Latest news with #Porticello
Times
21-05-2025
- Business
- Times
Bayesian yacht: boom and anchor recovered from wreck
The boom and anchor from the doomed yacht Bayesian have been recovered as a salvage operation on the sunken vessel gets under way, despite the death of a diver postponing the lifting of its hull until June. A diamond cutting wire was used to sever the boom, sail and furling gear from the mast of the $40 million yacht before they were lifted on to a salvage vessel positioned above the Bayesian, which lies 50m underwater near the fishing port of Porticello in Sicily. A remote-controlled submersible was used to cut one of the Bayesian's anchor chains, allowing the anchor and chain to be recovered, according to the salvage firm TMC Marine, which is managing the operation. • Bayesian sinking victims' cause of death still
The Guardian
21-05-2025
- The Guardian
‘That damned night': Porticello awaits the truth about Bayesian sinking
Some say that the late tech tycoon Mike Lynch's superyacht, Bayesian, sank because it was vulnerable to high winds that drove the vessel past its point of stability. Others insist that a chain of human errors led to the incident that claimed seven lives, including Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah. But in the quiet Sicilian fishing village of Porticello – where on 19 August 2024 the Bayesian was caught shortly before dawn in a violent storm while anchored off coast – everyone knows the truth lies 50 metres below the surface, in the wreckage of a yacht that divers, floating cranes and underwater drones are still struggling to bring back from the depths of the ocean. ''Until then, before the vessel is brought back to the surface and examined by investigators, the causes behind this tragedy will remain a mystery,' says Pietro Guida, 68, who each morning watches the recovery efforts of the Bayesian from the breakwater of Porticello's pier, passing the time as he waits for a fish to bite his line. In front of him, towering floating cranes dominate the seascape. They have been at work for weeks on the salvage operation. From time to time, a group of divers emerge from the water and are pulled onboard a motorboat, where fresh divers prepare to descend and take their place. On 9 May, a 39-year-old Dutch diver and member of their team died while working underwater in preparation to cut the ship's mainmast, with the operations suspended for about a week. His death has shaken the small fishing community of Porticello, where people had already labelled the yacht's sinking 'the Bayesian curse'. It is a label that has extended beyond the incident itself. Driven by intense media coverage, the village and its coastline have also come under scrutiny – depicted on social media as a sort of Bermuda Triangle, a place sailors are being advised to avoid. 'They've talked about supernatural currents, about waters where ships vanish,' says Gina Lo Bue, 45, who owns a restaurant a few metres from the Porticello pier. 'It's all nonsense! The waters in front of the port have always been calm. The storm that hit the Bayesian was something we'd never seen before – something that could have happened anywhere.' The bars that nine months ago, during the harrowing days of body recovery, teemed with curious onlookers and journalists from around the world are now almost deserted. Only the occasional pair of tourists wander up to the pier to snap a photo of the cranes still at work, eager to capture the disaster site that had the world holding its breath for weeks. In a small bay a few hundred metres along from the breakwater, a handful of swimmers slip into the sea. They seem unfazed by the towering cranes rising behind them – or by the reason those machines are there. Summer is nearly here in Sicily. A preliminary safety report last week by the UK's Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) detailed the final, tragic 18 minutes before the 56-metre (184ft) sailboat slipped beneath the waves. Shortly before 4am local time the Bayesian started dragging on its anchor and a young deckhand posted on his social media account a video of the storm approaching. Then he woke up the captain, who went to the bridge, while the chief engineer went to the engine room to prepare the vessel for manoeuvring. The wind suddenly increased at 4.06am, causing the yacht to heel over to 90 degrees in less than 15 seconds, sending people, furniture and loose items flying across the deck. 'I woke up with a jolt in the middle of the night,' says Lo Bue. 'The wind swept away the chairs and tables of the bars along the port – it felt like an earthquake.' What the MAIB described as a possible 'tornadic waterspout' headed towards the boats in the harbour. The docks seemed to divert the whirlwind, which went straight towards the Bayesian. Sign up to This is Europe The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment after newsletter promotion Water came in over the starboard rails and within seconds entered the vessel down the stairwells, the report said. The captain told guests and crew on the bridge to abandon the yacht and swim clear of the mast and boom as it was sinking. Nine crew members and six guests were rescued from a life raft, including Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, whose company owned the Bayesian. The others were trapped inside the vessel as it went down. Alongside the work of the MAIB, Sicilian prosecutors have opened an inquiry into suspected manslaughter. The captain, James Cutfield, from New Zealand, and two British crew members, Tim Parker Eaton and Matthew Griffiths, have been placed under investigation. In Italy, being placed under investigation does not imply guilt, nor does it necessarily lead to formal charges. The prosecutors have said some members of the crew may have acted with negligence. 'Negligence? I'd like to see what the most experienced sailor in the world would've done in the face of a tornado's force,' says Franco Balestrieri, 63. He and his brother Gaetano own two fishing boats in Porticello, and both are former yacht captains. 'A vortex like that often causes the anchor to twist around the keel – which was probably raised – and the boat loses stability, Franco says. 'Once the power went out, water got in everywhere. When a storm like that hits, you don't always have time to react or get to safety. You can't condemn anyone. And you certainly can't blame the engineers who built the boat.' 'My brother and I have seen plenty of storms,' Gaetano says. 'Do you think it's easy to stay calm when waves are crashing over you and the wind's tearing your crew away?' He pointed toward the calm waters just beyond the port. 'You see this ocean? Look at it. In Sicily we have a saying: 'The sea may be soft, but when it crashes, it crashes hard.'' 'And that damned night,' he adds, 'the waters … they crashed really hard.'
