I was going to just let the thread die with others getting in the last word but you have challenged me so if you want a debate anchorman, let's go...
I don't think one person here actually read the article from the Triton Megayacht News since it was only put in with a link. Here it is in most of its entirety. Read it and you'll see that yacht mariners are a club. The article reads like social column from some Palm Beach rag:
Even crystal ball won’t show future for disparate captains
The crisis in the financial markets has hit home for many yacht captains. But the funny thing is that it’s done so in lots of different ways. Whether captains are on a boat that has reigned in some costs, or let go from a yacht that plans to sit at the dock (and keeping only a mate or deckhand to keep her clean), or taking the lemons of this economic time to make lemonade by changing course in their lives, the stories reveal anything but a trend.
They are looking for some comfort, I guess, and I tell them the best I can. Yes, some captains have been laid off, and as you might imagine, they don’t want their names to appear here. I try to encourage them to tell their stories, but somehow this industry – humans in general, I guess – see people who have been laid off as having some sort of flaw. It’s not your fault. It happens. Use this time to market yourself. Tell everyone you know you are looking for work. You never know where your next post will come from.
But captains are also getting jobs. Capt. Gianni Brill has taken over M/Y Perle Bleue, the 124-foot Hakvoort. Brill helped return the yacht to Holland last spring for some warranty work and has been looking for a permanent post pretty much ever since. He was this close to moving back out to California to do something else with his life when Perle Bleue took him on full time this fall.
The yacht has been in Palm Beach so far this winter, waiting for charters for the Caribbean. But eventually, she plans to head back to Europe for Brill’s eighth trans-Atlantic and the summer charter season. "We have a happy crew of seven from New Zealand and England," he said.
There are other options, too. I’ve talked to a surprising number of captains who have been taking courses to position themselves for jobs in the commercial industry if things don’t loosen up after the holidays. Some don’t want their names published because they believe it would taint their chances of getting a yacht job should things shake loose, but Capt. David Hare sees his shift to commercial a wise career move.
Already hired by Edison Chouest in Louisiana, Hare is a training captain on a 280-foot supply vessel. When we spoke in mid-December, he was in his first tour of 28 days on, 14 days off and was, and I quote him here, "over the moon."
"The crew is excellent, cooperative and all willing to assist me in the learning curve," he said. "And the food is good. It’s not bad."
Hare hopes to follow a fast track that will raise his USCG license to a 6,000 ton endorsement. Though currently on a vessel of 1,860 grt, he said he’s expecting to be on a 5,500 grt vessel next tour. After 180 days on that ship, he will have the bigger tonnage endorsement as well as the Third Mate Unlimited endorsement, putting him on the unlimited ladder.
"It is conceivable that in five years I will have earned the Unlimited Masters/Any Ship/Any Ocean rating, the PhD in the industry."
Hare approached the job strictly out of survival mode.
"I like to eat food," he said by phone off duty. "I am $48,000 in debt with credit cards and school loans."
I asked Hare if he would leave for a yacht job, and he said, without hesitating, no. "Now with the security I have here and the migration path," he said. "And having 14 days off is very attractive to me. I can go anywhere in the world to relax for those 14 days."
While the 12-hour shift can be physically and mentally demanding – imagine having to watch the dynamic positioning screen that is keeping the vessel 10m from the oil platform for two hours at the end of the shift – the 12 hours off he has each day are relaxing.
"When I go to my bunk at 12 hours, no one would bother me unless the boat is sinking," he said. "On yachts, I was forever being roused up for the smallest damn thing. I’m sleeping longer and better now than I have in 20 years at sea. "Just wanted to give you that update to let you know that I am happy, at peace and being treated well, vastly better than being on the beach fretting," he said.
For those captains with jobs, most have just put their head down and kept working, even if the situation or owner wasn’t ideal. But Capt. Adam Lambert quit his post this fall when the demands of the owner got to be too much. "I’m just not going to accept that there are no jobs out there," he said. "This one wasn’t working for me anymore so I left it. Tell captains you know that there’s a job out there."
Other captains who are out of work have been a bit choosy, not wanting a certain size or itinerary. Capt. Bernard Charon has given up looking for that perfect owner and is working with Thierry Voisin at his firm in the south of France. Voisin has become an expert in the areas of VAT, customs and port issues in Europe, as well as taking the role of president of the Mediterranean Yacht Brokers Association this year.
So for all those folks wondering what’s going on "out there" in the world of yachting, it is everything you have heard, and the opposite. We’ve all heard it a million times, but it’s true: Every boat is different; every owner is different. I don’t have a crystal ball, but if I did, I have a feeling we would all see that the yachting industry will be just fine.
OK, read my words Anchorman...I do not believe that by running some rich man's playtoy should qualify this guy for the unfair opportunity he is getting...all of the offshore restricted mariners who have previously complained on here that they can't be able to upgrade their licenses to unrestricted should be just as angry as me. Were you not one of those who argued that was unfair. Now some guy from the yacht world comes along and gets a pass! Hell EVERY GoM mariner should be up in arms over this one.
My words were misconstrued from the very start...my main complain what that guys who have been working their whole careers in that world should be allowed seatime to gain an unrestricted license even if he is a great master, mate, seaman whatever. If a man came to yachts from the commercial with a license in hand then of course keep a license but not use yacht time to upgrade it. You will note in the article the line highlighed in red.
Ok, I'll admit my prejudice towards yachties and I have been called out on that many times in this thread but MY MAIN ARGUMENT HAS BEEN ABOUT SEATIME. Should a mariner who has spent 20 years hanging around SE 17th Street in the Ft. Lauderdale social scene get a unrestricted license and come to work in the GoM when so many other men who have worked down here for 20 years cannot?
Pray tell me why I am wrong with that one?
Reply With QuoteOriginally Posted by Captainmugsy
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