Shipwright 70 ‘Salt Lines’ en route to Australia

SV TravelEdge was a purpose built, 70 foot steel expedition and training vessel which has an impressive history, including some passages with the British military and even a trip to Antarctica.

The most recent project for the vessel was a two year circumnavigation to research ocean plastic levels and in particular micro plastics. The project gathered a huge amount of data and further educated the world on the effect of plastics on our oceans.

Then COVID happened and the journey was halted when the crew hit Tahiti. The organisations founder and skipper of SV TravelEdge, Emily Penn, chose YOTI to represent the vessel for sale due to our experience, connections and knowledge of the South Pacific yacht market.

We marketed the yacht using our land based partners in Papeete and got to work in finding a buyer. It was not an easy project to sell a 30 year old steel vessel lying essentially dormant in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, during what was virtually an international lockdown.

When Matt contacted us, it only took a few phone chats (as Sydney was then in our own lockdown) to know he was genuinely interested. He had a huge amount of ocean sailing experience, an understanding of the MCA commercial vessel system and perhaps most importantly; a serious passion for adventure… he was our buyer.

A couple of short months of discussions, remote inspections, logistical planning and then finally a very challenging survey followed. Huge credit must go to both Emily and Matt for seeing the end goal in what was an extremely challenging sale.

Matt and his crew are right now sailing from Tahiti to Sydney. The vessel has been renamed ‘Salt Lines’ and will soon be back in MCA commercial survey offering serious ocean sailing adventures through Ocean Sailing Expeditions.

Check out Salt Lines on their Facebook page and make sure your click on their live tracker, it’s armchair sailing at it’s best.