By Wladimir Pantaleone
ROME (Reuters) – The superyacht that sank off Sicily last year, killing British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and six others, will be lifted out of the water next month after its mast is dismantled, people close to the matter said on Tuesday.
The recovery of the British-flagged Bayesian, lying on its right side at a depth of around 50 metres (164 feet), could help explain why it went down during a sudden storm off the port of Porticello, near Palermo – an event that has baffled naval experts.
The salvage operation will be managed by a joint venture of Dutch companies HEBO Maritiemservice and Smit Salvage, the Italian officials, who declined to be named as they are not authorised to speak on the matter, said.
Neither company was immediately available to comment.
A ship carrying the mega crane HEBO Lift 10 has left the port of Rotterdam and is currently sailing off the French Atlantic coast, one of the sources said, adding that it will take 10 to 12 days to reach Porticello.
Twenty-two people were on board the Bayesian, of whom 15 survived. The survivors included nine of the 10 crew members and Lynch’s wife, whose company owned the Bayesian. Lynch’s daughter was among those who died.
Italian prosecutors and coastguards have selected a recovery project led by TMC Marine Consultants Ltd, which involves pulling the 72-metre mast out of the water before the rest of the vessel in order to safeguard the hull and evidence it may contain.
Other potential salvage plans, which involved turning the 55.9-metre yacht, which weighs 534 tonnes, almost 90 degrees on the seabed without dismantling its mast, were rejected because of the complexity of the procedure.
Prosecutors in the town of Termini Imerese, near Palermo, have placed three crew members under investigation: Captain James Cutfield, ship engineer Tim Parker Eaton and night watch duty sailor Matthew Griffiths.
They are suspected of manslaughter and causing a shipwreck.
The prosecutors have said the Bayesian will have to be pulled out of the water before the investigation can be concluded.
(Reporting by Wladimir Pantaleone, writing by Giselda Vagnoni, editing by Gavin Jones and Sharon Singleton)
