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Seawind 1170 first look: 39ft passagemaking catamaran

• Toby Hodges
• February 8, 2024

The newly launched Seawind 1170 is smaller than many new catamaran launches but should still prove a capable passagemaking multihull

Over the past few years Seawind has become increasingly well recognised for its quick cruising catamarans. This 39-foot Seawind 1170 retains key core elements, including relatively light displacement, plus twin aft helm stations with excellent protection and visibility.

There’s also a removable carbon sprit and a pair of windows in the hardtop to monitor sail trim. However, despite its potential to sail for extended periods at speeds above 10 knots, this is not intended as a boat that will be difficult or energetic to sail: a self-tacking jib is standard and the mainsheet traveller is mounted on the hard top, so doesn’t present a danger to anyone in the cockpit.

Despite being smaller than the existing 52ft Seawind 1600 Passagemaker and recent 45ft 1370 models, it’s still intended as a capable ocean cruising multihull , with bright and comfortable accommodation.

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The owner’s cabin in the port hull benefits from a queen size athwartships double berth that creates much more of a feeling of space than many catamarans of this size. Equally, the starboard forward guest cabin has a queen size bed, while there’s a smaller double to be found aft. Unusually, the galley is down in the starboard hull, leaving space for a full-width saloon with navstation.

A pair of big opening hatches in the front of the coachroof are supported on gas struts, while a tri-fold door that swings upwards to sit against the underside of the hard top creates a wide opening between cockpit and saloon.

A tri-fold door swings upwards out of the way to create a large opening between cockpit and saloon

Stowage on deck includes three large lockers at the front of the bridgedeck, plus further space under the seating in the aft cockpit.

Tankage is also generous at around 500lt for both fuel and water.

The first two prototype 1170s are already afloat, with one of them having been tested in 30-35 knots of head winds and waves of up to 4-5m waves. “Even though we were pushing it hard to test its limits,” designer and Seawind founder Richard Ward reported afterwards, “it felt strong and safe and very dry, even as we crashed off the back of the short, sharp waves.”

Production boats will be built at Seawind’s new factory in Izmir, Turkey, with the first expected to be afloat in mid 2024. This location, a modern city of five million people on the eastern shores of the Aegean, reflects the yard’s desire to capture more of the European market.

Seawind 1170 specifications

LOA: 11.90m 39ft 3in Beam: 6.50m 21ft 4in Draught: 1.20m 3ft 9in Displacement: 9,200kg 20,200lb Price: $US510,000 Builder: seawindcats.com

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Sale yacht in Moscow

36 yachts for sale in moscow, customer reviews, popular destinations.

• Sell yacht in Moscow
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Moscow is the largest city and historical capital of Russia, the country's most popular tourist center and the center of the Russian Orthodox Church. In this metropolis, antiquity and modernity are whimsically combined, numerous cultural and historical sights, viewing platforms and entertainment centers make it a center of attraction for tens of millions of tourists from all over the world.

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• Length 6.90 m
• Beam 2.50 m
• Draft 0.60 m

