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The captain of Mike Lynch's superyacht is being investigated by Italian prosecutors: report

• The captain of a yacht that sank off Sicily is being investigated by Italian prosecutors, Reuters reported.
• The Bayesian yacht went down last week, claiming the lives of seven on board, including Mike Lynch.
• James Cutfield was questioned on Sunday and will be interrogated again on Tuesday, per local media.

The captain of the superyacht that sank in the Mediterranean last week, claiming the lives of tech tycoon Mike Lynch and six others, is being investigated for potential manslaughter and shipwreck charges, Reuters reported , citing a judicial source.

James Cutfield, the 51-year-old captain, was questioned by prosecutors on Sunday for two hours, according to Italy's La Repubblica . The New Zealander is set to be questioned again on Tuesday, Corriere Della Sera reported .

Giovanni Rizzuti, one of two attorneys appointed to defend Cutfield, said that the yacht captain is "very shaken by the immense tragedy" and intends to defend himself, according to the outlet.

Another attorney, Aldo Mordiglia, told the Washington Post by email that Cutfield is under investigation for potential manslaughter charges.

The Bayesian, an 184-foot superyacht, sank off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, last week.

Fifteen people, including Lynch's wife Angela Bacares , were rescued, while seven others — including Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah — have been confirmed dead.

An investigation into the exact cause of the sinking is ongoing, but some have criticized the crew for supposed shortcomings.

Giovanni Costantino, the CEO of the Italian Sea Group, which owns Perini Navi, the firm that built the Bayesian in 2008, blamed the crews for not following protocol and failing to prepare for the storm.

He told the Financial Times that the yacht sank in 16 minutes but that the vessel was "designed to be absolutely stable" as it had the second-tallest mast in the world.

When the yacht started taking on water, the skipper should have locked everything up and gathered all passengers at the safe point, and no one should've been in their cabin, in line with protocol, Costantino told the outlet.

Related stories

In an interview with Reuters , Costantino said the yacht's crew members made the "incredible mistake" of not being prepared for the powerful storm that rolled in.

Franco Romani, a nautical architect who was part of the team that designed the yacht, told La Stampa the Bayesian was built to go to sea in "any weather" and that a side hatch that was left open could have let water enter the vessel, per Reuters.

Italian prosecutors said during a press conference on Saturday that they had opened a manslaughter investigation.

Ambrogio Cartosio, the head of the public prosecutor's office of Termini Imerese, said he was investigating a "crime hypothesis" of culpable shipwreck and manslaughter.

It's unclear if other crew members will be probed, Reuters reported, adding that in Italy being under investigation does not automatically result in official charges or implied guilt.

Corriere Della Serra reported that investigators have asked Cutfield's deputy, Tijs Koopmans, to stay in Sicily to be questioned again, but they didn't specify whether he was under investigation.

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Superyacht market accelerates

According to press headlines many yacht owners took to the ocean to escape the Covid-19 pandemic. Did the reality match the hype?

The reality rarely matches the hype, and this case is no different. There was plenty of lazy rhetoric about yachts becoming ‘safe havens’ for the ultra-wealthy. But retrospective analysis shows that Mediterranean cruising in 2020 was actually down 13% YoY – an unsurprising statistic, and by no means dramatic, considering the severity of the pandemic, but nevertheless in countenance to the hyperbole being purported the mainstream media.

While usage was understandably constricted, there have been some encouraging signs for the market, in ownership terms, with demonstrable growth in both the new-build and second-hand markets.

Following two years of steady decline, the global order book (the cumulative figure for all ≥30m superyachts currently in build or under contract for construction), the end of the first quarter of this year had shown a notable rise to 397 vessels. This was a 14.7% increase on the figure at the close of 2020. It was also within touching distance of the previous five-year high of 418, recorded at year-end 2017.

With regards the resale market, the picture is also encouraging. The first half of 2021 showed a huge 19% YOY increase in yacht sale/purchase transactions, while new listings were down a staggering 70%, a key indicator that yachts are in use or panned for use.

Crucially, the second six months of 2020 saw the market record 129 sale/purchase transactions. So, with the second half of this year beginning in earnest, a similarly prolific market dynamic has the potential to lead to a record-breaking year for second-hand sales.

And how is the charter market faring?

After the decimation of the charter market in 2020, charter brokers are facing completely the opposite situation this summer. With so many of 2020’s charters deferred to this year, for the benefit of both client and vendor, charter brokers have found themselves in a mad scramble to find enough inventory to furnish this year’s new market entrants.

Lawyers too have explained how the contractual process has become more protracted after a spate of disputes last year linked to the flimsy nature of traditional charter contracts; lawyers on both sides are being asked to fortify their terms of agreement. All in all though, these are welcome challenges for the charter market, and demands remains sky-high this summer. Are you seeing an increase in demand from less traditional yacht-owning regions of the world like Asia?

Asia has long represented something of a conundrum for the superyacht industry. A number of the top production builders have enjoyed success through regional dealerships led by embedded local experts, but the custom builders have historically found it harder to gain traction. This however, is changing. Through more nuanced and region-specific sales and marketing, the top European builders are starting to enjoy modest success within Asia, and specifically Hong Kong and mainland China.

The issue impacting market growth now however, is the lack of berthing and service infrastructure. While Asian superyacht ownership is on the increase, many of these individuals are operating their vessels exclusively in the Mediterranean because of the lack of large yacht-specific infrastructure, particularly in the aforementioned locations. How is the burgeoning ESG agenda influencing the superyacht sector?

This topic is a thorny one for me personally because for many years the lack of discourse surrounding topics such as diversity or sustainability was a bugbear of mine. I am happy to say, however, that there is an ever-greater shift towards professionalism within our industry and movements have emerged that address both our environmental and social responsibility.

As a manufacturing industry, sustainability is of particular importance and there are some serious organisations, such as the Water Revolution Foundation, evaluating how wastage of all types can be reduced. In my opinion, the quickest route to success and widespread adoption is in repackaging the concept of ‘sustainability’ into one of ‘efficiency and optimisation’. Ultimately, the two come hand in hand, but the latter better conveys the ROI that the clients are also looking for.

