April 11, 2011
Because yacht crew work nights, weekends and holidays, the line between work and time off is not always clear-cut, agreed most captains at The Triton's monthly From the Bridge luncheon.
“I think we don’t use time clocks so the crew can’t use it against us,” one captain said. “If they knew exactly how many hours they worked, then we’d have problems.”
As always, individual comments are not attributed to any one person in particular so as to encourage frank and open discussion. The attending captains are identified in the photograph above.
Recently having worked nine straight days, another captain said he got caught up in the workload and overworked the crew.
"Then I realize I should have let them have time off," he said. “I notice when we’re in the yard and pushing to get a lot done, we end up working hard and never really getting it all done.”
“You have to stop,” a third captain said. “You won’t get it all done, anyway.
Yachts can run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which leaves little down time. So we asked working yacht captains to talk about time off, how they define it, how they grant it and how they keep track of it.
In contrast with non-yacht employment, vacation and time off granted to yacht crew are not always clock or calendar defined. Several captains in attendance said they don’t even know how much time off they have been allotted.
“I’ve been here for 15 years and I have no idea how much vacation I have,” a captain said. “So the owner said, ‘take May off.’”
“I’ve worked for three families in 10 years and it’s always been like, 'hey, we’re not doing anything, why don’t you get out of town',” another captain said. "Sometimes it’s just set up loose like that.”
“The boss said take three months off because he knew it would never happen,” a third captain said.
One captain with contracts for himself and crew said their time off is in writing.
“We all get four weeks and a flight,” he said. “You need to ask about vacations if it’s not in the contract. I told myself I would ask for six weeks this year, but I haven’t done it, with things tightening up.“
"The industry has done a few things well, like it leans toward the European standards as far as time off, not like the U.S. where you just get two weeks,” another captain said.
One captain addressed his vacation schedule with the owner at the beginning of their relationship.
“When I got hired, by a guy new to yachting, I told him the industry standard is four weeks off a year,” he said. “We’ll see how it goes; it was just a verbal.”
Although there was consensus that yacht crew, too, put in long hours, several captains said there is a trend toward taking time off.
“The industry is becoming less about making money and more and more about appreciating the lifestyle,” a captain said. "It's about taking some time off instead of overdoing it.”
“You keep good crew when you give them time off,” another captain said. “Now we get the right crew and take care of them.”
“The whole thing about time off is making it better for the crew," a third captain said.
So how do captains manage schedules with crew who work overtime and sometimes get called to work during their off time? Some captains record crew hours and others put the responsibility on the crew.
“No one clocks in,” a captain said. “The crew know when they’re supposed to hit the mess.”
“I use a day planner and keep track for the crew onboard,” another captain said.
“My stew keeps her own time,” a third captain said. “On a small boat that works.”
“When you’re on charter, you work all holidays and you work seven days a week so you bank your days,” a fourth captain said.
“It’s hard to bank your time,” another captain said. “It ends up to be so much that you can’t take it off.”
Regulations can come into play on larger, compliant vessels with more crew.
“The bigger the yacht the more regimented it gets,” a captain said.
One captain said he had worked on a yacht that logged hours of rest for MCA (Maritime and Coastguard Agency) compliance, but said it wasn’t exact, and sometimes crew would just copy each other’s hours to complete log books.
“I think you’re supposed to have eight hours rest each day, one break every seven hours, but that’s for over 500 tons,” a captain said. "It’s a lot of paperwork.”
But several captains said mandatory time off is unrealistic and hard to keep track of. And yachts with limited crew face even more challenges, for example during deliveries.
“On our boat there is no choice but four hours on, four off,” a captain said.
“We have regs for never leaving our vessel unmanned,” another captain said, due to security and location concerns. “And there are just two of us.”
It is time consuming to tabulate schedules, so many of the captains are relaxed in their methods.
“I know if it’s all done,” a captain said. “It’s up to the crew to get it done and knock off when it is. They can organize their time.”
When it is clarified that captains and crew have time due, it comes in several forms. It can mean no contact with the boat, time away with some boat duties or simply relaxing onboard with no boat responsibilities.
“I try to let the crew get away,” a captain said. “Sometimes not for the whole day, but maybe have them check in at lunch. Sometimes, I’ll get watchkeepers and let them have three days off.”
“When the owner’s off, we’ll stop in a picturesque harbor to relax, kiteboard, fish, and I tell them, 'this is your break',” another captain said.
“If you can’t take the break off the boat, then you have to do it on the boat,” a third captain said.
Sometimes crew don’t get options as to when they get time off.
“Chef is off on crossings; the interior crew is off on crossings,” a captain said. “The engineer is the hardest one to get time off.”
“Stews and chef can be off in the yard, but not the engineer,” another captain said.
So when the crew do get time off, one captain said he requires that they really get away.
"If the crew is off I tell them I don’t want to see them at all," he said. "I don’t want the other crew to see them relaxing."
"Right, no having a beer in the mess while the others are working," another captain said.
Never 100 percent divested of the boat, all of the captains said they answer their phone for boat calls, even when they are miles away on vacation. Captains weighed in on both sides in regard to crew obligations in the same circumstance.
“Crew, no, they don’t have to answer calls,” a captain said.
“I do expect my mate to have the phone on,” another captain said. “I know he’ll answer wherever he is.”
“But the engineer definitely needs to take the call,” a third captain said.
On a similar note, captains also connect with yacht owners by Internet.
“When I’m on vacation in Vegas I still e-mail the boss,” a captain said.
“I e-mail every day because I’m always talking to the boat, the crew, the yard, somebody, always,” another captain said. “You’re on vacation, but you’re not.”
Sometimes captains are workaholics and rarely take time off, one of the captains said.
“I had a stew that kept track of my work. She said, 'you have worked for 61 days without time off,'” a captain said.
“If you live on board, you’re never off duty,” another captain said.
“I check into a hotel,” a third captain said. “I have to get off the boat. If I don’t, I end up doing things, I get caught up in it. I really can’t sleep until I’m really off the boat.”
Sometimes owners don’t realize how much work there is to do on a yacht , one captain said, and that’s why captains and crew put in so many hours.
“Our boss said, 'I can’t believe how much you work,'” a captain said. “He gets it. He saw us working when he was on and he said 'drop what you’re doing and get off the boat.'
“We had to sneak back on to do things that needed to be done,” he said. “We were working at night to do our jobs.”
Every captain said he has had to cancel a vacation and occasionally crew have also.
“That’s why it’s good to have flights in your contract because you may have to cancel,” a captain said. “You can’t ask crew to be out of pocket for that. That’s why we don’t book 'til a day before, or maybe two days.”
There is no regular time of year for crew vacations. They work during yachting seasons, in yard periods, during deliveries and during unscheduled boat use.
“There is no planning ahead for vacations,” a captain said. “You can ask the owner to look in his crystal ball.”
“Sometimes he does know ahead, he knows when there will be down time,” another captain said.
“You just do it and take time off when you can,” a third said.
“We used to take September when we were in the islands,” a fourth captain said. “Everyone, four weeks.”
One captain said to his crew, "You and you take your holiday, get it out of the way and then nothing until October. Take it now or never."
Not one captain complained, but all agreed they never take the time off they have earned; the rest never equals the time worked.
“No,” “no way,” “not at all,” and “no way it balances,” the captains said at the same time.
But they don’t feel taken advantage of.
“I can’t remember a real holiday vacation,” a captain said, “but, this job is still tough to beat.”
If you make your living working as a yacht captain, e-mail editorial@the-triton.com for an invitation to our monthly Bridge luncheon.
About the Author
