A British-flagged luxury superyacht that sank off the coast of Sicily last year—claiming the lives of U.K. tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and six others—was successfully lifted from the sea on Saturday. Salvage crews completed the complex recovery operation to bring the vessel ashore for further examination.
The 56-meter (184-foot) superyacht Bayesian, with its white top and blue hull now streaked with mud and algae, was clearly visible suspended above the water by a yellow floating crane barge off the port of Porticello in northern Sicily.
“This marks a safe and successful recovery of the Bayesian hull from the waters near northern Sicily,” said TMC Maritime, the firm overseeing the salvage effort. The company explained that the lift, which began early Saturday, involved a careful and intricate process.
According to TMC, the vessel will remain suspended temporarily so that expert teams can carry out inspections and finalize preparations before the yacht is transported into Termini Imerese port on Sunday. Once ashore, the yacht will be placed in a custom-built steel cradle to support forensic investigations aimed at determining what caused the sinking.
The Bayesian went down on August 19 near Porticello during a fierce storm, as Lynch hosted friends on a celebratory cruise marking his acquittal just two months earlier on U.S. fraud charges. Among those who died were Lynch, his daughter, and five others. Fifteen individuals survived, including the captain and all crew except the chef.
Italian authorities have launched a full criminal investigation into the incident.
Over the past three days, the yacht was slowly raised from 50 meters (165 feet) below the surface. Divers worked to secure steel slings, straps, and harnesses under the keel. Eight lifting straps helped reposition the hull upright, forming part of a steel wire system used to raise the vessel. As the hull was lifted, pumps expelled the seawater from inside.
One significant structural element, the yacht’s 72-meter (236-foot) mast, had to be cut off and left on the seabed to allow the rest of the vessel to be brought upright and hoisted safely. The mast will be retrieved later.
An interim report from British investigators last month concluded that the yacht was overwhelmed by “extreme wind” and tipped over. The crew had chosen the location as a safe haven based on weather forecasts, but winds reaching over 70 knots (81 mph) struck the vessel, capsizing it to a 90-degree angle in less than 15 seconds.
Mike Lynch, known for founding Autonomy in 1996 and later selling it to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011, had only recently been cleared of fraud charges in a U.S. federal court in San Francisco.
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