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Us steps up hunt for hamas oct. 7 mastermind yahya sinwar to prevent middle east war: report.

The US has reportedly ramped up efforts to hunt down Hamas terror chief and Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar in a bid to prevent a full-scale Middle East war from breaking out.

In addition to helping Israeli forces try to intercept Sinwar’s communications, the US has deployed ground-penetrating radars to map the hundreds of miles of tunnels that run underneath Gaza where the terror kingpin is believed to be hiding, the New York Times reported .

A special unit has also been established within Israel’s domestic intelligence service, Shin Bet, officials said.

One senior Israeli official described the vast amount of intelligence resources and support that American officials have poured into the manhunt for the 61-year-old since the Oct. 7 bloodshed as “priceless.”

“We’ve devoted considerable effort and resources to the Israelis for the hunt for the top leadership, particularly Sinwar,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.

“We’ve had people in Israel sitting in the room with the Israelis working this problem set. And obviously we have a lot of experience hunting high-value targets.”

Still, Sinwar, who rose to the top of Hamas following last year’s assassination of former chief Ismail Haniyeh, has managed to evade capture — even as Israeli forces have tracked down and killed other top Hamas leaders one by one.

One report , citing Israeli intelligence sources, said Sinwar’s efforts to remain on the run had gone as far as him hiding among Palestinians “dressed as a woman.”

Officials believe killing or capturing Sinwar would dramatically impact the ongoing war because it would give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a way to claim a military victory and possibly sway him to end his military onslaught in Gaza.

But American and Israeli intelligence officials both say that communicating with Sinwar had become increasingly difficult of late as potential cease-fire negotiations ramp up.

The officials believe the elusive leader has long abandoned electronic communications and relies on a network of human couriers to lead his terror organization and the ongoing military campaign.

The Israeli military initially flagged Sinwar’s radio silence back in February after the IDF carried out a raid on a bunker in Khan Younis in which they believed the Hamas leader had, until just moments before, been holed up.

Since then, the US and Israeli sides have become increasingly frustrated as the hunt for him drags on, officials said.

Meanwhile, cease-fire talks continued in Egypt with little sign of a breakthrough on key issues separating the sides.

Hamas and Israel have been trading blame over the lack of progress in talks, which aim to halt the fighting and bring 109 Israeli and foreign hostages home in an exchange deal for Palestinian prisoners.

Among the main sticking points has been Israel’s insistence on maintaining control over the so-called Philadelphi corridor on the border with Egypt, which Israel says has been used as one of the main routes for smuggling weapons into Gaza.

Israel has also insisted on checks on people moving from southern and central Gaza into northern areas across the Netzarim corridor, running across the center of the Gaza Strip, saying it needs to ensure that armed fighters cannot move north.

With Post wires

FILTER BY YEAR

26th August – Threat Intelligence Report

For the latest discoveries in cyber research for the week of 26th August, please download our Threat Intelligence Bulletin .

TOP ATTACKS AND BREACHES

• Halliburton, a leading U.S. oilfield services firm, was hit by a cyberattack that forced the company to take certain systems offline to contain the breach. Hackers gained access to some of the company’s systems, prompting an ongoing investigation with the help of external contractors. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
• Microchip Technology, an American semiconductor manufacturer, reported a cyberattack that disrupted some of its servers and business operations. Upon detecting suspicious activity, the company isolated affected systems, shut down certain services, and initiated an investigation with external cybersecurity experts. The incident has impacted manufacturing, causing operations to run below normal levels, affecting the company’s ability to fulfill orders. The full scope and impact of the attack remain unclear, and the identity of the attackers is unknown.
• The Oregon Zoo has disclosed that personal and payment information of more than 100,000 of the Zoo’s visitors has been leaked. The threat actors had access to zoo’s online payment platform for a period of more than 6 months, redirecting transactions from the zoo’s online ticketing system and stealing full credit card details.
• Japanese car manufacturing giant Toyota has confirmed a third-party data breach of limited scope after a threat actor had leaked 240GB of data on underground cybercrime forums. Representatives have denied the threat actor’s allegations that the company’s U.S. branch was hacked.
• City officials in Columbus, Ohio, have warned crime victims and witnesses to remain vigilant after a ransomware gang leaked data stolen from the local prosecutor’s office on the Dark Web. The Rhysida ransomware group, which had initially hit the city in July and demanded $1.9 million in Bitcoin, released 6.5 terabytes of data after the city refused to pay. The leaked information, which includes sensitive personal details, poses a particular risk to individuals escaping abusive situations.
• Hackers launched a massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on Monobank, one of Ukraine’s leading online banks. The attack, which spanned for three days, involved an unprecedented volume of 7.5 billion requests per second, but did not impact the bank’s core operations. The aim of the attack appeared to be to disrupt a popular platform for raising funds for Ukraine’s armed forces, a service that has gained increased usage since recent military actions.
• Researchers have identified a phishing campaign likely linked to Iranian hackers targeting a prominent Jewish religious figure. The attackers, suspected to be connected to Iranian group APT42 (also known as TA453), used spoofed emails from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) to invite the victim to a fake podcast, ultimately delivering malware named BlackSmith via a malicious GoogleDrive link.

VULNERABILITIES AND PATCHES

• Cisco report ed on eight vulnerabilities in Microsoft applications for macOS. The Microsoft apps gain entitlements and user-granted permissions which can be exploited by threat actors via injection of malicious libraries. This can allow the threat actors access to a victim’s microphone, camera, screen recording, user input, stored data and more.
• Wordfence disclosed a critical vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-28000, in a WordPress plugin Lightspeed Cache. Used by more than 5,000,000 websites, the plugin versions up to and including 6.3.0.1 are vulnerable to privilege escalation due to mismanagement of role simulation functionality.

