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THE J/70  Click here for more info

J70BrochureWeb.pdf

J/BOAT’S FIRST RAMP-LAUNCHABLE KEELBOAT DESIGN                             

This new 22.75 foot speedster is designed to fulfill the growing need for an easy-to-tow, high performance, one-design that is exciting to sail, yet stable enough for the family. She is built to last under the watchful eye of J/Boats and the Rhode Island manufacturer CCF Composites. Class development is accelerating dramatically around the world. In the U.S. alone, there are over a dozen J/70 fleets that have formed already with nearly twice that amount in the formative process across America.

In 2012 SAIL Magazine’s panel of sailing experts reviewed a large cross-section of “performance” sailboats in the 30-foot and under size range. After a thorough evaluation of all the boats, the SAIL Best Boat expert panel chose the J/70 as the “Best Boat” in the “Performance Category”.  The J/70 also is Sailing World’s Boat of the Year Winner and has now reached ISAF (International Sailing Federation) status.

Here are the included features:

            Large comfortable cockpit with open transom (Harken winches & deck hardware & 11” SS lifelines w/comfort pads)

            Deck stepped carbon mast with single spreaders and carbon boom.

            3 Sail inventory including a masthead asymmetrical spinnaker (below-deck jib furling)

            Vertical lifting keel (4.75’ with kelp cutter that reaches down about 80%)  and it works!!

            Fixed motor mount (accommodates short shaft outboard)

            Cabin for storage and personal privacy (V-berth)

            Trailerability with easy ramp launching and retrieving

2022 Pricing is currently at $49,900 for the boat and $4,995 for a Triad trailer. Sails are additional (see more information later) plus a $100 factory set up fee prior to shipping.  Prices are subject to change.

Next available Hull is October of 2022.

To order a boat, a modest reservation deposit gets a hull assigned to you with a molding deposit due 3 weeks prior to molding. The balance is due upon completion. There are only two production line options (bow & stern hull guards $350 total), but after- market options are available through HOOPER’S which include cushions, covers or trailer modifications (detailed here later). At least 4 J/70’s without trailers can be shipped on one truckload. Three boats with trailers can ship on one truck load.

Any individual or group interested in ordering one or more boats should please contact Hooper’s Yachts. Special pricing may be available.

Performance and Sails:   In mid-April, 2012 on the water sail sessions were completed and it is no surprise that the J/70 can fly. The top speed realized was 16.2 kts with another boat hitting 15.8 kts. The most talked about characteristics was how quickly the J/70 accelerated both upwind and downwind. It was reported that she sails upwind, steering and tracking like a boat several feet longer - very easily. Stability was also realized as it was no surprise that the J/70 handled conditions very well. In Europe the spectacular wipe outs were from the European competition and the J/70 easily handled them all in the medium to heavy air. ‘Blew them away. In the 2013 French off shore race, the J/70 hit 20 knots.

In 2013 they set the J/70 NA Championship at a 90-boat entry, but the quota was hit in only 28 hours. So it was raised to 120 boats for the 2014 NA’s and that sold out in hours too. The J/70 phenomenon is crazy. Over 600 hulls sold in just over 2 years after first launch. In today’s economy, that’s remarkable. Some say it is not high performance enough. It is clearly fast, but not so amped-up that only really good or young sailors can manage it. We have heard that it is too easy to sail – too simple, but that translates into more participation – a design that is more inclusive. You can get into the sport boat game and develop as you go. She’s fast, but not intimidating, fun for various ages and abilities, affordable and offers good racing or day sailing everywhere you go.

The one-designed dimensions and specifications for the 3-sail class inventory have been finalized. Both North Sails and Quantum Sails helped with the process with collective input. The class rules are now available for owners. Anyone interested in receiving more information on sails can request them from us at any time.

2021: Quantum  Class Sail prices are $7,000 and  North Sails  is $7,599 and  Doyle Sails  is $7,300. ( Royalty and options might not be incl ) (All prices subject to change).  For fleet or institutional boat orders, special reduced pricing  might  be offered. Sales tax and freight are not included.  Sails should be ordered at the time the boat is ordered and a 50% deposit will be requested at that time. The assigned hull number will be sent to the sail maker of your choice and spinnaker colors will be selected.  Clew blocks may be additional.  The balance will be due when the sails are completed.

What is the anticipated crew weight limit?  One-design rules say that the crew should consist of 3 or 4 people.

Any class limits expected on hiking?   The J/70 has 11” high, stainless safety lines with comfort pads around the cockpit which are designed for comfortable seating, facing either inboard or outboard. This suits the boat well for club team-racing/match-racing events which tend to prefer inboard seating vs. one-design/recreational sailing where both are popular. As there is no bow pulpit, class rules require crew on deck to stay aft of the mast except for temporary sail handling needs which should be minimal with a roller furling headsail and retractable sprit for the asymmetrical which can be launched from the cockpit. Not more than two crew may have their legs outboard of the sheerline. When tacking or gybing, crew shall not hang, push or pull on the shrouds, mast, cockpit safety lines, stanchions or any other item to promote the maneuver. No roll tacking.

What is the expected PHRF Rating?   It’s too early to tell until the boat sails head to head against some PHRF benchmark boats in various conditions – something that is underway now.  The one-design sail plan is nicely powered up, so there is no reason to consider non-class sails, which also helps keep your cost down.