• Length 6.00 m
• Beam 2.00 m
• Draft 0.00 m

• Length 6.06 m
• Beam 2.36 m
• Draft 0.40 m

• Length 11.80 m
• Beam 3.00 m
• Draft 1.00 m

• Length 8.00 m
• Beam 2.40 m

• Length 8.10 m
• Beam 2.80 m

• Length 10.75 m
• Beam 3.56 m

• Length 8.13 m
• Beam 2.60 m
• Draft 0.90 m

• Length 7.16 m
• Beam 2.58 m

• Length 7.06 m
• Beam 2.55 m

• Length 11.50 m
• Beam 3.50 m
• Draft 0.95 m

• Length 7.05 m
• Beam 2.70 m

• Length 7.01 m
• Beam 2.59 m

• Length 5.81 m
• Beam 2.26 m

• Length 16.20 m
• Beam 7.00 m
• Draft 1.20 m

• Length 9.44 m

• Length 14.00 m
• Beam 4.80 m
• Draft 1.10 m

• Length 9.99 m

• Length 11.88 m

• Length 9.60 m
• Beam 3.05 m
• Draft 1.45 m

• Length 8.60 m
• Draft 0.50 m

• Length 17.80 m
• Beam 4.90 m
• Draft 1.35 m

• Length 8.25 m
• Beam 2.97 m
• Draft 0.59 m

• Length 18.00 m
• Beam 5.80 m
• Draft 1.40 m

• Length 11.40 m
• Draft 0.80 m

• Length 12.30 m
• Beam 3.95 m

• Beam 4.50 m

• Length 16.00 m
• Draft 1.30 m

• Length 10.00 m
• Draft 0.89 m

• Beam 8.00 m

• Length 9.45 m
• Beam 3.30 m
• Draft 1.98 m

• Length 8.67 m

• Length 10.53 m

When planning to buy a yacht in Moscow , pay attention to the offers of 2yachts - we hope you will find a suitable option among current and profitable ads from direct sellers.

Sights of the Russian capital

On the territory of the largest city in Europe with a 9-century history, there are many interesting places and objects. Some of the best attractions of modern Moscow are:

• The Kremlin and Red Square, with which it is worth starting to get acquainted with the city;
• Arbat - the main tourist artery of Moscow;
• The business center of the city with skyscrapers is Moscow City with viewing platforms, including a 360-degree circular view of the capital;
• The Bolshoi Theater is one of the most significant in Russia and the world;
• Tretyakov Gallery with the world's largest collection of Russian painting;
• Ostankino TV Tower, the country's main television tower 540 m high with 2 viewing platforms - open type and glazed at different levels;
• St. Basil's Cathedral (Cathedral of the Protection of the Holy Virgin);
• The historical district of the capital is Kitay Gorod.

It is also worth visiting the river berths, beaches (in Rublevo, Strogino and Serebryany Bor) of the Moscow River, Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve, Moskarium Oceanography Center, Novodevichy Convent, Moscow Planetarium, Darwin Museum, Zaryadye Natural Landscape Park and Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy (VDNH).

The best restaurants in Moscow: Pushkin, Balzi rossi, Wine & Crab, Osteria della Piazza Bianca, White Rabbit, Björn, Northerners, Beluga, Lavkalavka and others.

Yachting in Moscow

You can leave your yacht parked in Moscow at the pier of one of the many yacht clubs on the banks of the Moscow River and the Khimki Reservoir - for example, on the territory of the Yacht Port “Estate Port” with 36 berths for vessels up to 15 m long or in CHALET RIVER CLUB yacht club on the border with the Moscow region with 57 berths for vessels up to 17 m long and with a draft of up to 1.7 m. If you are interested in selling yachts in Moscow , we recommend that you use the services of one of the trusted yacht brokers in the region, for example - PRESTIGE YACHTS, ULTRABOATS, IY C or WEST NAUTICAL.

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Mike lynch’s wife didn’t want to leave site of sunken sicily yacht without husband and daughter.

The wife of tech mogul Mike Lynch didn’t want to leave the scene of his sunken yacht without her husband and their teenage daughter before they were both later confirmed dead, according to a captain who helped rescue survivors during the Sicily storm.

Angela Bacares was so frantic to find her family she even hesitated getting medical help after getting out of the Bayesian during a ferocious storm that sank it, Karsten Borner told People Magazine.

“[Bacares] didn’t want to leave because her husband and her daughter were still down,” said Borner, who helped rescue the survivors after witnessing the tragedy from his own boat, the Sir Robert Baden Powell.

“She was picked up a little bit later because I asked the coast guard to take her as I thought she needed medical help. Then, over the course of the next two, three hours — [I] don’t know exactly how much later — the coast guards came and the rest of the Bayesian people went away with them.”

Lynche’s wife was among 15 people who escaped the 184-foot luxury yacht on Aug. 19 after a sudden squall of tornado-like waterspouts pummeled the superyacht, causing it to sink. Others saved included a mom and her 1-year-old baby.

It would take days to recover the bodies of the seven who died, including tech tycoon Lynch 59, and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah.

Borner said he noticed the weather rapidly deteriorating around 3 a.m. when his ship and the Bayesian were the only two out anchored off the coast of Porticello in Sicily.

