Triton Vol. 2 No. 5

ONE SCHOOL. UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES.

MPT is the most complete full service private maritime school in the country. Training programs are internationally recognized and utilized by crew members from every facet of the maritime world. Our campus boasts over 61,000 square feet of classrooms, deck and engineering simulation and training labs, and several off-site training facilities.

OUR UP-TO-THE-MINUTE, INDUSTRY-LEADING TRAINING INCLUDES:

• Refresher and Revalidation Courses

• Basic Training

• Advanced Fire

• Dynamic Positioning

• Medical and more MCA, USCG, RYA AND PYA TRAINING COURSES AND PROGRAMS

All licensing levels, including:

• Officer of the Watch

• Master

• Engineering

• Stewardess

MAKE THE FORMULA FLEET YOUR DESTINATION to break away and experience everything Formula has to offer!

The decision is made easy whether it’s a versatile Crossover, Bowrider, Sun Sport or Center Console – extraordinary times are certain to be ahead. The Formula fleet combines all the features you like best in a clever design that’s as practical as it is beautiful – double and triple helm seating, wraparound lounges, entertainment wetbar, convertible aft sun lounges and a larger swim platform – all confirm Formula’s position at the forefront of marine design.

SELECT YOUR FAVORITE options or design your ultimate, personalized dream boat with FormulaFlex™ to tailor graphics, upholstery and electronics to your liking. When you order your Formula you have the opportunity to work with our sales team and project engineer directly or visit our headquarters for a truly immersive experience as you make your vision a reality. Enjoy receiving photos as your personalized dream boat advances through production, plus a complete set of photos at delivery. Want a more involved view? Arrange for a tour and personally observe your boat’s progress – we would love to host you.

WITH FORMULAFLEX ™ , accent colors are interchangeable, rewarding those with creative imagination and a perceptive eye. MyWay™ upgrades put you further in the designer’s seat with the full range of Pantone ® and automotive colors at your fingertips.

YOUR DREAM FORMULA is closer, and easier, than you ever imagined. Let your designer eye shine in a boat built just for you, taking you to adventures you create! Your one-of-a-kind Formula is what sets you apart and makes your boating even more satisfying.

THE FORMULA FLEET –Make it Your Destiny!

FROM THE PUBLISHERS

Anchors Aweigh!

Anchor windlasses are supposed to deploy when you deploy them. Pretty simple really. But on a recent Bahamas crossing in a rough sea, and all alone on an exceptionally well maintained 38’ boat, at exactly the halfway point, one of those sounds you do not want to hear was heard.

The sound of an anchor and chain suddenly freewheeling on its own under the boat while going close to 30 knots! That is a sound that will scare the crap out of anyone. It sure scared me! What the heck just happened? Did the chain fall all the way back to the engines when it deployed and damage any of the outboards? Did the anchor put a hole in the hull somewhere while it was clanging and banging? Why did this even happen?

A perfect Bahamas trip with my boat over there for six weeks with zero issues and within 30 miles of getting home to Florida, this happened. The metal safety claw that holds the chain in place was fatigued and bent away from the force while the windlass had a slight release from the pounding and, lo and behold, free fall.

The damage was minimal and, once my heart slowed back down to a regular beat, the crossing finished. All was OK.

Why tell this tale? When you least expect it, anything can happen at any time on a boat, big or small. While there is usually more than one person on board to deal with issues, you just cannot let your guard down – especially on a crossing. As they say, sh*t happens. You just don’t know when it will happen. It’s not usually the big things like engines or generator issues, it’s these smaller things that can cause bigger headaches.

There are hundreds of horror stories on crossings much more dramatic than this, but this small incident reinforced to me the Boy Scout motto “Be Prepared” that rules boating.

We all want a stress-free experience on any boat trip we take. That’s obviously the goal every time. So double check those things you don’t think will be an issue and “Be Prepared.” See you at FLIBS and enjoy the fall season!

KEVIN QUIRK Co-owner & Co-publisher

Publishers

Jim Bronstien | JimB@TritonNews.com Kevin Quirk | KQ@TritonNews.com

Editor-in-Chief

Erik Petersen | Erik@TritonNews.com

Associate Editor

Kevin Maher | Kevin@TritonNews.com

Art Director

Debbie Reznik | Production@TritonNews.com

Sales Director

Edward Ibarra | Sales@TritonNews.com

Digital Advertising & Marketing Director Carrie Bailey | Carrie@TritonNews.com

Social Media

Caitlin Kader | Caitlin@tritonnews.com

Business Controller

Katherine Urdaneta | Kat@usmarinagroup.com

Contributors

Danny Davies, Gemma Harris, Gina Ragusa, Mike Seemuth

Contact us TRITON Magazine +01 954-525-0029

1881 SE 17th Street, Hilton Marina Yacht Basin Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316

Follow us thetritonnews | tritonnews tritonnews | tritonnews

Vol. 2, No. 6

Triton is a free bimonthly magazine owned by YATCO, LLC

Copyright ©2021 Triton News Network. All rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.

Contributors Guidelines

Triton welcomes content from captains and crew to be considered for publication. Please email queries to Editor@TritonNews.com.

When SHIP HAPPENS, you can count on AME.

We'll get you back to smooth sailing after a driveline incident

Testing & Analysis

Alignment

Machinery Services

AME is a mechanical services company specializing in predictive, preventative, and corrective maintenance for machinery assets on land and sea. Condition monitoring using cutting-edge technology, methods, and procedures is the backbone of the support AME provides. Others make claims of their abilities, but AME has the backing of the American Bureau of Shipping/ABS as a recognized external specialist for condition monitoring and 30 years under their belt achieving successful solutions.

Providing Results Worldwide Since 1992

Product Solutions

Blending The Best To Make Them Better!

EDITOR’S LETTER Boat Drinks

We entered at the top of the amphitheater's lower bowl and walked up to the nearest usher, looking for our seats.

We showed the usher our tickets and were waved down the stairs. The next usher looked at our tickets and waved us down again. This happened a few more times until my friend and I found ourselves on the front row at a Jimmy Buffett concert.

Best of all, I hadn’t even paid for the tickets. They were from one of those odd connections - another friend’s boyfriend’s uncle worked for Buffett, I think. As a college kid I appreciated a good deal, and as a Florida boy in the American Midwest, I appreciated Jimmy Buffett.

Buffett, who died September 1, wrote our industry’s soundtrack. He was knowledgeable about the seafaring life himself, as a story in this magazine illustrates. Triton’s co-publisher, Jim Bronstien, knew Buffett thanks to his time in the boatbuilding world. Much has been written about Buffett in the weeks since his death; I’d recommend taking the time to read Jim’s tales.

If you find yourself in Fort Lauderdale at the end of October, you’ll likely also hear some Buffett tunes at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. Like Buffett, FLIBS is an industry mainstay with a reputation that has grown through the years. There’s all sorts of information out there about how important FLIBS is to the industry - numbers that show what a relevant and massive event this is.

But FLIBS can also be measured in ways that don’t fit on a pie chart. Ours is an industry based on relationships, on personal knowledge and trust. And I might be a local man who’s a bit biased, but in my opinion, a grownup beverage or several near water in Fort Lauderdale is one of the finer ways to build relationships.

You could also judge Jimmy Buffett’s contribution to the wider world by numbers. Albums sold. Concert attendance. Total revenue for the Margaritaville restaurant and resort empire. But that would be a cold and incomplete accounting. Like a dockside Fort Lauderdale happy hour, Buffett helped build relationships. He wrote songs that get played at weddings and funerals - and on boats. Always on boats. That’s a legacy bigger than any revenue stream.

Years ago, I was a college kid at a concert in a Hawaiian shirt and Margaritaville bucket hat. This year on the docks at FLIBS, there will be crew about the same age I was then. For some, it will be their first FLIBS. They’ll get a crash course into the tribe they’ve just joined. And like me back in the day, they’ll have a front-row ticket to one of the best shows around.

THE ONLY SUPERYACHT MARINA IN THE TOWN OF PALM BEACH, IS YOUR SOPHISTICATED GATEWAY TO THE LUXURY FLORIDA LIFESTYLE.

ACCOMMODATES VESSELS UP TO 295 FEET IN A STATE-OF-THE-ART FACILITY.

RESERVE YOUR SLIP: TOWNOFPALMBEACHMARINA.COM

INDUSTRY UPDATES

Tankoa expands, build schedule booked

Videoworks connects from offshore to doctor

Tankoa Yachts continues to mark growth in both yacht sales and production. Adjacent land has been acquired to enhance production at the shipyard in Genoa, Italy with a 3,000 square-meter covered space for carpentry, painting, joinery and the production of Tankoa custom pools. Under construction are new administrative, technical and production offices, and reorganization of the company's two existing sheds is

underway to meet a goal of three yachts under construction concurrently to produce up to five yachts each year.

The latest yacht in the 50-meter S501 series, M/Y Grey, has launched with substantial customization for the owner. The company also announced the sale of two other new builds scheduled for delivery in 2024 and 2025, leaving no delivery slots available until 2026. tankoa.it

Videoworks' new Health Remote Monitoring (HRM) offers yacht owners and guests the ability to communicate with their personal doctor from offshore. The system's technology connects via broadband to transmit realtime health information including blood pressure, heartbeat rate and blood oxygenation data. This clear clinical picture aids a medical professional in determining whether the patient can be treated on board the yacht, or requires hospitalization or emergency intervention.

Often telemedicine services connect patients with a service center, where the patient's data is analyzed by medical staff on duty. Instead, Videoworks' HRM offers a direct connection with the patient’s personal physician to ensure privacy and direct communication with the doctor familiar with the patient’s health and history. videoworksgroup.com

INDUSTRY UPDATES

Phuket beach club boat afloat

Yona Beach Club, a multi-level, private entertainment boat, has launched in Phuket, Thailand. Designed to accommodate 500 guests, the floating club features a 22-meter infinity pool, cabanas, pool beds, a lounge pool, a restaurant and 360-degree views of the Andaman Sea. Guests can book by bed, cabana or by day pass and shuttle to the floating club from the Royal Phuket Marina in Mueang Phuket.

yonabeach.com

Grand Soleil, Pardo, VanDutch Yachts owner acquired

RINA maintains majority in equity investment agreement

Registro Italiano Navale will maintain the majority stake in a pending agreement with Fondo Italiano d’Investimento and RINA S.p.A. The agreement, subject to regulatory approvals, will add 180 million euros in equity and is scheduled for completion this autumn.

RINA S.p.A., a multinational company based in Genoa, Italy will use the capital from Fondo Italiano for the company's

growth and international expansion. Until 1999, RINA worked almost exclusively as a ship classification company. RINA S.p.A. operates in 70 countries with 5,300 employees and 200 offices worldwide. Throughout the past 20 years, RINA S.p.A. has diversified in the fields of engineering consulting and Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC). rina.org

Cantiere del Pardo (CdP), a sail and motor yacht manufacturer, has been acquired by Calzedonia Group and Wise Equity Fund. Since its founding in 1973, Cantiere del Pardo has launched more than 5,000 boats under the Grand Soleil brand and more recently, with the Pardo Yachts and VanDutch Yachts brands.

The Calzedonia Group offers growth and development for Cantiere del Pardo new models. CdP will continue to invest in sustainability, innovation and researchand-development; CdP managers Fabio Planamente and Gigi Servidati will maintain a minority stake in the company and are expected to continue to work with the future development of the shipyard. cantieredelpardo.com

PHOTO @AMAZINGTHAILAND

PURE WATER. ANYTIME, ANYWHERE

Fully automatic all-in-one watermaker providing ultra pure, spot-free water using sea or dock water sources.

