Stranded on the high seas, the bilge pumps are working at full capacity as the engine-room floods and all power is lost. Circumstances have it that you are able to do little more than don a lifejacket, transmit a mayday message and prepare your crew to abandon ship. Both you and your vessel are now at the mercy of…

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Its early morning at the bustling Port Hueneme in California and a crane operator is carefully unloading a 72-foot, 42-ton Sunseeker Predator yacht from the weather deck of a European cargo ship. Clearing a stack of shipping containers the luxury yacht hangs suspended in the air, some 30-metres off the ground. Suddenly and inexplicably the crane gives way and…

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One New Year’s Eve, having just finished my shipwright apprenticeship, I sat down with a flute of Champagne and drawing pad, sketching an artist’s impression of what I considered to be the latest in sailing craft design. Like many yachting aficionados at this time of year, I had spent the week religiously watching yet another nail-biting Sydney to Hobart…

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Insurance is often considered a necessary evil, an expense paid with little return in fair weather. But can the boat owner afford not to have the appropriate insurance especially in the face of escalating natural disasters. A few mariners in Queensland may be thanking their lucky stars as the state’s largest marine insurer responds quickly by treating all claims…

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The first time I held a rocket-launcher was in the summer of 1982. I was an eager 23 year old working as a shipwright on Sydney Harbour at Rushcutters Bay. I had just completed a six-month major refit on an elegant 80-foot aluminium ketch and it now sat moored in port, anxiously awaiting its voyage to the Mediterranean. The…

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