Superyacht pulled from seabed 10 months after sinking off Sicily
ROME, June 21, (AP): A British-flagged luxury superyacht that sank off Sicily last year, killing UK tech magnate Mike Lynch and six others, partially resurfaced Saturday as salvage recovery crews finalized the complex operation to bring it ashore for further investigation. The white top and blue hull of the 56-meter (184-foot) Bayesian was visible on the surface but was not clear of the sea yet in a holding area of a yellow floating crane barge.
"Pumping out of sea water will continue and it will be lunchtime, following a series of lifting and resting procedures to satisfy the salvage team, before Bayesian is fully and finally out of the water,' said David Wilson, spokesman for TMC Maritime, which is conducting the recovery operation. The Bayesian sank Aug. 19 off Porticello, near Palermo, during a violent storm as Lynch was treating friends to a cruise to celebrate his acquittal two months earlier in the US on fraud charges.
Lynch, his daughter and five others died. Fifteen people survived, including the captain and all crew members except the chef. Italian authorities are conducting a full criminal investigation. TMC Maritime said the vessel has been slowly raised from the seabed, 50 meters (165-feet) down, over the past three days to allow the steel lifting straps, slings and harnesses to be secured under the keel. Eight steel lifting straps are being used to support the hull upright and to form part of a steel wire lifting system that began raising the vessel out of the water Saturday.
As it is lifted up, sea water is pumped out of the hull. TMC Maritime said the vessel will be held upright, out of the water, for checks and preparations for its final journey. On Sunday, it is anticipated the floating crane platform will move the Bayesian to the Sicilian port of Termini Imerese, where a special steel cradle is waiting for it.
The Bayesian is missing its 72-meter (236-foot) mast, which was cut off and left on the seabed for future removal. The mast had to be detached to allow the hull to be brought to a nearly upright position that would allow the craft to be raised. British investigators said in an interim report issued last month that the yacht was knocked over by "extreme wind' and couldn't recover.
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