750 - 1,800 GPD FROM SEA WATER

1,000 - 2,600 GPD FROM DOCK WATER

FEATURED INSTALLATION: PRINCESS YACHTS X95

Equipment Tent Space #468

THE NEXT EVOLUTION IN WATERMAKER DESIGN

WORLDWIDE SALES, PARTS AND EXPERT SERVICE

FULL LINE OF WATERMAKERS FROM 200 TO 5,500 GPD

INDUSTRY UPDATES

Largest ship battery on the books

Galeon Yachts launches hardtop coupe

Maritime solution provider, Corvus Energy, has been selected by Wärtsilä to supply the battery systems for the world`s largest 100% electric, lightweight roll-on/ roll-off passenger ferry.

With more than 40 MWh of energy storage, the company's lightweight battery, Dolphin NextGen, is anticipated to be the largest battery system on a ship. The aluminum-constructed vessel will be built at the Incat shipyard in Tasmania, Australia for Buquebus of South America.

The 130-meter ferry will have the capacity for 2,100 passengers and crew, 225 cars and a 2,000-square-meter dutyfree shop. This vessel will be the largest of its type with the highest energy storage system capacity, the longest zero-emission journey at the highest speed, charged with the highest capacity chargers.

The battery systems are scheduled for delivery at the end of 2024 and the vessel will enter operation in 2025. corvusenergy.com

Nuclear naval propulsion study underway

A feasibility study is in the works to investigate the use of nuclear naval propulsion systems in the maritime shipping industry. NewCleo, Fincantieri and RINA will work together to explore closed mini-reactor design applications for use on large vessels with the aim of decarbonization in the industry.

Newcleo is a nuclear technology company with reactors that use nuclear waste as fuel, Fincantieri is one of the largest shipbuilding companies in the world and RINA is an inspection, certification, ship classification and consulting engineering company.

The deployment of Newcleo’s LFR (Lead-cooled Fast Reactor) for naval

propulsion would place a closed minireactor on vessels as a small nuclear battery capable of 30MW electric output. Benefits include infrequent refueling (once every 10-15 years), limited maintenance and easy replacement; nuclear-powered ships also provide control for accidents in the marine ecosystem, according to a press release. Newcleo’s design solidifies the liquid lead inside the reactor as it cools down in contact with cold water. This encloses the reactor core in a solid casing to contain radiation. newcleo.com fincantieri.it rina.org

Galeon Yachts has launched a new Hardtop Coupe (HTC) and owners can configure the 450 HTC with two or three cabins, a summer kitchen, a retractable cockpit shade, a sunroof over the lower helm and a helm door. The Beach Mode is available with an optional hydraulic swim platform with a two-cabin, twohead design with a full-beam master and the option of a third cabin. The 45-foot 8-inch model is built in collaboration with Tony Castro Design Studio. The 450 HTC will debut at the 2023 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. galeonyachts.us

Canada, Mexico, Panama in Cruisers Yachts expansion

Cruisers Yachts, a manufacturer of boats up to 73 feet in length overall, has added three new international dealers: Martin Motor Sports in British Columbia, Canada; Narval Marine in Panama; and Yucatan Seas in Yucatan, Mexico. Cruisers Yachts, founded in 1953 in Oconto, Wisconsin, specializes in the Cantius and GLS models.

"We are very excited to partner with these dealers to help expand our global footprint," said Dan Zenz, vice president of sales. "Our expansion to global markets these past years is a true testament to our brand and its reach. Together we look forward to providing excellent sales and service while growing the Cruisers Yachts brand in these markets."

cruisersyachts.com

THE WIND at WES’ BACK

Growing up, Wes O’Dell spent summers helping his dad run his sailing yacht charter business.

“My mom and dad met down here in St. Thomas in the ‘80s,” O’Dell said. “Dad had a small C&C sailboat that he ran day sails off of.”

The family lived in St. Thomas for years, but after Hurricane Marilyn hit the Virgin Islands in 1995, they moved to St. Augustine, Florida. His parents divorced and O’Dell stayed in St. Augustine with his mother, while his dad remarried and returned to St. Thomas to resurrect his charter sailing business.

O’Dell went to school in St. Augustine while working summers alongside his dad. “I’d be down here, working on the boat in the summers, serving drinks, doing day sails and snorkeling,” he said.

While being his dad’s first mate was fun, O’Dell wasn’t convinced he wanted to pursue a career in yachting. “I wanted to be a pilot,” he said. He considered going into the Navy. But that training would take years, whereas he could achieve the same thrill on the water from a sailing yacht.

By Gina Ragusa

So after he graduated from high school, O’Dell returned to St. Thomas to work part-time with his dad, but he also worked on other vessels. “I worked on those giant catamarans,” he said. “By the time I was 23 I got control of my first sailboat, which was a 65-foot boat that could take about 49 passengers out for day sails.

“After that we had Hurricane Irma and Maria in 2017, which destroyed the boat I captained. Destroyed my father’s boat.

You might recognize Wes O’Dell from season 9 of Below Deck. But the St. Thomas man has found that his true on-the-water passion involves something with sails.

Basically like 90% of the boats down here.”

Unwilling to give up sailing, O’Dell rebounded by resurrecting a 53-foot Gallant built in 1968 by Southern Ocean Shipyard, which he named Nightwind 2 after his father’s boat.

“It’s a very special type of boat,” O’Dell said. “Only 22 of them were ever built, 14 of them still exist and eight of the 14 being operational. And out of those eight, four of them are like me, they still sail, but you won't see them at boat shows because somebody doesn't have that endless amount of money to put into them.”

O’Dell purchased the sailing vessel after it had sustained damage from a hurricane. Despite the damage, O’Dell knew the boat was special.

“This boat got its fame back in ‘71, ‘72 by Naomi James, the first woman to circumnavigate the world by herself,” O’Dell said. “This particular style of boat was built to do transatlantic open ocean water sailing races. She's very fast (yet) comfortable, but because she's older … it can sleep 12, but it only has two cabins, one head, or bath and shower and the rest is all dedicated to storage. So people back then used it to store a lot of food and things instead of using that space for living space.”

O’Dell’s dad decided to retire after the hurricanes destroyed Nightwind . But now O’Dell runs his own charter company and business is booming. He’s found that sweet spot of chartering shorter day cruises and his guests love every minute. He has a slew of 5-star ratings on TripAdvisor and his guests often make repeat sails.

“I do day sails, like six hours sails around St. Thomas and St. John,” he said. “Lunch provided, open bar, snorkel gear provided, sitting accommodations are very spacious up on deck. Sunset sails. Private events.”

It’s obvious O’Dell’s guests have a blast from just from a quick glance at Nightwind 2 ’s Instagram page. Plus reviews rave about their experience.

“Open bar with excellent rum punch is served all day along with a fabulous chicken and pasta salad lunch that is much appreciated after the hard work of a morning snorkel at one of Saint

John’s great beach locations,” a recent TripAdvisor reviewer gushed. “This is followed by more sailing and a second stop with Captain Wesley‘s knowledge always bringing us to the best snorkeling areas. Wesley and his first mate are always friendly, and willing to share their wealth of knowledge of this beautiful part of God’s creation.”

O’Dell has found that sailing and creating experiences like that are his passion. He did a stint as a superyacht deckhand on Below Deck Season 9, but found the work to be tedious and boring. “There was no room for growth,” he said. “And there was nothing that gave me that ‘Oh cool, yeah this will be exciting’ feeling.” He joked, “After a while I was like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing on this yacht!’”

O’Dell was grateful to experience deck work on a superyacht, but it just didn’t compare the exhilaration of heeling over.

So he’s sticking with sailing. His chartering business typically requires only

a few crew members, but staffing has been tough due to the nature of the business.

Long-term, O’Dell is planning to open opportunities in yachting to the kids in St. Thomas. He’s currently working with the Boy Scouts of America to help with seamanship, and he looks forward to offering a similar program to public school kids.

The program is still in the works, but he envisions an apprenticeship-type arrangement. “I'll start with the public schools here, and work with them in the summertime so I can get kids who really want to do it and are serious about it,” he said.

O’Dell wants to introduce kids to the basics of sailing and offer support when it comes to gaining certifications. “It could be working on the boat for a certain amount of time and as a reward for sticking by as a crew member, I’ll pay for your captain’s license or for other stuff,” he said. “Also, they get to work too.” ‹

The Good and the Bad of the Charter Industry

By Kevin Maher

“

Post COVID was the best, no pun intended, shot in the arm for the charter world, ever,” Capt. Herbert Magney said.

Capt. Magney has been a charter captain for over 25 years, and many share his sentiment on the post-pandemic industry. A vacation during the peak of the pandemic was hard to come by, but one that included a well-maintained, sanitized environment with crew that quarantined together brought new guests to the charter industry. Many of the guests became hooked, and the industry added new customers.

Although the economic side of the charter industry is on the upswing, Magney believes the standards of charter associations need to improve. Magney believes brokers or representatives make decisions on charter vessels for guests based on availability and how fast a commission can be made, which can lead to guests arriving at yachts that don’t live up to the standards they thought they were receiving.

“They get there and the boat’s broken because it hasn’t been allowed to be maintained by the owner, there’s no standard for that, and the crew’s compromised,” Magney said. “There are customers out there that go ‘I’ll never charter another boat in my life,’ and it’s a shame because it’s an awesome opportunity, but it is the Wild West, it’s unregulated.”

Magney does say some of the bigger brokerages do a better job of vetting a vessel before it becomes a part of their fleet, but he hopes the process becomes something

that every brokerage excels at.

“I feel that there should be more standardization in the practices as opposed to just being a clause in the contract that nobody reads,” Magney said.

Magney praises the communication that has developed between the yacht industry through group chat as well. More than 800 captains are available to Magney through WhatsApp group chats he has helped create. The groups started as a place to discuss new COVID-19 rules in different countries but slowly turned into a forum where captains help resolve each other’s problems and speak on current issues. Magney’s presence became so well known in the chats that he gained a new name, too.

“There was a little bit of ranting, and I would be the hall monitor of sorts, so when somebody is going off on a tangent, I would nip it in the bud and bring it back down to earth,” Magney said. “So, I got nicknamed the Herbinator.”

Capt. Douglas Meier has more than 30 years of experience as a captain and currently runs M/Y Renaissance. He also hosts The Bottom Line, a weekly podcast that covers everything boating.

Meier agrees that the industry’s economic situation has benefited from the pandemic rebound, but another effect is the change it has had on destinations.

“I’m getting clients that have been chartering with us in the past and they’ll go ‘I want to go to a deserted island; I don’t want to worry about all the world’s problems right now. I just want to go

anchor off a beach with the kids and sit on the deck and smoke a cigar,’” Meier said. “I think COVID has shifted a lot of people’s personal agendas.”

Meier also believes the pandemic changed the minds of many crew when it came to staying on one boat versus boat-hopping.

“Before COVID everybody was like, ‘You gotta stay on the boat, get some experience under your belt,’ but with COVID a lot of owners laid off the boats and dismissed the crew and they were like, ‘What the hell?’” Meier said.

Once COVID-19 began to subside and the charter industry came back, there was a huge demand for crew. However, crew began bouncing from one opportunity to a better opportunity since their demand was so high, Meier said. Issues with crew retention are still present, and Meier believes it’s one of the biggest problems the charter industry faces.

“Charter boats rely on a steady crew to sell their product,” Meier said. “It’s very hard to run a charter operation when you’re retraining people every couple of months.”

Crew retention is a hot topic in the

Many believe the current state of the charter industry to be strong, but the industry has its issues.

charter industry, and one that many are trying to solve. Crew want rotation, benefits, more training and time off, and while some captains believe these demands are valid, they are unsure if they can be met.

“What we’re all doing is we're trying to up the ante so to speak on what we’re giving crew to keep them, although that still doesn’t seem to be working,” Meier said.

Capt. Scott Miller has more than 30 years of experience as a captain and has experienced the highs and lows of crew retention. He says he’s tried the rotation route, but after a year and a half or so he’s noticed crew are ready to move to another boat. Paying crew higher wages was an option as well, but he understands most crew are paid well throughout the industry so it’s not as effective. However, when Miller ran a boat for 12 years and had the same crew on board for five to six of those years, he realized other ways to keep crew around.