Check Point IPS provides protection against this threat (WordPress LiteSpeed Cache Plugin Privilege Escalation (CVE-2024-28000))

• Researchers have discovered a high severity Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability (CVE-2024-38206) in Microsoft Copilot Studio, enabling unauthorized access to internal service data and cross-tenant information. This vulnerability allowed the manipulation of Copilot’s HTTP requests to access Microsoft’s internal infrastructure, including sensitive instance metadata and Cosmos DB.

THREAT INTELLIGENCE REPORTS

• Researchers have uncovered a new phishing technique targeting mobile users via Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) and WebAPKs on both Android and iOS platforms. This method involves tricking users into installing phishing apps that mimic legitimate banking applications without traditional warnings about third-party installations. The phishing campaigns, observed primarily in Czechia but also in Hungary and Georgia, use social engineering through various delivery mechanisms. Once installed, these apps capture sensitive banking credentials and send them to different command-and-control servers managed by separate threat actors.
• Researchers have identified a state-sponsored North Korean threat actor, known as UAT-5394, using a newly developed remote access trojan called MoonPeak. This malware, evolving from the open-source XenoRAT, forms part of a broader infrastructure shift from cloud services to attacker-owned systems.
• Researchers report on a new BlindEagle, also known as APT-C-36, campaign targeting Latin American countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, and Panama. This group employs phishing emails, often impersonating governmental or financial institutions, to deliver malware. Their tactics include using publicly available Remote Access Trojans (RATs) like njRAT and AsyncRAT, which they customize for espionage or financial theft.
• The Qilin ransomware group has introduced a new tactic by deploying a custom stealer to harvest account credentials stored in Google Chrome browsers. After gaining access to a network through compromised VPN credentials lacking multi-factor authentication (MFA), Qilin used Group Policy Objects (GPOs) to spread the stealer across all domain-connected machines, potentially stealing credentials from every logged-in user.

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Will AI transform superyacht design?

 As artificial intelligence progresses at breakneck speed, in what ways is it being used to disrupt the field of yacht design, and do we need to proceed with caution?   Risa Merl looks at how AI is already making its presence felt. 

As I gaze at the computer screen, a yacht emerges before me. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen on the water – a fairly typical hull, painted turquoise, married to a superstructure resembling a towering Egyptian pyramid adorned in gilded patterns and curved glass. It appears within seconds of typing in a few keywords as if conjured from a coded mist. And, indeed, it was.

I am being guided through the world of artificial intelligence (AI) by Rob Armstrong, creative director of ThirtyC Yacht Design, who is showing me a few of the AI applications that his studio is currently using. Armstrong is one of the many yacht designers and naval architects who have been exploring AI as a tool to aid in the superyacht design process. Other designers have been less keen on embracing AI, warning it could ring the death knell for creativity.

The yachting industry’s varied opinions on AI are emblematic of the debate in wider society. There are those who are keen to dive in and see how it might be useful – and profitable – to humans. And there are those who fear its very existence, that its future iterations will spell an end to humankind as we know it.

Designers like Armstrong are experimenting with generative AI, which refers to algorithms that can create content such as images or text from amalgamations of information already available online. The much-discussed ChatGPT is one example. Artificial general intelligence (AGI), on the other hand, is the stuff of sci-fi: an advanced AI that, in the future, will be able to learn and think like a human and carry out a range of tasks, without human intervention. Some suggest generative AI is a stepping stone to AGI.

It is especially eerie when warnings on the dangers of advanced AI come from tech giants such as Elon Musk, who has said it has the potential for “civilisation destruction” and has called for governmental regulation (notably, China has announced its first regulations on generative AI). Musk, along with other tech leaders, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and cognitive scientist Gary Marcus, signed an open letter in April 2023 calling for a pause in the “out of control” race for AI development, a warning that has yet to be heeded.

But AI is already in the mainstream and must be reckoned with, even by the yachting world. “People are afraid of AI because they see this robot who does his own thing,” says Marnix Hoekstra, co-creative director of Vripack . “But it’s a tool – like virtual reality or 3D printing – and it doesn’t do anything by itself.” The Dutch design house is currently exploring generative AI, such as ChatGPT, Midjourney and Firefly, a new version of Adobe Photoshop that has an AI plugin.

Winch Design is also experimenting with generative AI in its workflow and has had some interesting outcomes using software such as Midjourney, Stable Diffusion and Dall-E to generate reference images to kick-start ideas or conversations. “You can argue that inputting a written text prompt into Midjourney to generate an image isn’t that far removed from tasking a design team in the studio to create an image from a verbal briefing,” says Greig Jolly, partner, yachts and aviation, with Winch Design.

Back to that pyramid yacht. Armstrong is using Midjourney to create images by inputting text descriptions, such as “seashell-inspired-superyacht” and “Japanese-style-superyacht-interior”, and within moments images approximating these appear before us. Some are interesting, some are comical, but Armstrong says that, even with the latter, inspiration can be gleaned. “Designers see these images from a different perspective,” he says, referring to the pyramid yacht. “I’m looking at the colours – I love the turquoise and gold together – and how the superstructure has a soft blend on the top edge. I’m never going to use the whole thing, but I can use it for inspiration. AI is just a tool – software changes and you need to keep up with it.”

The seashell-inspired yacht prompt seems to blend a cowrie shell with a design from the late Zaha Hadid’s playbook. The “yacht” depicted here is not seaworthy, but Armstrong instantly points to the coral pattern on the aft deck ceiling as design fodder. He could use aspects of these images for ThirtyC client mood boards, which Armstrong says isn’t much different from clipping magazine pages or pinning on Pinterest.

In another application, Vizcom.ai, Armstrong inputs a line sketch he’s hand-drawn and it’s transformed into a fully formed yacht profile. He also mentions an open-source software called Blender that can take an AI-created image and translate it into 3D, which can be sculpted or drawn over. “But it’s a data-point 3D model, quite rough, not one with clean, symmetrical lines that you can actually bring to a shipyard,” he says.

