Around the time you’re reading this, Dockwise Yacht Transport’s newest yacht carrier, the 687-foot Yacht Express, should be pulling into Brisbane, Australia, marking the first of what’s expected to be many visits to the land of vegemite.
Yacht Express, pictured here departing Fort Lauderdale in April on her maiden voyage, is the biggest float-on, float-off vessel in the world. How big? A total of 33 megayachts comfortably came aboard for the Australia trip, with 25 of them departing in Brisbane, underscoring Australia’s growing importance on the superyacht stage. The transport vessel won’t leave town practically empty, however: Another 16 boats will be loaded to continue on to Auckland in New Zealand, Papeete in Tahiti, or Ensenada in Mexico, before Yacht Express returns to Fort Lauderdale to begin yet another transatlantic trip.
“Having Yacht Express calling on the South Pacific, now on a regular basis, greatly increases our ability to carry more yachts,” says Jason Roberts, a representative for Aurora Global Logistics, which is DYT’s agent in Australia. “This in turn will boost the superyacht industry within both Australia and New Zealand.”
If you’ve been considering far-flung cruising but have hesitated because of the time it takes to traverse the globe, you’ll be glad to know that, thanks to her 18-knot speed, Yacht Express can cross the Atlantic in just 10 days, given good conditions, compared to the typical 15 days other DYT vessels (and indeed other companies’ vessels) would require. And as I mentioned back in April, Yacht Express is outfitted with a lounge bar, staterooms, a gym, and other amenities for crewmembers to take advantage of when accompanying their yachts in transit.
If you’re environmentally minded, you’ll also appreciate how Yacht Express features a SeaKeeper 1000 ocean and meteorological monitoring system. Created by the International SeaKeepers Society, the system samples water and then records and transmits data about its salinity, temperature, oxygen content, and pollution, among other things, to scientists.
For details on the vessel’s upcoming routes, visit the DYT Web site.
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