All the way New satellite lets crew surf Web across Atlantic. A6
Local knowledge
Med spread A new summer feature.
Up, around the Savannah River. B1
A12-13
Vol.6, No. 3
www.the-triton.com
June 2009
‘Say the boat is in the yard for three months; no sea time. I worked on a boat that just went to Lyford Cay and back. There were months we didn’t move. No sea time again.’ — Capt. Ned Stone
TRITON SURVEY
Do you consider yourself a loyal member of the crew? No – 1.6%
Yes – 98.4%
More, C1
What to do when crew run afoul of the law Capt. Ned Stone said his biggest issue is that the USCG does not count refit time as sea time.
PHOTO/DORIE COX
When license renewal trips over time By Dorie Cox Capt. Ned Stone has six months to get five years of sea service in order. “I’m due for renewal in January, and I’m not exactly sure how I’m doing with my sea time,” he said. That concern may sound familiar to any number of megayacht captains and crew who have sat still or been unemployed since last fall when the financial markets cut yacht owners’ fortunes in half. “Say the boat is in the yard for three months; no sea time,” Stone said. “I worked on a boat that just went to Lyford Cay and back. There were months we didn’t move. No sea time again.” More troublesome, still, may be time spent on boats that doesn’t qualify for the level of license the mariner hopes to renew. Capt. Chris Harris has acquired enough sea time in his career for six license renewals and upgrades. But two years ago, he took a job at a shipyard to be closer to his young son.
All that time on and around yachts won’t help him maintain his 1,600-ton license. “The experience here has been tenfold,” said Harris, service manager at Newport Shipyard in Rhode Island. “I am on a variety of vessels rather than the same boat day in and day out, but I can only document limited sea time.” But there are options when it comes to renewing licenses without enough sea time from both the U.S. Coast Guard and the UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). The ideal scenario for renewal is a year of sea time every five years in a similar capacity on the same type of water. As mariners fall short of this optimal situation, the renewal process gets more complex.
USCG
For USCG captains without sea time, there are basically three options. A license renewal is available with an approved refresher training program or an open-book renewal
test at an approved location such as Maritime Professional Training (MPT) in Ft. Lauderdale. Another option is renewal with marine-related employment, like Harris has at the shipyard. But before this option is pursued, communication should begin with the Coast Guard to make sure the position – for example, instructor or shipyard superintendent – is approved. There is no complete, clear-cut list of jobs the Coast Guard will accept, said Julie Liberatore, regulatory liaison at MPT. The final option is renewal without sea time for continuity purposes. This option enables a mariner to, in effect, put a hold on a license for later renewal. In the interim, however, the license is not valid for any work scenario. When the mariner wants to renew at a later time, the standard renewal process must be followed. For captains like Stone, the big issue is documenting the sea time he has.
See LICENSES, page A20
It happens. Crew get in trouble ashore. Sometimes it’s physical, like a bar fight; sometimes it’s legal, like possession of drugs. Usually, though, it causes delays or worse for the yacht, her captain and the rest of the crew. So when a crew member gets in trouble in a foreign From the Bridge port, what does a Lucy Chabot Reed captain do? Let’s say the yacht is due to depart, and a crew member is being held by police. Is the trip delayed? Is the crew member fired? What are the liabilities of the vessel, of the owner, of the master when something like that happens? There are as many answers as there are scenarios, but the megayacht captains gathered for The Triton’s monthly roundtable discussion agreed that they are the ones ultimately responsible, and to blame. “Legally, it’s your responsibility as the master of the vessel,” one captain said. “It’s all spelled out in the Master’s Handbook on Ship’s Business (Cornell Maritime Press, 3d edition, 2001),” another captain said. “All the legalities/responsibilities as a master. It’s international, and it’s our responsibility.” As always, individual comments are not attributed to any one person
See BRIDGE, page A16