Engineer dies Industry loses a good one
A21
Skip to it Broward Marine hires general manager
A6 Vol. 2, No. 5
Getting paid not always about money For the most part, yacht crew work for millionaires. You would think getting paid wouldn’t be a problem. But it can be, and how to deal with an owner who owes you money can be a sticky situation when he’s concerned about pleasure and you’re concerned about business. FROM THE BRIDGE So we asked our Bridge captains what LUCY CHABOT REED they do when they are owed money. The best solution, they said, is to avoid getting in such a situation to begin with. As always, individual comments are not attributed to any one person in particular so as to encourage frank and open discussion. The attending captains are identified in a photograph on page A10. “It’s funny we’re talking about this today,” a captain said. “This happened to me with a guy who started out great. He’s a new owner and the boat didn’t have a credit card, so I put $1,500 on my card. I’m thinking, ‘this guys a millionaire, he’s not going to stiff me.’ “Then he just lost it on me one too many times and I gave my notice and he owes me the credit card and my salary, plus my [partner’s] salary. Now we’re up to $15,000. I’m off the boat now. Why would he pay me?” “Did you have a contract,” a captain asked.
See THE BRIDGE, page A10
www.the-triton.com
Write about it Crew speak out on standards, rotations
A28-31 August 2005
Wind blows paint shed onto yacht By Lucy Chabot Reed A few weeks from completing a 10-month refit, M/Y Double Haven is looking at two more months at Jones Boat Yard after a gust of wind from Hurricane Dennis blew over its floating paint shed in July. As The Triton went to press, two large cranes were gingerly removing bent pipes and other debris from the upper decks of the 168-foot Feadship, which will be hauled and parked under a temporary paint shed of scaffolding, PVC pipes and shrink wrap for more repairs. The crew of the yacht, which has spent much of the past decade in Southeast Asia, was eager to wrap up the already longer-than-expected refit when Dennis blew into the Gulf of Mexico, sending wind gusts across South Florida on July 8. At about 10 p.m. that night, Second Officer Jian Pietro Vaccari and deckhand Johan Van Eeden were Deckhand Johan Van Eeden, left, and Second Officer Jian Pietro Vaccari on the helipad discussing whether were on the helipad when the shed began to collapse. PHOTO/LUCY REED they should secure the shed. They had just checked the yard’s and the like we were on a movie set, but it was real.” painter’s support lines on the scaffolding, adding five of What likely happened was a perpendicular gust of wind their own, Vaccari said. hit the shed, which had been weakened from last fall’s Suddenly, Vaccari heard a pop, like a loud firecracker. spate of storms, Double Haven Capt. Steven Janzan said. Within seconds there was another one and the men ran Just how strong the gust was is open to debate. Nearby for cover. By the time they traveled the 20 feet to the radar Miami International Airport reported winds of 29 knots arch, a series of pops – like a string of firecrackers – went with gusts to 40 knots, according to Janzan. Jones Boat off and the shed came down on top of them. Yard General Manager Roger Morton thinks it was more. “A piece of scaffolding fell about a meter from me,” “We had gusts of 70-80 knots with those outer bands,” Vaccari said. Morton said. “I think one hit it just right.” They scrambled down the stairs and waited for quiet The crew members on the helipad said it was less. before venturing back to see what had happened: The “15 to 18 knots would be my guess,” Vaccari said. “Not joints where pipes were welded to plates had snapped, one 30 like the airport said.” after the other along the ribs of the two-and-a-half-yearThe shed – which stood 200 feet long with an inside old floating shed. “We didn’t have time to be afraid,” Vaccari said. “We felt See SHED, page A14
Florida marinas ride the wave as docks rebuild By Lisa H. Knapp
After a hurricane trashed Ft. Pierce’s city marina last year, General Manager Dean Kubitschek spent months researching a range of materials to rebuild the destroyed docks. Thirty-two hours of turbulent sea can destroy even the strongest slips, so he’s gone beyond comparing and contrasting the benefits of concrete, steel, aluminum and wood. Now he’s asking the state to let him block the
waves before they come. Kubitschek wants to construct an environmentally conscious protective wall, or wave attenuation system, around his marina’s basin. Coastal engineers say such systems ought to be a natural for Florida marinas, but state and federal regulators have been hesitant in the past to permit too much construction on the ocean floor. Because of the destruction the 2004 hurricanes inflicted on marinas such as
Kubitschek’s, regulators are beginning to lighten up. “Everyone was shook up last year with the devastating damage to the marinas from the hurricanes,” said Melissa Meeker, the former district director for the Department of Environmental Protection in West Palm Beach, the agency that issues permits for the wave attenuation systems. “The agency is being more flexible and is more open to new innovative solutions.”
Wave attenuation systems are barriers that absorb wave energy and reflect it back out to sea, sparing docks and yachts in a marina from the brunt of the wave action and tide dynamics that occur during a storm. “There should be more wave protection required for marinas in Florida,” said Jack Cox, the director of waterfront development for Retec, an environmental engineering consulting
See MARINAS, page A12