Below Deck Captain Doesn't Believe Conspiracies About How Bayesian Sank, Offers His Insight into Tragedy

Below Deck star Captain Glenn Shephard is offering his insight into the sinking of Bayesian, the superyacht that capsized off the coast of Italy in August, killing seven people.

Shephard has spent five seasons at the helm of Parsifal III on Below Deck Sailing Yacht, one of several spin-offs from the original Bravo reality series.

Parsifal III is made by the same yachtmaker as the Bayesian — Perini Navi, which was purchased at the end of 2021 by The Italian Sea Group. CEO Giovanni Costantino has suggested that Bayesian was designed to be “unsinkable.” 

But investigators have determined that a downburst (not a tornado, as previously reported) impacted the superyacht as it sat off the coast of Sicily on the morning of Aug. 19, according to Impact X Nightline.

Appearing on Impact X Nightline’s Gone In 16 Minutes: Sinking of The Superyacht, Shephard pushed back against conspiracy theories circulating in the months since the sinking.

“A downburst? I don’t think you can conspire that,” Shephard said on the episode, which premiered Thursday, Nov. 14, exclusively on Hulu. “And to me, that’s what happened.” 

Perini Navi yachts “have a very distinctive style,” according to Shephard, who has been a captain on sailing yachts for two decades.

Most of these sailboats, he said, are what are known as “ketches,” meaning they have two masts.

“The main difference between Bayesian and the other Perini Navis [is] she only had one mast,” Shephard explained.

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Bayesian’s mast was also among the tallest in the world at 240 feet, according to Impact X Nightline.

Downbursts are “strong localized downdrafts” that fan out on the Earth’s surface as “straight-line winds,” according to the National Weather Service.

On Impact X Nightline, Elizabeth Smith of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said these winds can be incredibly destructive and "high impact phenomena when they are strong."

Shephard acknowledged just how dangerous severe weather can be on the water, having sailed through storms in the Mediterranean himself.

“You can predict a thunderstorm but you can’t predict the conditions you will have," he explained on the episode. "Sometimes there’s hurricane winds, and I’ve seen [winds] go from [no wind] to 65 knots in the Sea of Naples in 15 minutes."

An investigation into the sinking of Bayesian is ongoing.

Three crew members — the captain, machine engineer and the sailor on watch the night of the incident — remain under investigation for manslaughter and culpable shipwreck, according to Impact X Nightline.