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YachtAid Global's Anchors of Hope: Capt. Mark Drewelow's Legacy
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Hello everyone, this is Diane Byrne. This is a different type of episode for us at Mega Yacht News Radio. It's actually an episode we recorded nearly 16 years ago with Captain Mark Drullo, the founder of Yacht Aid Global. As some of you may know, mark just tragically passed away at the age of 60. So I wanted you to hear in his own voice and his own words what inspired him to create this extraordinary non-profit, which has gone on to help thousands of people in countries all across the world. In fact, even though Yadi Global was only three years old when Mark and I recorded this, it had already coordinated much-needed supplies ranging from pens and paper for schoolchildren to safety fencing for communities in need. Today, 19 years after its founding, yacht-a-global has coordinated more than 300 yachts to assist in dozens of countries, from the Bahamas to Vanuatu. When you're done listening, please visit their website to learn how you can keep the important mission going.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Megayacht News Radio. I'm Diane Byrne. Today, we're speaking with Captain Mark Drulow. He's a yacht captain with more than 20 years of experience running a variety of power and sail superyachts, and he's also the head of the port services company, Sea2Sea, based in San Diego. Now, as impressive as those credentials are, however, that's not why we're talking with him today. We're going to discuss how he came to create a terrific charitable organization called Yacht Aid Global, Stimworks, connections to the make-yacht industry and relations that he and like-minded individuals make in poor and remote communities both in the United States and around the world. Yacht Aid Global is delivering much-needed supplies and changing lives. The organization's tagline pretty much says it all changing the world without changing course. There's a lot of good being done thanks to Yacht Aid Global, and there's a lot more that can be done through the volunteer assistance of more yachts, their captains and owners, as we're about to find out. So let's get started. Mark, are you with us?
Speaker 3:Thank you for having us on your show.
Speaker 2:Terrific Glad to have you here. Why don't we start with how you got the idea to provide assistance to these communities by using yachts?
Speaker 3:Well, I have a long history of yachting around the world.
Speaker 3:I joined my first yacht in the summer of 1984, the Med and I stepped ashore in 2004 here in San Diego, and over that 20 year period I pretty much spent 10 years on deck or in the Indian room, starting on small sailboat up through larger motor yachts and then the last 10 years as the captain on one vessel on which we did a 10 year circumnavigation, and I was very fortunate in my time at sea that a lot of the places in the time that I'd been at sea was in third world countries on very active boats that traveled a lot.
Speaker 3:I did not get stuck sitting on boats in port. In 2003, I started up Sea to Sea in San Diego after moving ashore, and the first three years were pretty busy, as it always is starting up a business and putting everything in place. But during that time I was always considering how to be effective at corporate responsibility and giving back to the communities that I had visited over the years, which always took such good care of me, my crew and other visiting yachtsmen. And then in 06, came upon the idea of well, why not utilize the client base of C2C to move school supplies and medical aid around the world as the boats travel. So it was a natural fit, based on my knowledge of worldwide cruising and the contact base that I had developed over the years.
Speaker 2:Terrific. Why don't you describe the first aid mission that Yacht Aid Global did when it occurred, if it was in, say, 2006, shortly after you created the organization, or if it took a little bit of time to get started, and what yacht was involved and the supplies that were carried on board?
Speaker 3:The first formal involvement was with a vessel called Piminere. She's a large tailed oak and it was the fall I think it was about November of 2006. And she was southbound to Costa Rica from San Diego and we had pitched to Skipper about carrying things supplied. He agreed it was a very smooth transaction. That's one of the objectives of Seattle Global, is we make it as streamlined as possible for new levels, so there's no disruption in their program at all. One thing that did happen, though on the way to Costa Rica. The Costa Rica trip was canceled and the skipper asked for another alternative location and we picked Nicaragua.
Speaker 3:There's a wonderful marina there called Puesta del Sol, which the boat could fit into fine and we diverted them to Puesta del Sol, where they had a lovely visit for four or five days and donated all the supplies on board to the local schoolhouse and everything was terrific. It worked out great and Captain and crew continued on doing other missions for Yade Global.
Speaker 2:Fantastic. So how did you continue to get the word out about Yade Global after that first trip? Was it more word of mouth through your C2C customers? Did the captain and crew of the minier maybe talk to anybody they knew, or any owners? Maybe helped spread the word?
Speaker 3:Kind of all that you mentioned. Mainly it's word of mouth. There's been a few magazine articles here and there that have put their awareness up, but mainly it's talking with the captain and crews of clients C2C as well as just the word of mouth, where we get inquiries from captain and crew about what they can do and how they can help. And since coming here, since that first delivery to Nicaragua, we have been active in Belize and Panama, costa Rica, mexico, alaska, bali, komodo and there's more locations that will be coming online in the future.
Speaker 2:Fantastic. Personally, I think that's one of the things that is really a big strength that you can reach so many different communities in so many different areas.
