Summit result Homeland Security report includes a passage on yachts.
Global Ship Eight months later, Savannah yard still closed.
B1 Vol. 4, No. 11
www.the-triton.com
B16 Biofuel battle Additives company wants head-to-head test. A30 February 2008
Megayacht hub review: ‘Wow, this is fantastic’ South Florida marine industry officials tour St. Maarten and get an education about welcoming megayachts. By Lucy Chabot Reed Four representatives of South Florida’s marine industry soaked in the sights of St. Maarten last month, coming away with lots of questions, lots of impressions and some ideas for the future. The U.S. Superyacht Association organized two days of tours and meetings with marina managers, dockmasters, government officials and megayacht captains to educate the South Florida officials about megayachts. The officials included Capt. Karl Schultz, sector commander for Sector Miami and Captain of the Port for the sector; John “Jack” Garofano, assistant director of field operations with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Miami; Mayor Jim Naugle of Ft. Lauderdale; and Frank Herhold,
Could St. Maarten’s “beautiful economic engine” be replicated in South Florida? executive director of the Marine Industries Association of South Florida. Several of the officials said a tour of the four marinas around Simpson Bay and talking to megayacht captains opened their eyes to not only what
The captain is responsible for an endless list of things In the wake of our survey on salaries, several megayacht captains wrote in to suggest that next time we consider boat use and the correlating level of responsibility, their point being that captains of active vessels might justifiably command more FROM THE BRIDGE than those who LUCY CHABOT REED spend 11 months a year at the dock. That got us thinking: Just what are captains responsible for anyway? There’s the obvious – but in no way
flippant – responsibility for the safety of every soul onboard, and captains are also responsible for the vessel itself, to be sure. But what else? “Everything,” one captain began, listing not only people’s safety and the yacht’s, but the crew and the intangible responsibility of the owner’s and guests’ pleasure. 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
See BRIDGE, page A20
a megayacht hub looks like, but also the issues captains and crew face in entering and working in U.S. waters. “The biggest reason I’m here is so that I can learn something,” Naugle said. “I commend St. Maarten for
PHOTO/LUCY REED
creating this beautiful economic engine. Wow, this is fantastic.” The officials gathered on Jan. 18 as part of a panel discussion and
See ST. MAARTEN, page A18
Survey: How often are yachts used? By Lucy Chabot Reed After taking our salary survey that appeared in the December and January issues, several captains suggested we find out how much these megayachts are used. So we asked captains this month about usage: How many days did the yacht carry owners or guests, how many days were spent under way repositioning the vessel, how many days were spent in port or at anchor waiting, and how many days were spent in active maintenance at a yard. The answers were a little surprising in a number of ways. First, we were surprised that private vessels (39 responded) had the owner and/or guests onboard more days on average than charter vessels (21 responded). The average private vessel in our
survey had owners/guests aboard 105 days a year; the average charter yacht had owners/guests aboard 98 days a year. That might have indicated that the charter vessels responding were smaller in size, but they weren’t. The average charter vessel that took our survey was 112 feet; the average private vessel just 97. The bulk of the vessels who responded – 40 of the 60 – had owners/guests aboard between two and six months a year. It was the rare vessel indeed that saw usage of more than six months. (The six that did were all private, for what that’s worth.) “Owner use this past year was unusually limited,” one captain explained. “Since the beginning of
See SURVEY, page A16