Kiwi captain James Cutfield reportedly grilled by Italian police after superyacht sinking, divers recover more bodies

• James Cutfield, 51, originally of North Shore, Auckland, captained the sunken superyacht and has been reportedly grilled by Italian prosecutors.
• Divers have recovered the bodies of four more people, allegedly including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch.
• Rescuers continue searching the yacht on the bottom of the sea floor.

The Kiwi who captained the luxury yacht that sunk off the coast of Italy has reportedly been grilled for multiple hours by Italian prosecutors.

New Zealand citizen James Cutfield, 51, captained the Bayesian, the boat that sank off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo during a storm.

According to Italian media outlet Giornale Di Sicilia, Cutfield was questioned for two hours while prosecutors attempted to piece together the super yachts’ final moments.

Prosecutors are expected to interview other survivors as well.

It comes as divers searching the Bayesian have found five bodies and recovered four of them, according to local authorities.

Search and rescue divers have spent days trying to access the Bayesian to recover the bodies of those inside after the superyacht sank in a freak storm. Photo / Vigil Fuoco

Among those bodies identified are tech mogul Mike Lynch, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and Morgan Stanley International chair Jonathan Bloomer, Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported.

A woman’s body had also been found. Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Morvillo’s wife Neda and Bloomer’s wife Judy were among those missing.

Salvo Cocina, the director-general of Sicily’s civil protection agency, confirmed that five bodies had been found but only four brought to shore. One person remained missing, he said.

Mike Lynch, the technology tycoon known as “Britain’s Bill Gates”, is one of Britain’s best-known and most controversial technology entrepreneurs. Photo / Getty Images

Searches had finished for the day and would resume on Thursday, Cocina said.

CNN reporters saw four body bags being moved from rescue boats into ambulances at the port of Porticello, near where the boat sank, though authorities did not provide details about those inside.

Yacht Bayesian sinks off the coast of Sicily.

Rescuers have spent days trying to reach those remaining inside the boat but have been hampered by the depth of the vessel and debris blocking passageways.

The six had been missing since the 56m yacht sank amid a freak storm off the coast of Sicily on Monday, with 22 people on board. Fifteen had been rescued and one, the boat’s chef, was killed.

Captain’s brother says he was ‘well-respected’

Cutfield’s brother Mark told the Herald his brother was a “very good sailor” and was “very well respected” in the Mediterranean.

He said he was in hospital but was not suffering from injuries “too dramatic”.

“He’s safe, he’s okay.”

James Cutfield was the captain of Bayesian, the superyacht that capsized off Palermo. Photo / Perini Navi, Facebook

Mark said they had received a call from James’ wife Cristina before the news broke so they would not worry about their brother’s life. She had flown from their home in Palma, Mallorca, to be by his side in Italy and has been updating the New Zealand family.

James had been a captain on luxury yachts for eight years and had previously been working on them and involved in building them for the past 30 years in various locations around the Mediterranean.

He said before he worked for Lynch, he had worked for a Turkish billionaire.

Mark said James was a “top sailor” in his youth and raced 470s competitively in his youth.

When the Bayesian went down, James was among the 15 people who were rescued.

New Zealander Ayla Ronald, 36, a senior associate for Clifford Chance in London, and her partner Matthew Fletcher were among the people who were rescued.

Ronald is from Christchurch and studied at the University of Otago.

Rachel Maher is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. She has worked for the Herald since 2022.