“When things calmed down and the storm abated somewhat and the wind dropped a bit, we were looking around and couldn’t see the Bayesian anymore,” Borner told the magazine.

“We checked the AIS [automatic identification system], and we couldn’t see the Bayesian anymore. Two passengers and two crew members saw what looked like a whale in the water and realized afterwards it was the capsized boat,” he said.

“A moment later, I saw a triangle in the sea in a split second that the sky was lit up by lightning, and that must have been the bow of the ship while sinking over the stern.”

After witnessing the Bayesian sink, Borner and his first mate got onto a smaller boat, called a tender, and headed to where the Bayesian had been.

“We first found things floating in the water like cushions and chairs and stuff,” Borner said. “And then we saw a flickering light. This was a life raft with a light on the top. And they also waved at us with a torch.”

“So we went there, and then we found the crew and part of the passengers — 15 people in a 12-person raft, including a little baby,” he added.

What to know after a tornado sank the yacht Bayesian off the coast of Sicily:

• A superyacht capsized off the coast of Sicily after a tornado hit the area early Monday, killing seven passengers.
• British tech tycoon Mike Lynch was identified as one of the bodies pulled from the wreckage. His teenage daughter, Hannah, was the final one to be recovered.
• Lynch — known as “Britain’s Bill Gates” — had invited guests from Clifford Chance, a legal firm that represented him, and Invoke Capital, his own company, on the voyage,  according to the Telegraph . 
• Security camera footage shot from 650 feet from where the  Bayesian sank Monday  shows it disappearing.
• A rare and unexpected “black swan” weather event may have led to the  Bayesian’s speedy demise , maritime experts say.

Borner and his crew took in the survivors, providing first aid, dry clothes and blankets to those in the raft.

The survivors also told Borner there were other passengers still missing, which led the tender to be sent out again.

“They looked around at sea and obviously didn’t find anything,” Borner said.

The other victims included the ship’s chef, Ricardo Thomas, New York City attorney Christopher Morvillo and his wife, Neda; and Morgan Stanley executive Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy.

The exact cause of the yacht’s sinking remains unknown, however, Italian prosecutors are probing whether the actions of Captain James Cutfield, 51, may have led to tragedy.

Under maritime law, a ship’s captain assumes full responsibility for safety of the vessel, its crew, and all passengers.

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Questions for Investigators Trying to Unravel Mystery of Luxury Yacht’s Sinking

The investigators searching for answers about the shipwreck, leaving seven dead, face questions about extreme weather and possible human error or problems with the yacht itself.

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By Alan Yuhas

More than 180 feet long, with a mast towering about 240 feet and a keel that could be lowered for greater stability, the Bayesian luxury yacht did not, in the eyes of its maker, have the vulnerabilities of a ship that would easily sink.

“It drives me insane,” Giovanni Costantino, the chief executive of the Italian Sea Group, which in 2022 bought the company that made the ship, said after its wreck last week. “Following all the proper procedures, that boat is unsinkable.”

But the $40 million sailing yacht sank within minutes and with fatal results: seven dead, including the British technology billionaire Michael Lynch, his teenage daughter, four of Mr. Lynch’s friends and a member of the crew. Fifteen people, including the captain, escaped on a lifeboat.

Mr. Lynch had invited family, friends and part of his legal team on a cruise in the Mediterranean to celebrate his acquittal in June of fraud charges tied to the sale of his company to the tech giant Hewlett-Packard.

The Italian authorities have opened a manslaughter investigation, searching for answers from the survivors, the manufacturer and the wreck itself. They face a range of questions and possible factors.

An ‘earthquake’ in the sky?

When the Bayesian sank around 4 a.m. on Aug. 19, the waters in its area, about half a mile off the Sicilian port of Porticello, were transformed by an extremely sudden and violent storm, according to fishermen, a captain in the area and meteorologists.

But what kind of storm is still a mystery, compounded by the fact that a sailing schooner anchored nearby did not have its own disaster. Also unclear is whether the crew was aware that the Italian authorities had issued general warnings about bad weather the night before.

Karsten Börner, the captain of the nearby passenger ship, said he’d had to steady his ship during “really violent” winds . During the storm, he said, the Bayesian seemed to disappear behind his ship.