After market Options:

Several suppliers have stepped forward with offers to provide aftermarket accessories such as canvas products, cushions and outboards. J/Boats is encouraging this open market approach as apposed to exclusivity which tends to push pricing up. So, they are dealing with reputable suppliers that dealers can work with. But, these options are not essential.  Here are some of the many items that will be available through Hooper’s Yachts:

V-Berth Cushions                                                                                                                  

            Line Bags

            Mainsail Covers

            Furling Jib Luff Covers

            Electronics, compass, Windex, etc.

            Outboard Motor (Torqueedo Electric 1003 $1,999) We are also Nissan/Tohatsu dealers

            Bottom Paint

            Ground tackle, fenders, dock lines, etc.

            Running & Cabin lights (portable or permanent)

 There is a complete compliment of covers available for the J/70 for practically every need including full trailering covers down to blade covers, etc. If interested, we will happily email you the price sheet.

J/70 Triad Trailer included gear

Tentative trailer ratings:

Gross Vehicle Weight rating: 2,990 pounds

Trailer weight: 900 pounds

Approximate trailer carrying capacity: 2,650 pounds

Suspension:  Single 3,500 pound capacity Tie Down Engineering Eliminator Torsions bar axle equipped

with Tie Down Engineering Super Lube® bearing system as well as reversible spindles.

Brakes : The stock package Triad Trailer  will not be equipped with brakes . Hydraulic surge disc brakes

will be offered as an option factory direct from Triad Trailers LLC.

Important Note: The following states will require brakes to be installed on the J/70 Triad Trailer:

California , Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, Nevada, Ohio, Tennessee and Utah

Tires : Carrier Star ST205/75D14 load range C tire mounted on 5 hole Galvanized Spoke wheel. Carrying

capacity for each tire and wheel assembly is 1,760 pounds. Heavy duty galvanized steel fenders and high

impact fender guards will protect the tires.

Trailer finish:  Hot dip galvanized after the trailer has been completely welded

Front trailer jack:  The trailer will come equipped with a 1,000 pound capacity marine jack which adjusts

in height by turning a crank handle. The jack swivels to a horizontal position for travel.

Forward and rear hull support bunks:  2 inch x 6 inch pressure treated board covered with Tie Down

Engineering Bunk Slicks. Bunk slicks provided very low friction for ramp launching/retrieving, assist in

centering the boat on the trailer and do not retain water preventing hull blistering.

Front under centerline hull support : A 12 inch wide non marring amber roller will be located on

centerline of the trailer approximately 3 feet – 3 inches aft of the stem. The roller will keep the boat

elevated during launching and retrieval.

Keel support:  The trailer will come equipped with a 12 inch wide keel support which will be covered

with marine grade carpet. The keel support will ride roughly 11 inches from the road surface.

Bow stop : The J/70 Triad Trailer will come equipped with a bow stop. Mounted to the bow stop will be  

a 1,300 pound capacity single speed winch equipped with a nylon winch strap with snap hook. The

We have a couple of different banks to draw from, but basic financing info is simple and it takes only a minimum $5,000 down payment (or 10%) to get into a J/70 and over 15 years the average rate range is varies depending on the credit rating of the boat buyer.  Contact us for the monthly payment. With 15% down the same rates apply but payments are lower.  The process for applying for a loan is simple. Call for details and an application.

COMMENTS FROM J/70 SAILORS:

My impressions, as crew, of the J70 are positive. Like most J boats she is well mannered and comfortable. She does not appear to have any bad habits or quirks. Overall it was a really fun weekend with two great days on the water. I got the impression everyone involved was psyched to be there and looking forward to more racing on the J/70. There was plenty of talk of races in FL this winter and growing of fleets in the Great Lakes, the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic in the spring. –Greg Lanese after sailing the Fall Brawl First J/70 OD completion in Annapolis in heavy winds

The boat definitely does not feel and sail like a sport boat. It sails like a keel boat and that is good. - Rich Stearns

The comment after the first J/70 sail from one of our local buyers: “  the boat is a Ferrari, just wonderful. Smooth, fast, stiff”.

All J/70 Events can be found here :  http://www.j70class.com/index.php/event-calendar2/

ALL PRICES AND SPECIFICATIONS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

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J/70 for Sale

Price based on price list 2023 . Excluding VAT

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EU (Spain, Italy, France, Germany, England, Croatia, Turkey and other), USA, UAE, Asia and other countries.

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Sale of J/70

We offer the sought after J/70 for sale from J/Boats - it is now one of the most popular yachts in the world - together with the advantages the topRik marketplace provides during the purchasing process.

The number of happy owners of J/70 is approaching two thousand in total, residing in different 30 countries. The sailboat is tailored for speed – nothing superfluous, including interior decoration. A modest sleeping place for two, but enough seats in the cockpit so as not to bump into each other when managing the boat. However, if you want to go on a solo voyage, then you can easily cope with it on your own.

Yes, this boat is not for comfortable cruising with luxurious interiors, but since the day of the world premiere, it has firmly entered the ranks of the few leaders in offshore racing yachts. At the same time, you can use it for a fun family sailing adventure without the need to set speed records.

The 7-meter sporty J/70 for sale is light on the handlebars, it is convenient to tow it on a trailer thanks to a retractable keel, and also to launch it. At the same time light and rigid, with carbon equipment, the model demonstrates the wonders of longevity, and the J/70’s price is quite easy on the eyes compared to alternatives.

