Aledal and Pirate,
In the spirit of an informative forum!
Though mostly confined to the tropical waters of Northern Australia there have been reports of stings from this tiny jellyfish from Southern waters. In fact I know of someone who was stung off Umina Beach -which is where we launched with Mickey when he visited! The sting on her leg was severe and took weeks to heal. The treating Dr attributed it to the Irukandji. Wiki reports stings have been recorded from Hawaii and even Florida so it's not just an Aussie problem.
The risk of a sting though is extremely low.
Our common stings here are caused by Bluebottles. I was actually stung once in the AI when sailing off Terrigal on a gusty day. After cutting through a swell I felt a sting around my ankle and noticed a Bluebottle wrapped around the pedal. One of its tentacles was on my ankle!
PS - Aledal, I have seen Master and Commander and while I enjoyed it I didn't think it was as good as the Horatio Hornblower TV series. I have yet to see 'Wind' (I will hunt it up) but I did watch live the great race series and can still clearly remember the final thriller where we Aussies took the America's Cup!
A great achievement!