Severe lightning and strong gusts were registered by the Italian Air Force’s Center for Aerospace Meteorology and Climatology, according to Attilio Di Diodato, its director. “It was very intense and brief in duration,” he said.

The yacht, he said, had most likely been hit by a fierce downburst — a blast of powerful wind surging down during a thunderstorm. His agency put out rough-sea warnings the previous evening, alerting sailors about possible storms.

Locals have said the winds “felt like an earthquake.” A fisherman in Porticello said that he had seen a flare go off in the early-morning hours. His brother ventured to the site once the weather had calmed about 20 minutes later, he said, finding only floating cushions.

The Italian authorities have so far declined to say whether investigators had seen any structural damage to the hull or other parts of the ship.

Open hatches or doors?

The boat executive, Mr. Costantino, has argued that the Bayesian was an extremely safe vessel that could list even to 75 degrees without capsizing. His company, the Italian Sea Group, in 2022 bought the yacht’s manufacturer, Perini Navi, which launched the ship in 2008.

Mr. Costantino said that if some of the hatches on the side and in the stern, or some of the deck doors, had been open, the boat could have taken on water and sunk. Standard procedure in such storms, he said, would be to switch on the engine, lift the anchor and turn the boat into the wind, lowering the keel for extra stability, closing doors and gathering the guests in the main hall inside the deck.

At a news conference on Saturday, almost a week after the sinking, investigators said the yacht had sunk at an angle , with its stern — where the heavy engine was — having gone down first. The wreck was found lying on its right side at the bottom of a bay, about 165 feet deep.

12 guests occupied the yacht’s six cabins. There were also 10 crew members.

Open hatches, doors and cabin windows could have let in water during a storm, according to the manufacturer.

Open hatches, doors and

cabin windows could

have let in water

during a storm,

according to the

manufacturer.

Source: Superyacht Times, YachtCharterFleet, MarineTraffic

By Veronica Penney

Water pouring into open hatches or doors could have contributed to the sinking, experts say, but that on its own may not account for the speed at which such a large boat vanished underwater.

Asked about the hatches at the news conference, the authorities declined to comment on whether they had been found open at the wreck.

The authorities have also not specified whether the boat had been anchored, whether it was under power at the time or whether its sails had been unfurled.

A retracted keel?

The Bayesian had a keel — the fin-like structure beneath a boat that can help stabilize it — that could be retracted or extended, according to its manufacturer. On some yachts, keels can be raised to let the large vessel dock in shallower water, and extended downward to help keep a boat level.

But like the hatches, the status of the keel alone may not explain why a large ship sank with such precipitous speed. Investigators have not disclosed what divers may have seen at the wreck, aside from saying divers had faced obstacles like furnishings and electrical wiring in tight quarters. Officials want to raise the wreck to better examine it, a process that may take weeks.

Human error?

Ambrogio Cartosio, the prosecutor in charge of the case, said at the news conference that it was “plausible” crimes had been committed, but that investigators had not zeroed in on any potential suspects.

“There could be responsibilities of the captain only,” he said. “There could be responsibilities of the whole crew. There could be responsibilities of the boat makers. Or there could be responsibilities of those who were in charge of surveilling the boat.”

It remains unclear what kind of emergency training or preparation took place before the disaster, or what kind of coordination there was during it. So far, none of the surviving crew members have made a public statement about what happened the night the ship sank.

Prosecutors said they want to ask more questions of the captain and crew, who have been in a Sicilian hotel with other survivors. They said that neither alcohol nor drug tests had been performed on crew members, and that they have been allowed to leave Italy.

Prosecutors also said they were also investigating why the captain, an experienced sailor, left the sinking boat while some passengers were still on board.

Besides possible manslaughter charges, the authorities are investigating the possibility of a negligently caused shipwreck.

The bodies of five passengers were found in one cabin, on the left side of the yacht, the authorities said. The five were most likely trying to flee to the higher side of the boat and were probably sleeping when the boat started to sink, they said.

