Captain killed Rodney Lambert dies in diving accident
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Vol. 2, No. 9
Cedar Island survives freak accident at sea
The real thing
Speak out
Read how a talented crew averted disaster.
Vendors, captains opine over FLIBS
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A16-19
www.the-triton.com
December 2005
MAKING SPACE
There has been much speculation and conversation about the badweather incident involving M/Y Cedar Island off the coast of South Carolina. All six crew members on the 110-foot Broward were evacuated by the U.S. Coast Guard. Here’s the captain’s story: By Capt. David Black We had left Connecticut and were headed to Ft. Lauderdale for the winter. A small craft advisory came out on Thursday, Oct. 27, for Friday afternoon. There wasn’t any room in Ft. Lauderdale with the boat show and impending hurricane headed there, so we knew we were pulling into port somewhere along BLACK the way to wait. There was a low intensifying between Jacksonville and Cape Canaveral that would begin to affect us Friday afternoon. It was forecast
When it opens in late 2007, the megayacht marina on Watson Island in Miami’s Biscayne Bay will be able to handle yachts like this, the 452-foot Rising Sun, seen here in Port Everglades just before Thanksgiving. PHOTO/LUCY REED
See CEDAR ISLAND, page A26
See WATSON ISLAND, page A16
Miami marina wants yachts up to 450’ By Lucy Chabot Reed
circling his arms to include everyone in attendance. Blankenship is head of the engineering department at Coastal Systems International, the Coral Gablesbased design firm hired by Flagstone Property Group to design the marina. “We had made some assumptions that in retrospect may have been overkill, and we came up with other things,” said Joe Herndon, project director with Flagstone Island Garden, the U.S. arm of Flagstone Property Group responsible for the project. Owned by Turkish entrepreneur Mehmet Bayraktar,
Miami’s Merrill-Stevens yard expanding to service larger yachts. See story page A14.
After years of dreaming, negotiating and trying to convince the voting public it’s a good idea, engineers have begun designing a megayacht marina on Miami’s Watson Island that will be able to berth four 400foot yachts. In researching the specs on marinas that can handle some of the world’s largest yachts, engineer Tim Blankenship was at a loss. So, with the help of The Triton, he led a meeting of more than a dozen large yacht captains and crew to find out just what they needed. “This is the drawing table, right here,” Blankenship said,
Bridge: Couple-run megayachts can be tough but are worth it Most crew members can recount the horrors of working for a couple running a yacht – the he said/she said, the personal fights in the galley – but when it’s done well, a couple-run yacht can ease the hardest parts of yachting. The trick is to do it right, and that isn’t easy. FROM THE BRIDGE We gathered LUCY CHABOT REED seven couples for our monthly captain’s luncheon to find out just how to make the couple thing work. While there were no magic answers, there was the sense that when it’s good, it’s the best way to run a yacht. “There are times that she’s flat-out the wife, and there are times that I just have to weigh the decisions I make
and compromise,” one husband said. “I ran a few boats before and now after [several] years together, I can’t imagine running a boat by myself. The relationship takes on a life of its own.” Individual comments are not identified to any one person in particular so as to encourage frank and open discussion. For the purposes of this story, all the husbands in the room were captains, with their wives serving in different roles onboard from purser to stew to chef. Attendees are identified in a photograph on page A17. “It’s a lot easier to be together than to be apart,” one husband said. “After six years of crying every time he left, I decided to join him,” one wife said. “We knew we would find out right away if it worked.” So how does it work? Who’s really in charge?
The couples looked at each other. “I’m the captain and she’s the admiral,” one husband said to soft chuckles. There is a lot of truth in that, though, as jokingly as it was said. Many of the husbands agreed that they rely on their spouse – regardless of her assigned role – to help them manage the crew, to take the crew’s temperature on issues and to alert them when someone needs help, direction or a bit of encouragement. And while much of that will be pillow talk, they admitted that they struggle with how to make it easier on the crew. “There’s only one captain on a boat. Period,” said a wife. “I had to decide when I got on the boat that if it was going to work out; I had to separate being the wife and being the [crew]. I
don’t take it personally; he is my boss. “And he’ll say to me sometimes, ‘I’m speaking to you as the captain, not as your husband,’” she said. “Sometimes he just gives me the look. I really feel that it’s up to me as the spouse to not take it personally. He’s not my husband right now – he’s the captain, end of story.” This wife noted that the captain gives her and the rest of the crew reviews after every trip, to which several other couples nodded in agreement. “If he didn’t, the other crew would feel singled out.” Being the wife isn’t always so great, despite what some crew may see as unjust access to the boss or a free pass to have a bad attitude.
See THE BRIDGE, page A17