The late British tycoon Mike Lynch’s sunken superyacht Bayesian is set to be lifted from the bottom of the sea, with operations starting by the end of the month, as authorities seek to gather new evidence about the incident that killed him and six other people last year.
The 56-metre vessel – whose builder described as “unsinkable” – tipped over and sank while anchored a few hundred metres off the Sicilian coast last August, when it was hit by a violent storm – with winds of up to 110km an hour – at about 4am.
Italian authorities have recently approved a plan that will see two Dutch salvage companies lift the 540-tonne wreck, which lies 49m under the sea surface, as they attempt to gather evidence about the sinking.
The death of Lynch, his daughter, his friends and a crew member, has led to criminal investigations against multiple crew members, and other litigation as Italian criminal prosecutors seek to determine what went wrong and who was responsible for an incident that shocked UK tech investors and the tight-knit yachting world.
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The Italian Sea Group, the company that built the yacht, has denied that the boat had any design flaws and has sought to pin the blame on the crew, suggesting that someone left a hatch open near the waterline that may have allowed large quantities of water to enter the hull. The prosecutor’s office is investigating the actions of three crew members.
The lifting is set to turn into a media spectacle with the Italian press reporting that tourists and television crews from all over the world have booked out local hotels to watch the salvage.
A first barge will reach Termini Imerese on April 26th and position itself near the wreck to begin preliminary safety operations, a coastguard official said. A second barge with a crane to pull up the wreck will arrive later.
The lifting of the hull will probably take place around mid-May, officials said. The recovery is expected to help gather additional evidence in the case and to allow local fishermen and residents to return to an area marked by a wreck whose tanks – although secured – contain 18,000 litres of diesel.
The group of guests aboard the Bayesian was on holiday to celebrate Lynch’s acquittal in a US federal court after a 12-year legal battle over fraud charges for the $11 billion sale of his software group Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard. The group included Lynch’s family and members of his legal team and their wives.
Of the 22 passengers and crew on board that night, 15 people, including Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, were rescued by a yacht anchored nearby, which was unscathed by the violent storm.
Of the seven who died, five were recovered trapped in a single cabin, while Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah was found in another. The body of a crew member, the yacht’s chef, was recovered from the water.
– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