“The boat didn’t pay especially well, but it was 140 feet, so it was quite comfortable,” Miller said. “The owner

“Before COVID everybody was like, ‘You gotta stay on the boat, get some experience under your belt,’ but with COVID a lot of owners laid off the boats and dismissed the crew and they were like, ‘What the hell?’”

– Capt. Douglas Meier

wasn’t too demanding, the program was a little different, and people stayed around, so it all depends on the atmosphere on board and the captain.”

Superyacht chef Christian Russo has more than 20 years of experience working in the yachting industry, and his interpretation of the charter industry is that it’s been more or less the same for him. He only has one thing he wants the industry to improve on – preference sheets.

“I find that most times it’s an assistant filling things out and then the guests get

here and they’re quite different from what they put on the sheet,” Russo said. “Then you find out somebody’s got this allergy or these preferences, and it kind of hampers our ability to provide those things, especially if we’re in areas that are difficult to get ingredients.”

In the sportfishing side of the charter industry, Capt. Spencer Reilly has seven years of experience as a captain and runs Captain Goop Charters on Florida’s Treasure Coast. He’s noticed during this time that the old school mentality of not sharing wisdom has changed in a good way.

“That mentality of we can share experience and knowledge, and learn more about it every day,” Reilly said. “Not so much the specifics on fishing spots, I’m specifically talking tackle tricks, outrigger tricks, just within the boat itself.”

The charter industry looks to continue its rise, even with the issues it faces. Crew retention, brokerage communication, and preference sheets won’t be solved overnight, but discussions between captains and crew can lead to a better industry for all. ‹

Going Deep

Working on board a yacht revolves around life on top of the ocean, but with submersibles rising in popularity, some crew have the chance to work in the depths of the blue, too.

By Kevin Maher

Although personal submersibles are now catching the eyes of yacht owners around the world, they weren’t always a trusted addition to a yacht’s toy box. Patrick Lahey, CEO and co-founder of Triton Submarines, faced hesitancy and skepticism when he first introduced submersibles to the yachting world.

“The most critically important development was attracting an individual in the form of Chris Cline, who took a chance that we weren’t crazy and gave us an opportunity to build our first sub,” Lahey said.

The submersible built for Cline’s vessel Mine Games showed the possibilities and wonders of the underwater experience to Cline, who shared his experiences with others in the yachting industry.

“Suddenly it wasn’t just me talking about how wonderful it would be to have a sub on a yacht, you had an individual and owner that had one of these things and was speaking enthusiastically about the extraordinary experiences that they were having with it,” Lahey said.

As Triton helped open another dimension for the yachting industry to explore, many began to share the wanderlust with the depths of the ocean that Lahey has. Documentaries like Blue Planet II, Aliens of the Deep, and Galapagos, all created with the help of Triton Submarines, suddenly became live experiences – and yacht owners

aren’t the only ones experiencing them. Adding underwater exploration revolutionized the yachting experience, and it also changed many of the responsibilities captains, engineers, and crew have. A positive personal submersible experience can only be successful with properly trained operators, and many yacht owners look to their own crew to become specialized in the field.

Triton Submarines offers a comprehensive training program with every purchase of a Triton sub. Lahey’s training program doesn’t only teach captains and crew how to operate a sub, but it immerses them in the building of the sub as well. Participants work with the engineers creating the machine they’ll soon operate, learning how it works and what makes it tick.

PHOTO BYSUBMERGE

PHOTO BY TRITON SUBMARINES

“We teach them everything, how to rebuild a thruster, how to fix or rebuild a valve, and all those skills that will be helpful to them in the field when they’re eventually discharged with the responsibility of operating and maintaining that sub,” Lahey said. “The idea is to bring their knowledge and confidence level to a point where they’re self-contained and they can look after their own sub.”

Once crew have been certified to operate subs, the location, conditions and planning for an expedition are important as well. Some owners rely on companies like SubMerge to help them with this.

SubMerge works with yacht owners and crew to plan and manage private leisure submersible expeditions. Ofer Ketter, a longtime submersible pilot and the president of SubMerge, helps provide everything needed to make these expeditions successful. Ketter’s company helps guide crew through issues like using tenders for surface support and towing, but it also provides 3-D underwater maps of areas to help find interesting dive sites.

“There’s a lot of aspects around the actual operation, and when we have guests we want to give them the perfect experience and make it safe,” Ketter

said. “And have the crew well-trained in the different ‘what if’ scenarios.”

The different ‘what if’ scenarios Ketter mentions are part of SubMerge’s quest to keep every expedition as safe as possible. Ketter recommends that his company get on board at least a week before the expedition so that they can run through the worst-case scenarios and practice the correct responses. Some of these might include a storm arriving before a submersible is set to emerge, heavy boat traffic around a submersible’s emerge point, or the proper response to a fire occurring in the submersible.

“The ideal scenario is to set aside time so that the entire ship is now working towards that submarine,” Ketter said. “You don’t want to be in a situation where now the owner is on board and he’s like ‘Okay I’m ready to go diving in the sub,’ and (the crew) is like ‘Wait, so who does what?’”

Lahey and Triton Submarines also put safety above all, owning a spotless safety track record.

“Those of us who build subs that are certified, classed if you will, accredited, enjoy a 50-year track record of perfect safety,” Lahey said. “That’s an enviable record and a record that doesn’t exist in

any other form of transportation.”

Many questioned the safety of submersibles after OceanGate’s Titan submersible tragedy in June, but Lahey believes the accredited manufacturers of submersibles should not be grouped in with the creators of the Titan.

“Unfortunately, the reality is that people just don’t know enough about this type of equipment to differentiate between an experimental abomination like the OceanGate craft and the beautifully designed, thoughtfully engineered, and carefully manufactured subs that legitimate builders in our world produce,” Lahey said. “I think it’s very important that we establish the distinction between that experimental craft that should have never carried human beings - it was not fit for human occupancy - from the type of machinery that we’re talking about putting on yachts that Triton produces.”

If the industry uses accredited submersibles that meet the classification society standard, they can be used in absolute confidence and in total safety, Lahey said.

“Submersibles are magical machines, they transport you to what I consider to be the most beautiful part of our planet, and I don’t want people to be afraid of them,” Lahey said. “But I think we have to insist on accreditation, we have to insist on certification, and if we do, we can continue to enjoy this wonderful track record of absolute safety.” ‹

PHOTO BY SUBMERGE

PHOTO BY NICK VEROLA

OUR TEAM HAS OVER 45 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE DESCALING MARINE WATER SYSTEMS

The Four Corners of FLIBS

Hefty investments around all corners of the 17th Street Causeway bridge are upgrading a cluster of properties that serve as stages for the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show.

By Mike Seemuth

Vessel-friendly venues make the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show possible, and both landside and waterside upgrades to these properties have sustained the growth of the 64-year-old show. The most prominent of these property improvements are happening at the four corners of the boat show, on both ends of the 17th Street Causeway: the Broward County Convention Center and Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina hotel on the western end, and on the eastern end, the Superyacht Village and Pier Sixty-Six Resort.

Bahia Mar Yachting Center was the sole venue when the annual boat show began in 1959 and remains the hub of the show. But as the number and size of the boat exhibitions grew, so did the number of venues. “What Hilton and the other

marinas give us is flex capacity for bigger boats,” said Phil Purcell, president and CEO of the Marine Industries Association of South Florida, the trade group that owns the show. Seven sites normally serve as boat show’s venues, but one will be offline this year. An ongoing expansion of the Las Olas Marina has cut the number of venues at this year’s show to six.

“We can’t wait for it to come back online; we would have sold it out this year. The number of exhibitors continues to grow. This year, the show is sold out again already,” Purcell said. “You’ll have over 1,100 boats in the water.”

HILTON FORT LAUDERDALE MARINA

New floating docks are replacing old wooden finger docks at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina hotel, where a new

waterfront ballroom and restaurant just opened. The 17th Street Yacht Basin at the hotel recently replaced the old dock with a new concrete fixed dock and dredged to a depth of 16.5 feet. Electrical upgrades added 480-volt power in two locations. New floating docks are being installed in the interior basin, docking vessels up to 70 feet.

A major renovation of the 595-room Hilton Marina ensued after the 2018 sale of the hotel. Blackstone, a New Yorkbased investment firm, sold the property to Toronto-based Brookfield. They poured more money into a multi-year, multimillion-dollar renovation of the hotel at 1881 SE 17th St. by renovating all 595 rooms, along with the marina, lobby and meeting spaces.

The new floating docks will provide 33 slips for boats up to 70 feet long on the north side of the property. The Hilton also has a face dock on the east side of the property for vessels up to 300 feet in length. Work on the docks was nearing completion in September.

“Then we added that amazing new ballroom and event space on the water,” said Melissa Lane, the hotel’s general manager. The glassy building along the Intracoastal Waterway is two stories, but it looks taller because the ballroom on the first floor has a 24-foot ceiling height. The new building replaced a one-story restaurant called China Grill, which the hotel had operated on the same site before Brookfield demolished it. Above the new ballroom, a Mediterranean restaurant, Olive & Sea, has opened for breakfast and dinner on the second floor of the new 21,000-square-foot building, right next to the face dock for megayachts. It features indoor and outdoor seating and panoramic views of the Intracoastal.

PIER SIXTY-SIX RESORT

Originally developed in the 1950s as a fuel dock for Phillips 66 Petroleum, the 32-acre Pier Sixty-Six Resort is anchored by a world-class marina, with 164 deepwater slips for yachts and other vessels up to 400 feet long. Since acquiring Pier Sixty-Six in 2016, Orlando-based Tavistock Development Company has added docks and lighting to the marina and has dredged along the marina’s

northwest corner to improve navigation.

And even though a $1 billion redevelopment of Pier Sixty-Six is under way, adding condos and hotel rooms and resort amenities, the marina hasn’t missed a beat. “The marina has been fully operational during construction,” said Jessi Blakely, vice president of Tavistock.

With prices starting at $3.85 million, 122 condos at the Pier Sixty-Six site are under construction. Meanwhile Tavistock’s long-running revitalization of Pier Sixty-Six got off to a slow start. But the finish line is in sight. Less than a year after Tavistock bought the hotel and marina in 2016 for about $163 million, the venerable property took a big hit from Hurricane Irma, which damaged part of the hotel’s roof and allowed water inside. The COVID-19 pandemic slowed progress, too. But now, Tavistock is about a year away from finishing most of the condo construction and a halo top-tobottom renovation of the hotel tower, including its rotating top-floor lounge, the Pier Top.

A second, shorter hotel that will be 10 stories tall is now under construction just north of the original 17-story hotel, bringing the total number of hotel rooms and suites at the new and improved Pier Sixty-Six to 325. “The full resort will reopen in fall 2024,” Blakely said.

SUPERYACHT VILLAGE

The original footprint of Pier SixtySix was confined to the north side of Southeast 17th Street. But soon after its purchase of Pier Sixty-Six, Tavistock paid $24 million for a nearby marina property on the south side of 17th Street, which was called Sails Marina. Since 2019, this portion of the Pier Sixty-Six campus has been known officially as Superyacht Village and informally as “Pier South.”

During FLIBS, Superyacht Village serves as an exclusive venue where builders of yachts ranging up to 200 feet in length can meet with prospective buyers. Besides parking for mega-vessels, Superyacht Village also has a small building for meetings and events. “There are 100-footers and 200-footers over at Bahia Mar, too. What happened was, some of the builders wanted just a little bit more of a private area and a little bit more

space,” Purcel said. “Pier Sixty-Six worked with us, and we came up with this great Superyacht Village concept.”

During the boat show, Superyacht Village serves as a private product showcase where boat builders and buyers can mingle. Compared to the rest of the show, “it’s just a little more subdued, not as many people,” Purcell said. “It is laser-focused on people looking for a certain size boat or a certain builder.” The building at the marina is also used for events other than the boat show, including charitable fundraisers and the Triton Expo. Several years ago, he noted, one of the local symphonies played there.

