Andrey Yakunin

FIREBIRD was impounded in Puerto Natales in August 2026 over alleged charter activity, while she was preparing for a private sailing season to Patagonia, South Georgia and Antarctica. Customs alleges that the vessel operated commercially in Chile. We firmly dispute that assertion. I understand that under-the-radar charters is a hotly contested issue in the region and understand the efforts of Chilean Customs to ensure fair and equal application of law; however, I strongly object to any claims that FIREBIRD was engaged in any of such activities. This has nothing to do with FIREBIRD - as she has operated strictly privately for more than five years in Chile and beyond. I categorically reject any suggestion that she violated any local norm or regulations in Chile.

I acknowledge an administrative error regarding two crew members' entry documents, which should have included shore passes alongside their visas. That is exactly the reason why visiting yachts engage the services of a local agent – to avoid mishaps like this. Unfortunately, this time the routine process failed us. All fines have been paid in full. I am revising our internal procedures to prevent recurrence.

My legal representatives in Chile, Cariola Díez Pérez-Cotapos, and I have submitted substantial documentary evidence demonstrating that FIREBIRD has been used exclusively for private purposes. To date, the material disclosed to us does nothing to establish that she might have operated commercially in Chile. My legal team and I are talking the most active position in the matter. and formally requested under the country’s Lobby Law, where we presented all relevant information available to us at a meeting with Chile’s National Customs Service in Valparaíso.At the same time, we are pursuing all other legal avenues available to secure a prompt resolution of the case.

FIREBIRD is flies the Red Ensign, the most respected maritime flag in the world. She is registered with MCA as a private recreational vessel. As on most private yachts of her size, she is operated by a professional crew, and this does in no way suggests that she is used for commercial purposes. In high latitudes, experienced crew is often a specific requirement, typically with a minimum of four crew members: ice, extreme weather, long distances from rescue services and limited infrastructure make them a safety necessity rather than a convenience.

FIREBIRD is a 27-metre British-flagged sailing yacht built by Oyster Yachts in the United Kingdom and delivered in 2016, specifically refitted for ocean voyaging and high-latitude exploration.

No. FIREBIRD is not available for charter and has not been available for charter for the last five years. Any listing showing FIREBIRD as available for charter is incorrect: some refer to a different vessel of the same name, and others reflect outdated information from a former charter programme that ended more than five years ago.

No. FIREBIRD has been registered with the UK flag state as a private recreational vessel for more than five years and does not operate commercially in any capacity. Having a professional crew on board, which her registration permits, does not make her a commercial vessel. Previously FIREBIRD ran a successful charter programme in the Eastern Mediterranean and Arctic Norway. That programme ended pre-COVID, when she was re-flagged for private use.

FIREBIRD is a private expedition sailing yacht. She supports me, my family and my friends on voyages to sail, ski, climb and dive across every continent, and has been extensively modified for safety and capability in high-latitude and remote environments. FIREBIRD has covered more than 120,000 nautical miles, including competing in Mediterranean and Caribbean regattas, and exploration of French Polynesia, Arctic Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Svalbard, Patagonia, Antarctica and South Georgia. Future plans include New Zealand and the Pacific and ultimately the North-West Passage.

I own FIREBIRD. I am a British investor and entrepreneur of Russian origin with over thirty years' experience in international hospitality and real estate investment. I am also an experienced sailor and explorer, with extensive expedition experience in Patagonia, Antarctica and other remote regions and a reasonable racing track record both in the Solent and the Mediterranean.Over the past decade my private expeditions aboard FIREBIRD are documented on social media, with more than 250,000 followers across different platforms.

In October 2022, I was arrested in Norway in connection with drone footage I recorded during a sailing voyage around Svalbard over the summer. I was subsequently acquitted of all charges, which had been brought solely on the basis of my Russian citizenship that I retained by birth. The prosecution cited sanctions legislation intended to impede Russian military activities in connection with the war in Ukraine. The Norwegian courts found no connection between my use of personal drones for recreational and documentary purposes and the objectives of the sanctions’ regulations. I was acquitted of charges at all judicial levels with the final resolution in April 2024.