Times
20-05-2025
- Business
- Times
Boom and anchor recovered from wreck of superyacht Bayesian
The boom and anchor from the doomed yacht Bayesian have been recovered as a salvage operation on the sunken vessel gets under way, despite the death of a diver postponing the lifting of its hull until June. A diamond cutting wire was used to sever the boom, sail and furling gear from the mast of the $40 million yacht before they were lifted on to a salvage vessel positioned above the Bayesian, which lies 50m underwater near the fishing port of Porticello in Sicily. A remote-controlled submersible was used to cut one of the Bayesian's anchor chains, allowing the anchor and chain to be recovered, according to the salvage firm TMC Marine, which is managing the operation. • Bayesian sinking victims' cause of death still
Daily Mail
19-05-2025
- Daily Mail
First major piece of the Bayesian superyacht is raised from the seabed after it sank last summer, killing British billionaire Mike Lynch
The first piece of the superyacht Bayesian which sank last summer killing billionaire tech tycoon Mike Lynch has been brought to the surface. Footage posted on specialist marine websites show a section of the Bayesian's boom being hauled aboard one of the salvage vessels that is currently above the yacht. Coastguard officials and prosecutors had ordered an exclusion zone around the site of the wreck, and it is thought the clip was obtained by a drone. The Bayesian went down last August off the coat of the Sicilian fishing village of Porticello and also killed, were 59-year-old Mr Lynch's daughter Hannah, 18, who was due to start at Oxford University a few weeks later. The Bayesian went down in the early hours of the morning in just 16 minutes after being hit by a fierce storm with 100 mph winds and five other passengers also drowned. Earlier this month the vessel – which locals say is cursed– claimed the life of an eighth person, a Dutch diver who was working on the £20 million salvage operation. Two salvage ships, the Hebo Lift 2 and the Hebo Lift 10, are currently above the Bayesian, which is at depth of 160ft and the plan is to lift the yacht from later this month and take it to a specially constructed cradle at Termini Imerese. Once on dry land prosecutors, lawyers and technical consultants will inspect the hull as a criminal investigation has been launched into the tragedy with crew members facing possible charges of manslaughter and causing a disaster. In sailing the boom is the horizontal section below the sail and it connects to the mast via a fitting known as the 'gooseneck'. It is thought the diver who died had been attempting to disconnect the gooseneck with a flammable torch when there was some sort of explosion, killing him and his death is now also the subject of an investigation. It led to operation being delayed for a week while an investigating prosecutor carried out enquiries and the salvage work only restarted last Thursday. The footage of the boom being hauled onto the deck of the Hebo Lift 2 was posted late on Sunday by the website site The Yacht Report. A source in Porticello said:' The authorities aren't too happy as there is an exclusion zone around the Bayesian and it appears that somehow this footage was obtained by a drone.' Authorities in Porticello confirmed to the MailOnline that the boom was brought up as part of the investigation into the diver's death. The plan now is for the Bayesian to be lifted at some stage later this month after her trademark 236ft mast is removed from the deck. This will be left on the seabed temporarily while the main part of the £30 million yacht is lifted. Last week an interim Marine Accident Investigation Branch report said the yacht was doomed after it was hit by 80.6mph winds causing it to tilt violently on its side and it was unable to straighten as the freak storm hit. The report highlighted how the keel had not been lowered and that 'vulnerabilities' in the yacht's stability had not been highlighted in the 184ft Bayesian's information manual carried onboard. Italian Sea Group who bought Perini Navi which built the Bayesian have insisted the yacht 'was unsinkable' and declined to comment following the MAIB report. The Bayesian sank in just 16 minutes after being hit by the violent 'mesocyclonic storm front' which has violent downdrafts ad surface winds in excess of 100mph (87knots). In its report the MAIB said the captain and crew would have had no idea of the yacht's vulnerabilities as they were not laid out in the stability information booklet onboard. The three crew members who are under investigation are captain James Cutfield, chief engineer Timothy Parker Eaton and deckhand Matthew Griffiths – who filmed the fierce storm as it approached and posted it online. Under Italian law the fact the men have bene placed under investigation does not imply guilt and does not necessarily mean that charges will be brought it is merely a legal obligation to inform them. The consortium chosen to salvage the Bayesian is led by TMC Marine, a UK based firm, who are using Dutch companies Hebo and Smit as part of the recovery.
