Wet again
Gutted Andiamo moves to LMC.
A6
Safe Haven Hurricanes, bah. Visit Venezuela
A38 Vol. 3, No. 2
www.the-triton.com
Get connected Captain cruises the Bahamas for good WiFi.
A18 May 2006
Bridge: STCW-95 Bringing back a classic – S/Y Tiziana no replacement for experience Spring is a busy time in Ft. Lauderdale. Yachts come back to town and crew follow them, looking for work – more work, different work, better work. We thought it an appropriate time to ask captains if they have noticed a difference in the quality of crew looking for work. A decade ago, the international maritime community enacted the Standards of Training, Certification & Watchkeeping, known as STCW-95, which was From the Bridge fully implemented in 2002. Lucy Chabot Reed In that time, these captains said they have seen some plusses and some minuses to the training. 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 A26. “STCW gives good general training,” one captain said. “I was a captain 15 years and I had never actually launched a life raft or donned a Gumby suit. And for non-deck crew, it’s a good orientation.” “It taught me that if you can’t get a fire out in the first two to three minutes, you need to launch the life raft.” But aren’t those skills that any mariner already knows? Why make a 20-year-old who grew up on a sailboat on Lake Michigan take this class? “Redundancy is what eases panic when something
Capt. Alex Greenson (second from right) and his crew finish the first phase of the refit of S/Y Tiziana, which left the shed at the Vitters Shipyard in late April. The rest of the crew are, from left, fulltime refit dayworker Darren Monk, Chef Nivea Panequar, First Mate Tom Glanville and Eng. Dean Filewood. Read more about the refit and Tiziana’s plans for summer in Getting Under Way, which begins on page A32. PHOTO COURTESY OF CAPT. ALEX GREENSON
See THE BRIDGE, page A26
Mention piracy and yachties want their right to bear arms
Not everyone takes ship security as seriously as others. This rope is meant to keep people away PHOTO/ANITA WARWICK from this yacht in Antigua.
Even though no flag state allows firearms onboard their megayachts, nearly everyone at The Triton’s recent Connection seminar on piracy wanted to know if having one would keep pirates off their boats. While the panel discussion on piracy and security at sea on April 5 could have taken one of any number of veins – from complying with the ISPS code to dealing with vendors – most in The Connection the audience of more than 50 had Lucy Chabot Reed questions about guns. “If they are going to confiscate your weapons or arrest you, isn’t it better to hide them?” “What authority do they have to come after you if you kill someone?” The experts on the panel assembled at Bluewater Books & Charts in Ft. Lauderdale were cautious to offer answers, though, since weapons are illegal to
carry on board yachts in most places. The conversation began in a general way, noting that there have been no recent piracy attacks on yachts in the areas they frequent most – the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and along the U.S. coasts. “It’s all about risk assessment,” said Stephan Mort, vice president of maritime operations at Wright Maritime Group in Ft. Lauderdale. “No flag says you can carry a weapon. If you are going to carry a gun, know the local laws where you are traveling. Weapons just add another risk to the situation.” Andy Carrie, who once worked on security issues with large tanker companies including Shell Oil, noted that few piracy events result in death. “They’re coming on for the ship’s stores, for the electronics equipment,” he said. “It’s a business to them.”
See THE CONNECTION, page A27