Sytske du Crocq is a Netherlands based sailing entrepreneur who has turned her passion for racing in exotic destinations, into a global business. I met Sytske by chance at Hamilton Island in Australia when she was here to compete in the Sydney to Gold Coast Race and unearthed a great story, about what you can create if you have passion and determination. Sail Race Crew offer both grand prix yacht racing and cruising adventures on yachts as extreme as TP52's and Volvo 70's and as classy and Swan 65's. With destinations all over the world and access to 4,900 yachts, they create 'bucket list' experiences for sailors of all ages.

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Mark Gallick joins me onboard Ocean Gem for a 600nm ocean passage from Hamilton Island to Southport in Queensland. Its a challenging passage that takes in islands, reefs, whales, commercial and military traffic and a number of navigational challenges including the shallow 70nm passage down the western side of Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world.

Mark shares the personal goals he wanted to achieve on our voyage south and his future plans for acquisition of a Seawind catamaran to go cruising with his family. We dive into Mark's 22 year career with the US Coast Guard including some colourful stories and being stationed on the US mainland, Hawaii and the Bahamas.

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Guest host Joe Richardson interviews Jason Ker, founder of Ker Yacht Design onboard his very own ‘Ker designed’ 19.2m (63 feet) racer/cruiser yacht “Dark Horse of England”. Jason Ker launched Ker Yacht Design than 20 years ago and he talks about how he got started in yacht design, his ocean racing experiences with both the Fastnet and Sydney Hobart Races under his belt. He lives by the design philosophy that “you are only as good as your last boat”.

With success all over the world, it’s a fascinating and technical insight into the mind of one of the world’s leading yacht designers with proven pedigree ranging from monohulls to cats, cruisers to grand prix ocean racers and he shares the highs and lows of the GFC and financial risks of designing for the Americas Cup. Jason talks about yacht design 10 years from now and what the future might look like.

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Guest host Paul Trammell is back and interviews David Young who lives in Jacksonville Florida on his Endeavour 35 yacht, built in 1984. He shares his experience on Pacific voyaging, using parachute anchors and drogues, 4 decades of ocean sailing; starting with pilot charts, radio direction finders and sextants and talks about evolution to GPS, the risks of GPS navigating and the explosive growth in confident technology-equipped cruisers. 

David met the famous sailor ‘Bernard Moitessier’ in the early eighties at a boat yard in Northern California, when was building his new steel yacht ‘Joshua’. David shares some of Bernard’s advice about handling storms and various sea states, along with staying well off the coast in onshore gales. 

David yacht was ship wrecked off the northern coast of San Francisco in a bad gale after rolling through 360 degrees and losing his mast. Bernard Moitessier new yacht ‘Joshua’ was also beached and wrecked in a subsequent Cabo San Lucas storm with 30-40 other yachts a few years later.

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