CNN
15-05-2025
- CNN
Inside the Bayesian's final moments: extreme winds sank superyacht, interim report finds
Sudden, hurricane-force winds toppled the luxury Bayesian superyacht that sank off the coast of Sicily last August, according to an interim report into the disaster, which found the boat had 'vulnerabilities' to extreme wind which were not known to the owner or crew. The 184-foot sailing boat owned by British tech tycoon Mike Lynch was anchored about a half mile from the port of Porticello on the Italian island's northern coast when it sank, killing seven people, including Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah. The interim report by the UK's Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) gives a detailed account of the hours before the Bayesian suddenly capsized and the desperate escape attempts by the 12 guests and 10 crew on board in the moments after. On the evening of August 13 when Bayesian's guests and some of its crew retired for the night, the seas were calm and the winds were light, but thunderstorms were forecast, the report said. Bayesian's skipper, James Cutfield, told the overnight watchkeepers to wake him if the wind speed increased above 23 mph or if the boat started dragging anchor, the report said. At around 3 a.m., one of the watchkeepers noticed storm clouds and lightning seemed to be getting closer, though the wind was blowing at around 9 mph from the west. An hour later, the wind picked up to 34 mph. Around 3:55 a.m., the watchkeeper filmed a video of the advancing storm and posted it to social media, according to the report, before closing the cockpit windows and forward hatches to protect the yacht's interior from rain. Eyewitnesses described furious gales and hurricane-like winds that left an avalanche of debris near the pier. At 3:57 a.m., the yacht started dragging its anchor, and the watchkeeper woke the skipper and other crewmembers, the report said. Some of the guests were also woken by the storm. Lynch made his way to the boat's flybridge to see if the taxis arranged for 8 a.m. that morning would have to be canceled because of the storm. The yacht's chef began stowing cutlery, pots and pans. Then, the wind suddenly increased to more than 80 mph, and at around 4:06 a.m. the yacht 'violently heeled over' to a 90-degree angle in less than 15 seconds, sending people, furniture and other loose items flying across the deck, the report said. 'There was no indication of flooding inside Bayesian until water came in over the starboard rails and, within seconds, entered the internal spaces down the stairwells,' the report said. Guests and crew scrambled to escape the sinking ship, with two guests using furniture drawers as a ladder to escape their cabin, according to the report. The survivors treaded water and used cushions from the boat as flotation devices before the boat's chief officer was able to detach and inflate a life raft, the report said. Responding to a flare from the life raft, the skipper of a nearby ship rescued the survivors before calling the local coast guard, the report said. Seven people died in the accident, including the yacht's chef Recaldo Thomas, Morgan Stanley International director Jonathan Bloomer, prominent American lawyer Chris Morvillo, and both of their wives – Judy Bloomer and Neda Morvillo. Cutfield and 14 other people survived the sinking, including Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares. Winds of 73 mph were enough to knock the Bayesian beyond the point of no recovery, the investigation found. It also said it is possible Bayesian could have been vulnerable to lighter winds. 'These vulnerabilities (when in the motoring condition with sails lowered, the centreboard raised and 10% consumables on board) were not identified in the stability information book carried on board,' the report said. 'Consequently, these vulnerabilities were also unknown to either the owner or the crew of Bayesian.' Marine salvage experts are currently working to recover the yacht from the ocean to better understand what happened.