Dasha Moranova Designs has employed AI in its Senses spa concept to play with general arrangements. “Senses’ sensory holistic design has been developed on Lateral Naval Architects ' Innovative Free From Bulkheads (FFB) platform, which challenges traditional superyacht architecture,” says Moranova. The FFB platform enables watertight bulkheads to terminate at the lower deck, freeing up space and giving Moranova the opportunity to create an unusual open spa with almost 360-degree ocean views.

The interior is then built in a 3D model using Unreal Engine 5, MetaHumans and an AI conversational system. “This would be presented to owners wearing virtual reality [VR] goggles,” says Moranova. “The AI is so smart and sensitive that when you look at an element and focus on it for a few seconds, the AI will give any answer you might be thinking about.”

Vripack has regularly used virtual and augmented reality since 2014, and Hoekstra is excited by how AI will enhance these tools. “It will unlock a whole new level of customer experience – we can rapidly customise avatars and environments in VR, which will become massively lifelike and personalised and therefore more compelling,” he says.

In terms of visuals, both Armstrong and Jolly note that AI has been useful in quickly creating background images. “We can dream up an imaginary landscape or location and render it in AI almost instantly, then drop in the CGI model of our design,” says Jolly. “On a more granular level, the integration of AI functionality into Photoshop has relieved us of some minor, time-consuming image editing tasks.”

It’s easy to see how AI can be used in graphic design and animation. But a few of the top animators I spoke to didn’t want to comment, saying only that it’s too sensitive a topic for artists at the moment, raising concerns over copyright protection and job retention.

No copyright boundaries exist for the apparent plagiarism of original content on which generative AI subsists. These murky waters are full of ethical and moral questions, none of which will be solved swiftly. Sustainability is a concern as well, as generative AI, much like mining for cryptocurrency, relies on substantial computing power. “All the user sees is that an image pops up within seconds, but somewhere a huge computing farm probably swallowed up enough energy to power a small country,” says Christian Leyk, creative director at coquine![design].

Generative AI is, of course, derivative by nature, a fact that leads some designers, such as Leyk, to question its use in yacht design. “AI is not innovative, it’s not even design,” says Leyk. “It cannot create new concepts or ideas.”

Even Moranova, who has embraced AI in many ways, is wary of its use in creating images sourced from internet databases. “I don’t think reusing someone else’s property is the way forward for designers,” she says. “This is why true artists and designers have nothing to worry about. Emotional responses are a human trait and to provoke such a response you need to be human not only to interpret it but to evoke it.”

It’s the designers’ job, based on their real-world experience, to discern the viability of what AI spits out. “AI can create wonderful photorealistic images or professionally written text, but the user needs to have the knowledge to judge whether the information is correct and useful,” says Jim Robert Sluijter, lead exterior designer at Lürssen Yachts . “It’s similar with 3D modelling and photorealistic renderings, which can be a powerful tool to show a client what the yacht will look like. However, renderings can also show a very convincing and realistic image of something that will never work.”

The ideal scenario is that AI will shorten time spent on technical calculations so designers can spend more time on creativity. And this is the goal of Olesinski Ltd . The UK-based design and naval architecture firm is using AI in the most advanced way I encountered, having spent years and a huge investment to develop bespoke AI tools to optimise general arrangements and hull forms, by working with research teams at the University of Southampton. The studio has designs in build that have used AI which will be launched as early as 2024.

Bill Edwards, head of research and development at Olensinski , says the AI tool they’ve created is ideal for avoiding unnecessary trips around the design spiral. There are so many possibilities for creating a yacht layout or optimising a hull that designers can get quite far into the process before hitting a dead end and having to start over.

“The algorithm itself [of the Olesinski AI tool] is generic, there’s no explicit references to boat design, but it’s powerful at solving sorts of problems that require this type of computation,” says Edwards. “It can solve for several different objectives at the same time, whether furniture is placed correctly, cabins can be properly accessed, ceiling heights need adjusting… The software explores all the possible solutions, identifying dead ends, but does it rapidly, so flawed candidate designs need not be seen by human eyes. It gives us options.”

Previously, the Olesinski team would do a 2D CAD drawing, then fit it into a 3D model. “What we get out of AI now isn’t just 2D, it’s what we would’ve done with the 3D, which we can then manipulate, for example, if we want to move a bulkhead,” says managing director Justin Olesinski, who is quick to point out that what they produce with AI is only used during conceptual stages. “It’s not given to the yards to produce these lines. But at the level we need it to be, it’s as accurate as you’d ever want it to be.”

By feeding AI the results from simulations performed by potential hull forms, they can quickly create surrogate models and cast a wider net of ideas. “We can put in extreme features to investigate and are often surprised where we find performance improvements,” says Edwards. The AI might suggest a certain wave-piercing bow shape or suggest a chine width that the team didn’t necessarily expect.

“We will increasingly see AI doing several of the heavy lifting tasks in engineering design,” says Adam Sobey, associate professor in the maritime engineering group at the University of Southampton. “Creating a yacht layout takes a lot of time just to get to an initial concept. By using AI to develop initial concepts, humans can spend their time on the fine-tuning.” AI can help designers come up with half a dozen concepts early in the design process, allowing them to synthesise the best elements. AI can also be helpful in creating solutions to new regulations imposed by Maritime and Coastal Agency and other certification bodies.

AI is already transforming the study of design, but design fundamentals remain. “The AI approaches we have so far can’t pull together all the complexity of a real yacht,” says Professor Sobey. “It’s important that a student knows how to design a yacht first – the tools they use are less important. If they aren’t experts in traditional methods, how can they evaluate the designs that are being produced by the AI?”

Sluijter says that AI is no match for the years of experience that shipyards such as Lürssen possess. “The technical know-how on how to build, install and service the millions of components that go into a yacht, how they work together, and all the knowledge accumulated by building thousands of yachts by all the shipyards around the world over the past 150 years has never been shared on the internet,” he says. “No one will be able to build a yacht in the same way as a shipyard can by just using AI or the internet.”

