Do You Savvy, Mate?

Making the Grade

A new yacht training facility in Fort Lauderdale aims to better prepare novice crew.

By Dorie Cox

Brian Muston, Doug Norden and Nick Gray take a hands-on approach at Savvy Maritime Academy in Fort Lauderdale. At left, Chief Stew Irma Malabanan is in charge of the 10-day interior course.

PHOTOS DORIE COX

As a yacht captain, Brian Muston used to ask his departing crew, “How was it? Was this job what you expected it would be?” During his entire 30-year career, not one crew member said yachting was what they expected. And that is the impetus for Savvy Maritime Academy, the newest yacht crew training facility in Fort Lauderdale.

In an eff ort to better prepare novice crew, Muston teamed up with instructors Nick Gray and Doug Norden, both yacht crew veterans with more than 23 years between them, and interior instructor Irma Malabanan, a chief stew with more than 20 years’ experience.

Th e fi rst training sessions were scheduled to begin in January, and they include the eight-week Deck Academy, a 10-day interior course, and a 10-day tender-driving course.

When new and young crew are hired, they are expected to perform like seasoned veterans, Muston said. “When they mess up, they get yelled at, they get fi red, and they have a miserable time. Most owners and captains are not interested in training new crew.”

To prevent that, students at the academy will be immersed in boat handling, polishing, painting, fi re plans and other practicals, with ongoing assessment quizzes and a completion certifi cation, Gray said during a tour of the 10,000-square-foot warehouse facility in December.

Afterward, new crew will have the ability to succeed on any vessel they go to. “If it's a good yacht program, they won't be lost. If it's not so good of a program, then they'll know enough to know better,” Gray said.

Muston said he designed the school’s model from the commercial world, where, for example, an AB (able-bodied seaman) is required to have at least six months of maritime training. “Yachting is one of the only industries where there is no experience required for such a high level of responsibility, and crew don’t even know what they don’t know. It's not their fault.”

“I think this type of training is the future,” he added. “Th is is ambitious, but yachting will be a safer place and that’s the goal.” ‹

Savvy Maritime Academy is located at 1885 W. State Road 84 in Fort Lauderdale. For more information, visit savvymaritimeacademy.com.