storm struck when most would be sleeping, but the teams haven’t verified their presence there through portholes.

The Bayesian, a 56-meter (184-foot) British-flagged yacht, was moored about a kilometer (a half-mile) offshore when a storm rolled in before 4 a.m. Monday. Civil protection officials said they believed the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout, and sank quickly.

• What is known about the sinking of a luxury yacht off the coast of Sicily and those aboard
• Divers resume search for 6 missing when yacht sank off Sicily, including tech magnate Mike Lynch
• Tech tycoon, defense attorney, and Morgan Stanley banker among those missing in freak yacht sinking

Grainy film from closed-circuit cameras from shore, broadcast on the website of the Giornale di Sicilia, showed the majestic, illuminated 75-meter (246-foot) mast of the Bayesian weathering the storm and then disappearing over the course of a minute.

Fifteen of the 22 people aboard survived, including a mother who reported holding her 1-year-old baby over the waves to save her. One body was recovered, identified by officials as the Antiguan-born on-board chef. The rest of the 10-person crew survived, including the captain whom prosecutors reportedly sought to interview.

The survivors were rescued by a nearby sailboat after getting into a lifeboat.

Lynch, who was once hailed as Britain’s king of technology, was cleared in June of fraud and conspiracy charges in a U.S. federal trial related to Hewlett Packard’s $11 billion takeover of his company, Autonomy Corp. His wife, Angela Bacares, survived the sinking. Hannah Lynch, the couple’s 18-year-old daughter, is reportedly unaccounted for.

Also unaccounted for are Christopher Morvillo, one of Lynch’s lawyers, and his wife, Neda; and Jonathan Bloomer, a chairman at Morgan Stanley International and the former head of the Autonomy audit committee who testified in Lynch’s defense, and his wife.

Karsten Borner, the captain of the Sir Robert Baden Powell, which rescued the survivors, said he was close enough to see the Bayesian as the storm came in.

“A moment later, she was gone,” he said.

“It’s a great, great tragedy,” said Britain’s ambassador to Italy, Edward Llewellyn, who visited Porticello on Tuesday. Britain sent four investigators to the scene, given the disaster involved a British-flagged ship and British citizens were among the missing.

Luca Cari, a spokesman for the rescue teams, said the search was proceeding much more slowly than another big shipwreck in Italy, the 2012 Costa Concordia cruise ship that flipped on its side off Tuscany’s coast, because of the depth of the wreck and the limited space divers have to maneuver.

“That was much simpler. Here everything is more tight,” he said.

The outing was intended at least in part as a celebration of Lynch’s acquittal and a “looking forward to what was coming next,” said Reid Weingarten, a Washington attorney and a member of Lynch’s defense team who was not on the yacht.

“A lot of people went, a lot of people were planning to go and then, of course, this happened,” Weingarten said.

Weingarten worked with Morvillo and said he “was like a brother.”

Aki Hussain, CEO of international insurer Hiscox Group, where Bloomer was chairman, said the company was “deeply shocked and saddened by this tragic event.”

“Our thoughts are with all those affected, in particular our Chair, Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife Judy, who are among the missing, and with their family as they await further news from this terrible situation,” he added.

Among the survivors, the Emslie family was released from Palermo’s pediatric hospital on Tuesday. Charlotte Golunski had reported that she momentarily lost hold of her 1-year-old daughter, Sofia, in the water but then managed to hold her up over the waves until they were both pulled to safety, doctors said.

The father, identified by ANSA news agency as James Emslie, also survived.

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“They don’t talk much, primarily because they consider themselves survivors and they don’t understand why they survived given what they went through,” said Dr. Domenico Cipolla, head of the emergency room at Di Cristina pediatric hospital.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Cipolla said the parents had been in touch with other survivors, who are being housed at a nearby hotel and were waiting for other family members to arrive in Sicily.

The Bayesian, built in 2008 by the Italian firm Perini Navi, is registered to Revtom Ltd., according to online maritime database Equasis. Bacares, Lynch’s wife, is listed as Revtom’s sole owner, according to corporate registration documents from the Isle of Man.

According to online charter companies, it had been available for charter for 195,000 euros (about $215,000) a week and was notable for its massive 75-meter-tall (246-foot-tall) aluminum mast, one of the tallest in the world.

The coast guard said to date there was no trace of fuel leaks from the wreckage.

In an unrelated event, Lynch’s co-defendant in the Autonomy trial who was also cleared, Stephen Chamberlain, was killed Sunday when he was hit by a car while running in Cambridgeshire, England, said Chamberlain’s lawyer, Gary Lincenberg.

