Category: IC in The Islander Magazine

Fixing the shortage of Pocket Superyacht Crew.

Ever since I started in the yachting industry 16 years ago -and probably before- there has been talk of a shortage in quality crew. I am not convinced that much has been done about it. In fact, I feel the problem has been made worse for several reasons. The most obvious one being the sheer numbers of yachts ordered and build. Also, yachtmaster licenses which -with enough miles in your logbook- can be obtained in as little as two weeks, have become unaccepted under more and more flags. Insurance companies have had a very hard couple of years, mainly through meteorological and environmental causes, but it made them scrutinise captain’s cv’s a little more closely than they did before. Surely all the above are, in a way positive developments for our industry, but it hasn’t helped us to get more qualified crew.   Three years ago I launched the online course How To Work On Pocket Superyachts, in an attempt to contribute to the solution of the issue. However, I bumped into 2 issues. One was that completely novice crew -who were very easy to motivate to enroll in the course- were not employable after the course as they still […]

Invisible Crew and Save The Med.

Late August I had lunch with Brad Robertson. I have known Brad for as long as I have been on Mallorca, about 7 years now. Invisible Crew has supported his marine conservation NGO for many years when it was still called Ondine. At some point we lost track of each other and it was time to catch up. There was a lot of catching up to do. Ondine has now become Save The Med, an organization that employs more than a dozen people full time, all dedicated to marine conservation. They run several projects raising awareness around plastic pollution and for the biodiversity of the Balearic waters. They have established new Marine Protected Areas and help the government manage these with the data they gather. This is a very simplified summary of what Save The Med does, because their work is extensive and in-depth. Brad introduced me to the Research Vessel Toftevaag. A 110 year old wooden (ex-) fishing boat built in Norway. A magical and unique ship that looks majestic with her wardrobe of 5 dark red sails raised from her bowsprit over her main and mizzen mast. Early September, I joined a 5 day expedition with her owner […]

Transiting the Panama Canal.

2019 ended with an interesting adventure for me. Before transiting from the old to the new year I had the opportunity to transit the Panama Canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The Lagoon 620 “Plan B” was moored in Shelter Bay Marina, Colon. It’s a nicely manicured place but the adjacent jungle produced the eery deep growling of a large cat in the evenings and vultures were hovering over us throughout the day. Just before sunset on the 25th of November we left with 3 local line handlers on board. They brought large clean fenders and long mooring lines. In front of the Atlantic Bridge we waited for our pilot, or advisor, to come on board. His role was to communicate with the lock tenders and offer instructions to Martin, Plan B’s captain. Apart from the advisor’s late arrival, the Gatun locks transit went smooth. With 3 different locks the ships are raised 26 meters up from sea level to the Gatun Lake. The speed at which the locks are filled is impressive. The mix of salt- and freshwater in the first lock makes it feel like you’re floating in a big pot of boiling soup. Once into […]

Certification versus qualification

Recently we have seen an increase in yachts registered under Belgian flag. Especially for commercial yachts the lenient coding process seems to be the selling point for flying the beautiful (not) black, yellow and red colours of my home country. The issue however lies with the safe manning rules. Irrelevant of the yacht’s size, the captain must be a holder of an MCA Master 200 license, accepted under the STCW-95_II 2 convention. This is different from the Yachtmaster 200 Ton license which falls under the STCW-95_IV 4 convention. The exams for the MCA license seem to be considerably more challenging than the RYA or IYT Yachtmaster exams. It’s safe to say that it’s a higher, more serious certificate. Once again, none of this is relevant to Pocket Superyachts, in fact, this safe manning rule has an adverse effect. The captains who have have studied for the MCA 200 (and it’s actually more common to find Master 500’s) usually aspire to command +100ft yacht. So when we have a client with a 60ft Belgian flagged commercial yacht we have to refuse perfectly qualified captains because they don’t hold the correct license. They usually hold the more popular Yachtmaster license. Additionally the […]

The art of the sailor is to leave nothing to chance

This time of the year we do a lot of deliveries, bringing yachts to their summer cruising grounds. These trips at the beginning and the end of the season reminds many of us, Pocket Superyacht crew, why we made sailing the 50ft to 100ft range of luxury yachts our job; The true love for offshore sailing. In the middle of the summer the Mediterranean sailing conditions can sometimes be a little too comfortable and benign.   The focus shifts to keeping the yacht clean, to technical maintenance and of course to hospitality. Conditions are so easy that we stand the risk of becoming complacent towards safety until a September storm sends us a (not so) gentle first reminder. Bringing the yacht to the next pick up point for guests is done under time pressure which, in combination with light airs often prevents crew from quenching their sailing thirst.    But a delivery in March or April, that takes you through the Bay of Biscay or the Golfe de Lion, can put your salty sailors skills to the test again. “The art of the sailor is to leave nothing to chance.” This is a quote by Annie Van de Wiele which […]