Extreme wind blamed for sinking of superyacht off Sicily last year, British probe says

LONDON AP The superyacht of British tech magnate Mike Lynch which capsized last August off the coast of Sicily at the cost of seven lives was knocked over by extreme wind and could not recover British investigators revealed Thursday Billionaire entrepreneur Lynch and his daughter Hannah were among the dead when the -meter feet Bayesian sank Aug last year The boat trip was a celebration of Lynch s acquittal in a fraud episode in the U S in June In an interim account on the mishap Britain s Marine Accident Probe Branch reported the boat was vulnerable to winds that were even lighter than the ones that tipped it over The description was based on a limited amount of verified evidence as a criminal analysis by Italian bureaucrats has restricted its access to the wreck and other pieces of evidence it disclosed The agency which is reviewing the mishap because the Bayesian was registered in the U K declared the vulnerabilities were unknown to either the owner or the crew as they were not included in the stability information book carried on board The record stated that the Bayesian was sailed to the site where it sank the day before in order to shelter from forecast thunderstorms It revealed the catastrophe occurred at a m local time when wind speeds exceeded knots mph violently knocking the vessel over to a -degree angle in under seconds It stated that at the time of the matter the vessel was in a motoring condition with its sails lowered while the centerboard which is used to help stabilize it was in a raised position You have the wind pushing the vessel over and then you have the stability of the vessel trying to push the vessel back up right again declared Simon Graves an MAIB investigator And what our studies uncovered 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 Inquest proceedings in the U K are looking at the deaths of Lynch and his daughter as well as Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy Bloomer who were all British nationals The others who died in the sinking were U S lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo and Canadian-Antiguan national Recaldo Thomas who was working as a chef on the vessel Fifteen people including Lynch s wife Angela Bacares were rescued A project to move the Bayesian into an upright position and lift it to the surface has been paused since May when a diver died during underwater work Recovery work is set to resume from Thursday Further details such as escape routes will be included in the final statement according to Graves Once we get access to the vessel we ll be able to tell a fuller picture of initiatives on board and the sequence of events he noted No date has been set for when the final assessment will be published Source