The missing people were of British, American and Canadian nationality, the coastguard said. The 15 people rescued included a one-year-old child.
“The wind was very strong. Bad weather was expected, but not of this magnitude,” said a coastguard official in Palermo.
Storms and heavy rainfall have swept down Italy in recent days – with floods and landslides causing major damage in the north of the country – after weeks of scorching heat.
Eight of those rescued were transferred to local hospitals. All were in stable condition, local media reported.
The captain of a nearby boat said 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.
The other boat “went flat on the water, and then down,” he added.
He said that his crew then found some of the survivors on a life raft – including three who were seriously injured and “a little baby and the wife of the owner” – and took them on board before the coastguard picked them up.
Entrepreneur Lynch, aged 59, was acquitted in June by a jury in San Francisco of fraud charges linked to the sale of his software company, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard for US$11 billion in 2011.
He said at the time that he was “elated” to be cleared in the criminal trial, in which he denied any wrongdoing and blamed HP for botching the integration of the two companies.
Divers inspect wreck
The coastguard said divers were inspecting the wreck, at a depth of 49 metres.
Prosecutors in the nearby town of Termini Imerese have opened an investigation to look into what had gone 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 known as Salute, or health in Italian, its 75-metre mast is the tallest aluminium mast in the world, Perini said on its website.
The boat left the Sicilian port of Milazzo on Aug. 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.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