Sinking of a super yacht adds to questions billionaire Mike Lynch wanted to put behind him

I t was a sunny August morning when software entrepreneur Mike Lynch, 59, gathered ten of his closest friends along with his wife and daughter on the dock of Porto di Milazzo, on the Northern coast of Sicily. They had come to celebrate his freedom. Only months before, several of the guests played crucial roles in persuading a San Francisco jury to acquit Lynch of federal charges related to the sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion. 

Five days after the yacht left port, Lynch, his daughter, four guests, and a hired chef were dead in the Mediterranean Sea after a storm flooded the ship. The drowned included the chairman of Morgan Stanley International, a star witness at Lynch’s trial, as well as one of Lynch’s lead defense attorneys. Among the survivors were a former Autonomy exec who went on to become a partner at Lynch’s venture capital firm, a second member of his defense team, and his wife, who reportedly owns nearly all his fortune. The same day of the drowning, U.K. news outlets reported that Lynch’s co-defendant in the fraud trial, Stephen Chamberlain, who had also been acquitted, had been fatally run over by a car as he was out jogging—a shocking coincidence.

Less than a week after the tragedy, there are far more questions than answers. Did the yacht named Bayesian—an homage to a statistical theorem for predicting future outcomes—simply fall victim to a terrible storm? How did most of the crew and a few passengers escape, and why couldn’t they reach Lynch and the six others who did not make it out? Italian officials are looking into manslaughter charges, but it’s not yet clear who they may have in their crosshairs. Giovanni Costantino, who runs The Italian Sea Group that owns Perini Navi, the Italian maker of the yacht, had harsh words for the crew, who he blames. "This is the mistake that cries out for vengeance," he told Reuters .

There are also huge questions swirling around the business ventures of the man dubbed the “British Bill Gates.” While the Bayesian excursion was to serve as a celebration of Lynch’s acquittal on all charges in the U.S.—where he had spent months under house arrest—the reality is that his legal troubles were far from over. In a January 2022 civil trial, the UK’s High Court found that HPE had “substantially succeeded” in proving that Autonomy leaders had fraudulently made it look like the company was earning more revenue than it was. In 2019 Autonomy’s CFO was convicted of 16 counts and sentenced to five years in prison. At this time, the UK case is in a holding pattern as the judge determines what damages are owed to HPE. (The company’s spokesperson Adam Bauer says HPE is, “saddened by this tragic event, and our thoughts are with the families and friends of all those who lost their lives.”)

But Lynch’s passing also looms over Invoke Capital, the venture firm he founded in 2011 and whose managing partner—Charlotte Golunski—survived the yacht disaster and saved her 1-year old baby. One of Invoke’s most prominent bets was a 2013 seed stage investment in Darktrace, a cybersecurity firm on whose board Lynch sat until 2018. Darktrace has developed a reputation as a sleek AI cybersecurity startup with ties to spy agencies like MI5 and the U.S. National Security Agency. It also became the target of short-sellers who in 2023 expressed doubt over Darktrace’s financial filings—the same sort of allegations that plagued Lynch’s Autonomy. 

Darktrace insists that the shortseller’s allegations were baseless, and they say an EY audit it commissioned showed this to be the case. In April Darktrace received a $5.3 billion acquisition offer from the giant private equity firm, Thoma Bravo. The deal, which Fortune reported will likely go forward despite Lynch’s death, stood to help rehabilitate Lynch’s business reputation. As of August 14, he and his wife collectively owned 3.21% of the company, which would be worth some $170 million upon the deal’s completion. Invoke Capital has not responded to multiple requests for comment and Darktrace declined comment.

Following his U.S. acquittal, Lynch was pleased enough with the state of things that he had begun celebrating weeks before the yacht party. In the days following the not-guilty verdict, Lynch, his wife, Stephen Chamberlain and his wife, the attorney Chris Morvillo—who drowned on Bayesian—and 20 other lawyers gathered at a restaurant at a hotel near the San Francisco courthouse.

Brian Heberlig, an attorney at Steptoe who gave the closing argument in Lynch’s trial, recalls that Morvillo gave a moving toast, telling those assembled that the trial was more than just a job, but one of their life’s works. “He really was a brilliant man,” Heberlig told Fortune , fighting back tears as he remembered Lynch. “And he ran his legal defense the same way I imagine he ran Autonomy. He let the experts do their jobs, while still having a strong grasp on the material. As he used to say, ‘Let the brain surgeons do the surgery.’”

