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Yachting Features
Which sport boasts the world’s longest-running international competitive event? Medieval jousting fell out of favour a while back, so it must be football (soccer)… right? Try again. Cricket, maybe? Nope. Perhaps surprisingly, the ...
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“Oh no!” I thought, as another large rectangular volume landed on my desk, “Not another yachtie coffee table book”. But on opening this latest publication, ‘The Legend of the Sea: The Spectacular Marine Photography of Gilles Marti...
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Canada’s first polar icebreaker, CCGS John G. Diefenbaker, is a key element of Canada’s Northern Strategy. The ship is to be built by Seaspan Vancouver Shipyards as part of the Canadian government’s National Shipbuilding Procureme...
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I don’t know if you are one of the 5m or so viewers who have been attracted to a Wall Street Journal video of Andrey Melnichenko’s superyacht on YouTube. If not, I’d recommend a nosey because it’s not often that a billionaire supe...
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It’s been a tumultuous year for the Panama Canal. This year marked the canal’s centennial and was supposed to be the year the expansion project was completed. However, the new locks did not open this year, as originally planned.
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In yachting everything starts with the dream – the vision of doing something extraordinary, of visiting exotic locations or witnessing the raw beauty of somewhere remote. But is reality ever quite up to the dream?
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The yachting industry is not always kind to its young and inexperienced. So, in 2009, a group of young people in Florida got together and founded Young Professionals in Yachting, an organization meant to change all that.
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Is the long-awaited explosion in yacht sales in China about to take place? There are good reasons to believe that it is, but did we underestimate cultural differences, attitudes towards conspicuous wealth and the viable pace of tr...
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What a difference a decade makes. Last month, two corporate giants unveiled their latest products: the long-anticipated Apple Watch (coming next year) and the innovative Amazon Fire smartphone linked to its ‘Prime’ content-streami...
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A female crew member was allegedly repeatedly attacked by a senior male crew member over a period of months. Bullying exists on yachts as it does in life, but this case is instructive, in that it paints a worst-case scenario of wh...
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With new developments opening in Barcelona, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey, Montenegro and Croatia, yacht owners can now look beyond the Cote d'Azur for the winter months. We explore some exciting new ports around the Med to see why they h...
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As MYBA celebrates its 30th anniversary, it can say without reservation that the last decade has been a doozy. But faced with technological revolution, rapid expansion of the market and massive haemorrhaging post financial crisis,...
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All too often the functional spaces on board a yacht are designed by people who are proficient in design and have the best intentions but have never been crew.
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A lot of effort goes into protecting yachts, but how much thought goes into protecting the crew, especially ashore? The risk of being attacked used to be highest in the Caribbean, but things are changing. So is enough being done t...
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Following on from our first feature on nautical terminology, we venture further into the truths and myths of old sailing expressions. Join us for a look into the origins of grog, the fate of that poor doomed monkey and the legend...
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Ever heard of the PYA? Never heard of the PYA? Heard of it as Protect Your Ass?
What do you do to protect your ass? Take another course, move up the ladder, earn more pay? Of course you protect your ass. But you are not doing it ... Read More
What do you do to protect your ass? Take another course, move up the ladder, earn more pay? Of course you protect your ass. But you are not doing it ... Read More
There would seem to be no connection whatsoever between the three items in the headline. However, under the MLC, are you confident that you would have no conceivable liability for what happens to a travelling seafarer under circum...
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In May of 2014, The Superyacht Report published a report naming the 'best' and 'worst' yacht agents in the industry. The article prompted much debate over whether the survey methods were flawed and whether the article should have...
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Imagine a world of financial insecurity, where some of the richest people have the least time for leisure. This is the reality facing the yachting industry, and it's prompting a rise in the number of companies promoting fractional...
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In 2008, an unarmed private security team (including two ex-marines) aboard MV Biscaglia abandoned the ship, leaving the vessel fatally exposed to armed hijackers. The ship and crew were held by pirates for three months.
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A chief stewardess stands near the transom, impatiently tapping her foot as the yacht enters the port and draws slowly towards a rusting commercial dock. She squints her eyes: are there people waiting on the dock? She hopes so, t...
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There is no doubt that piracy is a real threat that requires a definitive and robust response. Few disagree that media reporting is vital in maintaining the debate over the security of vessels to ensure safe passage. But does the ...
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There are many reasons why people choose to cruise the Med’s hotspots, but clarity of regulatory requirements is certainly not one of them. Not only are superyachts struggling to figure out the exact implications of the Maritime L...
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What travels faster than a nuclear submarine, Usain Bolt on a good day, or a dolphin? What’s the same length as a jumbo jet, but is built with aluminium three times as thick?
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On any given night in Antibes, you can find crew willing to debate the finer points of the yachting life over a few beers – from the merits of new courses to how to deal with crew disputes or non-payment. However, if you’re look...
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It's a well known adage that you don't bite the hand that feeds. So why then did The Superyacht Report, one of the industry's most established and reputable titles, publish a report naming and shaming the best and worst yacht agen...
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In last month’s feature, yacht provisoners shared their stories with OnboardOnline about wacky requests, such as provisioning live crickets to feed a yacht’s iguana and supplying haute couture. The stories don't stop there though...
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While it’s widely recognized that HTC smartphones, Garmin GPS devices and a sweeping array of big-brand laptops are staples of the Made in Taiwan effort, it’s a lesser-known fact that luxury yachts (those measuring 80 - 120 ft.) a...
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For anyone who has gone to sea in bad weather, there is always a sense of relief when you set foot on solid ground. Today it's hard to imagine life without GPS navigation and weather reports and, in an emergency, we have the trac...
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In a bay in Alaska, a superyacht sits rocking gently at anchor. A man in an expensive bathrobe is at the breakfast table, reading the paper. He looks up and calls over the stewardess to inform her that he wants Alaskan King Crab...
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