Sunken Superyacht of UK Tech Tycoon Mike Lynch Recovered Near Sicily (theguardian.com) 57
The superyacht Bayesian, owned by UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch, has been recovered off the coast of Sicily nearly a year after it sank during a storm, killing Lynch, his daughter, and five others. Italian authorities hope the $30 million salvage will uncover the cause of the sinking, which is under investigation for suspected manslaughter amid concerns about design flaws and storm vulnerability. The Guardian reports: The white top and blue hull of the 56-meter (184ft) vessel emerged from the depths of the sea in a holding area of a yellow floating crane barge, as salvage crews readied it to be hauled ashore for further investigation. The Italian coastguard said the recovery was scheduled to begin on Saturday morning. A spokesperson for TMC Maritime, which is conducting the recovery operation, said the vessel had been slowly raised from the seabed, 50 meters (165ft) down, over the past three days to allow the steel lifting straps, slings and harnesses to be secured under the keel.
The operation -- which has cost approximately $30 million -- was made easier after the vessel's 72-meter mast was detached using a remote-controlled cutting tool and placed on the seabed on Tuesday. The vessel will be transported to the port of Termini Imerese, where investigators are expected to examine it as part of an inquiry into the cause of the sinking. [...] The salvage operation was very complex, and was temporarily suspended in mid-May after Rob Cornelis Maria Huijben, a 39-year-old Dutch diver, died during underwater work. The British-based consultancy TMC Marine, which oversaw a consortium of salvage specialists undertaking the project, said the hull would be lifted on to a specially manufactured steel cradle on the quayside once it had been transported to Termini Imerese. Investigators hope the yacht will yield vital clues to the causes of the sinking. A forensic examination of the hull will seek to determine whether one of the hatches remained open and whether the keel was improperly raised.
The operation -- which has cost approximately $30 million -- was made easier after the vessel's 72-meter mast was detached using a remote-controlled cutting tool and placed on the seabed on Tuesday. The vessel will be transported to the port of Termini Imerese, where investigators are expected to examine it as part of an inquiry into the cause of the sinking. [...] The salvage operation was very complex, and was temporarily suspended in mid-May after Rob Cornelis Maria Huijben, a 39-year-old Dutch diver, died during underwater work. The British-based consultancy TMC Marine, which oversaw a consortium of salvage specialists undertaking the project, said the hull would be lifted on to a specially manufactured steel cradle on the quayside once it had been transported to Termini Imerese. Investigators hope the yacht will yield vital clues to the causes of the sinking. A forensic examination of the hull will seek to determine whether one of the hatches remained open and whether the keel was improperly raised.
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If it had technical details of how the recovery was done, that might have been more interesting
Re: This is important! (Score:3)
Bringing a vessel this size to the surface is a pretty complex process that involves a fair bit of engineering, which is par for the course for this site.
Besides, it's far more relevant than msmash's occasional articles about tennis, a sport that nobody has played since cocaine went out of style at country clubs.
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Ain't nothing wrong with tennis. Except my elbow.
Re: This is important! (Score:5, Interesting)
I found interesting the technical details about the divers's death: accumulation of hydrogen bubbles in water, followed by explosion of the acetylene burner, projecting metal parts from the boom (the horizontal bar connected to the mast) onto him.
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Re: This is important! (Score:3)
It's made of aluminium which is toxic to a lot of sea life. Not ideal for a reef. Plus itll be full of fuel, oil and general plastic crap which cant be just left there.
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You give a lot of fucks. In fact you wasted a hole fuck on posting this rant. People who don't give fucks would simply have skipped over the story.
On the flip side here Slashdot has had a long history of being interested in accidents and talking about the potential technical details behind them. That's the unfortunate thing about this site, sometimes the cater to the fucks of others. For example I just dedicated a fuck not only to reading the story, but also reading TFA which contains some interesting titbi
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I spawned almost the comments. And nobody gives a fuck. I was right.
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News for nerds.
