Why did the superyacht Bayesian sink?

Sam Jefferson, editor of magazine Sailing Today, believes the vessel’s huge mast is also likely to have contributed to the deadly event.

One body has been found and six people remain missing after Bayesian sank off the coast of Palermo, Sicily, in the early hours of Monday.

It is believed the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout.

Weather records show temperatures reached around 33C the day before the sinking, which may have led to the vessel’s occupants wanting air to flow through while they slept.

Mr Jefferson told the PA news agency: “I would have said that the boat got hit very hard by the wind, it was pinned over on its side.

“I imagine all the doors were open because it was hot, so there were enough hatches and doors open that it filled with water very quickly and sank like that.

“The reason it got pinned over so hard was because the mast is huge.

“It acted almost like a sail. (It) pushed the boat hard over on its side.

“(The boat) filled with water before it could right.

“This is all speculation, but that’s the only logical explanation.”

Mr Jefferson added that such incidents are “incredibly rare”, describing the chances of a yacht being hit by a waterspout as “minuscule”.

The yacht’s aluminium mast measures 72 metres, making it one of the largest in the world among sailing yachts.

Karsten Borner, the captain of another yacht which was near Bayesian, told news agency Reuters he witnessed the ship go “flat on the water, and then down”.

Salvo Cocina, of Sicily’s civil protection agency, said: “They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”