BROWARD COUNTY CONVENTION CENTER

Not all the boats in the show are in the water. The Broward County Convention Center is the boat show’s only indoor venue, where all the boats are floor exhibits on trailers.

Last year, FLIBS used 350,000 square feet of space during the five-day boat show

and is expected to take the same amount of space this year. “They are outgrowing their space. They need more space soon,” said Dafne Anderson, the convention center’s director of sales.

More space is on the way. In phase one of a major expansion and renovation of the county-owned convention center, its exposition space grew to 350,000 square feet. Phase two of the overhaul of the convention center property will include a new building with two ballrooms – one 65,000 square feet, the other 15,000 –and a six-acre outdoor event plaza with a tropical look along the Intracoastal Waterway. At the same time, a private developer is building an 801-room Omni hotel on county land at Southeast 17th Street and Eisenhower Boulevard, next to the convention center. “That is all under construction. That will be completed very late in 2025,” said Michael Pouey, vice president of group and convention sales at the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau. “We’re really selling it for 2026 and beyond.” ‹

On Land AND At Sea WITH Jimmy

In the yachting industry, many of us are fortunate enough to encounter a few celebrities, musicians and other famous people along the way. For many of them, boating is the reward for that success. But for a select few of these famous folks, it is boating that was always the priority, regardless of the success.

Jimmy Buffett was the latter. Boating and fishing were his lifetime passion and his world revolved around it. The success just made it easier. Through that connection, I was one of the lucky ones who developed a special relationship with him.

Somewhere in the mid-90’s, Jimmy showed up at my office at Rybovich one day, unannounced. He had just

bought a small downeaster boat and wanted us to bring it back to life. When the boat arrived and we did a quick look-over, it became clear that it would cost a lot more to restore this boat than it was worth. I told him that. He was disappointed but appreciated my honesty, and he agreed to donate the boat to a charity as a “Boat once owned by Jimmy Buffett.” Tax deduction!

That was the start of a long-term relationship with Jimmy, both as a customer and as a friend. While we took care of his various boats over the years, from the 62’ Nordhaven to the 90’ Cheoy Lee and 125’ Delta, there was much more than that. Since he was living part time in Palm Beach, we had occasion to get together for

lunches, dinners, drinks and more. One day we went to lunch at the famed Rachel’s Adult Steakhouse, the one that has a great buffet, sports and stocks on the TV’s, and lots of girls. “This has everything you could want for lunch,” says Jimmy. I was quickly reprimanded by his manager for taking him somewhere he probably shouldn’t be seen. “Only a couple people recognized him,” I pleaded with his manager. “It’s all fine! Jimmy had a blast! And it was his idea!”

Another day I was at the yard with one of his best friends and fishing industry icon, Spider Andresen, when Jimmy arrived. During some conversation, Jimmy learns that Spider and I were planning to go shoot sporting clays the

Over several years when he owned Rybovich, Triton co-publisher Jim Bronstien got to know Jimmy Buffett well. Sadly, Buffett died September 1 at age 76. Here, Jim recalls adventures, laughs and of course, some amazing boats.

next morning and he asks if he can join us. Of course! He didn’t have to ask permission! So, what does Jimmy do? He changes his entire schedule of flying out to rehearse for a concert tour so he can shoot sporting clays with us and his son.

That was the Jimmy I got to know. Always on the go, impulsive for fun, but thoughtful about it all. And more than anything, Jimmy knew boats. He had it in his blood. Hanging out at a boatyard was his love. As he wrote in an email to me: “I am rummaging around boatyards all my life anyway so why not build one.”

So that’s what he did, over and over with many builders. In our case, talks often turned to fishing boats and what we were building at Rybovich, ultimately leading us to jointly bubble up the idea

of a semi-production 42’ Rybovich Express Walkaround fishing boat, the first of its kind. Express Walkaround boats were not in the mainstream then. Perhaps we were a little ahead of our time in design and price but the vision, the passion, the details and the fun were all there, down to the custom Jimmy Buffett Martin guitar insignias etched into the corners of the settee.

Jimmy was now a boatbuilder! Humorously dubbed the “Margaritavich series,” his “Last Mango” got a lot of attention and a lot of press, including an iconic kickoff party at the old Bahia Cabana during the 2002 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, where Jimmy put on a free private concert for about 300 invited guests.

He offered that to me for no fee instead of signing autographs at the boat show, which he did not want to do. But he did remind me more than once how much he usually charges for private concerts - to which I said, “I could never have paid you that, so thank you very much for the show!”

While that party was memorable for everyone who attended, it was the actual arrival of Margaritavich to the Lauderdale boat show earlier that week that really stood out. On the day we had to bring the boat from Palm Beach to the show, the seas were rough, and we had no choice but to take the Intracoastal to Lauderdale. With Jimmy along for the delivery trip, it became clear we were going to be very

“See all those boats down there? 90% of them have my music on their boat right now!”

late to arrive at our designated time for the inside slip, thus causing about 30 other boats to wait three hours for our arrival in the pouring rain. The talk on the VHF was getting ugly and talk of symbolically destroying Jimmy Buffett CDs was making the rounds. I told Jimmy that it will not be a pleasant arrival. Once we got to the slip, we tied up and left the area so fast before anyone could give us grief. Lo and behold, the next day, the boat was encased in toilet paper by upset brokers and delivery captains. Jimmy found great humor in that whole experience.

I was fortunate to have also taken a few trips with Jimmy including one memorable night in Ocean Reef with me, Jimmy and Spider for the inaugural 42’ trip. The celebration started with vodka martinis (not margaritas!) and ended with him playing an impromptu show at the local bar until 3 a.m. I am not sure if Ocean Reef has seen that sort of scene since! Jimmy always had a guitar handy or was able to borrow one if need be. On one trip to New Orleans where we were building the hull to the Margaritavich, a small group of us were finishing dinner at a restaurant and Jimmy says, “Let’s go to a bar. I think I own one around here.” We all get to the famed Margaritaville bar on Bourbon Street and Jimmy asks the guy playing there that night if he could borrow his guitar. The guy playing says, “Who are you?” Jimmy replies, “This is my place

I

and you’re singing my songs!” That guy was embarrassed. But it was another fun 3 a.m. night.

Jimmy was a generous guy. He even let my family spend a week on his Cheoy Lee yacht in Eleuthera. I think I bartered a bit for some yard work, but the fact that he offered was special and unexpected. That was Jimmy. Of course, while on the yacht, people often asked if Jimmy was on board. The crew would say, “Yes, Jimmy is here,” and I would wave.

In exchange, I was able to sponsor Jimmy and his family to become members at a private club in Palm Beach. But to be accepted, he had to have a dinner and meet the membership committee. I picked him up at his house and reminded him this one dinner night required a tie, to which he says, “I only own one tie and it’s at my house in New York!” I had figured as much so I had a

couple extra ties in my car just in case. He was accepted into the club.

This was also the era of “5 O’clock Somewhere,” on which he famously collaborated with Alan Jackson. At the time, we were building Alan a custom 60’ Rybovich while also creating the 42’ for Jimmy. One day I asked Jimmy if he knew Alan and he says, “No. I heard he’s a great guy and likes to fish also. I need to meet him.” Two weeks later, they met in the Bahamas and connected the Rybovich and fishing dots, and the rest is history!

Jimmy was a worldwide legend. He will forever be linked to the boating lifestyle, and he always knew that. It was genuine. One day while in his plane flying over the Keys, he looks down at the hundreds of boats and says to me, “See all those boats down there? 90% of them have my music on their boat right now!” Who else in the entire musical planet can say that?

Jimmy was always on an adventure, always upbeat, always appreciative and as friendly a guy as you would ever meet.

The motto he assigned to the 42’ was right out of his own song “A Pirate Looks at Forty.”

In an email he wrote, “I love the slogan taken from Pirate ‘Got to stop wishing, got to go fishing.’ I think it should be our signature slogan. It says it all without saying it at all. See you mañana.”

Tight lines and fair seas, Jimmy. The world will never forget you. ‹

In an email he wrote, “I love the slogan taken from Pirate ‘Got to stop wishing, got to go fishing.’

think it should be our signature slogan. It says it all without saying it at all. See you mañana.”

OCTOBER

Bahia Mar In-Water

F/G Dock

Axopar Boats

Brabus Marine

De Antonio Yachts

Excess Catamarans

Fairline Yachts

Oceanis Sailboats

Windy Boats

Bahia Mar Land

Axopar Boats

Brabus Marine

Highfield Marine

Northstar R.I.B.s

Sailfish Boats

Starcraft Boats

Electric Boats - Four Winns H2

Marine - X

-

Jobe Watersports

Live Watersports

Mojet Modular Jet Boards

Old Town Kayaks

Oru Folding Kayaks

Reward Boats

Aquabanas Luxury Inflatables

Atlantic Flyboard

ElCat Solar Boats

Fliteboard Electric Foilboards

GoBoat Fish Boats

Hobie Kayak & Sail

Jet Whale Electric Surfboards

NATION! Ask about our boat show VIP program. / Call 954-926-5250 for more details. www. nauticalventures.com

Schiller Water Bikes

Seabob Dive Sleds

Seabreacher Submersibles

Temo Portable Engines

Torqeedo Electric Motors

Veer Boats

Yujet Electric Surfboards

OFFBOARDING

BELOW DECK STAR KEEPING THINGS ABOVE BOARD

Conrad Empson stumbled into the world of yachting. After a career on board, he switched his hand to entrepreneurship and created CrewPass, solving a long-standing problem within yacht crew recruitment.

By Gemma Harris

How did you get into yachting?

I completely fell into the industry. I had never heard about it or even really been on a boat before. A family friend told me about it, and I was in dead-end jobs trying to figure things out, so I completely winged it. I did my STCW course and got some money from the 'Bank of Mom' and flew down to Antibes. I knew nothing; I spent three months searching for a job and got my lucky break with a Chief Officer who gave me a chance. I did five years on three different yachts; the last one was for the (Below Deck Med Season 3) show.

How did you find being on Below Deck? Is it a true reflection of being a crew member?

I went on to show how yachting should be done. When you step on board, you are told it is run like a ‘normal’ yacht and are under that assumption the entire time. Until the end, when you figured out you could have got away with a lot more! You have to remember that they pick the personalities. The show picks you based on the fact that you will clash with other crew. The personality tests recruiters do to evaluate whether the

crew will work well together are done but entirely the wrong way around - for that on-screen drama. It is a bizarre scenario to be in when filming because you don't see the backlash of what you say. You are entirely oblivious to what will happen after, so you completely get used to the cameras being there.

Do you miss working on board?

Yachting is a world like no other. The experiences, the people, and the places you get to visit, so yes, I do miss it sometimes. My favorite part was the variety, the constant demands and the pressure from having to continually problem-solve various weird and wonderful situations that arose with guests. My life has always been about the 'what next,' and yachting filled my desire and drive for adventure. Although, one thing I don't miss is that longing feeling to come home and set up a base, which is what I did.

What was your journey like coming back to shore?

After I finished on Below Deck, I was tied into contractual obligations with them for the next six months, always having to go to LA and NYC to film extra segments and attend events - which I was pretty unaware of when I started the show. This didn't help for getting another yacht job, so I decided it was time to return to shore. I first started working as a project manager for Marine Guard - a company that fits security systems on board.

Can you explain your inspiration for CrewPass and how it works?

While working for Marine Guard, I consulted with them about the threats on board and started to question the importance of background-checking crew. Everyone assumed that the agencies did all the correct due diligence regarding this, but after I delved into the issue, it was apparent that no one did, so I wondered how we could improve this, hence CrewPass. When I think about it, the idea for CrewPass actually rattled around in my brain back when I was still on board. I remember being a chaperone with the yacht's nanny around Europe with two young children - which

was amazing fun - but I realized I was being entrusted with these kids, and I never once had a background check, and neither did the nanny I worked with. Fast forward to my time at Marine Guard, and that eureka moment to create a straightforward service that could do this was how Crew Pass was born.

