Most convoys involve a group of boats or ship proceedng together with a sufficiently powerful escort to scare the bad guys away. But Dockwise Yacht Transport, which uses semi-submersible ships to carry a group of vessels at a time, can provide what you might call a “piggyback convoy” to yachts in Oman whose owners don’t wish to chance encountering pirates in the trip through the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea and the Med.
From the press release: Dockwise Yacht Transport (DYT) will be orchestrating the transport of 20 private cruising yachts from Salalah, Oman to Marmaris, Turkey in April. The company, best known for its fleet of semi-submersible ”float-on/float-off” yacht carriers, also coordinates lift-on/lift-off arrangements with third-party carriers, and logistically can fulfill almost any request, even if it is driven by unfortunate circumstances.
“Due to increased piracy, cruising sailors are altering their plans for getting from southeastern Asia to the Mediterranean,” said DYT President Clemens van der Werf. “By virtue of their independent and adventurous nature, some of these sailors had not previously thought about shipping as an alternative, but they are thinking differently now. Dockwise is committed to assisting them in all phases of learning about the process and then implementing a plan so they can ship to designated ports rather than travel through dangerous waters on their own.”
Van der Werf explained that in mid-February four Americans, on board a sailboat hijacked by pirates off the coast of Oman, were killed by their captors, and more recently, Somali pirates took hostage seven Danes, including three children, after hijacking their yacht off the Somali coast.
“These attacks on private cruising yachts are deeply disturbing and are an assault on our collective yachting family,” said van der Werf, emphasizing that for more than two decades, Dockwise Yacht Transport has been working one-on-one with owners, captains and crews to ensure safe and efficient passages by way of shipping. “We will do all we can to help sailors meet their needs, utilizing extensive shipping routes and schedules used by our own Dockwise vessels as well as our alliances with heavy-lift operators around the world.”
Helping in times of crisis is not new to Dockwise Yacht Transport. One of the ships owned by its parent company, Dockwise Ltd., transported the destroyer U.S.S. Cole back to the United States after it was the target of a suicide attack carried out in the year 2000 at the Yemeni port of Aden.
For more information, visit http://www.yacht-transport.com or contact Catalina Bujor, Dockwise Yacht Transport, 954-525-8707, pr@dockwise-yt.com.