Refit lessons
Monaco bash Check out the photo gallery.
A26 Still lots to learn from a 21-year-old.
Function first Making space in your galley.
B1 Vol. 3, No. 7
October 2006
www.the-triton.com
Two men who build shadows make waves, part ways
Lesson learned: Clearing in takes a phone call first By Lucy Chabot Reed Capt. Mike French and his crew docked their foreign-flagged megayacht in Ft. Lauderdale before dawn one day in early September. By 8 a.m., they were all dutifully in line at the customs office in Port Everglades to report in. The vessel was cleared in and given the requisite paperwork, then the crew walked next door to clear in with immigration. Before the immigration officer would clear them in, he told Capt. French he needed a clearance number – which the customs officer had not given and French had not requested. (The yacht is registered in a country that is not party to the U.S. treaty that grants cruising permits; French couldn’t have gotten a cruising permit for it even if he wanted to.) “I just assumed that having all the paperwork in my hand that said I was cleared in would be good enough,” French said.
C5
By Capt. Tom Serio
First Officer Adam Crooks of M/Y Magic, a 150-foot Trinity, hangs out in Nice, cleaning the sky lounge windows. Hey, someone has to do it. PHOTO/CAPT. MAC McDONALD
See LESSON, page A19
Discerning megayacht owners like to have any and all amenities on board that will make the most of their cruising times, such as tenders, wave runners, diving/fishing gear, maybe even an automobile. Unfortunately, captains are left with where to put them all. Enter the concept of a “shadow” boat. A shadow boat is a vessel that supports a primary yacht by carrying all the toys, which may include a submarine, sportfish boats or even a helicopter, as well as provisions and additional fuel for en-route refueling. Shadow boats aren’t new – one of the first ones in modern luxury yachting was Golden Shadow, which followed the Golden fleet around through the 1990s. But recently, the shadow boat
See SHADOW, page A14
Bridge: Yachting still fun with owner’s respect The more we talk to captains, the more we hear it: “Yachting isn’t as fun as it used to be.” It’s true that increasing regulations have created mountains of paperwork that most private captains didn’t have to deal with 20 years ago. And From the Bridge the popularity Lucy Chabot Reed of chartering has turned yacht ownership and its subsequent operations into somewhat of a business, sure. But is running a megayacht really no fun? We asked our Bridge captains this month if they would describe their jobs as “fun.” These six agreed that they would, with one caveat. 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 A20. When we tossed out the word “fun” together with “yachting,” one might have expected a conversation about that mountainous paperwork or long workdays. Instead, these men turned the conversation into one about relationships, hence the caveat: “If you’ve got a cool boss,” one captain said, “you’ve got a cool job.” These captains agreed that the owner – his demeanor, use of the yacht and even management style – has as much to do with whether they enjoy their jobs as any other single thing. “I’m fortunate that I have an experienced owner, a guy who’s an engineer,” another said. “I can have an intelligent conversation with him about his boat and he understands what I’m
talking about. We go to interesting places and he gives us a lot of free time.” “I think it’s fun because we’re dealing with a whole bunch of different dynamics simultaneously – crew, owner, guests,” a captain said. “I want to be professional with the owner; I don’t want to be his friend,” another said. “The first thing I want from him is respect.” “I agree. I’m not a pal of the owner; I never would be,” said a third. “I should be judged on accountability, not whether I make him laugh at dinner.” So that relationship isn’t one of the legendary buddy that not only skippered a vessel but was truly friends with the owner, enjoying his company and his scotch. Today’s captains, it seems, want a more removed, more defined relationship. Does that mean more professional? “It’s more regulated,” one captain corrected. “I’m sure captains 20 years
ago were professional.” “It’s become a more serious business for us as the boats are getting bigger,” a captain said. “Bigger means more crew and more structure, more formality. It’s necessary. Everyone will tell you the industry was loads of fun 20 years ago, but if you walked around yards then, you’d see they were fixing holes and props because captains were running around hitting stuff and drinking a lot.” “Fun doesn’t have to mean drinking and partying.” While the frequency of a buddybuddy relationship with the owner may have waned, one captain pointed out another trend that has emerged. “This year in particular, I’ve heard more horror stories between captains and owners than I’ve ever heard before,” he said. “It seems like these owners are starting to change up more than
See THE BRIDGE, page A20