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The salvage crew lifted Mike Lynch’s sinking superyacht Bayesian from the seabed to the surface. This is an important step in investigating an accident that caused the deaths of a British entrepreneur and six other six people last summer.
The 56-meter ship was described as “unsinkable” by the builders, and capsized and sank last August while anchoring hundreds of metres from the Sicily coast.
Named after the statistical theorem that underpinned the autonomy of Lynch’s technology companies, Bayesian was caught in a violent storm with winds of 110km/h.
Lynch, his daughter, four friends and crew were all killed, and 15 survivors, including Lynch’s wife, were rescued by another superyacht crew member, Sir Robert Baden Powell.
The 50 metres underwater boat resurfaced Friday days after a strangely tall 72 metre mast known as the world’s tallest.
For the past three days, the superyacht has been slowly relaxed into an upright position and lifted from deep conditions by two powerful marine cranes.
On Saturday, when the weather is permitted, the entire yacht is lifted completely out of the water, the seawater is slowly pumped from the hull, and eventually ferries into the town of Sicily’s north coast town by a powerful floating ocean crane.
In May, the UK’s marine accident investigation unit issued a preliminary report finding Bayesians “vulnerability” and tend to capsize in strong winds.
The MAIB report estimated that only 63.4 knots of wind on the beams was sufficient to capsize the boat when the keel rose. The vulnerabilities were not included in the yacht’s “stable information” and were “not known to either the owner or the crew.”
Mike Lynch, right, and his daughter Hannah died after Bayesian was founded in a violent storm with winds of 110km/h © Family Handouts
Examining the wreckage would be an important part of an investigation by authorities who opened crime research to three crew members, including the captain, shortly after the tragedy, but none of the crew has been charged with fraud.
The Italian Sea Group, which acquired Bayesian builder Perini Navi in 2022, denied that the design flaws could have been behind the sinking, claiming that the tragedy was the result of human error, such as leaving the door open.
Bayesian’s recovery included one of Europe’s most powerful maritime cranes sent from Rotterdam to the Sicily coast. Over the past few days, eight steel lifting straps have been placed under the container so that they can be slowly raised upwards before they can be lifted from the seabed.
In May, the UK’s marine accident investigation unit released a preliminary report finding Bayesians have “vulnerabilities” that tend to capsize in strong winds ©Perini Navi/EPA/Shutterstock
Once you reach the Termini Imerese, it will be placed in a special steel cradle waiting for Quayside. The mast, still lying on the seabed, will be retrieved later.
Salvage work, 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 attempting to separate the mast from the hull. This is a case in which prosecutors opened another criminal investigation for potential manslaughter charges and workplace safety violations.