It's important to be funny? (Score:2)
IDGAF! Nobody else here does either.
The important thing is that we don't give a fuck. That's the this. Just to clarify.
Quoted against the censor trolls. Yeah, a weak FP, but it was your honest opinion. I even mostly agree with it, though the story has big potential for funny and I think we need much more funny these months (that feel like years).
Re:Here's what happened (Score:4, Informative)
No, that's not what happened. It's apparently a design problem, a sailboat, actually a motorsailer, that could not take a knockdown, as in a 90 degree list, and had no self righting capability in that condition.
Or the crew left one or more hatches open.
That's why there is an inquest and investigation.
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Maybe you're both correct, say the ship had no self-righting capability in 90 degrees tilt AND a hatch was open explaining it took water until it became impossible to escape. I mean escaping a room 90 degrees tilted in a storm in the dark and (slowly) taking in water, must be challenging.
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Re:Here's what happened (Score:5, Interesting)
No, that's not what happened. It's apparently a design problem, a sailboat, actually a motorsailer, that could not take a knockdown, as in a 90 degree list, and had no self righting capability in that condition.
Not exactly. The design problem was it had a ridiculously oversized mast probably because the owner had to have bragging rights about having the biggest mast. The consensus I have read is there was no functional need for the mast to be that large as it did not make the boat faster.
Or the crew left one or more hatches open.
And why is this a problem? The sailboat was anchored for the night. I am unaware of requirements that the hatches be closed during anchor. Additionally even if the hatches were closed, this was a sailboat not a submersible. It is not designed to be 100% water tight for every opening above the waterline. It was designed so that water spray and rain does get in. When submerged, water will penetrate the doors.
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And why is this a problem? The sailboat was anchored for the night. I am unaware of requirements that the hatches be closed during anchor.
Anchor has nothing to do with it. The issue was a thunderstorm. The hatch was the first and most important line of inquiry in the investigation since it was universally agreed by experts that if that hatch were open the boat would be unstable and many orders of magnitude more likely to sink in a storm. It was literally the first thing they investigated as they were questioning whether it was crew incompetence and whether this was a potential manslaughter case.
That said I believe this was discounted. A pictu
Re:Here's what happened (Score:4, Informative)
Anchor has nothing to do with it. The issue was a thunderstorm.
It was a SUDDEN thunderstorn around 3:00am. And?
The hatch was the first and most important line of inquiry in the investigation since it was universally agreed by experts that if that hatch were open the boat would be unstable and many orders of magnitude more likely to sink in a storm.
Which hatch do you refer? This was a superyacht, not a dingy. It has multiple entry points most of which would be doors and not hatches. Hatches do exist but generally are for emergency escape purposes. These are not kept open as they lead to crew quarters, engine room, etc.
It was literally the first thing they investigated as they were questioning whether it was crew incompetence and whether this was a potential manslaughter case.
Citation needed. The first point of investigation is HOW the boat sunk. Again, this was a superyacht with multiple exterior DOORs not hatches. Water tight hatches would separate compartments in cases of leaks or emergency escape hatches are common. Hatches separating compartments are not required to be closed during anchor from what I know. They are generally required to be closed during a voyage.
That said I believe this was discounted. A picture 14minutes prior to the sinking from a passing boat showed no light from the area where the hatch was which gives a strong credence to it very likely being closed.
Again, what are you calling a "hatch"? A hatch [baiermarine.com] has a very specific nautical meaning. This was a superyacht with aft sliding doors [whitewatermh.com] (made of glass) and a port side door (probably mostly glass). Hatches generally are steel doors that can be sealed to keep water out.
It is highly unlikely that a passing boat could see inside the Bayesian to know their interior compartments were not water-tight because a crew member left open a hatch. Exterior hatches are small and again are generally used for emergencies. The passing boat would have to know where these hatches are. The boat sank at 3am.
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The mast wasn't "ridiculously oversized." Despite the media hype it's not even particularly tall, being 70 m to the 90 m record.
