Builder of sunken Bayesian claims damages for ‘reputational damage’

The builders of the luxury yacht Bayesian, which sank off Sicily, want huge compensation from the vessel’s owner and crew members and operators for allegedly damaging the builders’ good name.

The Italian Sea Group of entrepreneur Giovanni Costantino is demanding huge compensation for reputational damage suffered, reports the Giornale di Sicilia.
The tragedy of the Bayesian, the British-flagged yacht that sank at dawn on 19 August off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, is thus given an extra wry sequel. Much of the crew was rescued by the Dutch charter vessel Sir Robert Baden Powell, but the sinking also took the lives of seven people, including British tycoon Mike Lynch. The 56-metre yacht worth over 22 million euros was owned by a British company owned by Angela Baceres, Mike Lynch’s wife. Baceres survived the disaster, along with 14 others. Of the ten crew members, one died, the cook.

Unsinkable

According to reports in some Italian and British newspapers, Italian Sea Group (TISG), the company that built the ship, has sought maximum compensation of more than 222 million euros from the shipping company headed by Angela Barcares, Lynch’s wife. TISG is said to have made the claim. The listed company owns the Viareggio shipyard that built the 56-metre sailing ship with a 75-metre aluminium mast in 2008. TISG reportedly instructed the law firm BdPmarine & Law to file a lawsuit in the Termini Imerese court for reputational damage in connection with the sinking of the yacht, which had until then been labelled ‘unsinkable’.

Unclear

TISG denies that a claim has already been filed, but does admit to having given its lawyers “a general mandate” for the subpoena. However, new reports suggest it will also be withdrawn. How a builder can sue the owner of a vessel, which sinks despite being labelled “unsinkable”, for reputational damage is as yet difficult to understand, as is the rather curious relationship between the value of the yacht (22 million) and the tenfold level of the claim. The Termini Imerese Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the role of three crew members, who are listed on the suspects’ register on charges of multiple manslaughter and culpable shipwreck: New Zealand captain James Cutfield, engineer-officer Tim Parker Eaton and sailor Matthew Griffith, who kept watch on the bridge. However, it does not become clear how their actions might have affected the yacht’s ‘unsinkability’.

Not washed up

The Lynch family reacted immediately and although they did not wish to comment officially on the news, they hinted their irritation to the British press by saying they were “very sorry” that the request had been made. Revtom Ltd. based in the Isle of Man, formally managed by Angela Bacares, Lynch’s widow, is said to have been named in the lawsuit, representing the owner and shipowner of the Bayesian who, according to the Code of Navigation, is responsible for the damage caused by the crew, as well as Camper & Nicholsons International, the company in charge of managing the vessel. According to this reconstruction, it had selected a captain and crew that were not up to the task of such a technologically advanced yacht.

New mystery

Meanwhile, the story of the Bayesian is enriched by a new mystery. Divers investigating the wreck have called for heightened surveillance, fearing that sensitive data allegedly held in the ship’s vaults could be of interest to foreign governments, such as those of Russia and China. According to this indiscretion, CNN reported, there could be highly confidential information on board the sunken ship associated with some Western intelligence agencies.

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