Image Above: Seawind 1260 on the Saigon River, Ho Chi Minh City (image courtesy of Sailor.com.au) Tips for Delivery by Sea – Asia to Australia / New Zealand The Summer of 2022 / 2023 has been and interesting journey for many of our customers taking delivery of boats over this period. With country borders being opened up in earnest, this saw new boat owners taking delivery of their cruising catamarans on mass, as we helped coordinate deliveries of 4 x Seawinds and 1 x HH50 from Asia back to Australia and New Zealand. We have gained some new and valuable insights for those considering taking delivery in Asia. So here are some key points to consider… First, is this a cruise or a transit? If you are planning to take delivery of your boat and sail back to Australia or New Zealand over the…
Two years ago Gregor and Juliette Vanemmerick had next to no sailing experience. Since then they bought a new boat, sailed from Vietnam to Sydney, sold their business and currently living it large! Despite best their laid plans, when it came time to sail their boat from the factory their delivery skipper wasn’t available. How did they get home? Watch this video and discover how they not only found their way home but how this seabbatical transformed their life and freed them from their business commitments. If you are interested on knowing their exact route, see below the full details: Nha Trang, Vietnam to Puorto Princessa, the Phillipines. Crew Gregor, Juliette and Stefan. 21-09-2018 Nha Trang N12.13.5 E109.13.8 South China Sea 27-09-2018 Puorto Princessa Phillipines N9.38.6 E119.15.3 29-09-2018 Puorto Princessa To Cagayan islands 30-09-2018 Cagayan island N9.34.5 E121.14.3 01-10-2018 Cagayan Island to Bonbonon…
We plan to take our little Seawind 1000 catamaran ‘Seabbatical’ from Sydney Harbour, to Lady Musgrave Island. As I still have the demands of running a business and kids at school, this will be a mini seabbatical and so finding time is important but demanding. We will wait for the South Easterly trades to kick in which usually start around Easter time in Sydney. So in May we will send the boat north to Brisbane which is also as the cyclones start to slow down. Trade winds blow from the South East from around May through to October each year. These trades strengthen the further north you go while in NSW they are often aligned with low pressure fronts moving through from the south. These low pressure systems move further north during winter and further south during summer. During summer we are more affected…
In an earlier issue of Nautilus Marine Magazine, I introduced the concept of a ‘Seabbatical’ as a means of enriching your life by taking time out earlier in life and bring about a cruising adventure to explore the islands and oceans of Australia, the Pacific or even the world. So I’ve decided to embark on my own Seabbatical journey and document the experience along the way. Turning 40 helped encourage me to pull my finger out and start putting some things into action and with my business continually growing and ratcheting up the stress levels like a frog in a frying pan, its time to see how I can get on the water too. I don’t intend to check out of life full time though and I don’t think you have to – its all about balance. All elements of my business have been…
By Brent Vaughan Charter boat ownership is a great way to accelerate buying your dream boat, profit from strong demand in the tourism industry and provides a fully managed solution to boat ownership while you are still busy working and with family commitments. So once you find a boat that will satisfy AMSA survey requirements, a charter company that will offer returns and look after your boat, the third consideration is how to pay for it. Now cash is obviously the cheapest form of finance, but seeing the boat will become essentially an asset of a business, it’s logical to consider financing a solid portion via a loan. So the next cheapest form of finance is using equity from your home or restructuring your home loan to take advantage of the lower interest rates and longer payment terms then commercial leases. John Eldick…
In 1999 my partner, Jess, and I decided to invest in a cruising yacht to be placed in the charter fleet in the Whitsundays. After many years racing dinghies (mainly NS14s) together, we were to embark on a journey that would eventually lead us to owning and cruising a blue water capable yacht and sailing nearly 28,000 together. I had previously read about cruising catamarans so we visited the 1999 Sydney Boat Show and inspected a Seawind 1000. We fell in love and after receiving a lot of positive feedback from the charter businessw we decided that a cat would be the best way to proceed. So we chose a Seawind 1000 and lined up with a company called Tropical Sailing. The boat (#1073) was built in Wollongong by Seawind and because Tropical preferred their boats to have “Tropical” in the name (they already…
SOLD OUT Multihull Central brings YouTube Sensations Sailing La Vagabonde to the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron for one exclusive day sharing their adventures of sailing around the world, over lunch. On Sunday the 17th of December, Riley and Elayna of Sailing La Vagabonde will share their story of how they went from no sailing experience, to cruising on a yacht half way around the world, becoming social media sensations and upgrading to a luxury Outremer catamaran. With close to 350,000 subscribers on YouTube, Sailing La Vagabonde enjoy a massive global following and lead the way as social media icons sharing their wanderlust of the sea with aspiring sailors, travelers and adventurers the world over with financial support from sponsors pledging funds via the Patreon crowdfunding website. In 2017 they made history when they took delivery of a new luxury Outremer 45 blue water sailing…
SEAbbatical Destination: Vanuatu By Brent Vaughan Port Orla It’s the middle of winter, 26 degrees, sunny and almost humid, but there is a nice gentle breeze that drifts across the ocean. We are in the small coastal town of Luganville on the north island of Vanuatu, Espiritu Santos, to enjoy some of the local hospitality and the most accessible wreck dive in the world. While Luganville isn’t much to write home about itself, it was once a major US military base during World War II and it provides the gateway to exploring these remnants of the past and the spectacular landscapes and islander culture that surround it on the islands of Espiritu Santo. While Vanuatu is most famous for its Volcanoes (its located on a fault line), the originator of bungy jumping (tribes on Pentacoste Island tie vines to their ankles and jump from…
Business by remote and the 80:20 rule Entrepreneurial SEAbbaticals Ever since a young kid I’ve been around boats, the sea and the sand and when I’m in or around these I always have a sense of my life (or the fun bank) being fulfilled rather than drained. I’ve always thought it important to keep the fun bank topped up whenever possible and so I never really escaped the boating lifestyle and ultimately I choose (or it choose me) to combine work and pleasure to a point where it’s sometimes difficult to distinguish one from the other…that’s just the way I like it. Sure it’s not all fun and games and can be bloody hard work, but there is certainly plenty of fun to be had so it’s a question of getting the balance right. I love my work and blessed to run a successful…
Multihull Central in cooperation with the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, are pleased to present a special FREE information seminar “My SEAbbatical: Cruising and Diving in South East Asia” by Andrew Grace at 3pm on Saturday the 29th of April in the Pittwater Room of the RPA Yacht Club in Mitala Street, Newport, in conjunction with the Pittwater Sail Expo. Andrew Grace took delivery of his new Seawind 1160 LITE catamaran “Pali Pali” in Vietnam two years ago and has been cruising South East Asia ever since. As Andrew is a very experienced technical diver, he and his wife sailed to some of the most remote and spectacular dives sites in South East Asia and captured their adventures in a series of YouTube videos with spectacular vision both under and above the water. A total of 33 videos document their adventure on their YouTube…