John and Yvette Nikolic life on their Shenanigans yacht: Sailor Jeff Hassell tells all and reveals unseen photos

A man who innocently crewed John and Yvette Nikolic’s yacht has broken his silence to reveal fresh details about what he now knows was the former Melbourne horse trainer’s well-organised drug run.

Exclusive: It was the sail that brought down one of Australia’s most successful, and controversial, horse racing identities.

Today, News Corp Australia can exclusively reveal former Melbourne horse trainer John Nikolic - now serving time in a Fiji prison - was so desperate to reach Colombia his yacht Shenanigans blew apart in the mad dash.

A man who innocently crewed John and Yvette Nikolic’s boat from the start of its journey to its dramatic conclusion has broken his silence to reveal fresh details about what he now knows was a well-organised drug run.

News Corp Australia tracked Jeff Hassell - Shenanigans longest-serving crew member – down to his Hawaii home, where he told of his suspicions following John Nikolic’s rush to reach South America and of a secret visit to Tonga, the Pacific’s ‘drug kingdom’.

Good times on Shenanigans: John Nikolic pops the champagne while Yvette laughs with crew members. Picture: Jeff Hassell.

Shenanigans crewman Jeff Hassell (pictured) was excited to be asked by the Nikolics to crew on an all-expenses paid sailing holiday through the Pacific. Picture: Jeff Hassell.

Hassell, 67, who left Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with John Nikolic on February 2 last year and sailed all the way to Denarau Marina in Fiji, where the boat was raided by Customs authorities on June 22, also revealed John Nikolic delivered a duffel bag to a man in Tahiti, that had been given to him by a stranger in Panama.

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Hassell revealed a Colombian who was employed by John Nikolic in Cartagena to help fix their boat was a wanted man who had escaped jail in Panama and had scars from gunshot and stab wounds.

John and Yvette Nikolic kissing on Rangiroa, one of the Tuamotus Islands in French Polynesia. Picture: Jeff Hassell.

John Nikolic holding a large Mahi Mahi fish he caught while on the yacht. Picture: Jeff Hassell.

The man was imprisoned in Colombia not long after working on Shenanigans, he said.

Speaking publicly for the first time, Hassell - who was not called as a witness in the Nikolics’ High Court trial - said it was hard to comprehend the sun-soaked, sailing adventure during which “lovely” Yvette had baked bread for the crew, got tipsy on just two rum drinks and tenderly cared for an injured sea bird, and John had been a disciplined skipper and perfect host, was actually a brazen drug run.

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Yvette nursed back to health an injured sea bird she named Thursday on Shenanigans, giving the creature food and drink and keeping it in a box at night. Picture: Jeff Hassell.

The Nikolics were alone on Shenanigans in Cartagena for nearly a month while repairs were made to the yacht’s steering, cables and dodger, all of which broke on the way to Colombia, Hassel said.

He had flown back to the USA and then returned when the boat was fixed and ready to sail again.

An experienced yachtsman, Hassell said he was surprised John Nikolic - a beginner sailor – insisted on sailing 24 hours-a-day, for nine days, from Florida to Colombia, at fast pace and in rough seas, bypassing key tourist destinations like the Bahamas and Jamaica.

“We pushed the boat too hard. It was one of the roughest trips I’ve been on,” he said. “The boat was getting beaten to death. There were times I got bounced out of my bunk.”

John Nikolic at the wheel of Shenanigans outside Cartagena, Columbia. Picture: Jeff Hassell.

Like most crew members on Shenanigans, Hassell said he had teamed up with the Nikolics on Cruiser Forum, an online site which matches boat owners with crew.

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Mostly, he had dealt with Yvette, who had requested he bring reading glasses and thongs to hand out to “needy children” in the Pacific.

The items were handed out to schoolchildren on a Tonga island on June 17, during a visit that crew were instructed by John to keep quiet about, as authorisation had not been sought from Tongan authorities to come ashore, Hassell said.

“It’s like Tonga never happened,” he said.

The route Shenanigans took from Florida to Tahiti. Picture: Jeff Hassell.

Shenanigans crewman Jeff Hassell at the school in Tonga the Nikolics made a secret visit to. Tonga is known as the Pacific’s ‘drug kingdom’. Picture: Jeff Hassell.