I launched CrewPass 18 months ago. It is a digital employment passport that verifies crew members' identity, conducts a full global background check, and authenticates and validates certification. Providing crew pass our checks, they get an approved status they can share with agencies and employers - improving the recruitment process and overall safety and integrity of the industry.

Can you advise yacht crew wanting to make a move ashore?

It isn't easy leaving! The hardest thing about coming ashore was the reality check in wages. You really are starting from the bottom again. You need to plan your escape plan, save a large percentage of your monthly salary, and have a plan in place. Even if you have no experience doing something you are interested in, it doesn't stop you from doing it. You can genuinely do anything if you put your mind to it; you can learn everything and anything nowadays.

If crew want to start their own business, one piece of advice is to build your network. The yachting industry is incredibly small, close-knit, and so wellconnected. There are so many networking

groups out there, like Young Professionals in Yachting, all over the world - this group helped me exponentially.

What has been the biggest challenge for CrewPass?

Setting up CrewPass has been a crazy ride; sure, there have been challenges along the way but nothing that has had to stop our progress. It has been so well accepted within the industry, which I was initially worried about because it is hard to break stagnant mentalities in this industry sometimes with a new idea. The biggest challenge still is to get the message across to owners. That has always been a difficulty, but we have so many industry advocates – agencies, yachts, and crew – that all value and get on board with what we are doing.

Where do you see the future going for CrewPass?

With my industry knowledge, I wanted to help solve a problem within it, so I designed this platform that helped every element. It helps crew members, employers and owners by allowing agents to check candidates thoroughly. We are a fairly small team, and the system is relatively autonomous. I see the future as recruiters continuing to have this one simple place to verify candidates and continually diversify the platform, allowing it to have more features. ‹

OFFBOARDING IS A TRITON SERIES THAT HIGHLIGHTS THE MANY WAYS CREW USE THEIR YACHTING EXPERIENCES TO BUILD NEW CAREERS ASHORE. GOT A STORY TO SHARE? LET US KNOW AT CREW@TRITONNEWS.COM

• All bikes, classic cars, & sports cars welcome

• Thousands $ in raffle prizes - bring your cash!

• Incredible all day event rain or shine

• Register at nationalmarine.com

• Sponsorship opportunities available

• Over 100 Miles OCT.

RANDI’S ROAD TO PARIS

Former Chief Stewardess

Randi Barry created her fashion brand Bravo x Romeo while working on yachts. Now she’s showing at Paris Fashion Week.

By Kevin Maher

Long before she’d ever heard of prestigious French fashion houses or the Parsons School of Design, Randi Barry was a little girl in rural British Columbia who loved clothes.

“I remember being very young and drawing really unique shoes that I’ve never seen before and putting on little fashion shows for my mom in the kitchen when she was cooking,” Barry said. “I remember dressing my sister up in all these clothes, and I used to love playing dress up and having tea parties.”

That love of fashion grew during her childhood and teen years, but she couldn’t afford pricy clothes. She believes that strengthened her passion.

“I grew up extremely poor and we didn’t have much growing up, which is part of the reason I got into fashion,” said Barry, who grew up in beautiful but sparsely populated Comox Valley, across the Strait of Georgia from Vancouver. “There’s points in my life where I remember only having one pair of trousers, and I started sketching out my outfits because I was being made fun of at school for wearing the same pair of pants every day.”

Today, that childhood love has become a career. Barry’s fashion brand, Bravo x Romeo, hosted its first fashion show in 2022 on board a mansion yacht at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS). In October, she’s set to unveil its latest resort wear collection at Paris Fashion Week. Between that childhood spent sketching and present day on Paris catwalks, there was also a time spent as a chief stewardess on yachts. For Barry, it’s all been part of the journey.

That journey’s course was confirmed in college, where Barry made the decision to pursue fashion. Helping create a college fashion show cemented the direction she wanted to head, and although she graduated with a double bachelor’s degree in graphic design and fine art, she wanted to explore fashion.

Fashion school was the next step for Barry. After being accepted into a certificate program at the prestigious Parsons School of Design’s European campus, Parsons Paris, she was left with one dilemma – how to pay roughly 30,000 euros in tuition fees.

“I asked them to defer for a year and I just did some research about what the fastest way you can make money in the shortest amount of time is,” Barry said. “And I found yachting.”

Fortunately, Barry already had fine dining experience through a summer job working at Dent Island Resort. Barry also had become a sail trainer, receiving her STCW and gaining valuable work experience sailing from Liverpool to the Black Sea. Her previous experiences, along

Before Randi Barry became the fashion maven behind Bravo x Romeo, she worked as a chief stewardess aboard 50-plus meter vessels.

with the money she could make in yachting, led Barry to apply for a yacht stewardess position in Savannah, Georgia.

“I applied online and got this job - and to be honest, at first I thought it was a joke. They’re going to fly me out to Savannah and pay me $3,000 a month? This isn’t real,” she said.

The position was real, and Barry rose the ranks to chief stewardess while working on 50-plus meter vessels – saving every penny she made for fashion school.

“I was the most boring person,” she said. “I would never go out drinking with the crew, or do anything.”

Barry’s time as a stew helped her save for fashion school, but it also helped in more unexpected ways. She learned how to take care of various types of garments. A stew and a room full of laundry are a pairing some view as a tedious part of stew work, but for Barry it was a time to work with high-end pieces of clothing she had never worked with before.

“Working with (clothing by) a high-end designer, seeing how they’re made, even just opening up the inside of a t-shirt, it’s so different from the clothes I grew up with that I had access to,” she said. “Steaming them, pressing them, repairing them, how you launder them, all of those things really changed my relationship with fashion.”

After saving enough for school, Barry took her place at Parsons Paris. She interned at Paris Fashion Week, working backstage for French luxury fashion house Kenzo. After graduating, Barry went back to the yachting industry and met her husband, Capt. Daryn Dalton.

Barry eventually moved ashore and went through her U.S. green card process, which required her to stay in the country. Although she couldn’t work in yachting for this time, she continued to work on Bravo x Romeo. She had been developing her brand while

working on yachts, but the process wasn’t always the smoothest.

“It started with me sewing everything myself, and you know, they say in order to be really good at something you have to suck at it first, and that is so true,” Barry said. “I’m just so grateful for all of my customers that have been with me from the beginning because my pattern started out very basic.”

The first dress Barry created for Bravo x Romeo got noticed when Francesca Rubi wore it in season eight of Below Deck.

“That really helped my brand a lot, getting recognition and people were messaging me asking where they could get the dress from,” Barry said.

As Bravo x Romeo grew, Barry made sure it grew in the way she wanted it to in terms of business ethics and sustainability. Garment workers who work for her worldwide are paid living wages, Bravo x Romeo uses natural and biodegradable fibers, and she does not make an excess of anything she creates.

Bravo x Romeo turned heads during her first fashion show at FLIBS 2022, and earlier this year she showed her resortwear collection, “High Seas,” at Miami Swim Week. When she takes her line to Paris Fashion Week in October, it’s going to mark a milestone in her journey.

“It is going to be a melding and combination of everything that I am as a designer and my history coming together at a place where I studied fashion, which just means so much to me,” Barry said.

As Barry continues to actualize her fashion dreams with Bravo x Romeo, she looks back at the young girl that turned her kitchen into a runway and the yacht stewardess that turned down nights out for school funds, knowing she is doing exactly what they both wanted.

“Sometimes my life has felt so random,” she said. “But in those moments you realize, ‘Ok, this is all for something.’” ‹

By Kevin Maher

Blake Carmichael’s professional calling is developing user-friendly dive systems to explore underneath the waves. It was on top of the ocean that he achieved one of the most meaningful achievements of his life.

Hundreds of participants converge in Bimini every year to participate in the Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis, an open ocean event where paddleboarders and kayakers cross from the Bahamas to Lake Worth Beach, Florida. The 80-mile challenge was created by Travis Suit to help those living with cystic fibrosis.

Suit’s daughter Piper was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when she was four years old. Suit created the Piper’s Angels Foundation with a mission of helping patients and families in the cystic fibrosis community. The ocean’s incredible health benefits to those living with the terminal lung disease was the inspiration behind creating the ocean event. Now hundreds of paddlers participate, while hundreds of captains and crew also participate in support boats – all raising funds to support the Piper’s Angels Foundation.

Carmichael is the CEO and founder of Dive Blu3, which creates battery powered tankless diving systems allowing divers to dive up to 10 feet for 60 to 90 minutes. When Blu3’s social media manager, Emily Smith, introduced The Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis to Carmichael as something the company might want to sponsor, Carmichael was interested.

It was Romi Wallach, a longtime Crossing participant who raised more than $30,000 in the most recent event, who convinced Carmichael to not only be a sponsor of the event, but to become a paddler as well.

“I was so jacked up after talking to Romi that I was like, ‘Man, I’m going to do this this year,’” Carmichael said.

Blake Carmichael finished first in the Competitive Men’s 14’ SUP Solo Division of The Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis. But it was about much more than winning a race.

Blake’s Crossing

Carmichael started training for the 2022 Crossing for CF, but after only having two months of training before the event and falling ill, he decided to regroup for the 2023 event instead. He began training for the June 2023 event in December, attending clinics that The Crossing for CF hosts with world renown paddlers like Kim Barnes.

“You don’t realize how much goes into paddleboard racing or long-distance paddling. There’s a lot of little aspects to your technique, and then how you adjust that in different conditions, like with wind and waves,” Carmichael said.

The transition from ordinary paddleboards to narrower and faster race boards was also part of the clinics, and as part of his training he spent many hours in the gym as well. Making sure his gym time focused on his legs, core and back was key as he prepared for the 15 or more hours of constant paddling.

Once Carmichael was comfortable with the new paddleboard, as well as the fundamentals he learned, he planned to gradually increase the amount and time he paddled before the event.

“I had a concern of overuse injury so I didn’t want to paddle too much and ramp up my volume like crazy, so I was doing long paddles every two weeks and then during the week I would do shorter ones at a higher intensity,” Carmichael said.

Two-and-a-half months before The Crossing, Carmichael injured his shoulder and pec muscle while paddle racing. Carmichael could hardly lift his hand over his head because of his injury and he had to pause his training, unsure if he’d make it to the 2023 event.

Carmichael’s injury healed by the time of the event, however it had limited his training more than he would have liked.

Still, he made the trip to Bimini.

“Mentally you just have to prepare yourself from a meditation perspective and relax your mind and tap into gratitude,” Carmichael said. “All in all, I felt pretty prepared.”

Participants begin the crossing at midnight, and with no moon in the sky the night of the crossing, the six to seven hours before sunrise were spent paddling in darkness.

“That was one of the more difficult parts of the entire paddle,” Carmichael said. “A few storms had passed through just before we launched off Bimini, so the ocean was really confused. There were swell directions coming from two different directions and then you had boat wakes because all of the boats were launching off.”

Carmichael’s father, Robert, captained the support boat, while his father’s friend

“I just went complete tunnel vision, I started crying like crazy, something just kind of came over me and as I was paddling tears started running down my face.”

Doug Brandon and David Golubev, sales and marketing manager for BLU3, were a part of the crew. The nighttime launch caused Carmichael to fall into the water quite often, but the crew aboard his support boat helped call out waves and keep him focused.

“I was extremely frustrated and concerned because you don’t go very fast if you’re falling off the board, and I was concerned I was spending so much energy just trying to stay balanced on the board,”

Carmichael said. “I yelled up to the guys on the boat and I said ‘Hey, if you see a wave coming, just yell it out.’”

Those instructions were clear for Golubev, and for the next 13 hours he did just that, yelling out for every single wave he saw so Carmichael could brace himself.

