October 3 was a sad day for the yachting industry and for the owners Seafaris - At around 6am a popular charter boat caught fire and went down north of Queensland. There were 8 crew and 8 passengers on board, who abandoned the vessel and were rescued 90 minutes later by the Lica Maersk which responded to the distress call. No one was injured.
Seafaris (41m) cost $12.5 mln. and was built in 2006 by the Australian shipyard Forgacs. Since then she has been successfully chartered for luxury cruising off the Great Barrier Reef. She won the World Superyacht Award in 2007. The McCloy Group is the owner of the yacht and its Chairman Geoff McCloy has arrived on the scene to investigate the circumstances. Causes of the multi-million dollar vessel's fire are being investigated.
