A British luxury superyacht, the Bayesian, which tragically sank off the coast of Sicily last year resulting in the loss of tech magnate Mike Lynch and six others, has now been successfully brought ashore in the Sicilian port of Termini Imerese following a meticulous recovery operation. The 56-meter yacht, with its white top and blue hull covered in algae and mud, was hoisted out of the water by a yellow floating crane barge in Porticello before being transported to Termini Imerese and docked in the early afternoon.
The next step in the process is the careful transportation of the vessel to shore and its placement in a specially constructed steel cradle, where investigators will be able to conduct further examinations to determine the cause of the sinking. The tragic incident occurred on August 19 near Palermo during a storm as Lynch was hosting friends on a celebratory cruise following his acquittal of fraud charges in the U.S. His daughter and five others also lost their lives in the accident, while fifteen individuals survived.
Italian authorities are currently engaged in a comprehensive criminal investigation into the incident. The recovery operation involved the slow lifting of the yacht from the seabed at a depth of 50 meters over the course of three days to secure the necessary equipment under the keel. The yacht’s mast, measuring 72 meters, was detached and left on the seabed for future removal to facilitate the raising of the hull.
According to a recent interim report by British investigators, the yacht was capsized by extreme winds and was unable to recover. The crew had sought refuge at the site where the incident occurred to escape forecasted thunderstorms. Wind speeds in excess of 70 knots violently overturned the vessel to a 90-degree angle within seconds.