Pleasure, fun and adrenaline - these are the feelings you experience when driving J/70. On the day of the launch of the first hull, it was the smallest keelboat of the J/Boats shipyard from America. And when it was presented in Europe, the yachtsmen of the New World, on their own initiative, had already held several regattas. The very first yacht show in Düsseldorf awarded the boat the title of "European Yacht of the Year 2013", and before that, J/70 collected nominations for the best boat of the year in the USA and Great Britain. Today, associations have been created in different regions that unite the owners of the J/70 and hold regattas named after this sailboat.

If you want to join their ranks, contact the topRik marketplace specialists . In addition to a free initial consultation, you will receive a full turnkey J/70 sales service, which includes:

• negotiations with the manufacturer so that you can buy J/70 on the most favorable terms;
• assistance in the preparation of all documentation: sales contracts, insurance, customs procedures, etc.;
• on-site control of the yacht assembly in accordance with your requirements;
• transfer of the boat to the specified location.

If the J/70 package offered by the manufacturer seems insufficient to you, you will not have to turn to dozens of companies for additional equipment or accessories.

You can choose and buy all marine equipment in the topRik marketplace – just look at the variety of companies and brands that offer their products here. We are able to provide you with the best products, including watermakers, fenders, table and bed linen, tools, chargers, electronics, etc. 

We also have programs for the joint acquisition of yachts, which is important for the sailing regatta teams.

The sale of J/70 through our marketplace is an easy process - simply contact our experts using the feedback form on this page, send an email, or simply call the phone number above. topRik marketplace is your reliable boatswain in the yachting world and in the ocean of marine equipment!

Price 2023 (TARIFS_J70_AU_6_FEVRIER_2023_GB.pdf, 488 Kb) [ Download ]

Specifications (j70-2022-specs-1.pdf, 179 Kb) [ Download ]

Brochure (J70_Brochure.pdf, 4,766 Kb) [ Download ]

2020 J-Boats J70 Sailing Yacht - Walkaround Tour - 2020 Boot Dusseldorf

Short and sweet walkaround tour at 2020 Boot Dusseldorf

J/70 Boat Handling with Vince Brun

Expert Vince Brun provide insight into boat management and handling at northonedesign

J70 test video just sailing

A lot of sailing footage - best demonstration of yacht's capabilities

The J/70 - World's Fastest Growing One Design, Trailerable Speedster! Find Out More about it!

Succinct explanations of various features and benefits of J/70

Rosebud J70 2020 Midwinter Championship

Exciting recording of Rosebud 2020 Midwinter Championship with professional teams handling the boat

J/70 Boathandling and Tuning Tips with Willem Van Waay

Long and extensive review of J/70 - literally everything you need to know

Articles about J/70 for Sale

2013 Boat of the Year: J/70 by Sailing World

Best Boats 2013: J/70 by Sail Magazine

Q&A on the awesome J/70 by Sail-World

J/70 Review by topRik Team

Comment The quality of materials ensures the durability and safety of the yacht: * precisely selected composite materials for the body (sandwich based on infusion composite construction); * stainless steel for retractable keel; * bulb made of lead; * carbon mast and other autoclaved carbon alloy parts. Show more

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Latest News

J/fest & fiesta cup.

Santa Barbara Yacht Club has hosted its Fiesta Cup for decades. In addition, this year they added a J/Fest Regatta for two successive weekends of

J/70s Enjoy Gorgeous Ugotta Regatta

The Little Traverse Yacht Club hosted its iconic Ugotta Regatta in Harbor Springs, MI on July 26-28. The 18-boat J/70 fleet was won by Bruno

LEVEL 5 Wins J/70 New England Championship at Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series Marblehead

Eastern Yacht Club hosted another fun Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series over three days in late July. The 14-boat J/70 fleet competed for

Race Week Anacortes

Race Week Anacortes had lots of races over the three days in WA at the annual event held June 24-28. The nine-boat J/70 fleet enjoyed a plethora of

Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week

The 19th edition of Long Beach Race Week concluded on Sunday, June 23 with a full complement of races sailed in 11 divisions, including six

J/Fest Seattle

This year’s J/Fest Seattle was hosted by the Corinthian Yacht Club of Seattle on Puget Sound on June 15-16. In this hotly-contested J/70 fleet

Latest Event Highlights

2019 mid winters.

J/70 – World’s Fastest Growing One Design, Trailerable Speedster!

Easier to trailer, rig and ramp launch. The J/70 Speedster (22.75 feet) is J/Boats’ first fully ramp-launchable, keelboat – designed to fulfill a growing need for an easy-to-own, high performance one-design that is exciting to sail, stable enough for the entire family, easy to tow behind the family vehicle, to rig in the parking lot, ramp launch and sail.  Plus, J/70 is built to last.

In less than 48 months the J/70 worldwide fleet is over 1,300 boats strong, attracting some of the most talented sailors in the world and helping to spark growth of numerous sailing leagues across Europe. J/70 is replacing tired old keelboat fleets at a number of sailing clubs and helping to reinvigorate membership by attracting younger sailors into the ranks.  There are fleet discussions underway now around the world both for new leagues and for established clubs.  The Sailing World Overall Boat of the Year J/70 has taken the world by storm and future growth for this fantastic boat looks very bright, indeed!  These days it is safe to say  there is some J/70 event happening on almost any given weekend somewhere around the world!

Key J/70 Features.

