Bridge Lunch

Belongs to The Triton. Uploaded on February 3, 2010 - 8:30pm.
January 25, 2010

Over the Thanksgiving holiday in late November, an owner reportedly hit an outcropping of rocks in the Bahamas, ejecting three people from the tender and sending them all to the hospital.

Belongs to The Triton. Uploaded on December 23, 2009 - 4:01pm.
December 28, 2009

It’s difficult not to think about jobs and job searches when the Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show is in town. So when it was over – and before everyone left town again – we asked 10 captains gathered for our monthly luncheon how they go about hiring.

Belongs to The Triton. Uploaded on November 23, 2009 - 4:37pm.
November 23, 2009

There was a lot of talk at the Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show about repeat showings, qualified buyers and even offers (lowball as they were). So it almost feels like – dare I write it – the tide is turning for yachting.

Belongs to The Triton. Uploaded on October 26, 2009 - 7:06pm.
October 26, 2009

A conversation about crew management can take any number of different tracks. You could discuss how much time it takes, the techniques that work (and don’t), even training or coaching methods. Ours didn’t start on any of those tracks. It got derailed when one captain at our monthly lunch brought up first mates.

Belongs to The Triton. Uploaded on October 25, 2009 - 3:31pm.
October 1, 2009

Obtaining and maintaining a license is just part of life as a yacht captain, agreed the captains gathered on both sides of the Atlantic for our monthly From the Bridge luncheon. As in our survey this month  these captains acknowledged that, sure, no law requires the skipper to have a license to drive a private recreational vessel. But they also said any captain would find it much harder to land a job without one.

September 28, 2009

Obtaining and maintaining a license is just part of life as a yacht captain, agreed the captains gathered on both sides of the Atlantic for our monthly From the Bridge luncheon.As in our survey this month [see story and stats beginning on page C1], these captains acknowledged that, sure, no law requires the skipper to have a license to drive a private recreational vessel. But they also said any captain would find it much harder to land a job without one.

August 26, 2009

Faced with financial demands on all sides, wise yacht owners know better than to nickel and dime captain and crew salaries if they want to maintain their investment, captains on both sides of the Atlantic said last month.

While captains have not taken pay cuts – nor would they, as a rule – they did note that raises and bonuses have been put on hold, hopefully for better times.

July 22, 2009

A few short years ago, crew enjoyed a crest in the yachting industry driven by a strong economy and bustling growth.Now, not so much. But if the current state of the industry can be seen as a trough, then higher times are ahead.With that in mind, we gathered seven captains to talk about how best to steer the industry out of this low point. What weak spots need to be fixed? What good parts need to be protected? And how do we have a little control over the state of the industry in the months and years ahead?

June 24, 2009

As the summer charter season ramps up, we figured it would be a good time to talk about the business of chartering – from the megayacht captain’s perspective.

May 22, 2009

It happens. Crew get in trouble ashore. Sometimes it’s physical, like a bar fight; sometimes it’s legal, like possession of drugs. Usually, though, it causes delays or worse for the yacht, her captain and the rest of the crew.

April 29, 2009

We’re not sure about you, but we are pretty tired of talking about the economy and the depressing job situation.

So at our captains’ roundtable discussion this month, we talked about yachting, specifically the best places to take a yacht.

"Someplace new," one captain began.

March 25, 2009

As crew meet with placement agents, pore over online job postings and walk the docks, who better to offer them some tips for landing a job than the ones who actually do the hiring?

So we asked nine megayacht captains gathered for this month’s captains’ luncheon to offer job-searching crew their best advice on what to do and what not to do to get that next job.

February 23, 2009

The Western world’s economic situation has many stories to tell, and they aren’t all doom and gloom.

Take The Triton’s monthly captain’s lunch, for example. Of the eight men gathered who earn their living operating someone else’s megayacht, one had a full-time job with a boss.

January 21, 2009

The topic of getting in debt with the boss has come up quite a bit lately. Lawyers talked about it at our monthly networking event, friends talked about it over my dinner table.

So we decided to ask captains how often it happens.

To be clear, we’re not talking about being owed salary. Yacht crew, like most employees, work first, get paid afterward.

December 25, 2008

Over the past few years, harbor pilots have played a bigger role for megayachts cruising the United States East Coast. For some captains and owners, that role has gotten so big that they have changed itineraries to avoid what they see as an inconvenient and unnecessary expense.

But other captains have never taken a pilot nor do they quite believe the regulations apply to private yachts.

November 24, 2008

This month’s discussion topic comes courtesy of a captain who is worried.

I bumped into him at the Ft. Lauderdale boat show and he wanted to know why we don’t write more about safety, a topic he considered the most important in the industry. And he spent the next 15 minutes telling me why.

October 29, 2008

One of the most challenging parts of being a megayacht captain – and the part no school trains you for – is managing a refit.

So in this time of refits, we decided to ask the nine captains assembled for our monthly roundtable discussion how they handle refits. Who decides what work gets done? How do you juggle the timing of myriad vendors? And how much of the nitty-gritty does the boss really want to know?

Belongs to The Triton. Uploaded on January 10, 2010 - 4:12am.
September 23, 2008

It’s a common to hear captains say that managing crew is a lot like parenting. The lament usually gets a chuckle and conjures up images of unruly children.

But as any parent knows, the responsibility isn’t quite so funny, nor childish. The hard part of guiding people – whether they be children or employees – is figuring out how much not to do so those under your charge can take flight on their own.

August 25, 2008

As the season for boat sales approaches, we thought it a good time to ask captains about sea trials.

Not the kind they take alone with the engine guys to make sure that overhaul worked out OK, but the kind that’s required for a sale, the kind with surveyors and brokers, potential owners and sometimes anyone else who has an interest in spending a couple hours at sea.

July 28, 2008

One of the ways to mitigate crew turnover is to offer sufficient time off. Too often, though, that’s easier said ??" or even promised ??" than done.

Job rotations and relief work have been suggested as a way to offer time off to full-time crew, but few boats actually do it. We wondered why, so we asked the captains at this month’s roundtable discussion if they thought job rotations were a good idea.

June 25, 2008

With all the buzz over the booming yacht sector and the miles of megayachts expected to splash in the coming years, there’s been a bit of speculation that there’s a crew shortage a comin’.

While we don’t want to argue that this industry needs skilled crew, the answer lies not only in increasing the body count, but in keeping those bodies already at it.

May 30, 2008

Yachts and captains have been around for generations, but this contemporary business of running yachts has really only developed in the last 40 years. The time is coming when pioneers in yachting -- not just captains -- have hit retirement age.

Anecdotes abound of captains who hit certain points in their lives -- most often, young children -- and seek to come ashore. And there are others who use the occasion of children leaving the nest to get (back) into the industry.

April 29, 2008

As the mainstream American press primes its readers for a recession, a few journalists have picked up on the delicious fact that the rich keep getting richer.

March 27, 2008

At the request of a couple of captains, we assembled operators (and previous operators) of Asian-built motoryachts to discuss the benefits and challenges of ordering yachts at significantly lower cost than American- or European-built vessels.