How Mike Lynch’s luxury yacht sank within minutes off Sicily

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It was 3 a.m. on Monday and Captain Karsten Börner and his crew were already awake, preparing for an approaching thunderstorm just off the Sicilian coast.

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Moored behind their schooner was a luxury yacht that carried tech tycoon Mike Lynch and a group of friends, family and advisers. Built to withstand hurricanes, the Bayesian was 56 metres (184 feet) long and worth an estimated £30 million (C$53.3 million), making it one of the most capable high-end sailing vessels.

At some point between 4 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. the weather hit. Börner and his crew worked hard just to keep their ship, the Sir Robert Baden Powell, upright. Despite being anchored, he still needed to run the engine at full power just to keep it steady. There was a violent gust of wind and heavy rain, what Börner guessed was a tornado.

Suddenly, the Bayesian was gone. “She disappeared,” Börner said. At first, he and his crew wondered if the yacht had simply left. Börner’s first mate insisted it had sunk. “I said nonsense. It’s such a big ship. I can’t believe it.”

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Three days later, Italian divers were still struggling inside the wreck of the Bayesian, about 50 metres below the surface. Of the 22 people on board, one was confirmed dead and six were still missing — including Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter and Morgan Stanley International chair Jonathan Bloomer.

The Bayesian had been cruising off the north coast of Sicily before mooring outside the port of Porticello, a small fishing village east of Palermo.

The trip was meant to be a celebration, a family holiday to draw a line under a torrid period for Lynch. Only months before the disaster the 59-year-old had been potentially facing up to 25 years in a US prison.

The entrepreneur had been fighting accusations that he duped Hewlett Packard Co. into overpaying for his software firm  Autonomy Corp. In June, a San Francisco jury found him not guilty. Lynch was still fighting the Silicon Valley giant in a civil case in London, but he felt he’d been given a “second life.”

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On the morning the Bayesian sank, local fisherman Fabio Cefalù had ventured out to sea. But he decided to turn around and head back to port. The water was becoming too rough. Half an hour later, the storm hit Porticello.

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“The whole town was upside down, all tables and restaurants were upside down,” said Giuseppe Cefalù, Fabio’s brother who had remained on shore. “A garbage skip was pushed into the middle of the street.” The extreme event lasted 10 to 12 minutes, they said.

At about 4:20 am, the Bayesian sent out a flare, said Fabio. The yacht took about 60 seconds to sink, according to what he saw and footage from a security camera. Porticello fishermen began a three-hour long rescue attempt on the urging of port authorities about 20 minutes later, Cefalù added. They found mattresses, boat furniture, and what they believe is one of the four radar components of the ship.

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Next to where the Bayesian sank, Börner first saw the flotsam of ship parts, then a flashing light that drew them to a life raft. It was holding 15 people, including a baby. Four of them were wounded.

Börner’s crew brought the rescued back to their ship and gave them dry clothes and towels, tea and coffee and some food. The sun had risen by the time the local coast guard arrived to retrieve the injured.  Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, didn’t want to go, Börner said. He presumed she was still in shock. “She stayed on our boat,” he said.

The yacht, built by Italian shipbuilder Perini Navi, launched in 2008 and was last refitted in 2020. According to its brochure, it had the world’s second-tallest sailing mast, at 72 metres high. Guests slept in luxury cabins clustered around the centre of the yacht. It was capable of sailing vast distances, with a range of up to 3,600 nautical miles (4,140 miles).

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Prosecutors in Sicily have opened a probe into the sinking. Officials will examine whether the keel was lifted, which would make the ship more susceptible to tilting, before it flooded with water, a person familiar with the matter said. The prosecutors declined to comment.

“A keel would have prevented some of the tilting, with its weight designed to pull the boat upright,” said Jae Jones, who was a principal inspector at the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch, or MAIB. “It also acts as a break and reduces the rocking even at anchor.”

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As the yacht was a UK-flagged vessel, MAIB sent four inspectors to Sicily to conduct a preliminary assessment, a spokesperson for the Department for Transport said. They arrived at the scene on Monday and have been speaking with the local authorities and emergency service crews to determine whether they need their own inquiry.

The weather phenomenon that hit the ship is called a waterspout. Typically 2 to 3 metres in width, they’re not uncommon in Italy during the late summer, driven by the warm Mediterranean waters. Jones described it as “like a swirling mass of wind and water going across the deck.”

Italy experiences more than 100 “tornadic events” a year, said Andrew Pedrini, a meteorologist at forecaster Atmospheric G2. Offshore marine spouts often go unreported, though.  In coastal areas, a fierce wind can pick up then die down in seconds with little warning, according to a fellow captain of a super yacht, who asked not to be named discussing the tragic events.

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Commenting on whether the tragedy could have been foreseen, Salvo Cocina, head of Sicily’s Civil Protection Agency, said only the level of probability could have been predicted. It was impossible to calculate when and where such weather would hit, he said. Warming seas have increased the severity of such events, Cocina added.

For now, the rescue attempts are continuing in Porticello. Local media reported on Wednesday that small teams of divers have been able to access indoor sections of the boat.

On shore, TV anchors from across the world have set up on a pier overlooking one of the emergency operation bases, right under a monument to the Virgin Mary, meant to protect sailors.

Börner, the schooner captain, was concerned a part of the Bayesian was open, which could have explained how it sank so rapidly. It was one of his first questions to one of the crew members who were rescued. “He said it was closed,” said Börner. “He himself was really surprised it had sunk so quickly.”

— With assistance from Flavia Rotondi, Alaric Nightingale and Julian Lee.

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