Update: Plans to salvage sunken 56m sailing yacht Bayesian underway

Plans to salvage the 56-metre Perini Navi sailing yacht Bayesian are officially underway, with several recovery proposals submitted to the prosecutor’s office in Termini Imerese, Sicily. 

A syndicate of insurers led by British Marine – which insures the yacht owned by the Lynch family – presented eight possible plans. According to local news outlets, this included turning the vessel onto its keel and resurfacing it using cranes or "innovative buoyancy systems". The salvage poses significant logistical challenges for the parties involved, as the integrity of the yacht's structure is crucial to the ongoing investigation led by prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano.

The Italian Coast Guard will also have to approve the salvage proposal. There are tentative plans to begin the recovery operations in January 2025, with Bayesian likely be transported to Palermo for forensic examination once resurfaced.

On 19 August 2024, Bayesian was hit by bad weather and sunk approximately 0.8 nautical miles off the coast of Porticello in Sicily, Italy. It is understood that the yacht was being used to celebrate Lynch's recent victory in a 13-year £8 billion fraud acquittal. Of the 22 persons on board, 15 were safely evacuated, with a search and rescue mission later recovering the bodies of seven people.

A manslaughter and homicide probe is underway in Italy, while in the UK, an inquest into the deaths of four victims of the Bayesian disaster has officially opened at The Coroner's Court in Ipswich. The cause of death for Michael Lynch has been attributed to "drowning", but the deaths for the other three parties are still under investigation. 

This update follows the announcement that The Italian Sea Group (TISG), which owns the Perini Navi brand, would be taking legal action against the New York Times (NYT) in response to an article that the shipbuilder believes could cause reputational damages.