Last updated 05:00, June 10 2018
DAVID WHITE / STUFF
The Floating Foundation's founder and boss Craig Koning says he will be onboard its 2018 expedition o the South Pacific, despite his directors telling him to step down.
The Floating Foundation's founder and boss Craig Koning says he will be onboard its 2018 expedition o the South Pacific, despite his directors telling him to step down.
Crews on aid missions to the Pacific say their charity's boss bullied women on the boat and singled out young volunteers for sex.
Five women and one man – the original crew plus a volunteer – on the Floating Foundation's 2017 mission to Tonga warn Craig Koning should not be on board future expeditions. That's been echoed by the foundation's board as well as a volunteer from the 2016 mission.
Lindsay Gonzalez, Ayla Tarrant, Gary Paul, Aline Recchia and two women who asked not to be named accused Koning of bullying staff to the point of mutiny and mental illness, and injuring Gonzalez while drunk. They said he lacked the leadership and stress management skills for his role. They described how he mixed together a volatile cocktail of tropical isolation, rum-fuelled partying, public nudity and vulnerable women as young as 17.
The Floating Foundation operated medical aid and scientific research missions off a 120ft yacht in Tonga in 2017.
Nothing came of their complaints until this week, 11 months later, after Stuff began asking questions. On Tuesday, Floating Foundation board members presented Koning with a two-page report and recommended he stay off the boat for the 2018 expedition. "We believe in the vision of the Floating Foundation, and are genuinely concerned about the emotional effect caused to the staff of the 2017 expedition," the report reads.
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Speaking at Auckland's Westhaven Marina this week, Koning admitted his bullying of the 2017 crew was "inappropriate" and that thinking about it gave him the "douche chills" – a feeling of disgust at how his behaviour had affected someone innocent. He also admitted having sexual relations with staff and volunteers last year.
The 33-year-old said he had started therapy to work through his issues – but he was adamant he would join the next mission to the Pacific, scheduled to depart Auckland in August.
All women staff spoken to by Stuff reported being publicly shamed and belittled by Koning over incidents such as as tying a knot badly or hanging towels in the wrong place. They said he could flare up several times a day, in a personal attack on whomever he saw at fault. One crew member described Koning's anger as "malevolent".
"You can feel the rage, the whole time he's like vibrating," she said.
Tarrant, the foundation's former community manager and a former girlfriend of Koning, said his repeated verbal attacks left her "emotionally decrepit, a broken human being".
"If you don't repent, it won't end. He'll just twist your words and twist your words until all you can say is 'I'm so sorry, please forgive me master'.
"He's not atoning for his sins at all by helping some people in Tonga."
Ayla Tarrant, former community manager, quit the foundation after two and a half months due to Craig Koning's bullying.
She and former aquatic leader Recchia, from Brazil, began having regular anxiety attacks due to Koning's treatment and both left the yacht early.
Gonzalez, the New York-born former director of media for the Floating Foundation, was left with cuts and bruising to her labia and buttocks after hitting the bowline when Koning threw her overboard while drunk. Her formal complaint about the July 2017 incident was not referred to the board for two months; an investigation into this and other on board incidents was not completed until June this year.
Koning said he remembered the overboard incident as "just playing around", though admitted excessive alcohol consumption had been a problem during the expedition.
Aline Recchia, former aquatic leader on Floating Foundation's 2017 voyage, says she left anxious and early due to bullying.
The Floating Foundation, which delivers medical aid to remote island villages and operates a scientific research programme, started in fledgling form around 2014. Its office is in Mangawhai, Northland, though missions run from a boat in the South Pacific for part of the year.
Up to 14 volunteers at a time paid around $120 per day to be on the boat. Women far exceeded men, most were aged between 18 and 25, and each member of the crew described the "charismatic" expedition leader homing in on the ones he found attractive.
"It's sick to watch," said Gonzalez, as she described Koning's pattern of hitting on volunteers within each new wave of arrivals.
"You've got these 18 and 19-year-olds straight out of school, and here's this 30-something-year-old laying on the charm," said Tarrant, who discovered she was one of several women he was having sex with onboard.
"The inappropriate sexual behaviour was something no one really knew how to approach. Because at the end of the day, was he really doing something wrong? They were all consenting adults."
She said it was unclear where concerns could be directed, as Koning was the Floating Foundation's founder and boss.
Gary Paul, former director of operations, quit in January. He cites concerns around Craig Koning's behaviour towards women.
Another woman, aged 25, ended a two-week shipboard relationship with Koning, in which she says he insisted on unprotected sex, when she discovered he was both sleeping with and attempting to seduceother women at the same time.
"Some of the girls were much younger than me and I would say more vulnerable, more likely to fall for this person who has all the power," she said.
Female crew began cautioning new volunteers against Koning. They said while the relationships were consensual, they were disruptive to operations onboard due to the favouritism and drama that would ensue.
Koning, who had a partner back in New Zealand during the 2017 expedition, admitted to having unprotected sex with "a handful" of women while aboard the boat. He said it was fewer than six.
But he seemed surprised at questions about the professionalism of having sex with volunteers and crew, given the power imbalance between them and himself.
"So I'm only supposed to romantically involve myself with other leader figures?" he asked. "Young people around the sea, romances do start up. I wouldn't call it abusive.
"But," he acknowledged later, "it's probably not appropriate to be having relations with members of the crew."
He said he didn't consider himself to be the boss, with a duty of care, despite having founded the charity and employed every person on board.
As the expedition began falling apart, some women tried to leave – only to discover the Foundation had botched immigration paperwork and they were stuck in Tonga on expired visas.
Tarrant sorted her own visa out and left after two-and-a-half months. Recchia followed, and Gonzalez threatened to quit because of the toxic work environment. Fearing more crew would leave, and not wanting to cancel the expedition, Paul said he convinced Koning to spend a fortnight away from the yacht.
The entire crew of that expedition have since cut ties with the Floating Foundation.
Auckland poet Simone Kaho was onboard the 2016 expedition as a volunteer. She had concerns with his treatment of women during that year's voyage, and holds strong opinions about Koning's motives. "The way he plays with women's minds and emotions, and plays with them sexually, and the way it's tied up with the working environment is really twisted," she said.
"There's no question it's crossed the line, and he has no sense that it's wrong to hurt women," she said. "He has no boundaries between work and conquests, and in fact they serve each other quite well."
She and a fellow volunteer had left early due to ongoing safety concerns with that year's boat.
Kaho said she had always felt bad that she hadn't done more to try and stop Koning. Gonzalez said she had been tormented by not speaking out for too long; "Not saying anything is almost making me as guilty, I feel, so this is really important," she said.
Paul and Tarrant said Koning had promised them he would change in the past, but he hadn't; they were speaking out now due to concerns they held for the emotional and physical safety of staff on future expeditions involving Koning.
"I find no reason to suggest that Craig is changing his behaviour ... Iand it's a big wide world of people wanting to live on boats," said Paul, who quit as operations director amid concerns about Koning's ill-treatment of female staff in January.
Koning is currently moored up in Auckland, recruiting crew and volunteers for the Floating Foundation's 2018 expedition to Fiji and Tonga on a new ship, the Southern Progress. He said despite recommendations from his board to step down, he would be on the boat when it leaves New Zealand in August.
He felt confident he had taken enough measures – undergoing therapy and reducing his responsibility on the boat – to avoid the failures of his last two expeditions.
"I could go and get a normal job and live a pretty chill life, and never have to deal with all this," he said.
"But I don't want that. I want to be exceptional, I want to be awesome. I want people to say 'wow, that was so cool that Craig made us feel so good'."
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