A recent drama on the seas is the subject of chatter among some members at one Brisbane yacht club

Did a top gun at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron influence a finding that he was not at fault for a recent collision with another boat? That’s the chatter among some.

ROCKING THE BOAT

DID a top gun at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron influence a finding that he was not at fault for a recent collision with another boat?

That’s the chatter among some of the members at the Brisbane club and on a few online sailing sites.

The scuttlebutt is that veteran seaman Barry Cuneo, the club’s vice commodore and a 46-year member of the Manly-based institution, was at fault when his 40-foot cruiser Beachball collided with Tim Maddern’s catamaran Catherine Mary during a social race in mid-February.

But a subsequent decision by an independent four-person committee found that Catherine Mary had failed to give right of way.

Cuneo, who comes from a long line of champion sailors and has knocked off four Sydney to Hobart races, told City Beat yesterday that he had “absolutely no influence’’ on the ruling, which was not appealed.

“I’m totally separate from that,’’ Cuneo said.

“They acted in an absolutely objective manner and, if there was any hint of bias, they would never be able to operate again.

“It’s not a very pleasant situation to think that people who were not there, not even on the water, are working with limited information.’’

We hear that a few parties with loose lips have been threatened with legal action for slander but Cuneo maintained he had no part in that.

Cuneo, who spent 34 years at sea professionally, said the incident was the first time he had ever collided with another vessel.

While Catherine Mary suffered no damage from the prang, Beachball was terminally wounded and sold at auction this week for just $45,000, less than a third of its original value.

Not to worry. Cuneo has got another yacht and he’s doing all right, thanks to his Logan-based Metalcore Distribution business, which makes non-motorised scooters and sells them right around the world.

GETTING HIGH

HEMP products start-up Ecofibre got very high yesterday on its first day of trading on the ASX.

The Brisbane-based cannabis group, which raised $20 million from investors at $1 a share, closed at a whopping $1.70.

That hugely impressive debut spike provided a mighty windfall on paper for chairman Barry Lambert, the Rich Lister who holds a 24 per cent stake in the company, which is now capitalised at $340 million.

Ecofibre chairman Barry Lambert. Photo: James Croucher

Ecofibre oversees three business divisions across Australia and the US, selling topical creams, protein powders, hemp oil and nutraceutical goods for both human and pet consumption. It is also moving into textiles.

Australia legalised the sale of hemp seeds (with little or none of the feel-good agent THC) in late 2017 as much of the world rediscovers the vast potential of the multifaceted plant.

Forecasters have tipped a global boom in the hemp market, with sales expected to more than double from $US1.7 billion ($2.4 billion) last year to $US4.4 billion by 2025.

Like plenty of young businesses, Ecofibre has burned through cash as it aims to achieve critical mass.

It suffered net losses of more than $8 million in the past two financial years and spilt nearly $400,000 in red ink in the half-year to December.

But market analysts think it’s on track to break even this year and start turning a profit in 2020.

Revenue is also trending in the right direction, surging from $600,000 in the 2017 financial year to $5.7 million last year.

It’s expected to hit $13.3 million this year.

For Lambert, who sold his Count Financial group to the Commonwealth Bank for $373 million in 2011, hemp is personal.

He donated $34 million to the University of Sydney for medicinal cannabis research after finding his granddaughter’s rare kind of epilepsy responded to the treatment.