That night was the last time Heberlig ever saw Lynch or Morvillo.

A 'virtually unsinkable' boat

The sailing party departed August 14—five days before the storm—and was comprised of 12 guests and 10 crew. The Bayesian was one of the biggest yachts of its kind. Its first stop was a cluster of small islands off the coast of Sicily. Then it jetted across the sea to the Sicilian town of Cefalu, before putting down anchor for the final time on the coast of Palermo, a favorite getaway for the rich and famous, and a former haunt for the mafia.

Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, who reportedly held the couple’s entire $1.1 billion fortune, was jolted awake on August 18 as the boat began to tilt. Glass from a shattered window exploded across the deck, according to reports, cutting her feet as she ran to investigate.

Black and white security  footage  appears to show the outline of what is believed to be the 184-foot sailing yacht, which used call sign 2ICB8, slowly disappearing behind a thicker and thicker veil of rain. Nearby villagers and fishermen say they saw a sea tornado, called a waterspout. Soon after, the yacht lay on the ocean floor.

Theories are swirling about why the yacht sank. One holds that a bay door was left open in the storm, causing the ship to flood and sink in minutes. Another holds that the Bayesian’s 246-foot tall aluminum mast—one of the tallest in the world— broke in the wind and took the boat down with it.

Most news reports say the yacht sank almost instantly, but the CEO of the company that bought the boat’s maker after it went bankrupt in 2021 disputes that. In a Financial Times report, he called the boat “virtually unsinkable,” and says that it dragged its anchor for 16 minutes before it sank. 

During those fateful moments, a far older nearby yacht, the Sir Robert Baden Powell, built in 1957, was drifting on a similar course as the Bayesian and not only survived, but came to help. Some onboard saw a red flare shooting across the rainy sky—an emergency signal from those who had fled the doomed yacht, drawing the attention to a life raft filled with 15 of the 22 passengers.

Passenger Golunski, 35, who helped run Autonomy the first year it was at HP, described holding her one-year old daughter Sophia, as she screamed for help. One of Lynch’s most trusted employees, Golunski was a founding partner at Invoke Capital, the London-based firm that backed Darktrace. Lynch’s wife Bacares was also in the life raft along with Clifford Chance lawyer Ayla Ronald, 36, who reportedly texted to her father: “there are deaths.”

The lifeboat survivors were soon plucked from the sea while the Bayesian came to its current resting place 50 meters below the surface. Over the course of the next 72 hours, a team of scuba divers from the Guardia Costiera and specially trained cave divers from the Vigili del Fuoco, the local fire department, used boats and a helicopter to triangulate the yacht’s position. The divers, working in bursts of 8 to 12 minutes, searched the Bayesian’s six guest suites, master suite, multiple living areas, and dining room.

The body of the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas, was the first to be found, floating on the water’s surface. On Wednesday, two days after the wreck, four more bodies were discovered, and on Thursday a fifth. Among them were Lynch and Chris Morvillo of the prestigious law firm Clifford Chance, who had made the controversial decision to have Lynch testify, and questioned him on the stand right before he was acquitted. The others discovered were Morvillo’s wife, Neda, as well as the Morgan Stanley banker and key witness, Jonathan Bloomer, who had been a former executive director at Autonomy, and his wife Judy. The body of Lynch's 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, was pulled from the sea on Friday.

The U.K. Maritime and Coastguard Agency tells Fortune it is in contact with the Italian authorities but would not provide further information. The UK’s Foreign Office told Fortune it is providing “consular support to a number of British nationals and their families…and are in contact with the local authorities.”

More questions than answers

Even as loved ones and the survivors begin to come to terms with the human toll of the tragedy, the business world has begun assessing Lynch’s complicated past, and his many business dealings. 

Lynch was born of modest means to a nurse and firefighter in a suburb of London. From an early age he showed a proclivity towards technology and a fiery determination. He studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge, then returned for a PhD in artificial neural networks, the building blocks of artificial intelligence. When he was still studying for his PhD, he started his first venture, Cambridge Neurodynamics, monetizing computerized fingerprint recognition, eventually evolving into Autonomy. 