“I think having those guys on the boat and seeing they’re clearly as determined as you are, part of it is you don’t want to let them down,” Carmichael said.

Carmichael began the trek not feeling very competitive, but instead grateful to be there and fulfilled to be a part of an organization supporting a great cause. Although he is a competitive person, Carmichael wasn’t sure whether his injury was going to kick in and make him stop at some point in the paddle. However, once the sun rose at the 30-to-40-mile mark and he still felt fine, Carmichael turned a corner.

“That’s when I got pretty competitive and started to push myself,” he said. “The whole time I was monitoring my heart rate and I could watch my heart rate rise. My goal was to keep it in the 135 to 140 range, and I was kind of letting myself go a little bit higher because I felt good.”

At mile 60, Carmichael didn’t feel as great as mile 40, but he still felt good. However, at some point between mile 60

Blake’s incredible paddling experience was documented by South Florida production team, Locale Films. Every single event in the Bahamas leading up to the crossing itself was caught on camera. Their documentary short film “The Tenth Year” covering The Crossing’s 10-year anniversary and Team BLU3 will be released at the end of this year. instagram.com/localefilms

and 67, Carmichael’s mentality changed.

“I just went complete tunnel vision, I started crying like crazy, something just kind of came over me and as I was paddling tears started running down my face,” he said. “I think it’s just something that happens with a long-distance event like that, but also at the same time, just so many emotions of gratitude, just thinking about everybody who supported me and inspired me, and of course you’re thinking about the people with cystic fibrosis.”

Soon after, he was taken off the water due to a storm that was deemed dangerous to participants. Although Carmichael was overcome with frustration and disappointment of having to enter the boat, even if it was just for relocation, he trusted the decision made by the safety officers.

“I think most people, including me, if they could have decided in that moment to stay in the water and just paddle through the storm rather than get back into the boat and then have to get back in the water – I think they would have chosen to stay in the water,” Carmichael said.

In the boat, he sat down and realized how heavy his legs felt. He could feel them stiffening up during the crossing, but in the boat he realized they had become swollen. Through tears of disappointment he propped his legs up and Doug Brandon started massaging his legs to keep his blood flowing.

Forty minutes after he was called back into the boat, Carmichael’s new location was deemed safe. Although it was pouring rain and windy when he reentered the water, there was no lightning. Carmichael soon realized he had bigger problems than the weather.

“As I’m getting back on the board my body could barely move, my legs were completely tight,” Carmichael said. “The whole lower half of my body was pretty much rock solid, which I remember it made my board feel more stable actually, because my legs were just weighing it down – it was a weird feeling.”

Carmichael’s paddle technique deteriorated as he continued paddling due to his inability to use his lower body as much as he did before.

Carmichael’s memory of the last two hours before he reached Lake Worth Beach are spotty, but one thing he does remember is something that pushed him to reach the finale.

“I remember paddling through some super hard rain and looking over and seeing Travis (Suit) up on his boat. We were paddling right next to him, and he was just clapping and cheering me on,” he said. “I remember seeing it out of the corner of my eye and I didn’t really acknowledge it because I was in this tunnel vision, just focus on one stroke after another, don’t fall over, but inside it just made me so hyped up to see him there.”

When Carmichael reached Lake Worth Beach, family members, other participants, and volunteers were gathered to cheer him on. Later in the week, Carmichael was awarded First Place in the Competitive Men’s 14’ SUP Solo Division, with a time of roughly 13 hours and 30 minutes. Carmichael also raised close to $10,000 for The Crossing and the Piper’s Angels Foundation. His company, Dive BLU3, was also presented with the Outstanding Sponsor award.

Carmichael plans to continue paddling and looks forward to defending his spot at next year’s Crossing. His experience crossing the Gulf Stream became unforgettable, but so did his experience with the cause behind his trek.

“To be completely honest with you, I didn’t really know what cystic fibrosis was,” Carmichael said. “But it doesn’t take long after you’re involved with The Crossing for you to really feel like you can make a difference and that you start to really care for these people, even if you’ve never met somebody with it.” ‹

Part of the new Zoetry Resort

Gather round, crewmates!

By Chef Danny Davies

From battlefields to the luxurious decks of superyachts, I've whipped up dishes fit for future kings and thrillseekers alike. But let me tell you, it ain't just about the Michelin stars or the royal connections. It's about that spark when you see someone's eyes light up after tasting a creation that came from the heart.

In this culinary adventure, we'll traverse the waters and tackle the waves together. From meat munchers to plant-based pioneers, we'll embrace diversity and share recipes that'll make your taste buds sing.

I'm all about building connections and hearing the real deal from the crew in the galley. We'll dive deep into the challenges we face, from provisioning and budgeting to taming those wild sea ingredients. Together, we'll uncover the secrets of sailing the culinary seas with finesse and flair.

No need for boastful bravado, my friends. Let's embrace the charm of this humble journey, where we learn from each other and grow together. So, raise a toast to the yacht chefs, the culinary superheroes of the high seas! Stay tuned for real talk, true camaraderie and a dash of rockstar-style spice in the world of yacht chefs. Cheers, mates! ‹

YouTube: @Behindthelinechefdannydavies

Instagram: @futurechefproject

Arugula and Parmesan Salad

RECIPE BY CHEF DANNY DAVIES

This is a super simple salad for that last minute app idea. This Arugula based salad relies on a classical flavor profile to ensure that this dish will not be a miss on any charter menu. It’s the perfect lunchtime salad but also sophisticated enough to serve as an app at dinner service.

CHEF DANNY DAVIES, A 25-YEAR VETERAN CHEF, HAS WORKED ON YACHTS RANGING FROM 100 TO 400–PLUS FEET. SCAN THIS QR CODE TO WATCH HIS "BEHIND THE LINE" PODCAST INTERVIEWS WITH TOP YACHT CHEFS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.

INGREDIENTS

Let's start with fresh Arugula. Keep it peppery and crisp by wrapping it in a ziplock bag with a paper towel. That's the secret to extending its fridge life.

Next up, mustard green microgreens—a breeze to grow on board, my green-fingered folk. Or pick them up through a provisioning agent. Some supermarkets even stock them.

Then the balsamic pearls—a taste explosion! You can find them in major supermarkets, or be a culinary champion and whip 'em up yourself. Trust me, it's a piece of cake.

Now, we've got the mysterious stargazers or Egyptian star clusters, a rare treasure indeed. Don't fret! Garden centres are your treasure map. Wash them gently, pick only the budding plants, then keep them watered well and they'll bloom like a summer romance. Keep doing it right and those pretty pink flowers will last for weeks.

Of course, we can't forget the classics - extra virgin olive oil, cucumber slices, and aged Parmesan cheese. Most galley rats can rustle these up!

METHOD

Mix arugula with a little salt, shaved Parmesan and the EVOO in a large bowl.

Take two full length slices of the cucumber and lay the one over the other to create a super long slice; I use a peeler to get the right thickness. Grab a bunch of the arugula and gently ball it up. Place it on the cue and roll it up. Don’t push too hard, it should be done gently. The idea is that once the guest starts eating, it will fall apart to reveal a light salad, not a squished lump of arugula.

Tip from experience: Do this as mise and store in the fridge for up to an hour before service. It’s tricky to get it right for smaller portions. Place the cucumber side by side, overlapping slightly and offset by a couple inches. Once rolled up, it gives you a double height, skinny profile.

Garnish with balsamic pearls, mustard cress and star gazers, finish with a green basil oil just before serving so the aromatics hit the guests.

It's Chef Danny Davies, the culinary voyager, here to share a few words about the unsung legends of the open waters – the yacht chefs.

GREEN SEAS

Showing Up: Are Yacht Shows Finally Embracing Sustainability?

by Gemma Harris

In years gone by, yacht shows overflowed with overflowing trash cans and single-use plastic. Whether coming from the exhibitors’ excessive branding or the show's facilities themselves, the result isn't great. But yacht show organizers have begun to acknowledge the issue and are starting to step it up.

While the shows are a platform to showcase the entire industry, there are also initiatives that are creeping up the agenda for the show itself to implement—integrating more environmentally conscious practices into planning and execution.

Sometimes we forget it isn't as simple as addressing a fuel-guzzling yacht on the ocean when discussing sustainability. The yachting industry has so many moving parts; it must be about the industry's holistic overview (and impact), including yacht shows.

Yacht shows are the highlight of yachting calendars. They are celebrated globally and are an event not to be missed. At the beginning of this year, we already saw various sustainability initiatives championed at some of the spring shows such as Dubai's S.E.A. mission and the West Palm Beach International Boat Show’s partnership with Yacht Carbon Offset and its sustainability seminars and workshops.

These attempts to have a greener yacht show agenda are filtering through to this year's autumn season. The Monaco Yacht Show returned with its Sustainability Hub showcasing sustainable yachting brands while in the UK, British Marine teamed up with the Southampton International Boat Show, where they introduced new mandatory sustainable exhibitor requirements. Meanwhile, many sustainable initiatives are underway stateside as FLIBS kicks off.

It would be irresponsible not to address the elephant in the room - the thousands of attendees that get to the shows have more than likely traveled, whether a short or long distance. Yacht shows aren't on most people's doorsteps. But for this battle, the focus is on the show itself.

While the shows cannot be entirely sustainable, we are seeing more take proactive steps in the green department. As mentioned, yacht shows bring together thousands of people. It is the ultimate platform to facilitate networking - bringing positive discussions about reshaping our industry.

Aside from conversations in recent years, shows have begun to highlight the next-generation, greener and more innovative developments regarding propulsion and design, as well as everything else associated with yachting, whether water purification systems, electric water toys or sustainable uniform companies.

In turn, the shows have a unique opportunity to inspire positive change - helping raise awareness. It further educates the industry on the future paths to create these changes. One conversation, one stand showcasing sustainable products and one seminar on ocean conservation at a show can catalyze further change.

A lot is produced and generally wasted on branded merchandise, from lanyards to glossy brochures to flags and stand setups. We are now seeing solutions such as scanning Q.R. codes to gain information at the touch of a button versus leafing through marketing paraphernalia - or even recycled paper options - and protocols in place to hand back lanyards for reuse at the end of the show.

Of course, it isn't just the odd business card making an impact. The shows host thousands of people and hundreds of exhibitors - where is the energy coming to do so? Sustainable event management is vital, considering temporary infrastructure, energy consumption, catering requirements and other materials used when setting up.

It isn't news that the industry requires collaboration for a better future. Coming together to create positive change at our industry's best events is a step in the right direction. These sustainable initiatives being implemented are adding up to have a larger impact on this important conversation. ‹

A Bluer Economy: A Spotlight on the Marine Research Hub

The Marine Research Hub has a high-profile presence at this year’s FLIBS. One of its missions? To raise South Florida's oceanographic research institutions' visibility, reputation and prestige, establishing them as global leaders in the Blue Economy. The hub facilitates research on marine biodiversity, oceanography and sustainable resource management through collaboration and cutting-edge technology. Aside from the seminars, they partnered with the show to introduce the MRH Innovation & Sustainability Award, acknowledging and honoring other organizations demonstrating exceptional commitment to sustainability and innovative practices. The reception for the award is scheduled for Oct. 25 on board the Marine Industries Association of South Florida hospitality boat. marineresearchhub.org

FLIBS: FOUR Sustainable Initiatives Happening This Year

The 2023 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show happens in late October and showcases a host of greener initiatives.

1. Curbing the Carbon:

FLIBS owner Informa Market's 'Faster to zero' initiative has a vision of a net-zero carbon business by 2030. The show is powered by 95% of energy sourced from renewable sources such as wind, water, and solar - significantly helping to manage carbon emissions. For the past decade, Informa Markets has invested more than $2.8 million to eliminate diesel generators. FLIBS also has a notable reduction of about 15 to 20% in electricity consumption by implementing cutting-edge technology such as Tune Harmonics devices and energy-efficient LEDs.

