The only specialised marine publication in Oceania that focuses on the maritime industry, from super yachts to small craft to large commercial ships, including coastal shipping, tugs, tow boats, barges, ferries, tourist, sport-fishing craft
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JUST IMAGINE COMBINING CAREERS AND MARRIAGE BY MICHAEL PIGNÉGUY The 45m Imagine II berthed in the Viaduct Harbour C ombining careers and marriage is not always a recipe for success for many couples, especially when both live and work within the confines of the same boat. Add having to live and work closely with other people to the mix, while also being at the constant beck and call of your employer and their guests, and you can have quite a stressful environment. It certainly stretches the interpretation of compatibility at times and is definitely not suitable for those with a volatile personality! However, for hundreds of couples who work in the superyacht industry, a working marriage like this is an ideal way to see the world together in (mostly) great working conditions, and have the ability to save their wages for when it's time to swallow the anchor and build a nest ashore. Damien and Ashley Dempsey are such a couple living the dream. Damien is the captain of the recently launched 44m sloop Imagine II and Ashley is the chef. Ashley was well into a successful hotel management career in the South of England when she took a week's sailing holiday. 56 Professional Skipper March/April 2012 "Boating delivered the wow factor I was seeking and after a week I was completely hooked!" says Ashley. Wanting to combine earning a living with her new-found passion, Ashley went to Barcelona in the summer of 2006 where, as many superyacht careers start, she landed a job as a day worker and graduated into becoming a deckhand on a 26m yacht. The remainder of that summer was spent sailing in the Mediterranean, putting her hotel management skills to good use and also learning the workings of a superyacht. A dock party in Palma where Damien was captain of the 30m SY Maria Alba was the catalyst that brought the couple together. Despite the inevitable separations due to working on different boats, their relationship survived and blossomed. Using a tried and true Aussie saying, Damien (who's from Geelong) told Ashley, "If you want to be a captain's 'missus' you'll have to learn to cook!" It probably wasn't his proposal of marriage to her, but Ashley got the idea and took a four-week live-in cooking diploma course at The Grange back in England. With her diploma in hand, Ashley was now able to sail with Damien, both eventually joining the 34m sloop Imagine, the first of that name built by Alloy Yachts of Auckland. Based in the Mediterranean, they spent almost all of the next two years following the Emirates Team New Zealand America's Cup racing regattas, including the Louis Vuitton Trophy races and the TP 52 Cup. It was a busy time for the crew while Imagine was host to the team's VIPs and sponsors, members of the team and of course the owner and his guests. In May 2011, Damien and Ashley managed to take a break so they could get married in Koh Samui, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. It's no surprise to learn most of their 30 guests were off superyachts! The owner of Imagine commissioned Ed Dubois to design Imagine II and Alloy Yachts to build her. She was launched in Auckland in June 2010 with Damien and Ashley taking her over in June. Their first major trip was to Tahiti, where they had a busy season sailing around French Polynesia with her owner and guests. A great nine-day run brought her back to Auckland to undergo warranty work and a Lloyd's survey. Like many successful superyacht captains, Damien started sailing young, and at six years of age he was crewing for his eight-year-old skipper sailing an International Cadet off the beaches of Geelong, just outside Melbourne. He soon graduated to sailing his own Laser before joining the Royal Geelong Yacht Club to crew on IOR yachts. Damien wanted to know more about designing and building yachts, so he began a four-year boatbuilding apprenticeship with Zulu Yachts of Geelong. This was to be an important building block for his forthcoming career at sea, and it was invaluable experience overseeing a number of yacht refits and managing a new-build. A great break came in 1990 while working as a boatbuilder when he joined Syd Fisher's Challenge of Australia syndicate to contest the 1992 America's Cup in San Diego. With that