• Large comfortable cockpit with open transom.
• Deck-stepped lightweight carbon mast for easy rigging & stepping.
• Inexpensive three sail inventory with masthead A-Sail.
• Vertical lifting keel.
• Small cabin for storage and personal privacy.
• Easy to trailer to regattas, ramp launch and store at home for winter.
• Only 1,750 lbs & low road height so most 6 cyl vehicles can easily tow.
• Fits inside most standard garage doors!

More comfortable to sail on deck. The 11′ long cockpit and moderate height boom in the J/70 allow easy crew movement across the cockpit while tacking and jibing. For sitting and hiking comfort, mid-height padded backrests/lifelines run cockpit length, large cockpit floor mounted toe-rails for secure foot bracing and comfortable seat height and ergonomics makes J/70 one of the most comfortable small keelboats to helm.  No need for hiking straps to keep you in the boat. Plus there are strict class limits on how to hike to make the boat less physical to sail.

Easy for the entire family to join in! With mandatory on-board jib/spinnaker sheet winches, a feather light responsive helm and confidence building stability, you can enjoy sailing with friends and family more often.  Kids or seniors will feel as comfortable and in control steering or trimming sails, whether for daysailing or evening sunset races, the J/70 will be both exciting and forgiving.  When you are ready to take it to the next competitive level, the competition at national events won’t disappoint.

On-board privacy, protection, storage & auxiliary power The small cabin below is a bonus in any small keelboat, and the J/70 cabin is just large enough to provide weather & sun protection, a place to nap and/or for personal privacy… essential to keeping the whole crew happy if spending a day on the water.

The J/70 one-design class rules provide for a 2.5 hp outboard engine (gas or electric). This means one can sail further away from homeport without worrying about paddling home or hailing for a tow. Race Committees can start races on time and finish them later in the day without having to arrange tow boats.

J/70 UK Class Association

The most exciting sportsboat class in the uk.

Key Yachting in Hamble, Southampton, are the exclusive agent for new J Boats in the UK. They also run an active brokerage business, and can provide the best technical support that you will find anywhere. They can also supply spare parts.

View current boat listings

Check their website to see if they have any pre-owned J/70s for sale, or give them a call for new boat sales. 02380 455669 www.keyyachting.com

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More From Forbes

One haute yacht, the spirit bartech f35 owns speed, style, and control.

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The Spirit Yachts BARTech F35's stylish design dovetails classic lines with modern technology, ... [+] flying on foils while taking on the appearance of a golden era film star.

BAR Technologies and Spirit Yachts dovetailed talent and expertise to deliver a chic luxury launch in May of 2023, the Spirit BARTech F35 . With a gleaming mahogany skin and a nostalgic profile taking inspiration from the Rum Runners of the 1920s, the F35 is a distinctive, scene-stealing craft.

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Who was onboard tech mogul Mike Lynch's Bayesian yacht?

Topic: Disasters, Accidents and Emergency Incidents

Six people are missing, including a man dubbed the British Bill Gates, after a luxury yacht sank off the Sicilian coast.

British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch — freshly acquitted from a decade-long trial — had invited his work colleagues aboard a trip through the Mediterranean coast when a freak storm saw the yacht sink within moments.

Fifteen people escaped from the sinking vessel. The search for the missing continues.

Here's what we know so far: 

What happened?

The Italian coastguard said the yacht — the Bayesian — was anchored off the shore of port city Porticello, near the Sicilian capital Palermo, when it was hit by bad weather sometime after 4am on Monday, local time. 

Eyewitnesses said it vanished quickly beneath the waves shortly before dawn.

Managers of the sailing vessel Bayesian, Camper & Nicholsons, confirmed to the ABC that the Bayesian encountered severe weather and subsequently sank. 

"Our priority is assisting with the ongoing search and providing all necessary support to the rescued passengers and crew," they said. 

"The wind was very strong. Bad weather was expected, but not of this magnitude," a coastguard official told Reuters.

Sicily's civil protection agency head, Salvo Cocina, said a waterspout — a tornado over the water — could have struck the yacht.

"They were in the wrong place at the wrong time," Mr Cocina added. 

Storms and heavy rainfall had swept down Italy in recent days after weeks of scorching heat, lifting the temperature of the Mediterranean Sea to record levels and raising the risk of extreme weather conditions, experts told Reuters.

"The sea surface temperature around Sicily was around 30 degrees Celsius, which is almost 3 degrees more than normal. This creates an enormous source of energy that contributes to these storms," meteorologist Luca Mercalli said.

Rescuers recover the body of one of the people aboard the Bayesian.  ( AP: Lucio Ganci )

Captain Karsten Borner of the Sir Robert Baden Powell vessel told journalists he noticed the Bayesian nearby during the storm, but after it calmed he saw a red flare and realised the ship had simply disappeared.

Mr Borner said he and a crew member boarded their tender and found a lifeboat with 15 people, some of them injured, who they then took aboard and alerted the coast guard.

Search crews, including helicopters and divers, are continuing to search the wreckage, lying at a depth of 49 metres.

Specialist divers reached the ship on Monday but access was limited due to objects in the way, the fire brigade said.

The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch is deploying a team of four inspectors to Italy to conduct a preliminary assessment.

The Foreign Commonwealth and Development office said it was "providing consular support to a number of British nationals and their families".

Sicilian prosecutors have also opened an investigation into the event. 

Who is missing?

