Center. The 46 metre Palmer Johnson had picked up an
October charter in Antigua and had the opportunity to head
down early. “The owner was very supportive, and the crew
wanted to get behind a very worthy cause,” says Captain
Burridge. “Other yachts started posting our notice on
Facebook and from there it snowballed – before we knew it
we had people delivering items daily and ended up with a six
metre container that was overflowing with donations.”
Grey Matters was able to transport aid to St Maarten,
Antigua and also Dominica via an air shipment. She brought
a lot of pet food for the Antiguan pet rescue group PAAWS,
which had taken in displaced animals from Barbuda. At her
first stop, St Maarten Shore Support helped oload items for
the island’s orphanage. In Antigua, Burridge recalls, it felt
like the entire English Harbour community came out to help
unload the supplies. “The way people support each other in
times of need is fantastic,” he says.
People often overestimate how easy it is to get involved
and underestimate how satisfying it can be. What keeps more
people from helping out isn’t a lack of care but a lack of
knowledge. It was obvious that there was a gap to be filled –
a need for a streamlined way to get the word out, collect
donations and seamlessly connect those who want to help
with the organisations who could deliver it.
“We needed to be able to harness the power of yachting to
do good,” says Norma Trease, president of the International
Superyacht Society and one of the founders of the
Superyacht Aid Coalition (SAC). “We realised how serious
the impact [of the hurricanes] was, not just to our yachting
playground, but also from the point of view of our clients – if
the islands can’t recover, we are all out of business.”
Comprised of yachting businesses, support services and a
fleet of superyachts, SAC was created to deliver an urgent
global call to action, provide PR and communications
services to spread the word and to lead fundraising. During
the Monaco Yacht Show alone, SAC attracted support from
organisations like MYBA and LYBRA, as well as services
companies such as YachtNeeds, Freedom Maritime, Riviera
Yacht Support, Melita Marine and National Marine.
“Almost immediately it became apparent we had the
ability to communicate with a broad circle and raise money
but didn’t have logistical capabilities,” says Trease. “So we
reached out to YAG to form a partnership.” SAC received
donations ranging from €1,000 to €35,000 and to date has
raised €100,000, which has helped send yachts, commercial
vessels and jets to more than 30 destinations. Working with
SAC and YAG, Captain Lucille Frye of BWA Yachting
St Maarten organised yachts designated as “Arks” to deliver
aid. Sixty-three metreSuRiwas renamedArk 2as she carried
essential supplies to St Maarten before heading to the Fort
Lauderdale show, everything from beds to school supplies.
SAC may have been created in response to the hurricanes
but along with YAG it is now looking to help far beyond
disaster aid and expand its mission by providing volunteering
opportunities for yacht owners, crews and guests. Getting
yachtsmen to make a change through volunteering is
something Richard Hackett, founder of the South Pacific-
based organisation Sea Mercy, has been working on for a
long time. Sea Mercy relies on volunteers for its many
missions, which include floating healthcare clinics; the RISE
(Remote Island Soils Education) programme, which helps
islanders plant and sell healthy crops; and the Amatasi
Project, which constructs sustainable fishing vessels and
teaches locals how to sail them.
The programmes are also proactive – Sea Mercy doesn’t
wait for disaster to strike but considers it a matter of “where
and when”, preparing aid and vessels to stand by in advance.
“This allows us to avoid initial disaster response chaos and
respond immediately with food, shelter, water and medical
care to the ‘at risk’ remote islands until the international aid
organisations can arrive,” Hackett says. “We then transition
to our recovery programmes. We’re not just a disaster
response charity – it has become a bigger part of what we’re
doing, but we started from a health perspective, providing
dental, health and eye care to islands that didn’t have it. But“WE NEEDED TO BE ABLE TO
HARNESS THE POWER OF
YACHTING TO DO GOOD... IF
THEISLANDSCAN’TRECOVER,
WEAREALLOUTOFBUSINESS”170