Today, machine-learning modules are being included in maritime design studies, something that would traditionally be the realm for computer scientists. One of Professor Sobey’s students has gone on to work for Olesinski Ltd as a R&D engineer, bringing his knowledge of AI to a newly created role at the design house, showing that AI could lead to job creation.

“AI is a long way from stealing people’s jobs – we still require human designers for the detailed elements and to evaluate things such as aesthetics,” says Professor Sobey. “What we are doing is augmenting designers [and allowing them] to explore more of the design space than they were previously able to. This is both more and less exciting than is in the news. It certainly isn’t AI taking over the workplace, but it is providing new tools that allow us to interpret what we have been doing for many decades in totally new ways.”

But Leyk is less optimistic. “It’s very likely some designers will lose their jobs,” he believes. And Hoekstra notes that the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2023 predicted that nearly 25 per cent of jobs will be disrupted.

“Imagine that around a quarter of all the people you know will have their job disrupted over the next five years – that’s massive,” says Hoekstra. “So, obviously, there are ethical considerations for us.”

Hoekstra thinks that AI will inevitably disrupt yacht design as we know it. “And I honestly mean ‘disrupt’ because I have a strong belief that there will be two kinds of design studios at the end of this decade: those that are fully utilising AI and those that are out of business,” he says. “We either have to adopt it or die.”

Olesinski believes that the only downside to AI is the amount of time and capital a company needs to invest. “We’ve invested a lot over 10 to 13 years in hull forms and four to five years on the general arrangement side of things,” he says. “If a design house wants to do that, they need to have an R&D department specifically for AI.” Olesinski Ltd will be offering its AI tool as a paid service to other designers who haven’t made such an investment. A potential problem arises in clients thinking they should be charged less if the design process is seemingly quicker. But this overlooks the expertise and R&D that has gone into the back end; time that will be freed up to spend on creativity and perfecting a design.

Jolly posits that even owners themselves might have a play at AI. “The day will come when a client presents us with an image of their dream that they’ve made in AI and asks us to create it for them,” he says. “But AI won’t replicate the unique individual character and artistry that a craftsman brings to their work. I think that human touch and sense of tradition is something that is very much valued in our industry.”

Perhaps the answer to the AI question in yacht design is not a matter of all or nothing, or kill or be killed, but a strange hybrid, putting us one step closer to the singularity between man and machine that futurist Ray Kurzweil predicted nearly 20 years ago. Yet for now, yachting remains very much a human pleasure and a product of human creativity.

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Sinking of a super yacht adds to questions billionaire Mike Lynch wanted to put behind him

I t was a sunny August morning when software entrepreneur Mike Lynch, 59, gathered ten of his closest friends along with his wife and daughter on the dock of Porto di Milazzo, on the Northern coast of Sicily. They had come to celebrate his freedom. Only months before, several of the guests played crucial roles in persuading a San Francisco jury to acquit Lynch of federal charges related to the sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion. 

Five days after the yacht left port, Lynch, his daughter, four guests, and a hired chef were dead in the Mediterranean Sea after a storm flooded the ship. The drowned included the chairman of Morgan Stanley International, a star witness at Lynch’s trial, as well as one of Lynch’s lead defense attorneys. Among the survivors were a former Autonomy exec who went on to become a partner at Lynch’s venture capital firm, a second member of his defense team, and his wife, who reportedly owns nearly all his fortune. The same day of the drowning, U.K. news outlets reported that Lynch’s co-defendant in the fraud trial, Stephen Chamberlain, who had also been acquitted, had been fatally run over by a car as he was out jogging—a shocking coincidence.

Less than a week after the tragedy, there are far more questions than answers. Did the yacht named Bayesian—an homage to a statistical theorem for predicting future outcomes—simply fall victim to a terrible storm? How did most of the crew and a few passengers escape, and why couldn’t they reach Lynch and the six others who did not make it out? Italian officials are looking into manslaughter charges, but it’s not yet clear who they may have in their crosshairs. Giovanni Costantino, who runs The Italian Sea Group that owns Perini Navi, the Italian maker of the yacht, had harsh words for the crew, who he blames. "This is the mistake that cries out for vengeance," he told Reuters .

There are also huge questions swirling around the business ventures of the man dubbed the “British Bill Gates.” While the Bayesian excursion was to serve as a celebration of Lynch’s acquittal on all charges in the U.S.—where he had spent months under house arrest—the reality is that his legal troubles were far from over. In a January 2022 civil trial, the UK’s High Court found that HPE had “substantially succeeded” in proving that Autonomy leaders had fraudulently made it look like the company was earning more revenue than it was. In 2019 Autonomy’s CFO was convicted of 16 counts and sentenced to five years in prison. At this time, the UK case is in a holding pattern as the judge determines what damages are owed to HPE. (The company’s spokesperson Adam Bauer says HPE is, “saddened by this tragic event, and our thoughts are with the families and friends of all those who lost their lives.”)

But Lynch’s passing also looms over Invoke Capital, the venture firm he founded in 2011 and whose managing partner—Charlotte Golunski—survived the yacht disaster and saved her 1-year old baby. One of Invoke’s most prominent bets was a 2013 seed stage investment in Darktrace, a cybersecurity firm on whose board Lynch sat until 2018. Darktrace has developed a reputation as a sleek AI cybersecurity startup with ties to spy agencies like MI5 and the U.S. National Security Agency. It also became the target of short-sellers who in 2023 expressed doubt over Darktrace’s financial filings—the same sort of allegations that plagued Lynch’s Autonomy. 

Darktrace insists that the shortseller’s allegations were baseless, and they say an EY audit it commissioned showed this to be the case. In April Darktrace received a $5.3 billion acquisition offer from the giant private equity firm, Thoma Bravo. The deal, which Fortune reported will likely go forward despite Lynch’s death, stood to help rehabilitate Lynch’s business reputation. As of August 14, he and his wife collectively owned 3.21% of the company, which would be worth some $170 million upon the deal’s completion. Invoke Capital has not responded to multiple requests for comment and Darktrace declined comment.