It is really a matter of common sense, and one of the principles that has made English law and the English courts such a widely trusted platform for impartial dispute resolution. If a party is found to have been at fault — whether that party is a private individual, a company or the state — it should compensate the other party for the costs and damages it has caused.I applied the same logic in Norway, and it ultimately produced the appropriate result, perhaps not quite as promptly as I would have liked.That is exactly how I would approach a similar situation anywhere in the world.

No. I was summiting in the Tian Shan Range in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia. I planned to return to Chile at the end of August, ahead of our ski touring trip to South Georgia, which was scheduled to start on the 3rd of September. This was to be an expedition along a variation of the Shackleton Traverse, through South Georgia's dramatic north fjords. It is very unfortunate I had to cancel this trip.

The vessel is normally under the command of the professional skipper. Though on some occasions I do step in – and hold a Yachtmaster’s ticket, that was never commercial - as so far I haven’t considered the option of paid work at sea. Puerto Williams customs records clearly demonstrate that I signed FIREBIRD in as the Master of Vessel at least on one occasion, however most of the time I prefer to have FIREBIRD under the command of a professional skipper to free up my own time for pursuits ashore. My absence therefore has no bearing on the command of the vessel, as defined under international maritime law.

All five were professional crew; there were no friends or guests on board. The captain was repositioning FIREBIRD for the start of the season after a regular off-season maintenance period in Puerto Montt. A crew of five is the number of sailors I would personally be comfortable with taking FIREBIRD through similar waters in similar conditions.

Yes. FIREBIRD is currently my only vessel.

Finding time to split between the office and the boat is a rather tricky question. Luckily, Starlink has changed our world dramatically. With the connectivity it offers, there is an opportunity to spend much more time aboard. Last Antarctic season, I spent over four months aboard FIREBIRD without leaving her.

Antarctica is a remote place and search and rescue is naturally quite limited. Most of the time, the friends joining FIREBIRD are those who have sailed with me earlier and already have Arctic experience under their belt. That helps me be self-sufficient and do fun things while still staying away from the crazy things that might require putting out a pan-pan or a even mayday.The amazing thing about FIREBIRD is that some of my friends started trekking with me at university. Others - are people I bumped into in Norway or Greenland. Ski mountaineering is less established in the UK than sailing, but my London network includes people with exactly the right skills and experience. The most difficult thing to find is time to join one of my expeditions.I like to return to the same regions, because each season builds on the last. However, for friends who are in active employment or running their own companies, committing to an extended expedition over several seasons is difficult. So they join and leave FIREBIRD at different points along the way, as their own schedules allow. That said, a few exceptionally committed friends have been aboard for both of our Antarctic seasons.

No. As the owner, I cover all of FIREBIRD’s costs. What my friends bring is their time and experience. That is exactly how I am able to continue doing the fun and amazing things I am doing.

I fund them personally. That is why I have to go back to work in London and the EU from time to time, because running a yacht like an Oyster does require funding. Luckily, even in current turbulent times, there are opportunities for pretty interesting investment work.

It comes from my own income and investments. I am exceptionally lucky to have business partners who allow me to take more extended time when I am sailing aboard FIREBIRD in such remote locations.

More than thirty years of work as an investor and entrepreneur in international hospitality and real estate and a good dose of luck.

Yes. FIREBIRD was funded without external financing and is owned outright. In any case, high-latitude yachting is not something financial providers look favourably at.

The perennial question is: how long is a piece of string? Or how high is the mountain you want to climb? It very much depends on what I am trying to do. Trekking in Tierra del Fuego is one thing, diving in the Falklands is another, and doing a first summit on the Antarctic Peninsula in hard-to-access conditions is an entirely different matter. Whatever the plan, I meet all these costs myself. This is particularly why the unplanned cost, including legal fees, sunk costs for guides, crew and season preparation, for the season that has now effectively being ruined, has been so brutal.

No, there are not. I, as owner, am personally responsible for covering all Firebird´s costs. Of course, my friend who come as invited may sometimes make personal expenses beyond the costs of the vessel, as extra guides or activities where we land, but Firebird´s costs are covered by me. And obviously if a friend brings a bottle of wine to your BBQ that doesn’t mean you operate a restaurant.

I understand the question: expedition sailing at high latitudes is expensive. But the cost reflects what it takes to operate safely in these waters, and it is met entirely by me as owner, as it has been since FIREBIRD became a private vessel more than five years ago.