Lawyer Chris Morvillo (left), entrepreneur Mike Lynch, and Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloomer are among the missing. 

There were 12 passengers and 10 crew members aboard the yacht. 

Mr Cocina said the crew and passengers hailed from a variety of countries, including Britain, the United States, Antigua, France, Germany, Ireland, Myanmar, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain.

Of the 22, one man is confirmed dead and another six people are still missing. 

They are believed to be inside the hull, fire rescue spokesperson Luca Cari said.

Fabio Cefalù, a fisherman who said he responded to a flare from the vessel but found it sunk, said he stayed at the site for three hours without finding anyone.

"I think they are inside, all the missing people," he said.

Rescue teams recovered the body of the yacht's onboard chef on Monday, identified as Antiguan citizen Ricardo Thomas.

The still missing people include: 

• Mr Lynch's 18-year-old daughter, Hannah 
• Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of global financial services company Morgan Stanley International
• Chris Morvillo , a lawyer at the British multinational law firm Clifford Chance. He worked on Mr Lynch's lawsuit against Hewlett-Packard
• The identities of the remaining two missing are still unconfirmed

Who was rescued? 

Fifteen people escaped from the sinking ship. 

Eight have been hospitalised and others were taken to a nearby hotel.

Charlotte Golunski was among those rescued, recalling the harrowing moments she held her child Sofia above the waves.  ( Supplied: Facebook  )

Among those rescued were:

• Mr Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, who was the owner of the yacht
• Charlotte Golunski and her one-year-old daughter, Sofia. Ms Golunski is a partner at Mr Lynch's firm, Invoke Capital. She says she momentarily lost hold of Sofia in the water but managed to hold her up above the waves until the lifeboat was inflated
• Ms Golunski's husband James Emslie
• New Zealand captain of the yacht James Catfield. He told Italian newspaper La Repubblica the crew didn't see the storm coming
• A lone Dutch citizen was identified by the Dutch foreign ministry as being rescued, but was not identified

Who is Mike Lynch?

Mr Lynch, once hailed as Britain’s king of technology, was recently freed from a Silicon Valley lawsuit that tarnished his legacy. 

The 59-year-old Cambridge-educated mathematician created Autonomy , a search engine that could pore through emails and other internal business documents to help companies find vital information more quickly. 

He received the OBE for his innovation in 2006. 

He then sold the software to Hewlett-Packard (HP) for $US11 billion ($16 billion) in 2011, with Mr Lynch personally netting $US800 million. 

HP valued Autonomy at $US46 billion ($68 billion) in the months leading up to the deal.

Mike Lynch in 2019 leaving the High Court in London.  ( Reuters: Henry Nicholls/File Photo )

But the deal quickly turned sour after he was accused of forging the software's financial records to make the sale.

As part of a decades-long legal battle against HP, Mr Lynch was extradited to the UK on criminal fraud charges. 

He steadfastly denied any wrongdoing, asserting that he was being made a scapegoat for HP's own bungling. 

He was eventually cleared of all charges in June this year. 

Although he avoided a possible prison sentence, Lynch still faced a bill from a civil case in London that HP mostly won during 2022. Damages haven't been determined in that case, but HP is seeking $US4 billion. 

Following the San Francisco trial, Mr Lynch said he would return to the UK and do what he loved most: "[being with] my family and innovating in my field."

The holiday appeared to be something of a celebration after Mr Lynch's acquittal, with guests including some of the people who had stood by Lynch throughout the ordeal.

This picture shows the rescue operations off the Sicilian coast.  ( AP: Italian Coast Guard  )

In a separate act of tragedy, Mr Lynch's co-defendant in the trial, Stephen Chamberlain, died on Monday, after a road accident left him critically injured.

Mr Chamberlain — Autonomy's former vice-president of finance alongside Mr Lynch — was hit by a car in Cambridgeshire on Saturday morning and had been placed on life support. 

What is the Bayesian?

The luxury yacht is 56m long sailboat, with a 75m mast labelled as the tallest aluminium mast in the world.

It was previously named Salute when it flew under a Dutch flag.

The yacht, built in 2008 by the Italian firm Perini Navi, can accommodate up to 12 guests in six suites and a crew of 10, according to online specialist yacht sites. It was last refitted in 2020.

Online charter sites listed it for rent for up to 195,000 euros (about $AU 321,000) a week. 

This picture taken on Sunday shows the Bayesian (left) and the Duch sailboat Sir Robert Baden Powell anchored off the coast line.   ( AP: Fabio La Bianca/Baia Santa Nicolicchia )

The ship also won a string of awards for its design. 

Ms Golunski said the yacht had travelled through the Aeolian Islands, Milazzo and Cefalù before sinking. 

It is likely the yacht's name would resonate with Mr Lynch because his PhD thesis and the software that made his fortune was based on Bayesian theory.

Mike Lynch won a dramatic 12-year legal battle over his tech company. Weeks later, he and his top lawyer are dead.

• Mike Lynch won an unexpected jury acquittal after a dramatic 12-year legal saga.
• HP accused him of cooking the books of his company Autonomy to make it seem worth billions more.
• He finally won — and then he, his lawyer, and his codefendant all died within days.

In 2011, Mike Lynch was the toast of the tech world.

Hailed as Britain's Bill Gates, Lynch sold Autonomy, his groundbreaking data-management company, to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion.