Speaker 3:it is really a big strength that you can reach so many different communities in so many different areas. Yes, well, one of the things we realized as we started this was why don't we take a look at the home and work with communities and facilities that need help here? Well, in the US, those facilities have access to all kinds of aid, and our immediate fear of influence is really worldwide, because of our contact base and the clients we work with, and all those places where these vessels are going have typically no concept of charitable giving. So we determined that we're much more effective at reaching out to these remote areas than keeping it closer to home.
Speaker 2:Good idea. Why don't you also describe for everybody a typical aid scenario, basically how the supplies are purchased and where, how they get transported to the yacht and then how the yacht in turn gets them into the community?
Speaker 3:Paul used an example of Belize. What would typically happen for Belize is a vessel would be at a marina or shipyard in Fort Lauderdale. We would coordinate supplies to be delivered to the boat from our end. Either the boat has some sort of financial purchase of paper or not, we make it very streamlined for the vessel. So the goods arrive dockside. We didn't need help from the crew to put them on the boat somewhere that's safe for the transit to Belize.
Speaker 3:Um, the pre-planning on that is all completed by us, where we work with a yacht agent and a customs broker in Belize. So everything is all the paperwork side of it is all taken care of, because we don't even arrive On arrival. If the boat's at a marina or a facility in Belize, we have people on the ground that will come to the boat and retrieve the goods. If the boat's at anchor, then the only thing we need help with is the trip tender to get the goods to the marina or local place where they can be offloaded. So it's all designed to be minimally invasive on the operations. And that same scenario I described is what takes place in Panama City for boats that leave the canal zone and head out to the San Blas Islands or the Coiba area, as well as remote parts of Mexico and over in Bali. Vessels get loaded in Bali and take goods out to the island of Komodo. So it's kind of the same concept repeated in various locations around the world.
Speaker 2:Okay, great. Do you have a sense of a percentage of medical supplies versus school supplies? Does that vary from year to year or does it stay pretty consistent?
Speaker 3:We've only done well. There's one model mission that we did with medical equipment three years ago in Costa Rica, and then there was a large one that was delivered to Belize on September 31st 2008. But other than that, it's all been school supplies. But we are looking for more and more of the medical equipment mission to be accomplished.
Speaker 2:As far as the medical equipment is concerned, is it things like bare necessities that a hospital would need, like say gurneys and beds, or does it go more in-depth into bandages and medication?
Speaker 3:We have several facilities that we have whistlets from, and those whistlets include items that are capital goods, such as incubators for premature babies all the way down to just bandages. Most of the items that are needed, though, are consumable. The areas that we work with rely on donations and to just provide the basic medical care. They're mainly in need of just the basic consumables Rubber, gloves, bandages, face wrap, cold pack all kinds of just basic consumables.
Speaker 2:Okay, and then what about the school supplies? Are they mostly the pencils paper, or is it things like the dry erase boards and even the big black boards that everybody remembers from school, that we all, I think, probably take for granted as already existing?
Speaker 3:It's the same with the school supplies. It's mainly very basic consumables. A lot of the areas where, with the school supplies, it's mainly very basic consumable. A lot of the areas where we provide school supplies to, they have no access to pencils and paper or very difficult access. But it also includes more capital goods such as dry-raised boards. But on the with list of schools there's always high-tech equipment that's being requested. There's a huge need for computers and digital cameras out there. We always get requests for those items.
Speaker 2:Great. Okay, so now, in late 2007, there was a businessman from New Jersey, as I understand it, who essentially just stumbled across Yacht Aid Global while doing a search on the web for various domain names, and he ended up becoming your first corporate sponsor. Why don't you tell us what happened?
Speaker 3:Well, the company is called FrankenTech and Mark Franken is the owner and they do highly sophisticated security systems for very large yachts. And he was online looking around back a couple of years ago for domain names that had to do with yachts and security systems. And we happen to own a few domains in that kind of arena. And by accident one of those domains was forwarded to a small website we have up called yagcomcom and Mark Franken landed on that site and was kind of surprised that he was searching for things related to security. And he landed on the yagcomcom site and there's a link to send us an email on that site. So he sent us an email asking us what is this site about? What does it have to do with security? So that chance encounter led to Mark Franken being our first corporate sponsor.
Speaker 2:Okay, great. Now, about a year after that or so, you had another pretty fortuitous meeting. You met the director of tourism for Komodo National Park in Indonesia. Tell us about what happened during that meeting.
Speaker 3:That was at the tea trade in Miami in March of 2008.
Speaker 3:And I spent quite a lot of time all over Indonesia as a captain of the Moriarty Dorothea and have been in and out of Komodo several times, one of the most unusual places in the world. Without a doubt, I have fondness for Komodo and that part of the world. When I was at T-Trade, indonesia had a country booth set up and the Komodo National Park had an informative area within the country booth and Marcus, the director of marketing for the Komodo National Park. He happened to be there and we sat and talked for probably two hours all about Indonesia and Komodo and what Mark was doing and what's happening over there, and we kept in touch.
Speaker 3:And that chance encounter led to us putting in a a pretty good protocol for moving supplies from Bali out to Komodo. There's a huge need in Komodo for everything you can imagine far as school supplies go. The kids there are on bare feet, dirt floors and wooden benches with no teaching aid of any kind. So with our knowledge of how the yachting fleet moves over there, by picking up owners in Bali and doing a cruise to the east towards Komodo, we knew there was a natural fit for what we're doing with Yae Global.