It is a personal choice, and the only return I look for is the most tangible thing I have: the memories and experience I share with my friends and family. As one of my older mentors once said, you rarely look back and regret a missed deal, but you always remember the family holiday you missed.

I do not believe I have. The British Registry is simple and straightforward. It is written on our ship documents, and without the appropriate commercial survey and certification a British-flagged yacht cannot engage in commercial activities.

The distinction is very clear to me. FIREBIRD operated commercially in the past, so I have first-hand experience of the requirements that apply to commercial charter operations. For more than five years, however, FIREBIRD has been operated exclusively as a private recreational vessel and is registered as such with the UK flag state. In a commercial charter, guests pay for the use of the vessel, and the vessel is operated under the corresponding commercial regulatory, certification and insurance requirements. That is fundamentally different from private use, where the vessel is operated for the private use of its owner, family and friends and is funded by the owner. I understand that distinction very well, and since FIREBIRD changed to private status, she has been operated on that basis.

Yes, I was on board. I am on every crew list for the Antarctic trips, and both legal and government documentation confirm my presence. Nobody charters out their yacht and then sails on it himself. It would be like renting out your house on Airbnb and telling the guests, ‘Don’t mind me, I’ll be in the master bedroom.’

The changes reflect friends and crew members joining and leaving FIREBIRD. They embark and disembark around their holiday time and the windows of good conditions for hiking and mountaineering, so that they can make the most of the region. This is duty of a vessel to keep an accurate record of the crew and cargo she carries. Has been for most of recorded history of sailing.

It has been drilled into us that the Master's number one priority is ensuring the safety of the vessel and her crew. The Puerto Natales anchorage is exposed to katabatic winds; it cannot be considered a safe harbour for a yacht by any measure, even for a vessel carrying 200 m of chain, as FIREBIRD does.FIREBIRD had been doing regular maintenance work in Puerto Montt for months and sailed to Puerto Natales to test all the systems ahead of the season’s start, scheduled for the 3rd of September. I cannot fathom that the respective agencies had no opportunity to visit the vessel and raise any concerns that might have during the winter maintenance period.

I always try to get to the destination as promptly as possible with the least risk. Two seasons in Patagonia taught me that timing the Drake Passage crossing is the key – FIREBIRD isn't built to punch through 40-knot headwinds, so I need a proper weather window. Chile's authority over the Horn Islands makes it the perfect staging point in both directions, and combined with the support I have always had in Puerto Williams, it's a no-brainer. Last year I actually had to slow down and wait for almost a week for a weather system to pass. Without the opportunities of Chilean Patagonia this would have been a very sad week.

What makes anyone want to go to Antarctica? I think the books we grow up reading, and once the travellers’ bug install itself in your mind and soul, it is almost impossible to find a cure from it. The era of great polar exploration, people like Shackleton and Nansen, stay with you as examples and hero that you look up to. FIREBIRD was designed and developed to sail in high latitudes, so the options were always whether to head North or South. After a number of seasons in Arctic Norway, Iceland and Greenland, moving South felt like the natural next chapter, and I did a lot of reading and planning before relocating FIREBIRD there. Because getting from one hemisphere to the other is a long delivery, it made sense to stay for a number of seasons.For a sailor, Antarctica is the ultimate playground. Except perhaps for the Northwest and Northeast Passages, this is as exciting as high-latitude yachting gets. The place is so vast that even after two seasons I have probably only scratched the surface.

No matter how much you read or how many people you talk to, you don't really grasp the scale of Antarctica until you are there – the first season was a steep learning curve for me, the crew and my friends. Going back a second time, you're in a different mindset: you understand more, the whole experience is smoother, and you spend more time enjoying the wildlife rather than feeling like everything's out to get you. Because I have learnt the area, I can go to places I already know rather than everything being purely exploratory, which lets everyone explore more freely. It helps that I have built up our own knowledge from experience, since the official charts and maps for the region are limited – planning a shoreside route from a map leaves a lot to be desired. Antarctica is so vast that even having explored one peninsula or inlet barely scratches 1% of it, so if the yacht and crew can operate safely there, I want to keep going back. The current situation cuts directly into the preparation time I need to do that safely for a third season, within the very short weather window that makes it possible at all.