Shareholders and business commentators were puzzled about what HP, a hardware company, would do with Autonomy, a software company — and why the latter was worth $11 billion. HP's executives said at the time that Autonomy had the potential to transform HP and usher the Silicon Valley titan into a new generation.

None of that happened. A year after the acquisition, HP wrote down $8.8 billion of the purchase value and accused Lynch of lying about Autonomy's finances.

The claim led to a vicious decadelong series of legal disputes.

Another Autonomy executive, Sushovan Hussain, was convicted of fraud in 2018 and sentenced to five years in prison. Federal prosecutors brought criminal charges against Lynch and Stephen Chamberlain, the company's former vice president of finance.

Lynch's court battles concluded with a three-month criminal trial in San Francisco. After just two days of deliberation, jurors found Lynch and Chamberlain not guilty on all counts.

"The truth has finally prevailed," his lawyer Chris Morvillo said.

Within months, Lynch, Chamberlain, and Morvillo were all dead.

A takeover doomed from the start

Lynch, who studied neural networks for his Ph.D. at Cambridge University, spun off Autonomy from a previous company, Cambridge Neurodynamics, in 1996.

Using sophisticated algorithms, Autonomy allowed users to organize and search through large amounts of unstructured data. It was a bright spot in Britain's tech industry and was listed on the country's stock-market index.

Autonomy's clients included Oracle, Adobe, Cisco, AT&T, and HP itself. But HP's purchase of Autonomy was controversial.

The hardware company's CEO, Léo Apotheker , who had been in the position for less than a year, tried to shift the company's direction. HP had struggled to sell printers and servers as part of its traditional hardware business. Apotheker wanted to spin off HP's personal-computing division and make a big bet on moving the company into software, which had higher margins.

Analysts hated the idea. Shareholders sued. HP's value dropped by more than half. The company's board fired Apotheker within weeks of the decision to buy Autonomy, before the deal even closed.

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His successor, Meg Whitman, fired Lynch and wrote down the value of Autonomy by $8.8 billion, which indicated HP paid nearly four times what it should have. The New York Times columnist James B. Stewart floated the case that it was the worst acquisition in corporate history — even worse than AOL's ill-fated purchase of Time Warner.

In a stunning move, HP accused Lynch of fraud the following year. The company alleged he and Hussain, a former CFO, inflated Autonomy's sales figures. The FBI and the UK's Serious Fraud Office both opened investigations.

Lynch fervently denied accusations of wrongdoing. He pointed out that Autonomy was audited by Deloitte, which hadn't found issues. Lynch said HP stifled Autonomy with mismanagement and bureaucracy that pushed out employees and stymied sales.

The culture at HP, he said, was poisonous.

"It was like boarding a plane, realizing the engine is on fire, and then going up to the cockpit only to find that the pilots are having a fight," he told The Telegraph at the time .

According to The New York Times, lawyers representing shareholders in the lawsuit against HP obtained a copy of the company's own KPMG-prepared due-diligence report. The report said that Autonomy wasn't transparent enough with its finances, but Apotheker moved forward with the takeover anyway, deciding that Autonomy's potential was worth it.

A legal morass

The UK's Serious Fraud Office announced in January 2015 that it closed its investigation into Autonomy, finding insufficient evidence for legal action, though it referred some issues to the US Justice Department.

In the subsequent months, HP and Lynch sued each other in the UK. As those cases wound their way through the British court system, US prosecutors continued investigating HP's purchase of Autonomy. In 2016, they brought fraud charges against Hussain, who was found guilty in a 2018 jury trial. British regulators formally barred him from the financial industry earlier this year after he completed a five-year sentence in the US.

HP unloaded Autonomy altogether, selling parts of it in 2016 and 2017.

In November 2018, Justice Department prosecutors went directly after Lynch and Chamberlain.

Their indictment accused Lynch and Chamberlain of falsifying financial documents, lying to auditors and regulators, and suppressing the voices of people who criticized Autonomy's financial practices.

Lynch was no longer looking at civil fights over money. He was facing the prospect of up to 20 years in prison.

For years, Lynch fought extradition to the US. Powerful in British political circles — he had advised David Cameron when Cameron was prime minister and served on the boards of the BBC and the British Museum — he and his lawyers argued that his legal issues should play out in the UK, not the US. American criminal laws were unfairly stacked against him, his lawyers said.

HP's lawsuit against Lynch — still churning in the background — finally went to trial in 2019. Apotheker testified he would have abandoned the Autonomy acquisition if he had a better understanding of its finances. Lynch argued that the whole morass was orchestrated by Whitman, Apotheker's successor, who harbored political ambitions (she ran for governor in California and is currently the US ambassador to Kenya) and wanted to shift the blame for Autonomy's failures to someone else.

Robert Hildyard, the judge who oversaw the case, ruled mostly in HP's favor. In a 2022 decision that ran over 1,700 pages, he wrote that HP overpaid for Autonomy because of deceit from Lynch and Hussain. Hildyard hadn't yet decided how much they would owe in damages, but he wrote it would be "substantially less" than the $5 billion HP asked for.

When he wasn't fighting legal battles, Lynch continued to be an entrepreneur. He founded a venture-capital firm, Invoke Capital, and invested in and helped run the cybersecurity firm Darktrace, which,  Politico reported, has deep ties  to Britain's intelligence agencies.

Financial disclosures Lynch filed last year as part of his criminal case indicated he was worth about $450 million.

