A British-flagged superyacht that sank off Sicily last year, killing U.K. tech mogul Mike Lynch and six others, has partially resurfaced in a major salvage effort. The 184-foot Bayesian was lifted from the seabed Saturday by TMC Maritime, nearly 10 months after it capsized during a violent storm near Palermo.
The yacht, which had served as the site of a celebration cruise following Lynch’s U.S. acquittal on fraud charges, went down on August 19, 2024, with 22 people aboard. Among the seven dead were Lynch and his daughter. All crew members survived except the chef.
Recovery teams spent three days carefully raising the vessel from a depth of 165 feet using eight steel lifting straps and a wire hoist system. As the yacht was hoisted, crews pumped seawater from the hull to stabilize it for inspection. Its towering 236-foot mast, which had to be severed and left on the seabed, will be retrieved later.
David Wilson of TMC Maritime said the yacht will be held upright and prepped for transfer to Termini Imerese port, where a steel cradle awaits. The final relocation is expected Sunday.
Italian authorities are conducting a criminal investigation into the incident. A British interim report last month concluded that the vessel was struck by “extreme wind” exceeding 81 mph, flipping it to a 90-degree angle in under 15 seconds. The captain had chosen the area as shelter from forecast storms, but the violent gusts proved overwhelming.
Lynch, who founded the software firm Autonomy and sold it to HP for $11 billion in 2011, had recently celebrated a major legal victory before the tragedy.