Following his U.S. acquittal, Lynch was pleased enough with the state of things that he had begun celebrating weeks before the yacht party. In the days following the not-guilty verdict, Lynch, his wife, Stephen Chamberlain and his wife, the attorney Chris Morvillo—who drowned on Bayesian—and 20 other lawyers gathered at a restaurant at a hotel near the San Francisco courthouse.

Brian Heberlig, an attorney at Steptoe who gave the closing argument in Lynch’s trial, recalls that Morvillo gave a moving toast, telling those assembled that the trial was more than just a job, but one of their life’s works. “He really was a brilliant man,” Heberlig told Fortune , fighting back tears as he remembered Lynch. “And he ran his legal defense the same way I imagine he ran Autonomy. He let the experts do their jobs, while still having a strong grasp on the material. As he used to say, ‘Let the brain surgeons do the surgery.’”

That night was the last time Heberlig ever saw Lynch or Morvillo.

A 'virtually unsinkable' boat

The sailing party departed August 14—five days before the storm—and was comprised of 12 guests and 10 crew. The Bayesian was one of the biggest yachts of its kind. Its first stop was a cluster of small islands off the coast of Sicily. Then it jetted across the sea to the Sicilian town of Cefalu, before putting down anchor for the final time on the coast of Palermo, a favorite getaway for the rich and famous, and a former haunt for the mafia.

Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, who reportedly held the couple’s entire $1.1 billion fortune, was jolted awake on August 18 as the boat began to tilt. Glass from a shattered window exploded across the deck, according to reports, cutting her feet as she ran to investigate.

Black and white security  footage  appears to show the outline of what is believed to be the 184-foot sailing yacht, which used call sign 2ICB8, slowly disappearing behind a thicker and thicker veil of rain. Nearby villagers and fishermen say they saw a sea tornado, called a waterspout. Soon after, the yacht lay on the ocean floor.

Theories are swirling about why the yacht sank. One holds that a bay door was left open in the storm, causing the ship to flood and sink in minutes. Another holds that the Bayesian’s 246-foot tall aluminum mast—one of the tallest in the world— broke in the wind and took the boat down with it.

Most news reports say the yacht sank almost instantly, but the CEO of the company that bought the boat’s maker after it went bankrupt in 2021 disputes that. In a Financial Times report, he called the boat “virtually unsinkable,” and says that it dragged its anchor for 16 minutes before it sank. 

During those fateful moments, a far older nearby yacht, the Sir Robert Baden Powell, built in 1957, was drifting on a similar course as the Bayesian and not only survived, but came to help. Some onboard saw a red flare shooting across the rainy sky—an emergency signal from those who had fled the doomed yacht, drawing the attention to a life raft filled with 15 of the 22 passengers.

Passenger Golunski, 35, who helped run Autonomy the first year it was at HP, described holding her one-year old daughter Sophia, as she screamed for help. One of Lynch’s most trusted employees, Golunski was a founding partner at Invoke Capital, the London-based firm that backed Darktrace. Lynch’s wife Bacares was also in the life raft along with Clifford Chance lawyer Ayla Ronald, 36, who reportedly texted to her father: “there are deaths.”

The lifeboat survivors were soon plucked from the sea while the Bayesian came to its current resting place 50 meters below the surface. Over the course of the next 72 hours, a team of scuba divers from the Guardia Costiera and specially trained cave divers from the Vigili del Fuoco, the local fire department, used boats and a helicopter to triangulate the yacht’s position. The divers, working in bursts of 8 to 12 minutes, searched the Bayesian’s six guest suites, master suite, multiple living areas, and dining room.

The body of the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas, was the first to be found, floating on the water’s surface. On Wednesday, two days after the wreck, four more bodies were discovered, and on Thursday a fifth. Among them were Lynch and Chris Morvillo of the prestigious law firm Clifford Chance, who had made the controversial decision to have Lynch testify, and questioned him on the stand right before he was acquitted. The others discovered were Morvillo’s wife, Neda, as well as the Morgan Stanley banker and key witness, Jonathan Bloomer, who had been a former executive director at Autonomy, and his wife Judy. The body of Lynch's 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, was pulled from the sea on Friday.

The U.K. Maritime and Coastguard Agency tells Fortune it is in contact with the Italian authorities but would not provide further information. The UK’s Foreign Office told Fortune it is providing “consular support to a number of British nationals and their families…and are in contact with the local authorities.”

More questions than answers

Even as loved ones and the survivors begin to come to terms with the human toll of the tragedy, the business world has begun assessing Lynch’s complicated past, and his many business dealings. 

Lynch was born of modest means to a nurse and firefighter in a suburb of London. From an early age he showed a proclivity towards technology and a fiery determination. He studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge, then returned for a PhD in artificial neural networks, the building blocks of artificial intelligence. When he was still studying for his PhD, he started his first venture, Cambridge Neurodynamics, monetizing computerized fingerprint recognition, eventually evolving into Autonomy. 

Founded in 1996 with David Tabizel and Richard Gaunt, Autonomy used an early version of artificial intelligence to quickly scan what’s known as “unstructured data,” especially including language. Autonomy quickly became a darling of the UK’s fledgling tech scene, and it was seen as a crowning achievement when, in 2011, the company struck an $11 billion deal to be purchased by HP, now HPE. The deal, however, was quickly engulfed in scandal when a year later the new owner alleged accounting fraud and wrote down its investment by $8.8 billion.

Despite the baggage around Autonomy, Lynch continued to ride high in the tech world through his venture firm, Invoke Capital, which he founded in 2012. One of its most profitable investments was Darktrace, which he backed in 2013 and joined as a board member. By 2016 he told TechCrunch 60 employees from Autonomy were working at Invoke, that he’d raised a billion dollars to invest in startups, and that Darktrace was worth $500 million.

