With the South Pacific as his playground, Captain Piot Rachalewski knows the planet’s best-kept secrets...
In hamlets set along the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea, twin-level spirit houses burst to the seams with war shields, weapons and racks of human skulls. The people in these tiny villages — where some of the eldest tribesmen reportedly can still recall the taste of human flesh from their youth — worship the gargantuan, deadly saltwater crocodiles that ply the river. In crocodile ceremonies, young men have their backs carved to resemble the pebbled dorsa of the aquatic monsters. And if this sight were not otherworldly enough to imagine, now picture a superyacht, the 121ft Vitters Dardanella, sitting placidly in the middle of the river, an oasis of modernity in a land lost to time.
“We knew that the timber tugboats use the river, so we could navigate ourselves for at least seven days up it,” says Captain Piot Rachalewski, a 10-year veteran on the vessel. “We just knew we needed to aim for the lilies because they grow in the deepest part of the river.”
It’s a safe bet to say that there are very few, if any, charter yachts doing what Dardanella is doing. The vessel itself is rather special. The 1996 build is currently on the market with Y.CO for $7.2 million, and charters for $125,000 per week. Vitters is known not just for building sailing yachts, but also for its remarkable attention to fit and finish and engineering — the latter of which is particularly helpful when you are thousands of miles away from any real support beyond the crew’s know-how.
“The boat is in great shape,” Piot says with satisfaction. “Her construction is amazing, just very robust, and we take excellent care of her. She has never broken down on us, and I attribute that to having a skilled and dedicated crew working hard on her. It is something that I think we all take a great deal of pride in, understandably.”
At 43 and with 20 years of experience working on boats, the South African captain is in his prime. He broke into the marine world with a successful competitive sailing career that first saw him winning races off the coast of his home country, and then continued to Europe to find even stiffer competition with classics, Wallys and the like. Finding more success there, Piot says he gained the confidence to make a full-blown career out of yachting. He hopped on a few boats that went out to the Pacific at first and got some experience in that arena, and then he says someone at Dardanella got his CV — he doesn’t know how — and he got the call.
“I took a look at the program and my eyes popped out of my head,” he says. “It was like nothing I’d ever heard of. I like to surf, and dive, and I have studied marine biology. There was just so much potential to do the things I love on this boat. I was always looking for the perfect job and when the Dardanella opportunity came up I was like ‘OK, this might be it.’”
Piot and his boat have caught a wave at exactly the right moment. It’s no secret that superyacht owners are getting younger and younger thanks to an influx of tech money, as well as the largest transference of wealth in history as the baby boomer generation ages. That paradigm-shifting change in demographics has led many owners and charterers to seek new territory when spending time on board.
“Most of the guests we have and charters we do are looking for something off the beaten track,” Piot says. “Maybe they have already done the Med or the Caribbean, or maybe that’s what their parents did. So now they want to do what most people never get to do: they want to live a life less ordinary and to go to the final frontiers of the Pacific paradise. And fortunately, we on Dardanella are able to immerse them in that experience.”
The captain and the owner choose the destinations together, then the boat spends three to six months there, allowing Piot to gain experience to offer clients a once-in-a-lifetime trip.
The Dardanella charter experience spans the world’s largest ocean from Costa Rica to Australia and everywhere in between. The yacht has sailed into port in Panama, French Polynesia, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, New Zealand and Raja Ampat. For the captain, each destination holds fresh challenges and adventures.
For surfing, he says that French Polynesia and Fiji have the best waves. “You can find whatever you like,” he says. “Gentler waves or waves of real consequence. And the locals have that real aloha spirit, they will paddle out and shake your hand.” It’s a refreshing sight for many surfers who are used to the territorial beefs common in locations such as Hawaii and Southern California.
Diving is another passion of Piot’s. For clients who are interested in this, he recommends the stretch of ocean from the Solomon Islands to Papua New Guinea. “It’s unlike anything else on earth,” he says. “You jump underwater and you have these molten colors — beautiful fish and soft corals — it reminds me of Alice in Wonderland. It’s the final frontier of the pristine underwater world.”
When the captain and his clients have worked up an appetite surfing and diving, it’s time to refuel. And that’s when he recommends a delicacy found throughout the South Pacific — poisson cru with coconut. “The quality of the fish in this part of the world is the stuff that Europeans can only dream of,” he says.
Of course, when playing in some of the planet’s most remote corners, it’s not always fun and games, particularly if you rub the local authorities the wrong way. Piot once found himself in an Indonesian jail cell under suspicion of drug smuggling. Police had found some supplies in his kit, like adrenaline, that they suspected to be contraband. He was arrested and held for 12 hours. As the world’s most populous Muslim country, Indonesia is known for some of the harshest drug-offense penalties in the world, with smugglers subject to penalties including death by firing squad. Piot was released in the morning, but the experience left an impression on him. “Let’s just say I was happy to get back on the boat!” he says. “It was definitely a bit scary.”
Security concerns take on an extra level of gravity when encountered in such isolated places. “If you’re in a spot like Papua New Guinea,” says Piot, “the biggest concerns will be in cosmopolitan areas. That’s where you need to be most at the ready. Typically when you go far upriver and to the thousands of remote islands, the local tribes are super friendly and peaceful. But it’s always smart to have knowledgeable guides help you map out a trip. That goes not just for safety, but also for finding the best water for surfing, diving and cruising.”
Repairs also take on an added layer of difficulty when you can’t simply pull into a yard at every port. The crew of Dardanella handles as many issues on their own as they can, but for big-ticket items Piot says he will make his way to New Zealand. “The level of shipbuilding expertise you find in that country matched with the pricepoints, it can’t be beat,” he says. “Plus maybe we get a chance to go up into the mountains, which are some of the most beautiful on earth.”
Dardanella has earned a special place in Piot’s heart. “It’s the perfect vessel for the kind of adventures that we do,” he says. “It’s not overly huge so we can get into smaller waterways and rivers. The draft is only 2.5 meters. And the way the boat looks helps us blend in as well. The locals don’t look at us and think we are some gin palace. They don’t know if we are a commercial vessel, a research ship or something else.”
Indeed, the only thing that stands out at all about Dardanella’s aesthetics is her unique blue-camouflage paint job, meant to mimic World War II-era battleships.
For Piot and his carefully curated crew of seven, the adventure continues. “I try to focus not just on skill but also on having a good attitude when I’m hiring crew,” he says. “You have to love nature and have a healthy, active lifestyle. And you’ve got to be willing to work hard: we are obviously not at Club Med here.”
But for the captain, all the hard work is worth the payoff. “I get to take people around to see these dying cultures before they are gone, and the pristine environments. And as my career goes on, I only find myself more and more stoked for what’s next.”