ON
BOARD
WITH
On board 48m yacht Big Sky with owner Paul Darrouzet
The Australian marina owner knows his business well, as he’s also a yacht owner himself. It’s a far cry from his previous line of work, he tells Lucy Dunn
Superyacht owner Paul Darrouzet is picturing a perfect day on Big Sky, the 48-metre Oceanfast he bought last year: “Waking up with a gorgeous girl beside you, having a nice breakfast, a Bloody Mary and then a nice lunch and after that, maybe some snorkelling or water skiing, then off to a beautiful beach…”
He’s been messing about with boats ever since he can remember. “As a child we mucked around in tinnies (small aluminium boats) and then in the mid 1990s, I hired a Whiting 47 sailing yacht called Kakini with a bunch of friends in the Whitsundays and I actually fell in love with the physical beauty of the area. It’s just sensational.”
Following that first charter, Brisbane-based Darrouzet continued to travel to the region, an archipelago of over 74 islands off the coast of Queensland in north-eastern Australia, an area famous for its sailing and Great Barrier Reef, known as the “Monaco of the South Pacific”.
After sailing for a few years, Darrouzet converted to motor yachts. “To be honest, I started to get bored with sailing. You want to go from A to B and you’ve got to do about 10,000 tacks. It’s better if you can just press a button and off you go.” Darrouzet bought his first power boat, a 14-metre long-distance cruiser, after one hungover morning walking along the marina on Hamilton Island with some friends.
“I think I was 28 at the time and we had terrible headaches. There was a bloke probably in his fifties, with his wife and friend, and they were barbecuing at eight o’clock in the morning on the back of a Riviera 46 Passagemaker. He looked at me and said, ‘Son, how are you?’ And I said, ‘I’m not well at all.’ And he lifted a beer up and said, ‘It’s a great life, as long as you don’t weaken.’ So, I bought a boat like his and from then on, I’ve just been absolutely in love!”
Darrouzet also own Norseman
Sadly, Darrouzet’s busy career in mining only allowed for the occasional boat trip, so in 2008 he sold up and moved to the Whitsundays where he busied himself with other investments. In 2013 he saw an opportunity to cement his passion: the demise of a marina in Airlie Beach called Abell Point Marina. “It was falling to pieces, so I approached some people, found out it had gone into receivership, bid for it at an auction and bought it.”
Running the marina is a world away from mining, he says. “For a start, you’re not dealing with angry unionists at your doorstep every morning. The thing about a marina is the people involved are either going out to have a great time, or they’re coming back from having a good time, or they’re tinkering (on their yachts) while drinking beer with their friends and chatting and having a good time. So it’s a place of joy. And that’s what inspires me. When you’re in the coal mining industry, it’s the complete and utter opposite. Nobody wants to be there!”
Running the marina is a world away from mining. “For a start, you’re not dealing with angry unionists every morning”
Darrouzet’s business, the rejuvenated and renamed Coral Sea Marina in Airlie Beach, Queensland, has 520 slips
Being in the marine business also means he can now indulge his love of boats even more. Since his Riviera, Darrouzet has owned a succession of bigger boats and currently has two: Norseman, a 28-metre Falcon Yachts, which he has owned for 10 years, and Big Sky, bought in June last year.
Buying Big Sky came at a personal turning point for Darrouzet. “A couple of years ago I was told I had prostate cancer, and things were looking pretty bad, and I always thought to myself, I wouldn’t mind a big boat. So I went out and bought one. And now it’s a bit of a business. But I have got to make it wash its face, which is always a challenge…”
Big Sky is one of Darrouzet’s two yachts
He was attracted to Big Sky because of the quality of her build and also her generous 8.5-metre beam and outside deck space, qualities which make her an attractive boat for charter.
“She’s built in Western Australia by Oceanfast which is a naval shipyard, and the construction of the vessel is first class,” he says proudly. “I also like the fact that the walk-around deck is upstairs, so in the main saloon area, you’ve got nine metres of room straight across. It’s a beautiful design.”
He was attracted to Big Sky because of the quality of her build and also her generous 8.5-metre beam and outside deck space, qualities which make her an attractive boat for charter.
“She’s built in Western Australia by Oceanfast which is a naval shipyard, and the construction of the vessel is first class,” he says proudly. “I also like the fact that the walk-around deck is upstairs, so in the main saloon area, you’ve got nine metres of room straight across. It’s a beautiful design.”
Trips on Big Sky are always full of friends and family who like to hang out in the spa pool and at the circular bar on the sundeck. “It’s a cracker! We sit around, chat away...”
The boat’s many toys are, not surprisingly, a key attraction too. “I’ve got three children and six grandchildren and we all like to get out, [enjoy] watersports, go down the slide….” And while the family likes to retreat to Big Sky’s cavernous modern saloon when the evening chill sets in, Darrouzet’s favourite room is the bridge deck bar – “for obvious reasons”, he jokes.
He tells me he’s selling Norseman – although how serious he is, I’m not quite so sure as he picks her when I ask him to choose his favourite yacht. “It’s got a ver y big hydraulic swim platform, we put three or four deckchairs on the swim platform, lower it and sit there up to your waist in water, have a beer and then go for a swim – it’s lovely!”
BURGESS
BURGESS
Big Sky charters to pay her own way, says Darrouze. Top: The master suite and dining saloon
His experience of yacht ownership gave him valuable insight on what an owner looks for when choosing a marina, and he wasted no time in his 10-year $8 million transformation of Abell Point – which he later renamed Coral Sea Marina Resort – scooping several awards along the way.
“When I got [Coral Sea], I’d had a boat for 18, 20 years. I’d been all around the world checking all this out. I knew that when you go to a place, you want a trolley. You want beautiful service. You want to be able to get fuel 24 hours a day. You want to be able to have the capacity to take a courtesy car and go to town.
He set about opening out the waterfront, upgrading buildings, installing new restaurants and cafés and adding a private helipad. He refashioned old pontoons, turning them into floating customer lounges, an idea he’d seen on his travels. In 2019 he bought and renovated the luxury hotel next door. One of the largest in Australia, the marina now has 520 berths and can accommodate superyachts up to 80 metres.
Darrouzet purchased and upgraded the hotel adjacent to Coral Sea Marina
One of his proudest achievements is regenerating a piece of land adjoining the marina, turning it from toxic wasteland to beautiful parkland and the resort has passed several Clean Marina initiatives. Then there is the Coral Sea Academy, with its initiatives to educate yacht owners on sustainable boating, plus a floating seagrass restoration project, food for the dugongs that live on this stretch of coast.
“I always thought to myself, I wouldn’t mind a big boat – so I went out and bought one”
His passion for the industry led Darrouzet to be recognised as a Superyacht Australian Industry champion in 2017. “Thanks to recent changes in legislation we’ve now got an avalanche of superyachts coming into Australia and they’re now able to cruise in areas they were never able to before. It’s resulted in a lot of people relocating Australian boats from the Med back here, and also a number of boats coming in from Florida.”
Does he have any regrets about leaving the mining business? “Not at all,” he laughs. “I could have made a lot more money out of coal, but you’ve only got one life. I love being in the joy and the happiness business; there’s nothing better!”
First published in the December 2024 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.