Italian investigators have attributed the sinking of Mike Lynch’s Bayesian superyacht to crew incompetence, ruling out flaws in the vessel’s design.
Powerful gusts struck the yacht from the side, causing it to heel sharply.
The vessel’s keel had not been fully lowered. Combined with its unusually tall 75-metre mast, that left the yacht unable to regain stability.
The £30 million superyacht capsized off Sicily in August 2024, killing seven people, including British technology billionaire Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah.
Fifteen people were rescued, among them Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares.
According to reports in the Italian press, the 184ft yacht sank after a series of mishandling incidents and human errors.
‘The retractable keel was not extended to its maximum depth,’ Italian prosecutors concluded, according to the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano.
SuperyachtNews reported in June that ‘the keel appears to have been raised when the vessel sank, which actively worsened the boat’s vulnerabilities’.
Seven people including tech billionaire Mike Lynch (right) and his daughter Hannah (left) died when the Bayesian sank in a freak storm in 2024
The superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily on August 19, 2024. It’s seen being pulled to the surface
British investigators said last year that the superyacht’s crew were ‘unaware’ of its vulnerability to strong winds, which caused it to overturn and sink.
Andy King, a naval architect, told the outlet: ‘The position of the keel would have been absolutely fundamental to the Bayesian.’
Three crew members are suspected of having responsibility for the disaster: New Zealand captain James Cutfield, British chief engineer Tim Parker Eaton and sailor Matthew Griffiths, who was on watch that night.
Experts appointed by Italian prosecutors concluded that the Bayesian sank because the crew failed to operate the yacht correctly, rather than because of a defect in its design or construction.
The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) said the yacht was effectively doomed after winds reaching 80.6mph forced it violently on to its side. It was unable to right itself as the storm passed over the vessel.
The MAIB said the captain and crew could not have understood the yacht’s vulnerabilities because they were not identified in the stability information booklet kept on board.
Italian experts had previously examined whether an extreme weather event, described by witnesses as a ‘tornado’, caused the tragedy.
However, the report concluded that the event was ‘little more than a squall’—a sudden rise in wind speed that can occur ahead of thunderstorms and heavy rain—and should have been manageable by the crew.
The preliminary findings said the 184ft yacht capsized and sank because of the crew’s improper actions, their failure to accurately assess the weather and the incorrect operation of several safety systems.
The investigation is examining possible offences, including negligent shipwreck and multiple counts of manslaughter involving the yacht’s captain and two crew members.
The yacht’s owner, Italian Sea Group (TISG), has blamed the crew for the sinking and sued Mr Lynch’s widow for £400 million, arguing that the company lost sales after the disaster.
Giovanni Costantino, TISG’s majority owner and an Italian yachting millionaire, said crew incompetence and negligence caused the tragedy on August 19, 2024. He has also insisted that the yacht was ‘unsinkable’.
Mr Costantino alleged that doors and portholes had not been properly secured and that weather warnings were ignored, despite being widely publicised.
He also argued that the yacht’s 16-minute sinking gave passengers and crew sufficient time to escape.
The company has filed a lawsuit in Termini Imerese, on Sicily’s northern coast, claiming it lost millions of pounds after being blamed for the disaster.
The other people who died aboard the Bayesian were the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas; Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy; and Mr Lynch’s lawyer, Chris Morvillo, and his wife, Neda Morvillo.
READ MORE: What REALLY happened to the ‘unsinkable’ Bayesian superyacht