A drug enforcement source in Fiji told News Corp Australia Tonga was known as “the drug kingdom”, with Australian drug smugglers and gangs increasingly using the island paradise for trafficking and targeting schoolchildren.

News Corp is not suggesting this was the Nikolics’ purpose or intention in visiting Tonga.

Hassell said he was shocked when John Nikolic accepted a bag from a man in Shelter Bay, Panama, and took it all the way to Papeete in Tahiti, to deliver to a stranger.

Shenanigans in Shelter Bay Marina, Panama. Picture: Jeff Hassell.

Yvette Nikolic on a motor bike in Tahiti. Picture: Jeff Hassell.

The high-quality duffel bag contained just worn-out snorkel gear, mismatched flippers and rusty diving knives, Hassell said.

“It was strange, and didn’t make sense to me, to haul a bag of rubbish basically, from someone you don’t know to another person you don’t know, 6000 miles away,” he said.

Yvette and John Nikolic on Shenanigans, en route to Fiji. Picture: Jeff Hassell.

Following the discovery of 13 bars of cocaine, drug tablets, unlicensed guns, ammunition and cash on Shenanigans, Hassell said he had found himself wondering if the Colombian who helped fix the boat had traded information about John Nikolic with authorities while in jail, to help his own cause.

“It’s just a theory I have,” he said.

During the Nikolics’ trial, it was revealed John told Yvette during the drug bust “a Colombian” had put something in a bag on the boat and that he had smuggled drugs because he owed dangerous people a lot of money which he had to pay back.

Shortly after the admission, he attempted suicide.

John and Yvette Nikolic on the bow of the yacht with drinks. Picture: Jeff Hassell.

Yvette Nikolic looking out near Tahiti. Picture: Jeff Hassell.

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It was Hassell who found the silver flask, shoved behind a toilet roll in his cabin bathroom, that it’s understood John used to poison himself.

It was also Hassell who Yvette called for help when John collapsed, telling him her husband had “taken something” and had refused to kiss her lips.

Yvette and John Nikolic loved-up on their yacht Shenanigans. Picture: Jeff Hassell.

Hassell said he then called out to crew and passengers on neighbouring yachts for help, and held a crudely-fashioned drip set up by two intensive care nurses and a doctor, who administered first aid to the dying skipper.

John Nikolic looking at the yacht Shenanigans in Tuamotos atolls, French Polynesia. Picture: Jeff Hassell.

He credits the quick response and skill of the intensive care nurses with saving John’s life.

“John was on the edge of death. He was so pale, with his eyes rolled back and only the whites showing, the veins in his neck were throbbing so hard it looked like they were going to explode, he was limp and breathing sporadically. Everyone thought he was dying right there. His lips were turning blue,” Hassell said. “I was told, if he somehow lived, he would probably be brain dead.”

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Yvette Nikolic on the boat in happier times. Picture: Jeff Hassell.

Crew members were shocked to learn John had later recovered and been arrested, he said.

John Nikolic was convicted of drug smuggling and weapons offences and sentenced to 23 years in Suva prison with a non-parole period of 18 years while Yvette walked free from court on February 19 with the judge finding she had no case to answer, and not guilty of drug importation, possession and weapons charges.

Yvette returned to Australia the next day but her acquittal has since been appealed with the Fiji Director of Public Prosecutions saying the judge made “an error in law” in setting her free.

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John and Yvette on Rangiroa, one of the Tuamotus Islands in French Polynesia. Picture: Jeff Hassell.

Hassell said the Nikolics had been openly affectionate towards each other on the boat and were clearly very much in love, even talking about living on Shenanigans with their 16 year-old daughter when they reached Queensland, and perhaps buying another, newer, boat so they could make more long-distance sailing trips in the future.

John and Yvette Nikolic hiking in Tahiti. Picture: Jeff Hassell.

The Nikolics’ daughter - who had been living with her best friend’s family for nearly six months - was to have arrived in Fiji on June 24, two days after the raid, to sail on Shenanigans for a fortnight, he said.

John celebrated his 45th birthday on Shenanigans in paradise, with rum drinks, champagne, good food and music in the exotic Las Perlas islands exactly this time last year, Hassell said.

He turns 46 in purgatory, with nearly two decades of jail time left to serve.