Speaker 2:Okay, great. Now there have been several more pretty exciting developments over the past year and past couple of years, particularly with Belize and the emergency response team there. Why don't you tell us about how Yadi Global got involved with them?
Speaker 3:Well, it was back in the summer of 2006 when Belize was hit by a series of strong tropical form hurricanes and a lot of devastation in the country, and that immediately got me thinking about, well, how can we get things into Belize?
Speaker 3:And we were close with Carolyn Burton in Belize. She's the owner of a Yacht agency called Aventura and Carolyn was instrumental in helping us find a facility and an organization in Belize that we could send supplies to. It took us two years to figure out how to get all that completed so that we can bring any items into Belize duty-free, with a very streamlined paperwork process that has to be followed, and Carolyn put us in touch with an organization called Belize Emergency Response Team. Carolyn put us in touch with an organization called Believe Emergency Response Team and it's an organization that runs the ambulance service within Believe Pity as well as an air ambulance service, and it was an interesting fit for what we're doing because if a yacht captain, crew, guest owner, if they're injured within Believe Pity or some of the outlying areas, the high likelihood that the Belize Emergency Response Team will be a responder to help. So by effectively sending them goods that they need, we're helping out the yachting community. So it's a very interesting tie-in.
Speaker 2:Right, right, great. Why don't we come to the current day, now, update us on any deliveries or even larger projects that are in development, as well as ones that are pending for the rest of the year?
Speaker 3:we have. Well, our how we, how we operate is based on the seasons around the world, where, where the yachts are going, and during the June, July, august timeframe. Large yachts are very active in Alaska, in French Polynesia, as well as other places in the South Pacific, as well as in Indonesia, and in all three of those areas we have activity that will be taking place in the coming month. We have contact with organizations and people ashore and other places all over the world and this coming winter, continuing to work with Panama Bay Area, costa Rica, mexico, nicaragua all the places that are a natural tie-in with the large yachts that leave San Diego closer to Christmas time and head south.
Speaker 2:You just mentioned Costa Rica a minute ago. You just shared with me by email some terrific information about a school being constructed there. Why don't you tell us about that too, how that came about, because I think people would be interested to learn about how Yade Global is getting involved at the real, true entry level of schools being built in areas where they don't have them.
Speaker 3:Well, what happened there is a couple of years ago we did a delivery to a remote community in Costa Rica called La Islita.
Speaker 3:It's north of a town called Punta Reina, up through the mangroves.
Speaker 3:You can only get there by small boat, and the community basically had a temporary structure built as a school and the supplies that we delivered there were needed, like all the other places. But it also got us thinking about gosh, how come they don't have a school in a place like this? How come they don't have a school in a place like this? So it got us thinking about how do we take that idea of building a school and make it happen. And we've been talking with several people in Costa Rica over the last couple of years about this and have been fed information about the various places that we might be able to do this. And the idea is to build a. It wouldn't be just a school, it would be a community center, a multifunctional structure, but also doing it during the time of the year December, january, february, march where the yacht crew that are in the area can come by and help on the project. So it ties in all very nicely and kind of very exciting to be coming closer to an actual project to work on down there.
Speaker 2:Oh, that'd be great, Fantastic. Now for anybody who among owners or crew or even just regular people who want to learn more about Yade Global, obviously they can go to your website, which is yadeglobalorg. But is there anything specific that you need right now that people could really get involved in? Are there specific needs for boats going to certain regions, or is there maybe that you may have? How can people specifically target certain things that you need right now?
Speaker 3:Well, one of the critical things here that we're realizing as we move along is YI Global is a concept and certainly we're an organization that people can be involved with and we can help provide supply to a vessel that can deliver to a certain area. But the greater power in all this is that hey, take the idea and go run with it. You don't have to be part of the formal structure, you don't have to be part of Ya'a Global, you just have to. You know, if you're at Los Buenos Marina in Costa Rica, take a walk down the street and find a local cool, it'll be a very. It's free to go in there and introduce yourself to the principal and tell them what you're doing and let them know that you're going to bring a chart by in the booth. Donate a chart. It's cool. But there's again I highly emphasize that we're here to handle the process as deeply as that needs to be held.
Speaker 3:But the greater power in all of that is that it's just a concept and a lot of people are already doing this out there there's a lot of large Caleon motor yachts that are very active and donate to communities as they travel around the world. But part of our message is hey, anybody can do it, and you don't have to be part of the structure to take a walk on the beach and find a local school or a local clinic and figure out what they need. Just run with the concept. Yeah, well said Very good point, mark.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much for your time today. Yeah, well said, very good point, mark. Thanks so much for your time today. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 3:You're welcome. Thank you for having us.
Speaker 2:You got it and, like we said, if anybody is interested in learning more, please visit the Yacht Aid Global website, which is wwwyachtaidglobalorg. Everybody thanks so much for tuning in to Megayacht News Radio today.
