First Officer Chris Lang of S/Y Perseus has been on a mission during the Monaco Yacht Show to give every exhibiting yacht a brochure about YachtAid Global.

YAG is a San Diego-based charity started by Capt. Mark Drewelow who left M/Y Dorothea to raise his family. During a career traveling the world, he realized how often yachts stop near or sail past communities that need help.

He started YAG in 2006 to use yachts to transport humanitarian and development aid such as school supplies, medical supplies and even basic playground equipment to children in villages around the world.

Three dozen yachts have already participated, including M/Y Big Fish (in the show on the Quai Chicane). Perseus hasn’t yet participated, but that doesn’t make it any less important to Lang.

“We used Mark in a two-year trip in the Pacific,” Lang said. “He’s helped us so much, you can’t say no to him.”

So Lang volunteered to help educate fellow crew, some of whom were put off initially, thinking he was looking for money. But YAG is funded by donors and grants; it wants yacht crew just to do what they do best: help with deliveries.

“Our access to small villages and getting ashore, that’s part of our job,” Lang said. “A lot of boats said, ‘What can we do? We’re stuck in the Med.’ I just want them to be aware, so when they go somewhere that needs help, they’ll think about it and contact Mark.”

The impact of a yacht’s delivery of supplies can make a huge difference in the lives of people in remote villages.

“We tend to donate and spend money all over but it doesn’t make the difference it should,” said Capt. Aaron Abramowitz, referring to the administrative costs so many charities keep. “This is one of the better causes in yachting. And it gives the public a different view of what yachting is all about.”

Lang remembered a recent chance when he was able to help another human being and said it felt good.

“In Thailand, we saved a guy,” he said. “In the middle of the night in the middle of the ocean, the crew on watch heard a guy screaming. They raised the alarm and we all came on deck. In about three minutes, we found him. He had jumped off a tanker.

“We felt good about that, that our man-overboard drills worked and we saved a guy,” he said. “We’d all like to be a hero.”

And that’s what YAG can do for yachties, he said.

“It may be vain to want to do something good, but it’s a vain industry,” he said. “This cause gives me more cause to stay in the industry.”

About the Author

Lucy Chabot Reed

Editor

Lucy Chabot Reed is editor of The Triton.