A New Zealand citizen is one of 22 people on a luxury yacht which sank off the coast of Sicily after a tornado struck the area. 

The local coastguard rescued 15 people, including the Kiwi, but six others were reported missing and one body has been recovered after the British-flagged Bayesian sank about 5am local time (3pm NZT). 

British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, owner of the 56-metre-long sailboat, is one of those missing following the sinking half a mile off the coast of Porticello. 

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) spokesperson confirmed that at least one New Zealander was involved. 

“The New Zealand Embassy in Rome is responding to the incident... The Embassy is working with local authorities to clarify further details,” the spokesperson said. 

Eyewitnesses said the yacht vanished quickly beneath the waves shortly before dawn. Fifteen people escaped before it went down, including Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, and a 1-year-old girl. 

The names of the dead and missing were not immediately released, but a person familiar with the rescue operation confirmed that Lynch was not accounted for. Italian media said the dead man was the yacht’s onboard chef. 

The Italian coast guard said the missing had British, American and Canadian nationalities. Survivors said the trip had been organised by Lynch for his work colleagues. 

Reuters reported the luxury sailboat, which was British-registered, was hit by a violent storm at sunrise. 

“The wind was very strong. Bad weather was expected, but not of this magnitude,” a coast guard official in the Sicilian capital Palermo told Reuters. 

Corriere Della Sera reported the storm broke the sail mast, causing the vessel to lose its balance and sink. 

The captain of a nearby boat told Reuters that when the storm hit he turned the engine on to keep control of the vessel and avoid a collision with the Bayesian. 

“We managed to keep the ship in position and after the storm was over, we noticed that the ship behind us was gone,” Karsten Borner told journalists. 

He said his crew then found some of the survivors on a life raft, including three who were seriously injured and took them on board before the coast guard picked them up. 

Borner said “a little baby and the wife of the owner” were among the survivors, while the owner of the sunken ship and another child were among those missing. 

The coast guard said the boat had been found at a depth of 50m and divers were inspecting the wreck. 

Local fisherman Pietro Asciutto told ANSA: “I was at home when the tornado hit. I immediately closed all the windows. Then I saw the boat, it had only one mast, it was very large. I saw it sink suddenly.” 

“Shortly after I went down to the Bay of Santa Nicolicchia to get a better look at what was happening. The boat was still floating, then suddenly it disappeared. I saw it sink with my own eyes.” 

The superyacht named the Bayesian is seen located off the coast of Porticello. Photo / Vesselfinder 

Prosecutors in the nearby town of Termini Imerese have opened an investigation to look into what were wrong. 

The Bayesian was built by Italian shipbuilder Perini in 2008 and was last refitted in 2020, and was managed by yachting company Camper & Nicholsons. 

It won a string of awards for its design and can accommodate up to 12 guests in six suites and a crew of 10, according to online specialist yacht sites. 

Formerly know as Salute, or health in Italian, its 75m mast is the tallest aluminium mast in the world, Perini said on its website. 

The boat left the Sicilian port of Milazzo on August 14 and was last tracked east of Palermo on Sunday evening, with a navigation status of “at anchor”, according to vessel tracking app Vesselfinder. 

A UK foreign ministry spokesperson said British officials were in contact with local authorities over the incident and were ready to provide consular support for Britons who were affected. 

The Daily Telegraph UK reports that Mike Lynch founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, and made his name as one of Britain’s most influential entrepreneurs through the company. 

He has been described at points as the Bill Gates of Britain, for founding the company which became one of the biggest enterprise software firms on the planet. 

He negotiated a US$11 billion ($18 billion) sale of Autonomy to Hewlett Packard, which generated a more than US$800 million windfall for him. 

But the sale also kicked off a 13-year legal saga. It was only in June this year that Lynch was cleared of charges alleging he orchestrated a fraud and conspiracy leading up to the deal, which turned into a costly albatross for HP. 

He faced more than 20 years in US prison if convicted of the fraud and conspiracy allegations, and the Times reported that he spent 13 months under house arrest awaiting the trial that ended in June. 

The yacht trip was intended as a celebration of Lynch’s court victory and included guests from Clifford Chance, the legal firm, and Invoke Capital, his own company. 

- with Reuters