2. Saying No to Single-Use

There is a limited plastic policy at the show. This commitment extends to some of the show organizers' uniforms crafted from recycled materials. They have also introduced lanyards made from recycled plastic which will be collected after the event to be recycled again.

3. Mindful Eating

The exclusive catering partner, Proof of the Pudding, is fully aligned with responsible event management, implementing a sustainable strategy from working towards zero landfill waste, embracing sustainable food designations, serving water and drinks in aluminum, to phasing out single-use plastic.

4. Greener Education

FLIBS has connected attendees with key leaders to provide educational seminars and sustainability efforts, highlighting the strides that are being made in sustainability. Check out the Broward County Convention Center for interactive workshops and seminars this year. flibs.com/en/experience/sustainability

CREW TRAINING BY BLUE OCEANS YACHTING

STEW/COOK COURSE SHIPS COOK ASSESSMENT

This seven-day curriculum is designed to train yacht crew how to take on the seemingly daunting dual role of a Steward(ess) and Chef. This will be an intensive course that covers all aspects of this position, from service to culinary skills.

Any Chef cooking on board charter yachts or private yachts with 10 or more crew must have this MLC compliant assessment proving they know their stuff in the galley. This course will give you the boost your CV needs and open up greater opportunity for your growth as a professional and Certified Yacht Chef.

CHEF IMMERSION SERIES

These one-day courses will feature a variety of highly respected chefs who will provide thorough, yet digestible demonstrations specifically geared toward working culinary professionals who want to add more culinary tools to their existing toolbox.

Increase your confidence, skills, earning potential & job opportunities!

DESTINATIONS

Island Insiders

As one of the most popular yachting destinations in the world, the Caribbean has seemingly endless options of tropical paradises. More than 7,000 islands make up the Caribbean region, and while it’s impossible to cover each one, Triton asked different yacht industry professionals to give their top pick in the Caribbean.

By Kevin Maher

DESTINATIONS Saint Thomas

Saint Thomas is well-known for its beautiful beaches and snorkeling spots, but its history as a colonial Danish territory influences the island as well. Remnants from its Danish past can be seen at historic sites like Fort Christian and Blackbeard’s Castle.

The island offers numerous beach options depending on your activity of choice. Brewers Bay’s crystal-clear waters not only make it a favorite for locals, but also a popular snorkeling area where green sea turtles and hawksbill turtles are often found.

Capt. Spencer Reilly chose St. Thomas as his favorite Caribbean destination, saying it’s the place to be when marinas are full. Reilly recommends Bernie’s Bar & Grill, Bluebeard’s Castle and The Westin Beach Resort & Spa as perfect hangout and relaxation sports for captains and crew.

Although the island is one of the busiest in the Caribbean, Reilly finds that that makes it one of the reasons it’s his favorite, too.

“It’s kind of the hub for the Caribbean,” Reilly said. “You’re going to meet someone from every island living, working or passing through.”

Two marinas on St. Thomas are American Yacht Harbor and Yacht Haven Grande. Yacht Haven Grande offers 46 megayacht berths with a max length of 200 meters and a max draft of 7.6 meters. The full-service marina also includes amenities like a crew lounge, on-site customs and immigration, shopping and dining. American Yacht Harbor has 123 total berths, with four mega yacht berths. The marina offers provisioning services, a sport fishing return station and vessel maintenance.

The Bahamas has many marinas to choose from, but the Nassau Yacht Haven can accommodate vessels up to 250 feet in length and drafts of up to 18 feet. The marina’s location also puts it at a short distance away from shops, businesses and restaurants. Owners, guests and crew can also take advantage of its state-of-the-art gym.

The Bahamas

Around 700 islands make up the Bahamas, offering plenty of options for each visitor. Its proximity to Florida makes it one of the most popular locations in the Caribbean. It’s easy to have fun in tourist attractions like Atlantis, but if something more out of the way and secluded is your preference, the Bahamas offers private islands and protected areas like the Lucayan National Park.

Capt. Herbert Magney loves the natural beauty of the waters and the beaches of the Bahamas, but also finds that the ease of flying to and from Europe makes it a great spot in the Caribbean. He most enjoys the quieter side of the islands – although that’s not always every client’s favorite.

“It would be the outer southern islands of the Bahamas because of the natural beauty and remoteness and serenity that it offers,” Magney said. “But that’s only for clientele that want to get away from it all, and want beautiful beaches, and don’t want to see another boat for a weekend and want to scuba dive or snorkel in crystal clear water that they can only find in the South Pacific.”

Olympic National Park, Point of Arches at Shi Shi Beach

Saint Barthélemy

The 11-mile-long island known as St. Barts isn’t big, but its pristine beaches and luxury hotels and restaurants make it feel larger than it is. Although the island is a part of the Caribbean, visitors can often feel like they’re in a French village instead, due to it being a semi-autonomous overseas collectivity of France. Euros are the currency on the island, and while the official language of St. Barts is French, most speak English too.

Capt. Scott Miller is an avid surfer, and when he is visiting the Caribbean and has some time to catch some waves St. Barts is his choice. Miller’s routine when visiting St. Barts is having lunch at Hotel Christopher, then heading down to Toiny Beach to surf. Toiny Beach also offers a secluded beach shack that offers amazing food, according to Miller. However, the passage to get down to the beach is a bit tricky.

“You actually go down to the beach in a Defender Jeep because you can’t walk down there,” Miller said. “You jump in the back of the Defender and wind yourself down the mountain – it’s good fun.”

St. Barts is home to Port De Gustavia. The marina offers mega yacht slips along with diesel, a dive shop, a salon and spa, and medical facilities close by. All yachts must contact the Port Captain’s office and obtain “express authorization” before entering or maneuvering within the port.

Saint Lucia

Like many islands in the Caribbean, Saint Lucia boasts beautiful beaches and a tropical climate, but what makes the island stand out from the rest of the region are its two mountainous volcanic spires known as the Pitons. Gros Piton and Petit Piton are covered in lush rainforest, making the island a hiker’s paradise when visiting the Caribbean. Gros Piton is recommended to most visitors, as the more difficult Petit Piton is rarely climbed. The Pitons and green landscapes are part of the reason St. Lucia is Chef Christian Russo’s favorite place in the Caribbean.

“It’s not as developed as other places, so there’s lots of rainforest and waterfalls, and all sorts of outdoor adventure-y things you can do,” Russo said. “Of course, it has some tourist traps which is also kind of fun too.”

Although Russo is constantly creating five-star dishes, he prefers to find the best local spots when looking for a bite to eat. He recommends Spice of India as a “great hole in the wall” experience.

“Anybody can go to a Michelin star or something like that, I like finding the little hidden gems,” Russo said.

St. Lucia’s two marinas are in Marigot Bay and Rodney Bay. The Marigot Bay Yacht Haven can accommodate the biggest superyachts cruising the southern Caribbean, offering a full-service marina to visitors. The marina is recognized as one of the region’s most secure anchoring spots, dubbed “Hurricane Hole” due to its surrounding mountains and minimal tidal changes. All marina guests can also take advantage of The Marigot Bay Resort’s facilities, which include four bars, a fitness center and a spa. Rodney Bay can accommodate up to 32 megayachts and is surrounded by some of the island’s best hotels and restaurants.

Fort Lauderdale West Palm Beach Savannah Newport (Seasonal)

Pacific Europe Italy

St. Thomas

St. Maarten Antigua

OCT EVENTS

October 3-7

42nd Street

Southampton, UK

The classic musical comes to the south coast with a cast that includes British stalwarts Faye Tozer and Les Dennis. mayflower.org.uk

October 5-November 19

ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup

Men’s teams from 10 top cricketing nations will meet in India.

cricketworldcup.com

October 7, 14, 21, 28

Oktoberfest in the Gardens

Australia’s massive roving Oktoberfest makes four October stops: Perth (10/7), Brisbane (10/14), Melbourne (10/21) and Sydney (10/28).

oktoberfestinthegardens.com.au

October 12-15

Barbados Jazz Excursion and Golf Tournament

St. Philip, Barbados

Sam Lord’s Castle Barbados hosts an event that swings in more ways than one. slcwyndham.com/

October 14-29

Into the Woods

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Sondheim and Lapine’s take on the Brothers Grimm is a musical theater masterpiece. browardcenter.org/events

October 15-19

October 16-19

MIPCOM

Cannes, France

The 39th edition of MIPCOM brings together TV and entertainment sellers, buyers and producers to network and make deals.

mipcom.com

October 14-15

Las Olas Art Fair

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

The 36th annual art fair is back with more than 200 local and national artists displaying their wares on Fort Lauderdale’s popular shopping and dining street, Las Olas Boulevard. artfestival.com

Los Cabos Billfish Tournament

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Mexico’s Baja Peninsula provides a beautiful backdrop for some big-money fishing. loscabostournaments.com

October 18

Crew, Captains & Cocktails

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Triton’s October crew and captain event is a little FLIBS pre-gamer at Lewis Marine Supply, 220 SW 32nd St, from 5 to 8 p.m. the-triton.com

October 18-21

South Beach Seafood Festival

Miami, Florida

Kick off Miami’s stone crab season enjoying shrimp, lobster and of course, stone crab. sobeseafoodfest.com

October 18-22

Ubud Writers & Readers Festival

Ubud, Bali

The respected festival celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2023. ubudwritersfestival.com

PHOTO LOS CABOS TOURNAMENT

PHOTO CRICKETWORLDCUP.COM

PHOTO YOUTUBE.COM

October 19-22

Olympic Yacht Show

Lavrio, Greece

The third edition of this show looks to continue to establish itself as a platform for the medium and large yacht categories. olympicyachtshow.gr

October 21-22

III Points Music Festival

Miami, Florida

Skrillex, Grimes, and Iggy Pop headline two days of music, art and technology in Miami’s bohemian arts neighborhood, Wynwood. iiipoints.com

October 21

Rolex Middle Sea Race

Grand Harbour, Malta

The 44th edition of this race challenges racers with 606 nautical miles around two active volcanoes.

www.rolexmiddlesearace.com

October 25-29

Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

With more than 100,00 attendees and seven different locations, FLIBS is the largest in-water boat show in the world. flibs.com

October 26

Design & Leadership Awards Gala

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

The International Superyacht Society is recognizing top superyacht designers and builders at The Ritz-Carlton on Fort Lauderdale Beach.

superyachtsociety.ticketspice.com

October 21

iHeartRadio Fiesta Latina

Miami, Florida

Enrique Santos hosts an evening that includes Chayanne, Ricardo Montaner, Fonseca, Servando Y Florentino, Luis Figuero and more. kaseyacenter.com/events

October 25-29

Biograd Boat Show

Biograd na Moru, Croatia

The 25th anniversary of Central Europe’s in-water boat show continues its gradual growth with more than 1,500 charter yachts represented. bbs.com.hr

October 27-29

boatica

Cape Town, South Africa

This show combines an on-water expo of South African boat, yacht, and catamaran manufacturing with an on-land extension display of all boating needs.

boatshow.za.messefrankfurt.com

October 28 –

November 1

Valencia Boat Show

Valencia, Spain

The 15th edition of the Valencia Boat Show promises innovation, sustainability, water sports, and lots of yachts.

valenciaboat.com

PHOTO MEDIA SHIP

PHOTO VISIT VALENCIA

PHOTO SAIL-WORLD.COM

EVENTS

November 2

Zac Brown Band – From the Fire Tour

WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA

At 7 p.m. at the iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre. livenation.com

November 3 & 25-26

Psychics from Down Under PERTH AND MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

Mediums Julie Cartagena and Annette Boyle are joined by Australia’s Ghost Hunter, Anthony Grzelka, for two shows each day at the Crown Perth (November 3) and Melbourne (25 and 26). mediumsfromdownunder.com

November 4-8

EDSea

MIAMI TO THE BAHAMAS

The Electric Daisy Carnival is taking to the sea for a four-night EDC themed cruise with non-stop beats on board. edsea.com

