Tech billionaire Mike Lynch's 'unsinkable' Bayesian superyacht doomed by extreme wind, report finds

The superyacht that sank in a storm off Sicily last year, killing British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and six others, was vulnerable in high winds, investigators have found.

The 56-metre Bayesian was moored off the small port of Porticello, near Palermo, Italy, last August when it was hit by winds of an estimated 117kph, Britain's Marine Accident Investigations Branch said in an interim report. The 56-metre (184ft) yacht was knocked over and could not recover, they said.

The yacht had sailed to the port the previous day to shelter from forecast thunderstorms. A deck hand posted a video of the advancing storm on social media an hour before the boat capsized.

At 4.06am local time on August 19, 2024, the wind “violently” knocked the vessel over to a 90-degree angle in fewer than 15 seconds, investigators said, and “people, furniture and loose items fell across the deck”.

“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 added.

About 18 minutes later the yacht sunk in the 50m-deep sea.

The vessel had been in a “motoring condition” with its sails lowered and the centreboard – which is used to help stabilise it – in a raised position.

The investigation established that, in that position, it was possible the yacht may even have been similarly vulnerable to winds of lower speed.

It stated that “vulnerabilities” were “unknown to either the owner or the crew of Bayesian” as they were not included in the stability information book carried on board.

Seven killed

Inquest proceedings in the UK are looking at the deaths of Mr Lynch, 59, and his daughter Hannah, 18, as well as Morgan Stanley international bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer, 70, and his wife, Judy, 71, who were all British citizens.

The tycoon founded software giant Autonomy in 1996 and was cleared in June last year of carrying out a massive fraud over the sale of the company to Hewlett-Packard in 2011. The boat trip was a celebration of his acquittal in the case in the US.

The others who died in the sinking were US lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda, and Canadian-Antiguan citizen Recaldo Thomas, who was working as a chef on the vessel.

Fifteen people, including Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, were rescued. Five were injured “either by falling or from things falling on them”, while the deck hand was “thrown into the sea”, the report said.

Two guests used furniture drawers “as an improvised ladder” to escape their cabin. The skipper instructed guests and crew on an area of the deck to “swim clear of the mast and boom as the vessel was sinking”.

Survivors later made their way on to a life raft released from the Bayesian. They went on to be rescued by a small boat sent from the Sir Robert Baden Powell yacht, which was at anchor nearby.

'One of the world's safest boats'

The Bayesian was built in 2008 by Perini Navi, an Italian luxury boat maker. It featured the world's tallest aluminium mast, measuring 72m.

Giovanni Costantino, chief executive of the Italian Sea Group, which owns Perini, said in August the yacht was “one of the safest boats in the world”, considered unsinkable. The company did not provide any immediate comment on the UK report.

Andrew Moll, chief inspector of Marine Accidents, said: “The findings indicate that the extreme wind experienced by Bayesian was sufficient to knock the yacht over. Further, once the yacht had heeled beyond an angle of 70 degrees, the situation was irrecoverable.”

Simon Graves, of the Marine Accidents Investigation Branch (MAIB), said: “You have the wind pushing the vessel over and then you have the stability of the vessel trying to push the vessel back upright again.

“And what our studies found was that they show that the Bayesian may have been vulnerable to high winds, and that these winds were likely to have been evident at the time of the accident.”

Mr Graves said the stability information book did not “consider the effects of wind” because the sails were not raised and the vessel was “running on its engine” before the sinking. “That indicated a vulnerability that the owner and the crew would not have known about. That information wasn’t included.”

The MAIB is investigating as the Bayesian was registered in the UK. It said its report was based on “a limited amount of verified evidence” as a criminal investigation by Italian authorities has restricted its access to the wreck and other pieces of evidence.

The investigation team said the results of the report would be refined as the investigation proceeds and more information becomes available. No date has been set for when the final report will be published.