HIGH SEAS DREAM
Gold Coast boat broker Jay Lancaster is off on a five-month high-seas trip of a lifetime from here to Turkey skippering a $2.5m luxury cruiser that he has recently sold to a Venezuelan owner
NOT too many bosses would be relaxed about a key staff member taking a five-month sabbatical. But Ensign Ship Brokers managing director Tony Ross is letting one of his crew do just that.
Tony gave the okay for Ensign international broker Jay Lancaster to leave earlier this week on a 150-day ocean-going odyssey from the Gold Coast to Turkey. Jay will be skippering a luxury 65-foot Baring Explorer which he recently sold via Ensign to an offshore owner.
Jay, an experienced seaman, and the owner are now heading for Hamilton Island before stops in the Whitsundays, Cairns and then Darwin to resupply. From there they head to Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and eventually Turkey where the Venezuelan owner plans to base his new $2.5m vessel.
Tony says Jay’s sabbatical will leave a gap but it is something he encourages: “Short-term here it will be a pain in the proverbial but longterm it’s more important staff have experienced the boating dreams we are selling. He’ll be a more wellrounded worldly individual for it.”
Jay, 36, has his girlfriend Courtney Morgan on deck as the chef and a young engineer rounds out the team.
In the Maldives they will pick up armed security guards for the stretch through the Red Sea when they go past Somalia, notorious for piracy.
While it’s mainly container ships at most risk of being boarded by guntoting pirates, Jay says security is necessary not just for peace of mind but also to get sign-off on insurance.
It’s also how his involvement in the owner’s delivery trip came about.
“We briefly spoke about piracy and planned to catch up for a bite and a chat. We got on pretty well and the skill set he wanted fitted a fair bit with what I had,” Jay says.
The Gold Coaster grew up in Currumbin and has always surfed and sailed.
Jay says along with his boating abilities, he also had some contacts in the private security industry which have helped with lining up the armed personnel: “I put (the owner) in contact with the right people. He was just trying to finalise requirements for the insurance policy.”
Jay says the five-month trip will help rather than hinder his work as an international broker for Marina Mirage-based Ensign’s head office – and he’ll continue in his role for it throughout his high-seas adventure.
“I tend to deal with sales not in my backyard, so the majority of my work I deal with via phone and email. It will be of major benefit for me and what I’m doing because I will pass through a lot of ports.”
Jay says such an arrangement – selling a luxury vessel and then getting an extended gig on board as skipper – is probably rare, but does happen in the industry: “It comes down to having the right owner, no one wants to jump on a boat with someone they don’t get along with. It’s one of the things where if you gel with someone that’s where the opportunity arises.”