November 5

Earth Cry - Tchaikovsky & Sibelius

HONOLULU, HAWAII

At the Hawaii Theatre, Violinist Simone Porter joins the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra for Earth Cry - Tchaikovsky & Sibelius; the evening features Sibelius’ Violin Concerto, Sculthorpe’s Earth Cry and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5.

myhso.org

November 9

Explorer Yachts Summit

YACHT CLUB DE MONACO, MONACO

A line-up of yacht owners, captains, and adventurers appear at the one-day event dedicated to the explorer yachting sector. Held in association with Damen Yachting and in collaboration with ExplorerYachts.com. boatinternational.com

November 9-12

Abu Dhabi International Boat Show

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Held at the ADNEC marina which includes a 6-meter channel, this show enables yachts of all sizes to attend.

adibs.ae

November 9-12

Fiji Spartan Trifecta Week

AVIVA RACE COURSE, FIJI

Athletes can test their skill and toughness on a series of challenges.

race.spartan.com

November 10

Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull, Ricky Martin: The Trilogy Tour

MIAMI, FLORIDA

At 7 p.m. at the Kaseya Center. livenation.com

November 10-12

Electric Daisy Carnival

ORLANDO, FLORIDA

Electronic dance music, full-size carnival rides, performers, art and more return again to central Florida.

orlando.electricdaisycarnival.com

November 10-13

China (Xiamen)

International Boat Show

WUYUAN BAY YACHT HARBOR, HULI DISTRICT

This water-based boat show saw 45,000 visitors attend last year’s event. xmboatshow.com

PHOTO YACHT CHARTER

PHOTO OCR BASE

PHOTO THE BOSTON GLOBE

PHOTO SUPERYACHT CONTENT

November 11

Stavros Halkias

FORT LAUDERDALE

The comedian brings his Fat Rascal tour to the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale. browardcenter.org

November 11-14

United States Virgin Islands Charter Yacht Show

YACHT HAVEN GRANDE, ST. THOMAS

Charter crew and brokers converge in the Caribbean for networking opportunities, events, and training. usviyachtshow.org

November 17-19

Thailand Charter Week

PHUKET YACHT HAVEN MARINA, PHUKET

This business-to-business event is for charter brokers, agents, and luxury travel and hotel operators to learn about Southeast Asia’s cruising grounds. thailandcharterweek.com

November 18-24

Battle 4 Atlantis

ATLANTIS PARADISE ISLAND BAHAMAS

Top US college basketball teams face off in a big early-season tournament. The women’s tournament runs from November 18 to 20, and the men play from November 22 to 24.

atlantisbahamas.com

November 28-30

MAPIC

CANNES, FRANCE

This international event gathers retail property, leisure, food, and tech communities in one place. mapic.com

November 27-28

Chiang Mai Lantern Festival

CHIANG MAI, THAILAND

The Chiang Mai Lantern Festival, or Yee Peng Festival, is held annually in the beautiful city of Chiang Mai in the North of Thailand. asiahighlights.com

November 15-17

METSTRADE

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

Do you like marine equipment? Materials? Systems? As ever, Amsterdam knows how to party. metstrade.com

November 15-19

Key West Film Festival

The contiguous United States’ southernmost film festival always features an interesting crosssection of cinema.

keywestff.com

November 17

Marc Anthony – Viviendo Tour

MIAMI, FLORIDA

At 8 p.m. at the Kaseya Center. livenation.com

November 17-18

Music of John Williams with Anne-Sophie Mutter

WELLINGTON (11/17) AND AUCKLAND (11/18), NEW ZEALAND

The German violinist joins the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra for concerts celebrating the film score legend. nzso.co.nz

PHOTO IGY MARINAS.COM

PHOTO OK MEDIA MARKETING

PHOTO MARINE INDUSTRY NEWS

PHOTO ONBOARD ONLINE

PHOTO ASIAHIGHLIGHTS

YOUR LOCAL CHILLER EXPERTS SINCE 1995!

FLAGSHIP MARINE IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE WE ARE NOW A STOCKING DISTRIBUTOR FOR ALL WEBASTO MARINE AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEMS THAT WE BELIEVE PERFECTLY COMPLIMENTS FLAGSHIP MARINE’S PRODUCT LINE OF DOMESTIC SYSTEMS.

State Of The Art Marine Air Conditioning Systems

3211 SE Gran Park Way, Stuart, Florida 34997

Toll Free: 1-800-316-6426 • Phone: 772-283-1609

www.itrmarine.com • www.flagshipmarine.com

Email: sales@flagshipmarine.com

The Webasto chillers combine the legendary German engineering excellence with numerous skilled Western European manufacturing facilities that result in a full line of exceptional systems we are proud to offer and support.

Largest yachts* sold in July and August

Combined last asking price of the 10 yachts mentioned in this report: $92,329,781 USD

Combined last asking price of the 10 yachts mentioned in this report: $26,824,171 USD

*NOTE THAT THIS IS A REFLECTION OF YATCO LISTINGS INTELLIGENCE AND ONLY REFLECTS THE UPDATES ON YATCO AND NOT THE INDUSTRY AS A WHOLE.

TRITON EXPO NORTH

Derektor Fort Pierce hosted more than 300 people and 30 vendors at the Triton Expo North. The event highlighted the growing yacht industry on Florida's Treasure Coast; 11 organizations were hiring at the event, with more than 50 jobs available.

In addition to networking and job-hunting, attendees enjoyed food, drinks, music and plenty of fun giveaways.

Expo partners included:

Hutchinson Marina

Engineered Yacht Solutions

Merritt Supply

Digital Cutting Solutions

Pelican Yacht Club

Galaxy Marine Distributors

C-Systems and Services

Ships Machinery International, Inc.

UESI Divers

Geotherm Survey

Indiantown Marine Center

Datum RMS

DDL Consulting

IT 4 Yachts – CT Yacht Services

Nautical Ventures

REA Technical service

Ascendant FX

Singh & Associates LLC

Well Med Associates

Barton and Gray Mariners Club

Sailfish Brewery

PinkFish Yacht Interior Services

MIATC – Marine Industries

Association of the Treasure Coast

Derecktor’s Fort Pierce

Visit St Lucie County

Economic Development Council

US Marina Group

Photos by Carrie Bailey and Kevin Maher

12 METER WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

The 12 Meter World Championship meant fun and excitement for captains, crew and spectators in Rhode Island. Jack LeFort's Challenge XII was the Division 1 Modern champion. Also winning was Kevin Hegarty and Anthony Chiurco's Columbia (Division 2 Traditional and Division D Vintage).

Photos by Stephen Cloutier

CANNES YACHTING FESTIVAL

The Cannes Yachting Festival kicked off the 2023 boat show season with its usual glamour. With about 700 vessels spread out over two ports, the festival featured many debuts. The festival's Green Route and Start-Up Village showcased sustainable solutions and breakthrough technologies.

Let's fuel our industry with a new generation of workers.

In an industry where the skilled trades and specialized career tracks are crucial to its vitality, the maritime community is facing a workforce that’s aging out with skilled labor being very hard to find Sea The World is a marine industry storefront comprised of nine walls representing shipyard trade workers, engine room specialists, yachting professionals, and other areas like marina management, training, and boat building, to name a few.

To inspire the younger generation to join the maritime industry by educating them about endless career opportunities through innovative strategies

With continuous philanthropic education initiatives, we strive to develop a solid and passionate workforce that will strengthen the marine industry.

State Wages

The marine industry offers 16% Higher Wages than state average

500,000

There are 500,000 vessel visits to Florida every year

Economic Impact

The marine industry provides $12.9 billion in economic impact to the tri-county area- 149,000 jobs

$4

Billion

The marine industry in Florida provides $4 billion in wages

MISSION VISION

The Oasis Lounge

The Official Hospitality Lounge for Superyacht Captains & Crew

Lounge Hours

11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Daily

Lunch available for dine-in or pick-up

11:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Bahia Mar/Swimming Hall of Fame Oasis

Fully Catered Buffet

11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. at the Superyacht Village Oasis

Co-organizers GMT and Yacht Chandlers are gearing up for another Oasis Lounge at the 2023 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show — offering superyacht captains and crew everything from gourmet food to a fully stocked bar, live music, Wi-Fi, streaming of live sports such as the rugby world cup, an exciting floral competition, and a selection of fantastic sponsor giveaways and promotions.

The first Oasis location is moving from the Bahia Mar floating barge on the main docks to an on-land air-conditioned tent at the Swimming Hall of Fame near the VIP/valet entrance. We are happy to accommodate all superyacht crew for lunch with an array of delicious sandwiches and salads on offer for dine-in or pick-up. A detailed map location will be featured on Oasis' Facebook page.

The second Oasis location at FLIBS’ Superyacht Village is in the same location with a lux indoor/outdoor atmosphere fit for relaxing and connecting with old and new friends. There will be comfortable dining tables to enjoy a catered lunch buffet off the boat and head back refreshed and ready to welcome on more guests.

Previous sponsors of The Oasis Lounge provided visitors expertise on everything from crew placement and training, to weather forecasting and insurance.

Our 2023 sponsors are:

Derecktor Shipyards

Engineered Yacht Solutions

GMT

MHG Insurance

Triton Magazine

Tropic Ocean Airways

V.Scope

Weather Routing Inc. Yacht Chandlers

For sponsorship please inquire: julia.russell@flygmt.com

For updates and news, please follow us on our Facebook page

*Oasis Management has the right to approve or deny any visitors.

WE OFFER COMPETITIVE PRICING FOR YOUR NEXT PAINT PROJECT WITHOUT SACRIFICING QUALITY.

We can accommodate vessels up to 75 tons inside our climate controlled shed. Southern Cross Boatworks is on-site to support larger projects that require scaffolding and shrink wrap structures.

06607

Specialized RYA Training Centre offering RYA Coastal and Offshore Yachtmaster Theory and Practical Training

SMALL CLASS SIZE | EXPERT INSTRUCTION TheOceanAcademy.org

Email: Steve@TheOceanAcademy.org

Anita Warwick

Tel: +1 954 763 9787

M/WhatsApp: +1 954 294 2078

Skype: ozanita

Anita@SevenSeasHealth.com SevenSeasHealth.com

Crew • Expats Travel & Trip Cancellation

APPLICABLE WITH GAS/WATER SEPARATOR MUFFLERS

Process: Clean-Exhaust’s dosing pump injects the specifically formulated ecoBrew into the generator/engine raw water cooling system before the spray ring. The ecoBrew emulsifies the diesel particulate matter and soot as it passes through the piping and muffler, much like the agitation action in a washing machine. No back pressure is created in the process.

Result: The exhaust gas is expelled with little or no particulate, facilitating cleaner air, cleaner harbors, cleaner oceans, cleaner hulls and boot stripes with no floating sheen or sludge.

One Captain, One Engineer, One Great Idea!... clean-exhaust

Captain Ted Sputh

Tel: +1 317-445-3873

Email: info@clean-exhaust.com

Rodger Stone

Tel: +1 518-378-6546

Email: res2itrmarine@gmail.com

www.clean-exhaust.com

Yacht-Mate Products

Tel: +1 954-527-0112

Email: sales@yachtmate.com

YOUR PLACE IN THE SUN!

EXPERIENCE THE SUNTEX DIFFERENCE!

Suntex Marinas are so much more than a place to park your boat. We’ve got it all, including gyms, pools, waterfront restaurants, fully-stocked marine centers, captain’s lounges, a designated FTZ, and more. Enjoying first-class amenities, you’re sure to have a great time, along with a safe, comfortable and stress-free experience. Our rigorous standards to maintain the marinas in top condition and our highlyresponsive staff are also why Suntex Marinas’ customer satisfaction ratings are among the highest in the hospitality industry.

To learn more about our growing network of more than 50 marinas with an unwavering commitment to worldclass guest services, visit us at suntexCOASTAL.com/TRITON.