Ramona said..
Colour me surprised!
www.9news.com.au/national/coral-sea-rescue-trio-of-sailors-rescued-from-sinking-inflatable-yacht-speak-for-first-time/85a46410-6c4c-491a-b3e1-dc33b13bd4c6?ref=BP_RSS_ninenews_5_-you-remember-titanic----rescued-sailors-speak-for-first-time_070923

Wonder which port in Russia they left from? Presumably not the Baltic.
That young YouTube couple Slim and Soph currently in Northern WA on their small Duncanson said they ditched their old full plastic inflatable tender for an aluminium bottom rib because they were worried about crocodiles but I thought at the time maybe one would want all aluminium or fiberglass if you were afraid of crocs. A large flat bottom surface is probably the hardest part of a tender for a shark or croc to get is jaws around and ribs don't float too well with just the bottom intact.

julesmoto said..
Wonder which port in Russia they left from? Presumably not the Baltic.

In "The Truth" newspaper it says they left from St. Petersburg on 1 July 2021, with 3 people and a chihuahua.
"Two Russians left the circumnavigation on the catamaran and almost became shark victims" is the article. www.pravda.ru/news/travel/1882664-dvoe_rossijan_ushli_v_krugosvetku_na_katamarane_i_chut_ne_stali/

On guy is from Tomsk and the other from Novosibirsk, both in the middle of Siberia. A bit like the Alice Springs crew (from the middle of a continent) doing a circumnavigation and not "just" the Sydney-Hobart. Kudos to them.

I think I'd prefer fibreglass rather than an inflatable material, although Alain Bombard did the same on an inflatable dinghy.