The criminal trial

The UK finally extradited Lynch to the US in May 2023 , where he prepared for his trial — alongside Chamberlain as a codefendant — while under house arrest in San Francisco.

Lynch had a top-shelf legal team, but after the British court loss and Hussain's conviction, the chances of an acquittal seemed bleak.

Lynch testified at the end of his three-month trial, which began in March, telling jurors he wasn't involved in day-to-day financial oversight of the company. Misunderstandings, he said, could be chalked up to the differences between British and American accounting practices.

"A lot of what we've been looking at is like peering through the door of a kitchen and seeing the sausage-making machine, and that's how it really works," he told jurors, according to The Times of London . "If you take the microscope into even the most spotless kitchen, you'd find bacteria. If it wasn't there, that'd be something very abnormal. I don't think Autonomy was any different."

Jurors believed him. In June, they declared Lynch not guilty of the 15 charges against him, clearing Chamberlain as well.

Morvillo, one of Lynch's lawyers in the trial — as well as in the preceding decade of legal disputes — praised the jury, saying it had rejected "the government's profound overreach in this case."

"This verdict closes the book on a relentless 13-year effort to pin HP's well-documented ineptitude on Dr. Lynch," Morvillo said in a joint statement with his attorney colleague Brian Heberlig. "Thankfully, the truth has finally prevailed."

In an interview with The Times of London after the trial , Lynch reflected on how, with a great burden lifted off him at the age of 59, he could remake his life.

He mourned the deaths of his brother and mother, who both died ahead of the criminal trial. He mused about using his fortune to start a British version of the Innocence Project, which prevents wrongful convictions in the US.

"Now you have a second life," he told The Times. "The question is, what do you want to do with it?"

But first, a celebration. Lynch; his wife, Angela Bacares; one of his two daughters; Morvillo and his wife, Neda; and several others went on a superyacht, the Bayesian , which was anchored outside Sicily and owned by Bacares.

Chamberlain moved back to the UK. While running near his home, a driver hit him with a car . He died in a hospital on Saturday.

On Monday, a sudden storm struck the Bayesian. The yacht capsized.

Of its 22 passengers, 15, including Bacares, were rescued.

But rescuers have pulled five bodies from the wreckage, including Morvillo's and Lynch's . A sixth remains trapped inside the boat. Lynch's daughter Hannah remains missing.

Correction: August 22, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misnamed Lynch's lawyer. His name was Chris Morvillo, not Charles Morvillo.

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Mike Lynch, Tech Mogul Acquitted of Fraud, Dies at 59

The British entrepreneur was found not guilty of fraud charges in the sale of his company to Hewlett-Packard. He was celebrating his acquittal when his yacht sank off the coast of Sicily.

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By Michael J. de la Merced

Michael de la Merced reported on Mike Lynch’s career and legal battles over the course of 13 years across two continents.

Mike Lynch , a British software mogul who was once celebrated as a top technology leader — only to spend more than a decade defending himself against accusations that he orchestrated one of the biggest frauds in Silicon Valley history — died on Monday after his yacht sank off the coast of Sicily . He was 59.

An official in the Italian city of Palermo confirmed on Thursday that Mr. Lynch’s body had been recovered by divers.

Twelve guests and 10 crew members were onboard the yacht, the Bayesian, when it went down during a violent storm. Mr. Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, was rescued, along with nine crew members and five other passengers. Seven bodies have been recovered, including one thought to be that of Mr. Lynch’s daughter, Hannah Lynch.

Mr. Lynch’s death came two months after he was acquitted in federal court in San Francisco of criminal fraud charges, tied to the $11 billion sale of his company, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard in 2011. The takeover, widely regarded among investors as one of the worst deals in history , led HP to accuse Mr. Lynch of deception.

Prosecutors in the United States charged Mr. Lynch with more than a dozen counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the deal, with a potential sentence running to about two decades in prison.

On the day in 2023 that a British judge found him liable for civil fraud in the matter, the British government — despite numerous appeals by Mr. Lynch — approved his extradition to the United States. He was confined to a townhouse in San Francisco under 24-hour surveillance, on his own dime. During his house arrest, his mother, Dolores, and his brother, Richard, died.

The accusations sullied the reputation of Mr. Lynch, who was known at one point as Britain’s Bill Gates.

Michael Richard Lynch was born on June 16, 1965, to Michael and Dolores Lynch, working-class immigrants from Ireland, and grew up outside London. He attended private school on a scholarship and graduated from Cambridge before founding Autonomy in 1996. The company helped clients analyze unstructured information to unearth hidden insights about their businesses.

By 2011, Autonomy had become one of Britain’s most prominent technology companies, with its home base sometimes called “Silicon Fen” — a name derived from its location at the southern tip of the Fenland, a marshy area in eastern England.

Mr. Lynch became a celebrity in British tech circles. He was a member of the Royal Society, one of the country’s top scientific associations; an adviser to David Cameron, the prime minister at the time; and a member of the BBC’s board.

Autonomy drew the attention of HP, which had sought to transform its fortunes by buying a high-powered software company, and which eventually paid 60 percent over the British company’s market value. But investors and analysts opposed the deal, and HP wrote down the value of the transaction by $8.8 billion. HP fired the chief executive who led the deal and, soon after, Mr. Lynch himself.

Meg Whitman, the former eBay leader who took over HP, accused Mr. Lynch and his lieutenants of “serious accounting improprieties” that misled her company over the state of Autonomy’s business.

