Long wait for truth about yacht tragedy

Sicilian fishing village watches the salvage of tycoon’s sailboat for answers on the causes of its sinking

- By Lorenzo Tondo PORTICELLO

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,” said Pietro Guida, 68, who each morning watches the recovery efforts from the breakwater of Porticello’s pier, 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”.