Founded in 1996 with David Tabizel and Richard Gaunt, Autonomy used an early version of artificial intelligence to quickly scan what’s known as “unstructured data,” especially including language. Autonomy quickly became a darling of the UK’s fledgling tech scene, and it was seen as a crowning achievement when, in 2011, the company struck an $11 billion deal to be purchased by HP, now HPE. The deal, however, was quickly engulfed in scandal when a year later the new owner alleged accounting fraud and wrote down its investment by $8.8 billion.

Despite the baggage around Autonomy, Lynch continued to ride high in the tech world through his venture firm, Invoke Capital, which he founded in 2012. One of its most profitable investments was Darktrace, which he backed in 2013 and joined as a board member. By 2016 he told TechCrunch 60 employees from Autonomy were working at Invoke, that he’d raised a billion dollars to invest in startups, and that Darktrace was worth $500 million.

While fighting the legal battle over Autonomy and building Invoke, Lynch enjoyed the trappings of a mogul. The same year he announced his billion-dollar startup fund, he was sailing the Bayesian, worth an estimated $25 million. He reportedly also owned a $6 million, 69-acre Georgian manor.

By early 2020 Darktrace shared deep connections with Autonomy, including half of Darktrace’s board and six of its eight top executives. The following year Darktrace went public, soaring 40% above its pre-market value. But the victory lap was brief. In September 2022, an acquisition talk between private equity firm Thoma Bravo and Darktrace fell through , sending share prices tumbling. In early 2023, the short-selling firm Quintessential Capital Management published a 70-page report accusing Darktrace of similar misconduct that had sunk Autonomy.

“We are deeply skeptical about the validity of Darktrace’s financial statements,” the report read. Darktrace’s shares plunged as much as 17% after the report was published, though the company said at the time that the management team and board had “rigorous controls in place.” Darktrace hired EY to perform an audit, which stabilized its share price after the accounting firm found the company's earlier financial results did not need to be restated. Darktrace never publicly released the report, however, with a spokesperson saying at the time that it contained “commercially sensitive information.”

More recently, Darktrace’s CEO Poppy Gustafsson wrote in the firm’s Q4 trading report of “shareholders voting overwhelmingly in favour” of the acquisition, and added the company is “awaiting the conclusion of the remaining regulatory processes.”

Until very recently, Darktrace had sought to distance itself from Lynch and his VC firm. In December, shareholders passed a resolution that rejected Invoke executive Patrick Jacob's reappointment to its board. This April, Invoke lost the right to that same board seat when it was discovered its shares had fallen below the required 10% threshold. Nonetheless, in a memorial to Lynch, Darktrace CEO Poppy Gustafsson wrote : “Without Mike, there would be no Darktrace. We owe him so much.”

While the Italian authorities continue to investigate the crash site, one thing is certain: the swirl of legal and business battles that surrounded Lynch during his lifetime are likely to continue after his death. A local Italian news site reports that the public prosecutor's office in a nearby town, Termini Imerese, is looking into allegations of manslaughter surrounding the sunken boat. And two months before Lynch died, former UK secretary of state David Davis reportedly said he was working with Lynch to scrap U.S./U.K extradition agreements that allowed Lynch’s trial to happen in the first place. 

On Wednesday, August 21, Davis told GB News he would continue that fight in memory of Lynch. “We need to get a grip of this,” said Davis. “Mike, when he’d won his case, almost the first thing he did was ring me up and say, ‘we’re going to have to defeat this treaty, we’re going to have to overcome this treaty and get it changed for the better.'"

“I am looking forward to returning to the U.K. and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field,” Lynch said after the verdict.

Lynch’s desire to extend the legal fight even after his not-guilty verdict reflects the scrappiness he displayed throughout his life. This helped him ascend to the highest rungs of business and moguldom—but the success also came with a tenuous quality as questions about his business dealings dogged him for years. The not-guilty verdict and the pending Darktrace sale meant Lynch was in position to finally cast off that shadow. But now his ultimate legacy is poised to be tied forever to a mysterious and tragic hour on the Mediterranean Sea.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com