Australian yacht design to Asia

by Cortlan Bennett on 13 Feb 2006 Western Australia is about to lose a multimillion-dollar boat-building industry to Asia after a copyright battle over a racing yacht financially crippled its designer.

Naval architect John Swarbrick – who designed Australia's 1988 America's Cup defenders Kookaburra I, II and III – has already won two Federal Court cases against a rival who copied his JS9000 racing yacht and tried to sell it worldwide.

However, the three-year legal battle – which is still not over – has cost Mr Swarbrick and his Albany company, Swarbrick Yachts International, an estimated $7 million in legal fees and lost earnings.

Swarbrick says he will move full-scale production of his 9m sports yacht to Singapore, where it is already built in small numbers under licence, where there are resources, funds and staff available.

‘I will be assigning the worldwide building and distribution rights (of the JS9000) to the Singapore builder. ‘That multimillion-dollar industry is now going to leave Australian shores and Albany misses out.’

The court battle began after Swarbrick's former schoolmate, Brent Burge, teamed up with Attadale millionaire Sergio Zaza and Dalkeith finance executive Glen Bosman to copy the JS9000 design. A company was formed, Boldgold Investments, with Zaza and Bosman as directors, and a factory set up in Pinjarra to produce the yacht.

The company poached two of Swarbrick's staff and tried to sell the yacht through his own agent in England, which had already bought seven JS9000s and ordered 10 more.

One of his former employees, Benjamin Warren, was convicted in June 2004 of stealing a deck moulding from Swarbrick, which was integral to the JS9000 design.

‘I worked on that design for 10 years, with drawings and models, and these people were just going to reap the benefit. It was remarkable the way they copied everything.

‘Bosman and Zaza even went over to England and had meetings with my English agents. They told them they were building a boat which they could present to them and which was heavily reliant upon my own design and former staff, who had the knowledge to mould the JS9000.’

When the first case reached the Federal Court in September 2003, Boldgold Investments and Burge argued the yacht design was not subject to copyright because it was not registered. But Justice Christopher Carr ruled that it breached Swarbrick's ‘artistic craftsmanship’ because the design was obviously his.

An appeal to the Full Court was dismissed on December 8 last year, when three Federal judges again ruled in favour of Swarbrick.

Swarbrick was awarded his costs by the court of about $400,000, but would be seeking ‘at least $7 million’ in lost earnings and court costs once the case, still under appeal is settled.