£30m superyacht was ‘virtually unsinkable'

THE boss of the company that built the doomed superyacht Bayesian claimed yesterday that the £30million vessel was "virtually unsinkable".

- Giles Sheldrick

Giovanni Constantino blamed Monday's tragedy, in which six people died, on other unknown factors.

The Bayesian carrying 10 crew and 12 passengers - disappeared "in seconds" when it was struck by a one-in-a-million storm as it was anchored off Porticello, Sicily.

Mr Constantino, founder and chief executive of the Italian Sea Group, which owns the Perini Navi shipyard, insisted the luxury yacht was "one of the safest boats in the world".

He said: "The passengers reported something absurd that the storm came unexpectedly, suddenly. That is not true. Everything was predictable.

"Ask yourself why were none of the Porticello fishermen out that night? A fisherman checks the conditions and a ship doesn't?"

He added: "The disturbance was completely readable on all the weather maps. It was impossible not to know. A Perini vessel survived Hurricane Katrina [in the Gulf of Mexico in 2005]. You don't think it could survive a tornado like this?"

Grief