AUSTRALIAN SUPERYACHTS | CASE STUDY
The Great Southern Route
Creating and editing the captain-to-captain superyacht guide to Asia, Australia and the Pacific, 2007 to 2012
Facts
| Project | The Great Southern Route, a superyacht cruising guide written by captains for captains |
|---|---|
| Role | Captain Richard Morris: Founder and editor of all three editions |
| Publisher | OCEAN Media, Sydney |
| Editions | GSR1 (2007), GSR2 (2009), GSR3 (2012) |
| Coverage | From Suez and Panama across the Indian Ocean, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific; up to about 95 countries and territories by the second edition |
| Distribution | Free to superyacht captains worldwide; launched at the Monaco and Fort Lauderdale yacht shows |
The problems we solved
No trusted guide to this side of the world
The problem: Captains choose where a yacht goes, and they trust other captains. Tourism brochures and marina adverts did not tell them what they needed: clearance rules, agents, fuel, haul-out, charts, weather windows and hazards, country by country.
What we did: Richard designed the book around a Fact File for every country, with the officials, agents, marinas, yards and suppliers a yacht would need, and around Captain’s Logs written by working superyacht captains about waters they knew first hand. He recruited the captain-authors himself, along with specialist contributors on weather routing, charts and Antarctica.
The result: A guide captains actually kept on board. One trade magazine called it “possibly worth its weight in gold”.
Building a 60-country book from nothing
The problem: No one had ever gathered this information in one place. Much of it sat with small agents and port authorities in places from Djibouti to the Galapagos.
What we did: Richard ran an international call for information to agents, marinas and port authorities in about thirty countries for the first edition, offering a free listing in return for accurate content. He then sent draft Fact Files back to each country for checking, compiled the Admiralty chart folio lists, secured electronic chart licences and wrote model articles for other regions to follow.
The result: The first edition covered more than 60 countries. By the second it had grown to more than 350 pages and about 95 Fact Files, adding the Pacific coast of the Americas from Alaska to Cape Horn, south-east Africa, the Gulf, Japan and Antarctica.
Quote
“Possibly worth its weight in gold.”