While fighting the legal battle over Autonomy and building Invoke, Lynch enjoyed the trappings of a mogul. The same year he announced his billion-dollar startup fund, he was sailing the Bayesian, worth an estimated $25 million. He reportedly also owned a $6 million, 69-acre Georgian manor.

By early 2020 Darktrace shared deep connections with Autonomy, including half of Darktrace’s board and six of its eight top executives. The following year Darktrace went public, soaring 40% above its pre-market value. But the victory lap was brief. In September 2022, an acquisition talk between private equity firm Thoma Bravo and Darktrace fell through , sending share prices tumbling. In early 2023, the short-selling firm Quintessential Capital Management published a 70-page report accusing Darktrace of similar misconduct that had sunk Autonomy.

“We are deeply skeptical about the validity of Darktrace’s financial statements,” the report read. Darktrace’s shares plunged as much as 17% after the report was published, though the company said at the time that the management team and board had “rigorous controls in place.” Darktrace hired EY to perform an audit, which stabilized its share price after the accounting firm found the company's earlier financial results did not need to be restated. Darktrace never publicly released the report, however, with a spokesperson saying at the time that it contained “commercially sensitive information.”

More recently, Darktrace’s CEO Poppy Gustafsson wrote in the firm’s Q4 trading report of “shareholders voting overwhelmingly in favour” of the acquisition, and added the company is “awaiting the conclusion of the remaining regulatory processes.”

Until very recently, Darktrace had sought to distance itself from Lynch and his VC firm. In December, shareholders passed a resolution that rejected Invoke executive Patrick Jacob's reappointment to its board. This April, Invoke lost the right to that same board seat when it was discovered its shares had fallen below the required 10% threshold. Nonetheless, in a memorial to Lynch, Darktrace CEO Poppy Gustafsson wrote : “Without Mike, there would be no Darktrace. We owe him so much.”

While the Italian authorities continue to investigate the crash site, one thing is certain: the swirl of legal and business battles that surrounded Lynch during his lifetime are likely to continue after his death. A local Italian news site reports that the public prosecutor's office in a nearby town, Termini Imerese, is looking into allegations of manslaughter surrounding the sunken boat. And two months before Lynch died, former UK secretary of state David Davis reportedly said he was working with Lynch to scrap U.S./U.K extradition agreements that allowed Lynch’s trial to happen in the first place. 

On Wednesday, August 21, Davis told GB News he would continue that fight in memory of Lynch. “We need to get a grip of this,” said Davis. “Mike, when he’d won his case, almost the first thing he did was ring me up and say, ‘we’re going to have to defeat this treaty, we’re going to have to overcome this treaty and get it changed for the better.'"

“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,” Lynch said after the verdict.

Lynch’s desire to extend the legal fight even after his not-guilty verdict reflects the scrappiness he displayed throughout his life. This helped him ascend to the highest rungs of business and moguldom—but the success also came with a tenuous quality as questions about his business dealings dogged him for years. The not-guilty verdict and the pending Darktrace sale meant Lynch was in position to finally cast off that shadow. But now his ultimate legacy is poised to be tied forever to a mysterious and tragic hour on the Mediterranean Sea.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Rescuers Find Remaining Missing Aboard the Sunken ‘Bayesian’ Superyacht 

Six bodies have been recovered, while local authorities push for investigations that could result in manslaughter charges.

Michael verdon, michael verdon's most recent stories, new zealand’s thrilling win gets the america’s cup off to a rip-roaring start.

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The boat’s rapid sinking happened at about 4 a.m. local time on Monday, after a waterspout, or a small, localized tornado on the water, caused the vessel to heel over and eventually capsize, sending it about 165 feet to the bottom of the Mediterranean. Fifteen people were rescued by a nearby vessel. Authorities identified the body of Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian Antiguan, who worked as the sailing yacht’s chef.

The celebratory trip aboard Bayesian took place shortly after Lynch was acquitted of fraud charges in the U.S. in a long-running legal battle against accusations that he had defrauded Hewlett-Packard after he sold Hewlett his company, Autonomy, for $11 billion.

Boat International has quoted a crew member as saying that the boat was struck by a freak weather event, which caused it to heel 20 degrees on its right side. It continued to heel until it began to take on water and sank in just 12 minutes. “We just didn’t see it coming,” Capt. James Calfield told Italian media.

A number of experts have speculated that water entering through the top via open hatches could have caused the sinking. Some witnesses have said that the mast snapped before the boat sank, but divers report the vessel is intact on the sea bottom.

Dario Boote, a ship structures and naval architecture professor at the University of Genoa, told paper that he expects a series of lawsuits to determine responsibility. “Clearly, only once the wreck is raised will we know more,” he told the

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Lynch yacht sinking probed for manslaughter, negligence

Prosecutors in sicily announced a probe for manslaughter and negligent shipwreck after mike lynch’s yacht went down in minutes during bad weather.

The victims of the Bayesian’s sinking were likely either asleep or tried to escape to no avail as Mike Lynch’s yacht went down in minutes during bad weather, prosecutors in Sicily said as they announced a probe for manslaughter and negligent shipwreck.

The dynamic of what happened to those killed isn’t fully clear, deputy prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano told reporters on Saturday. Autopsies are due to take place soon.

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“Their position could lead us to think that they tried to escape, but this isn’t demonstrable in a preliminary phase,” he said of the bodies, found inside the ship, on the side closest to the surface. “The bodies might also have been grouped there, floating.”

“The passengers likely weren’t awake,” when the storm struck in the early hours of the morning, he added.

Authorities in Sicily have opened a manslaughter and negligent shipwreck probe into the Aug. 19 sinking of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch’s yacht, chief prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio said at the same briefing.

There are currently no suspects, he said at a press conference in Termini Imerese, with the probe being conducted against “persons unknown.”

Cartosio, who said prosecutors aren’t ruling anything out, expressed sympathy for the families of the seven victims, saying it would be “even more painful” if the probe showed the wreck was caused by not following procedures properly.

