About Matt Bradley
I started sailing as a New Millennium resolution in January 2000. I was working in the Casino Industry at the time and joined the sailing team for the corporate games. I went and got a couple of lessons with a sailing school in Balmain, and was rearing to go and determined not to look silly, as it turned out I was the second most experienced person on the yacht. But that was it for me I was hooked. I then came to the Whitsundays to do my Competent Crew course with the Whitsunday Marine Academy in May 2000. I was at the same level most of my students which are doing the International Crew Certificate. I went back to the Casino Industry which was pale and insignificant in comparison, I returned to the Whitsundays in July and during this time I was offered a job on the Yacht that I did the training on. So I went back to Sydney handed in my resignation, sold all my stuff and left Sydney like a bat out of hell.
I started working on the yacht and just before Christmas I met a student that was unlike any other, her name was Andrea from Germany. Andrea got a job on Hamilton Is and I was working my way through the training syllabuses, achieving the Yachting Australia Yachtmaster Offshore Instructor, closely followed by my Master V which is the certificate required by Maritime Safety Queensland.
I got my licence to drive the yachts that I had been working on, Life was really good Andrea had got a commuting job to Hamilton Is and we moved in together. About this time one of Andrea’s best friends in Germany was getting married in August 2003 and of course we were invited. We both worked hard to go after a couple of months my boss and mentor Mal Robertson said that there wasn’t much more that he could teach me after teaching the Yachtmaster Ocean. He suggested that I should hang out in the Mediterranean and get a job running a yacht there since we were going there anyway we thought why not.
After arriving in the Med in August I was lucky enough to get a job on a 100’ Azimut Private Yacht as First Mate/ Engineer. That is how my Superyacht Career started, Andrea was able to get some fill in work on a variety of different yachts. In November 2003 we left the Med and headed to Florida. This time Andrea got a job on a yacht on the west coast of Mexico, and I had to do fill in work to keep myself occupied. I also did the courses for the Officer of the Watch (OOW). Andrea came back to Florida on the yacht that she was working on. We then got a job together as Captain and Chief Stewardess. We worked together for a few months on a boat that kept breaking down. We left this boat and got another job in the Dominican Republic. We had been away from Australia around two years at this time, and driving around in the country side looking at the sugar cane made me homesick. The position didn’t work out and I got to a snap point and said “that’s it let’s go home”
I am sure I remember Andrea saying thank god. We then headed for home after a bit of a holiday in Germany. I came back to Airlie Beach and got a job straight away with Mal Robertson. I remember looking at Eureka II a little hesitant. Having spent the last two years working on the dark side of boating i.e. Motor boats , I hadn’t sailed a yacht for two years but it was like riding a bike and my passion for sailing was once again re-ignited. I was working on Eureka II as the yacht manager for around six months.
Andrea and I had been together now for around six years and after about three years of hinting on the anniversary of our meeting on the balcony of a room at the Coral Sea resort I went down on one knee and asked Andrea to marry me thankfully she said “yes” and I presented her with a three dollar mood ring which served two purposes, being engaged and what mood she was in. Andrea and I were married on the beach in Airlie Beach barefoot.
Sometime later Mal put me forward to run a luxury yacht named “Havana”. I managed her until she was sold in 2007. After “Havana “ sold I was freelancing for a couple of charter companies when Mal Robertson started talking to me again about coming back and working for him again as an instructor for the Whitsunday Marine Academy, except this time he offered andrea and I a partnership in the academy.
So in 2008 Andrea and I became partners in WMA. After changing 5 boats in the first 18 months of the partnership Mal decided to leave the partnership and Andrea and I have been the operators of the Whitsunday Marine Academy since the 1st April 2010, April fool’s day which I am treating as a good omen. Andrea and I have been blessed with two beautiful children, Allegra born in 2008 and Maali born 2010
