Mike Lynch’s Friend Shares What Life Was Like Onboard Yacht Before It Sank: 'Truly Luxurious Cabins'

Mar. 15, 2025

The ‘Bayesian’ yacht.Photo:PERINI NAVI PRESS OFFICE/HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

PERINI NAVI PRESS OFFICE/HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Mike Lynch’s friend and former colleague has detailed what life was like onboard the luxuryBayesianyacht before itsankoff the coast of Sicily last month.

In aninterviewwith the Italian current affairs showQuarta Repubblicathat aired on Monday, Sept. 2, Corrado Broli opened up about his relationship with the tech entrepreneur — who wasfound dead along with six othersafter the 183-foot yacht sank on Aug. 19 — and his time on the luxury vessel.

“I had been on this boat several times, it was a really fantastic boat, I have to say,” Broli, who worked with Lynch for 25 years, told the outlet.

“I have never met this captain, I had met the previous one though. It was a boat with truly luxurious cabins,” Broli said, before noting its special functions.

“Perini boats are famous for a series of automatisms they have. You can practically control them directly through a control unit, and everything is done automatically,” he claimed, adding, “… And the portholes were sealed so you cannot open them.”

Mike Lynch.Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty

Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty

Broli, who worked at Lynch’s software companies Autonomy and Darktrace until 2022 after meeting him in 1999, went on to talk about the pair’s relationship over the years.

“I knew him well, and obviously his wife and family. It was a relationship that extended beyond a professional relationship, it was also a friendship,” he said.

Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, also died in the tragedy, though his wife, Angela Bacares, survived and was rescued along with14 othersonboard.

Broli, who was not on the yacht during the incident, suspects that Bacares was “in the cabin with Mike, and Mike told her, ‘You go, save yourself and I will go and look for Hannah.’ He knew she was in the cabin near to them.” He claims that since the incident, Bacares “does not speak or communicate with anyone, we have only exchanged a message.”

Broli added that Lynch was using the trip as a celebration with colleagues and friends after he had “undergone a very long trial, out of which he had emerged fully acquitted.”

“He was really happy and wanted to start a new life,” Broli said, adding that he will remember his friend as the “British Bill Gates” and a “very happy person.”

Lynch went to trial and was acquitted after he was accused of financial fraud in connection to the sale of Autonomy — a business software company he founded — to Hewlett-Packard in 2011, and asource previously told PEOPLEthe group had traveled to the Aeolian Islands to celebrate the win.

The ‘Bayesian’.PERINI NAVI PRESS OFFICE/HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

On the day of the incident, Italian news agencyANSAreported that the vessel, which was carrying 22 people, wasanchored when a tornado formed over the water, known as a waterspout, striking the yacht before it lost its balance and sank.

Italian coast guard officials have said there was a “violent storm” before theBayesianwent into the water.

Members of the ‘Bayesian’ search operation.ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty

ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty

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Recalling the design of the ship, Broli speculated that “the walkway out of the cabins is brief. There is a small set of steps that takes you up to the bridge, it’s short because it is just seven to eight steps. Something abnormal must have happened beyond the weather conditions.”

However, he added that he does not “think there is a conspiracy here,” as many have drawn their own suspicions about the cause of the sinking ship.

Many detailsof why the yacht went into the water so quicklyremain unclear.

source: people.com