The builder made several similar boats but this one was made as a sloop instead of a ketch at the buyer's request. There are reasons to prefer a sloop to a ketch rig, the main one being better upwind performance.
The buyer, Eric Jelgersma, was paralyzed in a sailing accident in 2005 so he seems not to have been the type to just sip drinks on the yacht. It's quite possible he wanted
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The mast wasn't "ridiculously oversized." Despite the media hype it's not even particularly tall, being 70 m to the 90 m record.
It was a 72m mast for a 56m boat. Nowhere did I say it was the tallest mast, only that it was oversized for the boat.
The builder made several similar boats but this one was made as a sloop instead of a ketch at the buyer's request. There are reasons to prefer a sloop to a ketch rig, the main one being better upwind performance.
The max speed of the Bayesian was 12 knots. It was not an AC72 [wikipedia.org] racing boat which tops off at 44 knots. Why would the owner want "better upwind performance" again? He gains a few knots but he has a really big mast that all his friends can see.
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Yes, and this is wrong. A mast to length ratio of ~1.3 is pretty typical for sloops. This one is a bit under that.
The maximum speed of a pure displacement hull is pretty much set by the length of the boat. Better upwind characteristics can mean you get where you're going quite a bit faster. It's also a characteristic that's very desireable to sailors
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Yes, and this is wrong. A mast to length ratio of ~1.3 is pretty typical for sloops. This one is a bit under that.
So when the Bayesian [wikipedia.org] was delivered in 2008, at the time it had the world's "tallest" mast. But according to you, it was "typical for sloops". So which is it? World's tallest or typical.
The maximum speed of a pure displacement hull is pretty much set by the length of the boat. Better upwind characteristics can mean you get where you're going quite a bit faster. It's also a characteristic that's very desireable to sailors who enjoy sailing.
And you missed the entire point again. This was a superyacht for a wealthy individual who did ZERO of the sailing as it was professionally crewed. Being 56m it requires a professional crew. I saw no credentials of Mike Lynch that would allow him to sail this boat. So when the owner of the boat insists on the world's tallest m
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You are wildly oscillating between mast to length ratio and height. Make up your mind. But I guess you can't really, because you're googling this all on the fly, right?
Bayesian (Salute when it was delivered) had a very tall mast because it was ordered as a sloop. It's mast to length ratio is pretty typical for sloops. It's not "outrageously large" as you claim, it's what's required to give such a large boat a reasonable sail area with a single mast and triangular mainsail. It also wasn't the tallest mast, e
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You are wildly oscillating between mast to length ratio and height. Make up your mind. But I guess you can't really, because you're googling this all on the fly, right?
No I am not. You are. You keep bringing up ratio as some sort of strawman.
Bayesian (Salute when it was delivered) had a very tall mast because it was ordered as a sloop. It's mast to length ratio is pretty typical for sloops.
And this is the entire flaw in your argument. Not everything on a ship is supposed to scale up with size. Jeff Bezos's superyacht Koru [wikipedia.org] should have a 127m single mast because it is 127m long according to you. Many small motorized boats have single engines. When they make them larger, they should just add larger and larger single engines according to you. That's why the Titanic had one engine spanning the length of the boat. Multiple e
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You're obsessed with the length of Mike Lynch's mast. Give it up. It was average, and he just bought it off some other dude anyway.
(Also, it's actually his wife's)
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You're obsessed with the length of Mike Lynch's mast.
And you still have not answered the basic question: What use is "upwind performance" for a boat's owner if the owner CANNOT sail his own boat? It would be useless. The length matters because anything over 24m requires a professional captain certification to sail. You would know that if you knew anything about boats. Facts matter.
Give it up.
Why should I do what you want? The fact that I don't do what you tell me must burn you up.
It was average, and he just bought it off some other dude anyway.
Everyone else: When it was built it was the world's largest mast.
You: "It was average."
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Rich guy says to the captain "I know what I'm doing, how do you think I got rich?"
Dude, the rich guy died in his sleep in his cabin. Try talking with your mouth, not out of your arse.