The wreck’s survivors - including the ship’s captain, crew and passengers - weren’t tested for alcohol or drugs, Cammarano said, adding that first aid was the priority, including tending to some “serious” wounds among survivors “in a state of shock.”

Prosecutors had kept quiet in recent days about the developing probe, with Cartosio explaining on Saturday that communications on the matter were strictly regulated by Italian law, despite significant interest domestically and internationally in the death of Lynch, the 59-year-old British tech tycoon, and six others.

Coast guard admiral Raffaele Macauda said the owners of the ship had announced their intention to retrieve the relic from the seabed, and that the costs would come at their expense. It wasn’t clear when this would happen, he said. But Cartosio said it was a fundamental step in the investigation.

The prosecutor said the emergency began at 4:38 a.m. local time, when a red flare was launched and seen by the coast guard.

Divers from the local firefighter corps spent most of the week attempting to retrieve six bodies stuck inside the ship, which sank to a depth of about 50 meters (164 feet) about a half mile off the coast of Porticello. The body of a seventh victim, the yacht’s chef, had been retrieved earlier.

Cammarano said the probe had so far focused on those who’d been rescued alive. It wasn’t clear whether the ship had the equivalent of a black box, he said, with access made significantly more difficult by the position of the sunken relic. He added a crew member had been on duty, as required by procedure, when the “truly sudden” storm, or “more likely a downburst,” struck the luxury vessel.

Speculation has surrounded the incident, with the chief executive officer of the company that made the yacht, Italian Sea Group, positing that human error was involved. It was clear the ship had taken on water and that its electrics failed, Giovanni Costantino told Bloomberg News in an interview.

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UK authorities are also probing the incident.

AIS data, a tracking system used by ships, shows the Bayesian started to drift from anchor just before 4 a.m., traveling for about five minutes for about 360 meters to the spot where it eventually sank about 15 minutes later, Costantino said.

The coast guard on Saturday said there were no bans on being at anchor where the Bayesian was situated. Prosecutors declined to say whether any of the hatches were open, which could allow the yacht to quickly take on water, saying this would prejudge the probe.

Cammarano added that James Cutfield, the New Zealand captain of the Bayesian, had been “very collaborative” in answering prosecutors’ questions. Cartosio said it was “likely” he would have to answer more questions.

The 56-meter long Bayesian had been carrying 22 passengers and crew, of whom 15 were rescued, including Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares.

Girolamo Bentivoglio Fiandra, from the firefighting unit, told reporters that the first five bodies were retrieved from a cabin on the left-hand side of the ship, closest to the water.

The final body - that of Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah, was retrieved on Friday in the third cabin on the left-hand side, “all on the high side of the ship, toward the surface” of the sea, he said.

Lynch and his family had been celebrating his recent acquittal from fraud charges with a small group of advisers when the violent storm struck. The charges stemmed from Lynch’s sale of his software firm Autonomy Corp. to Hewlett Packard Co. in 2011. The Silicon Valley giant went on to accuse Lynch of accounting failures. He’d spent years working to clear his name in court and restore his reputation as one of Europe’s most successful entrepreneurs.

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By SuperyachtNews 01 Jul 2024

The Superyacht Report - Captains Focus: Read It Now!

Issue 221: the superyacht report - captains focus is now available to read and download online….

The Superyacht Report - Captains Focus highlights that while our fleet remains in capable hands, the rapidly changing superyachting landscape presents immense challenges. Recruitment, retention and training issues have plagued the industry as the fleet continues to grow at record speed. Listening to and addressing the concerns of those on deck is crucial for the industry's survival. Without quality personnel manning the fleet, the industry would cease to exist.

In this latest issue, we examine the current state of leadership training, the introduction of more sophisticated AI systems on board, and how the ongoing changes in the sector will shape the industry's future.

Considering that our senior crew spend most of their careers mastering the technical aspects of the industry, there is often a gap between their technical skills and leadership abilities. Conor Feasey addresses the current leadership crisis on board by discussing it with former British Royal Navy officers Chris Andreason, head of management at Edmiston , and Karl and Tracey Santrian, founders of the leadership training organization BZ Maritime. We also speak to the youngest captain to win the RINA Captains Award about her rise to captaincy, the role of leadership and the challenges she still faces as a female skipper.

There are some sincere observations straight from the horse’s mouth as we gather views from the bridge, where The Superyacht Group’s Isla Painter reviews the findings from the Superyacht Intelligence team’s Captains and Senior Crew Survey. This analysis aims to understand the current sentiment on board amidst the changing landscape and to gauge captains’ perceptions of the industry's future, offering an earnest and unfiltered account of their perspectives. Additionally, the intel team provides a snapshot of the most important facilities and amenities for crew when they are in marinas.

AI has evolved from a buzzword to a staple of our everyday vernacular, especially concerning on-board operations. The integration of artificial intelligence into yachting is no longer just a fanciful idea but an exciting and imminent reality. Here, we examine its vast and transformative potential across all departments.

Lithium batteries have taken the spotlight in recent years, often being hailed as the ‘green’ zero-emission power solution for superyachting, but their use has sparked considerable debate. To delve deeper, our Sustainability Editor, Megan Hickling, questions whether they are truly the greener option and explores what alternatives should be considered to achieve genuine decarbonisation.

The industry is also coming to terms with its drinking problem. The sobering reality is the prevalent issues caused by alcohol and drugs on board, perpetuated by influences like ‘Below Deck’. These problems not only disrupt the professional capabilities of crew and operations on board but also negatively impact mental health. So, as the industry battles rising cases of poor mental health on board, we explore whether addressing alcohol and drug abuse could be part of the solution.

Our chairman, Martin Redmayne, dives into the upcoming America’s Cup and its positive impact on the wider maritime community. The 37th edition of this famous race, along with several other sailing competitions, is set to take place in Barcelona later this year, creating an exciting calendar of events for the Catalan capital. 

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