Winfield reported from Rome. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington; and Danica Kirka and Kelvin Chan in London, contributed to this report.

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Atomic: built for comfortable long-range cruising

If the owner of the new Sunrise Yachts 45 metre Atomic ever tires of running his successful dive equipment company, there’s doubtless a job waiting for him at MI6.

In a staggering feat of subterfuge, he kept the build of Atomic entirely secret from his family, communicating with the Turkish yard in covert phone calls from his car and hush-hush emails. His cover was eventually blown on a family holiday in Antalya last summer, site of the big reveal. During dinner at a beachside restaurant, Atomic cruised into view, lights blazing. “What do you think of that yacht?” he asked his wife innocently. “Well, it’s yours.”

He kept the secret for 12 months, after signing terms with Sunrise Yachts in July 2013. Atomic – his first superyacht – was started on spec in 2010 as a sistership to Sunrise’s Africa , launched in 2009. The owner became aware of the project and fired off a speculative one-line email to Sunrise’s VP of sales and marketing, Jean-Claude Carme, who responded with the relevant information, not really believing anything would come of it. “I’m glad I answered that email,” he says with a smile as we tour the calm, beachy interior of Atomic at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show.

Atomic was half finished when the owner bought it, giving Sunrise a challenging 12-month delivery deadline. “A lot was done: the hull, superstructure, fairing, insulation, engines and some systems,” says Carme, “but it was a tight schedule. We had to deliver in summer 2014 to accommodate the owner’s wishes to cruise the eastern Med before bringing the yacht to the US for the Fort Lauderdale show.”

How Atomic 's owner shaped her design

The owner got involved in time to tweak Atomic . “He’s an avid scuba diver, so we included mother-of-pearl insets and other marine components to the décor,” says Carme. “The client also decided to turn the garage into a dive centre with extensive sets of equipment, since he tows his tender. The sundeck and foredeck of Atomic have been redesigned as well. Meanwhile, red lines were painted on the yacht to match the décor of his jet, and a clay pigeon-shooting machine was mounted on the sundeck arch.”

Atomic shares exactly the same technical platform as Africa, as well as her Paolo Scanu exterior. And in the case of the engineering set-up, both boats carry the legacy of Sunrise CEO Guillaume Roché’s years as a yacht captain, namely in a superb technical tunnel running the length of the tank deck, connecting fore and aft engineering spaces. This level of crew access is very unusual on a 45 metre yacht, and its benefits are clear in crew miles saved and the ease of communication and diagnosis of issues.

This last job is made much more simple because the whole of Atomic is set up as a kind of Idiot’s Guide. Everywhere you look, hanging off pipes, trunking, engines, and all manner of knobs, wheels and switches are laminated sheets explaining the purpose of that particular item, and where to get spares in case anything should go wrong.

Keep it simple, stupid

It was important for Atomic ’s captain, Marvin Wilson, that everything on board live up to the KISS philosophy: keep it simple, stupid. Wilson was stationed in Turkey to oversee the last 12 months of the build, since to maintain secrecy the American owner couldn’t reasonably keep coming up with excuses to visit the country. In total, Carme says the yacht was in build for 26 months. Despite work starting in 2010, construction was slowed deliberately while he sought an owner and it’s a sign of this young yard’s ambition (Sunrise was established in Antlaya in 2007) that it’s not afraid to invest in spec builds, recognising that a growing number of clients have extreme expectations when it comes to delivery times. “For the client to be able to inspect an actual build rather than starting from a design makes a big difference,” Carme says.

Incorporating the owner's love of the sea with Atomic 's interior

The pressure to complete the fit-out of Atomic in 12 months is not apparent anywhere on board. The Franck Darnet interior is very easy on the eye and superbly finished, with headroom particularly impressive throughout. It’s not a moody design, nor massively idiosyncratic, and was partly put together before the owner had bought the boat, but that doesn’t make it any the less appealing. Big points for the French designer, therefore, who “focused on refining the subtle balance between space and materials, to provide a warm and comfortable feeling on board”.

Darnet, also responsible for the interior of Africa , adds: “The owner expressed to us his passion for the sea and for the submarine world. He wanted a certain atmosphere on board: clear, cosy, modern without being cold, elegant with beautiful materials. Those are the key words we used as a basis for our composition.” The light oak theme was an early choice before the owner was involved, and when Darnet presented his renderings after taking the above soundings, the owner said: “That’s perfect, don’t change anything!”