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>"Not sure how this story cleared that bar. Nothing techie for the nerds, and not a name anyone here recognizes."
It sank "during a storm". And not even a tie-in to climate change/emergency/crisis/justice/disaster or whatever it is currently called, which somehow automatically makes it Slashdot news-worthy.
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And not even a tie-in to climate change/emergency/crisis/justice/disaster or whatever it is currently called, which somehow automatically makes it Slashdot news-worthy.
If we take away Mike Lynch was a rich billionaire and it was a random family that died:
Re:"News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters" (Score:5, Informative)
The charges stuck against the CFO; but the CEO and VP of finance were acquitted. Then the VP of finance got hit by a car; and the CEO's celebratory yacht outing took a literal turn when the ship capsized and he died; then the VP of finance finished succumbing to his head injuries and died less than 48 hours later.
I'm not sure anyone thinks well enough of HP's ability to execute to seriously suspect them; but the background probably didn't reduce interest in getting a nice decisive root cause for the boat issue.
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I always thought this story required choosing between two equally improbable scenarios:
- The CEO and VP Finance both suffer accidental deaths within a 48 hour period
- HP or an investor pulls off a successful double hit
Whichever is the case, my kid knew Mike Lynch's daughter Hannah a little bit -- they had overlapping social circles. He says she was a really nice person and very well liked. And she was a smart young woman and about to go to uni. It's an awful tragedy that she and the others lost their lives.
Re: "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters" (Score:3)
How would HP or an investor arrange a sudden storm? This is the real world, not a Marvel comic.
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You can't create the storm, but you can wait for one. Pre-position in harm's way, sabotage the yacht's stability / recovery ability, disable escape and emergency measures, spoof weather notifications to create false sense of security, etc. Summer storms are uncommon but not rare off the coast of Sicily in the summer months.
Remember, i said "equally implausible". So I don't think this is very plausible. But then I don't think it's also implausible that both the CEO and VP of Finance would suffer separate fat
Re:"News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters" (Score:5, Insightful)
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Law of the Sea (Score:2)
If a rechristening wasn't performed, or performed improperly, one can understand why Posedian took swift action. Basically an accounting error. No two ways about it.
Tis a darn shame.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... [wikipedia.org]
Re:"News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters" (Score:4, Informative)
Errr are you having a stroke? Slashdot has posted enough stories about Michael Lynch to fill up a whole page of search results. We've covered the Autonomy / HP legal debacle in great detail over the years.
Also the TL;DR you posted isn't even correct. This story about some of the technicalities about pulling a boat off the bottom of the ocean, not about the actual sinking of the boat and the death of Michael Lynch. For the story you think is being covered maybe look to this slashdot story: https://news.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org] or the followup posted previously https://it.slashdot.org/story/... [slashdot.org]
Followups of previous stories always clear the bar.
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Pissed off orcas (Score:2)
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It's actually Namor's doing.
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Orcas rarely venture into the Mediterranean much beyond Gibraltar.
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Orcas rarely venture into the Mediterranean much beyond Gibraltar.
Which underscores the level of their motivation and the lengths they will go to rid the sea of humans and their garbage.
Depths? (Score:2)
What depths? The 56m depths?
Guess the yacht (Score:2)
wasn't so super after all.
Who paid the €20 million? (Score:2)
If some government is spending $20 million to investigate this, that seems like an insane misuse of taxpayer money.
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Re:Who paid the €20 million? (Score:5, Informative)
Insurers pay. "Insurers estimate the salvage will cost about $30m (£23m), a bill the Bayesian’s underwriters will pick up." https://inview.org.uk/news/182... [inview.org.uk]
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The salvage isn't really part of the investigation. It's cleanup. The same as if you crash your car into a ditch someone comes and hauls it away. The insurance company pays.
Governments genearally pay for investigations. People generally think they're important, especially when people die.
Really? (Score:2)
Not a funny anywhere in this fairly long discussion?