southace said..
Well im real and I'm looking forward to my next Cruising and diving adventure in the near future at the Whitsunday's.
I have noticed most Queenslanders seem to stay on the land. It's mostly backpackers that want to explore our natural wonders. It seems most of the Aussie generation are too busy making family's and working to pay there mortgages for there flash cars and houses.. Only the rare occasion I would have the odd couple on a sailing/snorkel charter in the Whitsunday's.
Working on a charter vessel in the Whitsundays is a ton of fun. I was doing it as engineer on the Whitsunday Princess in 1975 when she was a brand new 100 ft Millcraft day trip vessel based at Hayman Island. With all the waitresses on Hayman there was more crumpet than you could poke your stick at.
It was 6 to 7 days a week though and no opportunity to get off the island on days off so I pulled the pin after nine weeks. I then got a job on Heron Island as engineer on their Gladstone to Heron transfer vessel which was more of the same shizz.
I pulled the pin there and went to Mackay and got an engineer's job on the Roylen Cruisers which were OLD WW II inshore minesweepers converted to tourist vessels doing 5 day, 4 night cruises ex Mackay, up around the Whitsundays and back carrying a crew of 8 and 25 passengers.
For three months I had the time of my life. The passengers were paying $175 for their trip and I was being paid $175 per week to keep the old Vianne afloat. Had to pump it minimum 6 hours a day to stop it sinking. The season dropped off and last hired was first fired so I went to Kiwiland and got paid more than Piggy Muldoon as a pipeline welder.
There were three ex converted SAR crash boats doing day trips out of Shute and only 2 yachts working the area. They were the Piver Victress (same as Donald Crowhurst's ill fated vessel) called "Trinity" and a steeley called "Nari". They got flogged to death. Bareboats were not even thought of then and backpackers did not exist.
All the punters were real people mostly from Aus and Kiwi. The reason why Aussies don't go there anymore is because it is not promoted to them anymore.
I went back to the Whitsundays in 1989 with my very own ex racing charter yacht which was an aluminium 42 foot Peterson IOR 2 tonner and contracted with "Charter 20" which was exclusively in the backpacker market, hated by all the other operators and were as worse a bunch of rogues as God ever put breath into. Wouldn't pay me for 60 days after each charter. A month and I was out of there and up to Cairns to work my very good marine parks permit which over the next two years slowly sent me broke.
Yes I needed a bigger boat with bigger numbers and better marketing. But even Siska the 70 foot maxi with great marketing and a big budget pulled out in less than 12 months, went to the Whitsundays and deteriorated further. Might still be there but called something else.
Don't talk to me about backpackers. They lie, they cheat and they steal, are a scourge on civilized society and I hate them with a passion. Here in Bundaberg they even have the hide to go to the free meals provided by the Uniting Church for the disadvantaged. Frigging arseholes they are.
While I was chartering I was registered with Tourism Queensland and would receive their news letters which raved on about how the backpacker market was not to be sneezed at and was worth so many millions to the tourism economy. Then they published the figures of their individual average spend here (which they made tomato picking in Bundaberg or Bowen, not money from home), and their average number of days they spent in Aus.
From that it is not hard to figure out what their average daily spend is including accommodation, food, transport and entertainment. Then it was $40 per day and it has only changed to now by inflation. How does a tourism operator make a profit out of those sort of figures??
Backpackers have made an art form out of being lousy. Phuck 'em.
Southace, if you really want to know something about charter vessel operations, try owning one.
