certainly true that crews only work the crazy hours when
guests are onboard, and that there can be a lot of down-time
during the year. However, this is very subjective and
individual to the yacht and its owner. You can’t group
‘yachting’ together like you can when you work on a ferry,
container or cruise vessel, as the itineraries and schedules
are never fixed.
I joined yachting as a second officer in 2007 after
working in the commercial sector for five years, serving on
cruiseships, freight ferries, a bulk carrier, a deepsea tug
and dredger. Over the following five years I worked on
seven yachts for five owners. These varied from 52m to
138m.
I worked doing everything from deck cleaning, painting,
sanding, driving tenders and spending time with guests, to
doing months of six-hour watches on the bridge. I have
done the ‘milk run’ of sailing the Western Mediterranean -
primarily the Adriatic - as well as doing the Caribbean,
Pacific islands and Greenland onboard yachts, so my
career afloat was diverse.
When I decided to move ashore for family reasons I had
my Class 1 Master Mariner’s qualification and a degree in
marine operations, but I didn’t want to be pigeon-holed as
an ‘ISM guy’ and only do safety management as I enjoy a
variety in my everyday role.
I secured a position in Svitzer’s technical management
team, which was really enjoyable and a great learning
experience for me when moving to work ashore for the
first time.
I then moved on to be the general manager for a
boutique yacht management company in the UK which
gave me a lot of access to yacht owners and captains. I
was a yacht manager, DPA and CSO and in charge of the
company conducting all audits and holding the various
document of compliances and was very, very busy!
46 SUOMEN MERENKULKU J FINLANDS SJÖFART
It was a great time, but when I was approached by my
now business partner to establish West Nautical within
Europe it was an opportunity I relished and have never
regretted. We now have six offices in the UK, France and
Russia, we employ a great team and are involved in
providing holistic yacht ownership services, including
sales and purchase, charter, management, technical and
crew employment and recruitment.
No two days are the same, but I’m never far away from
my laptop or phone, so sometimes the simpler days of
navigation watches during ocean crossings and having
half the year off on paid holiday does tempt me to revali-date
my STCW! •
H Geoff Moore trained as a Merchant Navy officer
before switching to the yacht sector. He now runs
a yacht management company.
There is still good work available
on superyachts, but the sector has
had to adjust to new financial
circumstances and the introduc-tion
of the MLC.