The Yacht “Stormbreaker”

“A wonderful 65ft (20m) steel ketch”

West Coast Yacht Charters offers a timeless journey across
Macquarie Harbour, from Strahan, into Tasmania’s ancient
temperate wilderness of the island’s unspoiled West Coast.

The ocean going yacht “Stormbreaker” has two private
double cabins, a large eight bunk cabin (with curtains for
privacy), and two bathrooms with hot showers, toilets and hand
basins.
She has a large saloon and galley below deck, with great space
on deck for dining or relaxing.

It is like being in a hostel, in that passengers share the areas,
except the two double cabins. We provide all your linen (sheets
and doonas in the double cabin and warm sleeping bags with
liners on the bunks). Towels and pillows are also provided.

It’s a great way to meet other travellers and hear of their
favourite “Tassie” spots.

History of Stormbreaker

Yacht Stormbreaker has quite a colourful history.

She was designed by Peter Walker to be the ultimate,
indestructible, survival yacht, to go to any place on the Globe.

Built by himself, his wife Nance and his engineering company, she
was launched on the 26th of January, 1975, at Taren Point,
Sydney, N.S.W. This was to coincide with the highest tide of the
year as she had to float out across the mud flats from the
oyster farm at Taren Point where she was built.

Stormbreaker was designed to explore the most untouched corners
of the ocean, while filming the feature film “Stormbreaker
– a Quest for Paradise”. The Walkers had previously
made another feature film “Adventure Unlimited”
which had screened for several years around Australia, and ended
up on the Ten TV Network.

After a near drowning on a return crossing in their small boat
from New Guinea to Australia, while filming the movie
“Adventure Unlimited”, they decided to build an
unsinkable, “go anywhere” yacht and that was the
concept of “Stormbreaker”.

When first launched, Stormbreaker had accommodation for 23 people
and left on her maiden voyage with a full complement. The
Walkers spent five years cruising the Pacific Ocean. The family
at the time consisted of Pete and Nance, their four children,
Rhett, Lara, Shanie, Rachael and Pete’s Dad, Alan.

Upon returning to Sydney, the Walkers put their feature film
together and it screened for several years around Australia, at
times out performing top Hollywood films that it was competing
against.

After all those years at sea, the Walkers decided that they would
like some land – not just a little piece of land –
but 1,000,000 acres, Nathan River Station, fronting the Gulf of
Carpentaria in the Northern Territory.

Unfortunately, 3 days after moving in, Nathan River Station was
hit by “Cyclone Sandy” with devastating property and
financial effects.

The Walkers became 6 weeks behind in a quarterly mortgage payment
and the bank froze their assets and cashflow, with the
consequential effect that they lost everything.

All their millions of dollars worth of assets were sold by the
bank for next to nothing, and Peter was declared bankrupt.

And so … Yacht Stormbreaker was sold by the bank for a
pittance, changed hands several times, and ended up in the
loving care of Trevor and Megs Norton who now run “West
Coast Yacht Charters” with her.

To finish the story, the Walker children, through a deal, bought
the neighbouring property to Nathan River Station. It is
Lorella Springs
Station and is run by Pete’s son
Rhett, as a cattle and tourist operation.

Perhaps you may like to call in to Lorella
sometime and have Rhett tell you about his adventures on
Stormbreaker.