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Salvage crews have lifted Mike Lynch’s sunken superyacht Bayesian from the seabed to the surface, a crucial step in the investigation into the accident that caused the death of the British entrepreneur and six others last summer.
The 56-metre vessel, described by its builder as “unsinkable”, capsized and sank last August while anchored a few hundred metres off the Sicilian coast.
Named for the statistical theorem that underpinned Lynch’s technology company Autonomy, Bayesian foundered in a violent storm with winds of up to 110km per hour.
Lynch, his daughter, four friends and a crew member all died, while 15 survivors, including Lynch’s wife, were rescued by the crew of another superyacht, the Sir Robert Baden Powell.
The boat, which had been lying 50 metres underwater, resurfaced on Friday, days after its unusually tall 72-metre mast — said to be one of the world’s tallest — was detached from the boat using a remote-controlled, diamond-wire cutting tool.
Over the past three days, the superyacht was slowly eased into an upright position and lifted from the deep by two powerful maritime cranes, which will hold it upright at the surface overnight.
On Saturday, weather permitting, the entire yacht will be lifted out of the water completely, and the seawater slowly pumped out of the hull, before it is finally ferried by a powerful floating maritime crane to the town of Termini Imerese on the north coast of Sicily, according to TMC Marine, the British company overseeing the recovery operation.
In May, the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch released a preliminary report which found that Bayesian had “vulnerabilities” that made it prone to capsizing in strong winds.
The MAIB report estimated winds of just 63.4 knots on the beam — from the side — were enough to capsize the boat when the keel was raised. It said these vulnerabilities were “unknown to either the owner or the crew” as it was not included in the yacht’s “stability information booklet”.
Examining the wreckage will be a crucial part of the investigation by authorities, who opened criminal probes into three crew members, including the captain, shortly after the tragedy, although none of the crew has been charged with any wrongdoing.
The Italian Sea Group, which acquired the Bayesian’s builder Perini Navi in 2022, denied that any design flaws could have been behind the sinking and argued that the tragedy was a result of human errors, such as leaving doors open.
The recovery of Bayesian involved one of Europe’s most powerful maritime cranes, which was dispatched to the coast of Sicily from Rotterdam. In the past few days, eight steel lifting straps were placed under the vessel to allow it to be slowly pulled upright then raised from the seabed.
Once at Termini Imerese, it will be placed into a special steel cradle that awaits it quayside. The mast, which is still lying on the seabed, will be recovered later.
The salvage operation, which began in May, is being carried out by Dutch salvage companies HEBO Maritiemservice and Smit Salvage, under the supervision of TMC Marine.
At the start of the process, a Dutch diver was killed in an accident while trying to separate the mast from the hull, an incident into which prosecutors have now opened a separate criminal probe for potential manslaughter and workplace safety violations.
