‘Our Rights Didn’t Go With the Boat’: Aboriginal Land Council Claims Ownership Over Stranded Yacht

A supplied image shows a yacht, abandoned during the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, washed up at Christmas Beach on truwana/Cape Barren Island, Tasmania, on Jan. 5, 2023. AAP Image/Supplied by Vica Bayley, Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania

A shipwrecked yacht on a remote Australian island has become the centre of a dispute between the vessel’s owner and the local Aboriginal Land Council, which claimed the yacht belongs to them.

The 40-foot “Huntress” suffered a mishap during its Sydney to Hobart race on Dec. 28, 2022, when it hit an unidentified object which sheared off part of its rudder.