SUNK IN 16 MINUTES!

A sun-drenched holiday turned into a living nightmare for those aboard this luxury vessel

- MELON RADEBE

IT WAS meant to be an idyllic holiday, a celebration that everybody on board would never forget.

Tech billionaire Mike Lynch had a lot to be grateful for – he’d been facing the prospect of 20 years imprisonment for fraud but he’d been found not guilty on all counts.

After years of having the possibility of jail time hanging over his head, it felt like he’d been given the gift of “a second life”, he said shortly after his court victory.

Mike (59) invited 12 of his closest friends and family aboard the opulent $40 million (R680m) Bayesian super- yacht for days of sun and fun to mark the end of the trial that had consumed his life for more than a decade.

The vessel – owned by his wife, Angela Bacares (57) – was the epitome of luxury, boasting 12 guest bedrooms and a dedicated crew of 10. Fitted with an imposing 72m aluminium mast, which was the world’s tallest, it was billed by the company that made it as being “one of the safest boats in the world”.

But in the early hours of 19 August, a freak storm rolled in over the bay near the Sicilian fishing community of Porticello where the Bayesian was anchored and within 16 minutes the vessel had vanished beneath the waves.

Guests awoke to thunder and lightning and then to their horror the boat tilted and glass started shattering as water came flooding in.

“It felt like the end of the world,” said Charlotte Golunski (35), a senior associate at one of Mike’s companies who was a guest on board.

She’d been having a nap on the deck with her oneyear-old daughter, Sophia, when the storm hit.

Suddenly every- thing went pitch dark. Within moments she had been pushed into the stormy sea. For a few terrifying seconds she lost hold of her baby but fortunately she was able to feel around in the water and find Sophia.