The captain who raced to the rescue of Mike Lynch's £30million superyacht has described the moment he found the British tech billionaire's wife clinging to a raft after the boat capsized.

Mr Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and five others perished after the Bayesian went down close to the fishing village of Porticello, Sicily, in August 2024 after being hit by a fierce storm with 100mph winds.

The entrepreneur was onboard with 11 guests including his wife Angela Bacares, who was rescued alongside five passengers and 10 crew members.

Now a new BBC Two documentary, Millionaire Superyacht: Why Ships Sink, has claimed the Bayesian could have sunk in as little as two-and-a-half minutes.

That claim is one echoed by Captain Karsten Borner, who features in the documentary and was at the helm of a ship anchored close to the Bayesian on the night of the tragedy. 

He told the Daily Mail how he found Mr Lynch's widow, Angela Bacares, who begged for him to keep searching for survivors.

Captain Borner launched a tender from his boat to search and rescue any survivors - and soon found cushions and chairs floating in the water.

'We saw a flickering light and it was a life raft. There were 15 people on a 12-person raft, clinging for their lives. 

'They were very quiet, except for the sound of a crying baby. Some of them were injured and the crew had managed to give first aid to them even while on the raft.

'I decided to bring them to safety aboard our ship before continuing the search. A lady spoke in Spanish to me and said, "You need to keep searching, there are more."

'I didn't realise until later it was Mike Lynch's wife.'

The skipper was approximately 150 metres away in front of the yacht aboard a 42-metre sailing cruise ship, the Sir Robert Baden-Powell, when he first caught sight of the impressive Bayesian, which boasted a 72m aluminium mast.

Recalling the events of that night, he said: 'The Bayesian looked very peaceful. It was very quiet that night. 

'At around 9.45pm we came back from the shore with our passengers from dinner, and the passengers wanted to see the Bayesian. So we circled around, and they took many photographs of the boat.

'It was a very warm night - so warm in fact that some of the passengers slept out on the deck.'

Weather reports had predicted thunderstorms that night, but according to Captain Borner, not the huge, sudden gusts that both ships would have to later tackle.

'In the night, I was watching the lightning coming closer. Around 3am, I became less sure of what was coming. 

'We decided to shut the engine to be prepared, and to close all the hatches, portholes and windows.

'One moment the wind was calm and then in a second, there was a huge gust of wind, it was extremely strong. I was fighting to keep the ship in position.

'There was a mass of water in my face and the air - and I had to fight turn the wheel. It was difficult to breathe.

'Every now and then, we turned around to see what the Bayesian was doing, because we didn't want to drift towards her. I saw her lights and then the next minute my crew member told me, "the lights are gone".

'I was thinking this was crazy, because boats like this don't just sink in a moment.'

His crew then informed the captain they had spotted a 'reef' behind the boat, but he was confused as there was nothing like that in the immediate landscape.

'I turned around and saw a huge black triangle - that was the last bit of the Bayesian as she was capsizing,' he said. 'The hull was pointing to the sky.

'At this point we were still fighting for ourselves, there was nothing we could do.'

When the winds finally subsided, the captain looked to see what had happened to his neighbouring boat.

'We checked the radar - no Bayesian,' he added. 'We became aware that indeed something had happened and then we saw a red flare and knew people were in danger.'

After the disaster, Captain Borner found himself processing everything he had seen.

He said: 'Every day the crew and I were talking about it, all season long. We were happy that we saved some people, it's a pity that we couldn't help the others, but this was obviously impossible.

'We couldn't have done anything. Anyone who was inside the boat when it sank was chanceless.'

Why Ships Sink features CCTV from a neighbouring ship and the closest footage yet seen of the wreckage, which was brought to the surface 10 months after the disaster.

The documentary also explored the reasons why the 56-metre yacht ended up under the waves - while other vessels in the area that night remained afloat.

The sinking of the Bayesian is currently the subject of a criminal investigation.

Preliminary reports by marine experts suggest the ship took 16 minutes to sink - with the yacht's owner, Italian Sea Group (TISG), claiming there was ample time for the passengers and crew to be saved.

That premise is at the core of a lawsuit TISG has launched against Mr Lynch's widow for £400million, claiming the company lost sales after the disaster - and that it was the crew's incompetence and negligence that led to the tragedy.

But new simulations carried out by naval architects for the documentary suggest the Bayesian sank far more rapidly - and in just two-and-a-half minutes.

Alongside Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah, the victims were the Bayesian's chef, Recaldo Thomas; Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy; and Mr Lynch's lawyer, Chris Morvillo, and his wife, Neda Morvillo.

Italian prosecutors have appointed experts to look at the reasons why the Bayesian sank, including whether a freak storm event - described by witnesses as a 'tornado' - was responsible for the tragedy.

However, in May it was reported that the weather that night amounted to 'little more than a squall, a sudden increase in wind speed that precedes thunderstorms and downpours', which the crew should have been able to manage.

According to the preliminary findings, the 184ft yacht therefore capsized and sank due to the improper actions of the crew, their underestimation of the weather and a number of safety devices not being activated properly.

The probe is exploring the possibility of alleged crimes including negligent shipwreck and multiple counts of manslaughter for the yacht's captain and two of its crew members.

It has also raised the possibility of liability on the part of the superyacht's builder.

Last year, British investigators found that the crew on the superyacht were 'unaware' of its 'vulnerabilities' to strong winds, which caused it to knock over and sink.

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch said the yacht was doomed after it was hit by 80.6mph winds causing it to tilt violently on its side and it was unable to straighten as the freak storm hit.

In its report the MAIB said the captain and crew would have had no idea of the yacht's vulnerabilities as they were not laid out in the stability information booklet onboard.

In March, Mr Lynch's estate was ordered to pay $1.24billion (£930million) in damages to Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) - raising the prospect it could be cleaned out.

A High Court judge ruled that HPE was owed the sum in damages and interest for the fraudulent 2011 sale of Mr Lynch's software company, Autonomy.

Mr Lynch was jailed on US criminal fraud charges related to the Autonomy sale before being acquitted.

His ill-fated voyage on the Bayesian was intended as a celebration of his legal win.