Sunken Superyacht of UK Tech Tycoon Mike Lynch Recovered Near Sicily (theguardian.com) 33
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:2)
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:4, Informative)
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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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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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:4, 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.
"News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters" (Score:2, Insightful)
Not sure how this story cleared that bar. Nothing techie for the nerds, and not a name anyone here recognizes.
TL;DR: Some rich guy you've never heard of died when his superyacht sank.
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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.
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:5, Insightful)
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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.slash [slashdot.org]
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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.
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]