But Mr. Lynch — armed with the hundreds of millions that he collected from Autonomy’s sale — hired an army of lawyers to argue that HP had been aware of the company’s practices. His team also said that Mr. Lynch had largely delegated the company’s day-to-day financial operations.

Mr. Lynch’s trial began in San Francisco in March. It stretched out over three months and involved reams of often dense internal documents. After two days of deliberations, a jury found Mr. Lynch and Stephen Chamberlain, a former Autonomy vice president of finance who faced similar charges, not guilty on all counts. (Mr. Chamberlain was fatally struck by a car on Saturday while out for a run, his lawyer, Gary S. Lincenberg, said Monday in an emailed statement.)

After the verdict, Mr. Lynch said in a statement, “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.” He later returned to his homes, in London and Suffolk.

While defending himself against the HP accusations, Mr. Lynch became a venture capitalist, founding Invoke Capital to invest in companies including the cybersecurity provider Darktrace.

More recently, he had begun to focus on artificial intelligence research, including ways the technology could help those with hearing difficulties.

His survivors include his wife and another daughter, Esme.

Kirsten Noyes contributed research.

Michael J. de la Merced has covered global business and finance news for The Times since 2006. More about Michael J. de la Merced

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Luxury yacht sinks off Sicily, leaving U.K. tech magnate Mike Lynch, 2 Americans among those missing

By Anna Matranga

Updated on: August 20, 2024 / 7:47 PM EDT / CBS News

Rome  — Six people, including two U.S. nationals, a British technology entrepreneur and one of his daughters, were still missing Tuesday after a large luxury sailing yacht sank off the coast of the southern Italian island of Sicily during a violent storm. The 184-foot Bayesian had been anchored about half a mile off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, with 22 people on board — 10 crew members and 12 passengers.

The vessel sank at about 5 a.m. local time (11 p.m. Eastern, Sunday) after being hit by a possible waterspout spawned by the storm. Italian media said the winds snapped the boat's single mast, unbalancing the vessel and causing it to capsize.

Fifteen of those on board managed to escape the yacht and were rescued by a Dutch-flagged vessel that was anchored in the immediate vicinity. They were brought ashore by Italian Coast Guard and firefighters.

One body — an unidentified male — was recovered, but six people remained missing, including British software magnate Mike Lynch, once described as Britain's Bill Gates. 

Lynch was acquitted in June of fraud charges in the U.S. that could have landed him with a decades-long prison sentence. In an unusual twist, Lynch's co-defendant in that fraud case, who was also acquitted, died Saturday after being hit by a car while out jogging in England.

Lynch's teenage daughter Hannah was also among those missing, along with Lynch's American lawyer Chris Morvillo, a former assistant district attorney in New York, and his wife Neda. British banker Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International, was also still missing Tuesday.

Among the survivors was a 1-year-old British girl who was being treated at a nearby hospital along with her parents. They were doing well, according to Italian media.

"For two seconds I lost my child to the sea, then I immediately was able to grab her again in the fury of the waves," the girl's mother, identified only as Charlotte, was quoted as saying by Italy's ANSA news agency. "I held on to her tightly in the stormy sea. Many were screaming. Luckily the life raft opened up and 11 of us managed to get aboard."

"It was terrible," she told ANSA. "In just a few minutes the boat was hit by a very strong wind, and sunk soon thereafter."

Karsten Borner, the captain of the Dutch vessel that came to the rescue, told ANSA he had been anchored near the Bayesian.

"When the storm was over we noticed that the ship behind us was gone, and then we saw a red flare, so my first mate and I went to the position and we found this life raft drifting, and in the life raft was also a little baby and the wife of the owner."

Recovery efforts were back underway Tuesday, with speedboats, helicopters and divers continuing to search for the missing — as well as for answers, as to how a state-of-the-art superyacht could disappear in a flash. 

According to Italian media, Fire Brigade divers reached the boat and saw bodies trapped inside some of the cabins, but they had been unable to recover any of the victims from inside the vessel by Tuesday, due to obstructions. The Bayesian appeared to have sunk in an area with a depth of about 160 feet.

Witnesses said the boat sank quickly. 

"I was at home when the tornado hit," fisherman Pietro Asciutto told a local news outlet. "I immediately closed all the windows. Then I saw the boat, it had only one mast, it was very large. I suddenly saw it sink... The boat was still floating, then suddenly it disappeared. I saw it sink with my own eyes."

The director-general of Sicily's civil protection agency, Salvatore Cocina, confirmed to CBS News partner BBC News  that three of the six people still missing Monday were British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, whose company Autonomy Corporation PLC was acquired in 2011 by HP ; one of his daughters, Hannah Lynch, who is believed to be 18; and the boat's chef, Ricardo Thomas.

CBS News has seen corporate documentation showing a company called Revtom, solely owned by Lynch's wife Angela Bacares, who was among those rescued from the accident, as the owner of the yacht that capsized off Sicily. 

While the yacht was a privately owned pleasure boat, the waters around the island have claimed many lives over the last decade.

Dozens of migrants have died attempting to reach Sicily and smaller Italian islands in the region. Sicily sits only about 100 miles from the east coast of Tunisia in north Africa, and the Mediterranean crossing has been a frequent site of both nautical rescues and disasters as smugglers routinely send small boats overloaded with desperate people into the sea.

Alex Sundby , Joanne Stocker and Chris Livesay contributed to this report.

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