THE MAKER of the superyacht Bayesian is suing the widow of British tech billionaire Mike Lynch for almost £400 million, alleging the vessel’s sinking destroyed its business.
The Italian Sea Group (TISG) has reportedly filed a lawsuit in against Angela Bacares, claiming it lost hundreds of millions in sales after
The Italian Sea Group is suing Angela Bacares for nearly £400 million
The 184ft Bayesian sank within a few minutes after being hit by high winds last August
papers lodged in the town of Termini Imerese name Bacares – the legal owner of the yacht’s holding company Revtom – along with the skipper and two crew members, as defendants.
TISG alleges crew incompetence and negligence caused the to capsize during a violent storm off Sicily.
Mike Lynch, 59, died alongside his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and five others when Bayesian went down in August 2024.
Bacares survived the incident.
TISG, which is majority-owned by Italian yachting millionaire Giovanni Costantino, claims the yacht was “unsinkable” and that the crew failed to secure hatches, heed warnings and lower the keel as conditions worsened.
The company argues those failures led directly to the capsize, and to catastrophic reputational damage for the builder.
The shipbuilder is seeking around £400m (€456m) in damages, claiming sales collapsed after the tragedy and that it has been wrongly blamed for the sinking.
It alleges planned yacht orders worth close to £1 billion failed to materialise and that no Perini-branded have been sold since.
A source close to the Lynch family strongly rejected the claim, telling the Telegraph: “This claim is as cynical as it is predictable.
“The UK has raised serious, unresolved questions about the yacht’s design, stability and operating characteristics, including vulnerabilities unknown to the owner and crew.
“This action appears designed to distract from those issues but it will not prevent proper scrutiny of how the vessel was designed, approved and built. It is desperate, opportunistic and in bad faith.”
The comments echo findings by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch, which the crew were unaware of, including instability linked to its unusually tall mast.
Investigators said those risks were not set out in the stability information available on board.
The lawsuit also names skipper James Cutfield and crew members Timothy Eaton and Matthew Griffiths.
Italian prosecutors have previously confirmed crew members are under criminal investigation.
TISG sparked controversy in September 2024 when lawyers acting for the company briefly filed a similar claim against Bacares, only for the papers to be withdrawn.
Angela Bacares has revealed the final moments before the Bayesian sank last year and killed her husband Mike LynchCredit: Facebook
The couple’s teenage daughter Hannah also died in the disasterCredit: PA
At the time, the company distanced itself from the move, saying it had given only a “generic mandate” and that no authorised writ had been approved or signed.
The Sun has approached The Italian Sea Group for comment.
The Bayesian sank during a violent storm off the coast of Sicily in the early hours of August 19, 2024, after capsizing at anchor near the fishing village of Porticello.
The yacht went down in around 16 minutes after being hit by extreme winds during what investigators described as a freak weather event.
Seven people were killed, including British entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah.
Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, survived along with several other passengers and crew.
The bodies of the victims were recovered following a five-day underwater search of the wreck.
It comes as , telling Italian prosecutors she was woken in the early hours as the yacht began to tilt during the storm.
She said she was “not worried, just curious” when she first sat up in bed, and did not initially believe those on board were in a “serious situation”, recalling that the vessel had ridden out severe weather just weeks earlier.
A picture taken of the yacht just 14 minutes before it tragically sunk
Haunting pictures show the aftermath of the Bayesian’s sinkingCredit: TG/RAINEWS
Floating crane ships Hebo LIFT 10 and Hebo LIFT 2 recover part of the Bayesian yacht, June 20Credit: PA
Bacares said she felt “reassured” by the calmness of the crew, including skipper James Cutfield, shortly before the disaster unfolded.
She later described “something catastrophic” happening as winds of up to 80mph and a tornado-like waterspout battered the mast, causing the yacht to suddenly roll onto its side.
Bacares was pulled to safety by a crew member but was unaware at the time that her husband and daughter were trapped below.
The widow .
The families of those who died are considering civil action, while the UK High Court has ruled that Lynch’s estate owes more than £700m to US tech giant over its acquisition of his software firm Autonomy in 2011.
The ruling relates to long-running fraud claims brought by HP, despite Lynch having been acquitted of related criminal charges in the US shortly before his death.
If enforced in full, the damages award could bankrupt the estate, which passes to Bacares and the couple’s surviving daughter.
Inside the Bayesian's final 16 minutes
DATA recovered from the Bayesian’s Automatic Identification System (AIS) breaks down in a painful minute-by-minute timeline.
At 3.50am on Monday August 19 the Bayesian began to shake “dangerously” during a fierce storm, Italian outlet Corriere revealed.
Just minutes later at 3.59am the boat’s anchor gave way, with a source saying the data showed there was “no anchor left to hold”.
After the ferocious weather ripped away the boat’s mooring it was dragged some 358 metres through the water.
By 4am it had began to take on water and was plunged into a blackout, indicating that the waves had reached its generator or even engine room.
At 4.05am the underneath the waves.
An emergency GPS signal was finally emitted at 4.06am to the coastguard station in Bari, a city nearby, alerting them that the vessel had sunk.
Early reports suggested the disaster struck around 5am local time off the coast of Porticello Harbour in Palermo, Sicily.
The new data pulled from the boat’s AIS appears to suggest it happened an hour earlier at around 4am.
Some 15 of the 22 onboard were rescued, 11 of them scrambling onto an inflatable life raft that sprung up on the deck.
A smaller nearby boat – named Sir Robert Baden Powell – then helped take those people to shore.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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