Despite Atomic sliding under the 500GT mark, all spaces on board feel big, which Darnet puts down to his background as a sailing yacht designer: “The optimisation of space is one of our key points; in the world of sailboats, every centimetre matters. We apply the same recipe to a motor yacht, and it’s one of the reasons why, as well as the remarkable height between decks, we have the space worthy of a 50 metre on Atomic .”

Atomic 's stunning staircase

The design highlight on board is the wonderfully tactile, sand-ripple staircase wall, which curls with you down to the guest cabins (comprising three doubles and a twin) on the lower deck. It’s never been done on a yacht, Darnet claims, and is therefore loath to divulge his secrets, only saying he worked with a Turkish sculptor to bring it to life. “I’m particularly proud of the result,” he says. “The idea was to reproduce the impression you have in an underwater dive. When you go down a level on the boat, you’re ‘diving under the sea’ in a universe surrounded with sand, and when you rise back up to the main deck, the intensity of the light is stronger. It’s the same when you’re diving.”

Atomic ’s layout largely conforms. The expansive main deck is split between a living room and formal dining, ahead of which is access up and down through the decks. The main galley is found here, too, making service to the main guest areas that much simpler. It’s a space clearly set up for use by guests and owner, since it has a domestic finish with plenty of marble and a big window out over the water. The owner’s area forward starts with a nook-cum-study, ahead of which is the full-beam bedroom and bathroom, the design of which reflects the comfortable tones of the main living areas.

The upper saloon really nails the cosy brief and is anchored by a long bar. Light floods in through big windows, and the whole space opens up via large doors onto the aft upper deck, where the formal outside dining is done. Up a level, the sundeck bar is protected by a large hardtop with classy wood surround, while forward is a spa pool. A few clues up here give an insight into the owner’s loves: a big TV sits behind the bar for watching sports, and on the rear of the hardtop a shooting trap sits ready to fling clay pigeons out over the ocean. Down below, with the tender – a 10.3 metre Intrepid – on a long tow out the back, and jet skis on the foredeck, the tender garage has become a fully equipped dive centre.

The owner is due to see some spectacular underwater sites, too, since his vision for the yacht is unequivocal: she’s going around the world, so the tried and tested hull and engineering set-up was a real bonus. “The hull was designed to be particularly effective in all sea conditions,” Carme says, “and most importantly to provide for great fuel efficiency and range with a reasonably sized engine package.” The bright red-painted lumps in the engine room are twin 1,070hp MTUs, offering an easy 12-knot cruise and range of 4,000 nautical miles. The skipper confirms Atomic is a miserly boat, sipping just 150 litres per hour at cruise and 85 litres at 10 knots, and doesn’t ship much water thanks to a pronounced knuckle in its forward sections.

Comfortable balanced with performance

So a supremely comfortable yacht inside and at sea, then, reinforcing Sunrise’s growing reputation as a builder of real pedigree. Turkish yacht building has had its detractors, but if the country keeps producing yachts like Atomic , they’ll soon run out of ammo. Carme says his company spares no expense in bringing in expertise to keep quality levels high, and points to other local yards like Proteksan, RMK and the Turkish arm of Perini Navi. Next down the line for Sunrise is a 63 metre designed by Espen Øino with an interior by Focus Yacht Design, so it’s having no trouble attracting big-name collaborators, either.

But the biggest tick against its work on Atomic is the owner, who is glowing in his praise. He visited the yacht just once during construction, when he signed the contract, so Carme and his colleagues would understandably have been nervous that balmy night in Antalya last summer, as not just the owner’s family, but also the owner himself, stepped on the completed yacht for the first time. But any fears quickly evaporated. “The Sunrise team have built me a masterpiece,” the owner declared. “ Atomic will be an awesome floating home, a base for great adventure.”

Superyacht Atomic specifications

LOA: 44.95m

Beam: 8.93m

Draught: (loaded) 2.91m

Displacement: 420 tonnes

Gross tonnage: 499GT

Engines: 2 x MTU 2000 M70, 12V

Speed (max/cruise): 16 knots/12 knots

Range: 4,000nm @ 12 knots

Owner and guests: 10

Tender: 10m Intrepid 327

Construction: Steel hull; aluminium superstructure

Naval architecture: Sunrise Yachts; Karatas Yacht Design

Exterior design: Studio Scanu

Interior design: Franck Darnet Design

Interior outfitter: Ekinoks Interiors

Builder/year: Sunrise Yachts/2014

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