When James Latta’s yacht hit the shelf at Flat Rock, it wasn’t the first time his life had been thrown off course after hitting rocky ground.

The owner of the yacht Victoria was just 30 minutes from reaching Ballina when the vessel struck the reef on June 2, bringing an abrupt end to a voyage he hoped would mark the beginning of a new chapter.

Yet as the story unfolded, a recurring theme emerged — moments when a fresh start appeared within reach, only for events to take an unexpected turn.

The yacht grounding off Skennars Head, the dramatic rescue, the looting allegations, the salvage operation and the subsequent fundraising appeal have all attracted enormous public interest.

But the story of James Latta did not begin at Flat Rock.

A dream voyage that ended on the rocks

When our reporter first spoke to Latta following the grounding, he asked that only his first name be used.

He said he did not want his full name published because he was embarrassed by what had happened.

At that stage, the story was simply about a yacht stranded on Flat Rock.

But over the following week, that changed dramatically.

After respected local fundraiser Mark Ross launched a public appeal to help Latta rebuild, the yacht owner stepped into the spotlight.

He publicly shared details of the loss of the vessel he called home, spoke about the substantial salvage costs he faced, appeared in media interviews and became the public face of a fundraising campaign that quickly attracted both support and scrutiny.

One of those appearances was a Seven News report in which Latta openly discussed the navigation error that left Victoria stranded on Flat Rock.

Latta bought Victoria, a 1983 Lord Nelson yacht, late last year.

After spending months restoring the vessel, he moved aboard and made it his home.

To fund the dream, he sold his LandCruiser and caravan and invested heavily in the yacht, hoping it would carry him into a new chapter of life based in Ballina.

Last week, accompanied by his mate Dave, 67, he set sail from the Gold Coast bound for the Richmond River.

According to Ross, the journey was delayed after the yacht suffered problems with its mainsail near Byron Bay.

In the spotlight again- James Latta on Seven News this week

The delay meant the vessel approached Ballina after dark.

Ross said Latta later came to believe he may have mistaken a red aircraft warning light on the East Ballina reservoir for a navigation marker at the entrance to the Richmond River.

While that account remains unverified, Latta has publicly acknowledged a navigation error.

“Then we realised we’re off course with the Navionics, and by the time we realised we needed course correction, we’re on the rocks,” he told Seven reporter Nadia Lord.

The yacht struck Flat Rock and remained stranded for several days before being removed by excavators and transported to a West Ballina salvage yard.

After returning to the stranded vessel to recover some of his remaining possessions, including the yacht’s ship flag, Latta summed up the loss in simple terms.

“That was my house,” he said.

Misfortune compounds

If losing the yacht was not enough, Latta says the ordeal was made worse by thieves.

While Victoria remained stranded on Flat Rock awaiting salvage, he claims people boarded the vessel and stole personal belongings and items of sentimental value.

“People have been stealing everything and anything that they can take,” he said.

“That’s my home, that’s everything, my personal items.”

The yacht was also uninsured.

A fact that quickly became one of the most discussed aspects of the story.

According to Mark Ross, Latta had been attempting to arrange insurance but had not completed the process before setting sail.

Many readers questioned why anyone would undertake such a voyage without cover.

Others expressed sympathy for a man who had apparently lost both his home and his primary asset in a single incident.

Maritime NSW has since confirmed Latta will be responsible for the cost of recovering the vessel, reported to be about $130,000.

The Alstonville years

Long before the Flat Rock grounding, James Derek Latta operated a real estate business under The Professionals banner in Alstonville.

That chapter of his life ended in 2005 after a NSW Fair Trading investigation uncovered what the agency described as 38 instances in which commissions had been drawn from trust accounts without the permission of the people whose money was being held.

Investigators identified a trust account deficiency of $182,352.

The investigation also found Latta had engaged in dummy bidding during two residential property auctions.

According to the Fair Trading report, Latta admitted using the money for the running of his business and other expenses.

His licence was cancelled and he was the first real estate agent in NSW to be permanently disqualified from involvement in the management, direction or conduct of a licensed real estate business under Fair Trading laws introduced in 2003.

The Sydney Morning Herald report from 2005

The matter was significant enough to be included in a report tabled in the NSW Parliament and attracted state-wide media attention.

“I was trying to help people”

When contacted by Ballina News Daily on Saturday, Latta did not dispute the findings contained in the Fair Trading report.

However, he strongly rejected suggestions he had acted for personal gain.

Instead, he said the money had been used to assist families who were struggling financially at the time.

Latta told Ballina News Daily he has never been convicted of a criminal offence arising from the Fair Trading matter.

Fundraiser organiser Mark Ross said he had made inquiries of his own and was satisfied that was the case.

While the findings resulted in Latta losing his licence and being permanently disqualified from involvement in a licensed real estate business, the matter was dealt with through regulatory action rather than criminal prosecution.

In a video message sent to Ballina News Daily, Latta said he had paid a heavy personal price for helping others.

“I was trying to look after five families,” he said.

“It cost me something dearly in looking after others.”

At the time Latta was recording the message he said he was loading gravel for an elderly resident at a caravan park.

He also argued that too much attention was being paid to events from decades ago while too little attention was being paid to the work he says he continues to do helping others.

“How about instead you come and dig gravel like this at the caravan park for the aged and the elderly, like I am, and help out and do things with people that are less fortunate,” he said.

“This is my eighth load for free.”

When asked to identify the families he said he had helped, or provide evidence supporting that explanation, Latta declined to do so.

In subsequent messages on Saturday, he urged Ballina News Daily not to revisit the Fair Trading matter and advised the publication to be prepared for a legal response if it proceeded with a story.

The bushfire hero

Years after the real estate scandal, Latta would again find himself in the national spotlight.

During the Black Summer bushfires he featured prominently in a nationally televised A Current Affair report introduced by veteran presenter Tracy Grimshaw.

The story portrayed him as a service station manager working around the clock to help keep fuel flowing to emergency services and residents as Batemans Bay faced a bushfire emergency.

The report described him working eight days straight with minimal sleep as thousands of people attempted to flee the region and critical services struggled to cope.

Tracy Grimshaw takes up the case for James Latta after he was sacked for taking on a customer at Caltex

Local leaders praised his efforts and social media users hailed him as a hero.

Yet even that chapter ended in controversy.

The same report detailed how Latta later lost his job after punching a customer during an altercation.

Latta admitted striking the man, but argued the extraordinary pressures of the bushfire crisis should have been taken into account.

The latest chapter

The fundraiser launched by Mark Ross has ensured the latest chapter in Latta’s life is playing out in public.

Ross has publicly described Latta as a retired paramedic and former police officer and has also stated he was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2023.

Latta has repeated the cancer claim in communications with this publication.

The fundraising appeal has brought renewed attention not only to Latta’s current circumstances, but also to the many different chapters that have shaped his life.

What is beyond dispute is that the grounding of Victoria has revealed a life story far more complex than a stranded yacht on a reef.

Over two decades, James Latta has been a Northern Rivers real estate agent, the subject of a landmark Fair Trading investigation, a nationally recognised bushfire figure and now the beneficiary of a public fundraising appeal after losing the yacht he called home.

Some readers will see a man repeatedly struck by misfortune.

Others will see a pattern of decisions carrying consequences.

Perhaps the truth lies somewhere between the two.

Either way, the latest chapter in James Latta’s life has ensured the story of Victoria is about much more than a yacht that ran aground off Ballina.