*From the Bridge
Security issues diverse; prevention is the best course
From a personal bodyguard for a yacht owner to a photo-seeker trespassing on board, yacht captains deal with an array of security issues. The level of complexity varies by yacht…
From litigation to flags, captains relay perceptions about U.S. yachting
To find out how the world sees the United States of America in reference to yachting, we listened to yacht captains who talk to, and work with, a variety of…
From new to veteran, yacht captains make own choices for retirement
Older employees in most industries often have mandatory retirement ages and company pension plans. But for a recent gathering of yacht captains, it’s the opposite; work as long as you…
Captains manage asset, owner during refit
When most people think of yachting, they image the iconic images of Caribbean waters, medieval coastal towns and five-star private dinners. A critical part of yachting that most of the…
Veteran yacht captains say jobs hard to find
With age comes wisdom. And with time comes experience. But wisdom and experience don’t automatically bring jobs, as a group of yacht captains noted in our monthly From the Bridge…
From the Bridge: Time off, how does it work
As much as yachting has changed in the past decade, some facets of it remain stubbornly the same. Time off, especially on yachts with smaller crew, can be challenging to…
Command chain disrespect creates captain-crew discord
It happens; captains complain about job applicants. But when captains who normally don’t complain begin to, that’s when we listen. It happened quite a bit this fall, actually, so we…
From the Bridge: Navigation methods diverse, failures common
One would think it was a simple question. Silly, even, to ask a group of professional mariners. How do you navigate? With all the modern electronic methods and the fading…
Break standing orders, miss watch, hit the dock
One of the aspects of crew turnover that doesn’t get much attention is the firing process. A captain asked us what other captains thought about the causes of firing. We…
A yacht captain’s biggest safety concern? Humans
When we think of safety on yachts, we think of fighting fires and man-overboard drills. We worry about running into things and sinking. When I asked captains assembled for our…
