Yacht Owners Speak Up at U.S. Superyacht Association Summit
BY KEVIN MAHER
Craig Jackson and Chris Stacey, both yacht owners, discussed crew, their experiences as owners, and more during the 2025 U.S. Superyacht Association (USSA) Summit on March 18. The panel, moderated by Graeme Lord of Professional Yacht Crew Cayman, included Jackson, chairman and CEO of Barrett-Jackson, and Stacey, founder of Rock the Ocean.
One of the first topics of the discussion was the level of regulation Jackson expected when looking to buy a yacht. Compared to jets, yachts are much less regulated, even less so than cars, Jackson said.
“I’m like, ‘How do I know if this thing hasn’t sunk?’” Jackson said. “There’s no registry; we don’t know anything by VIN number, it comes from a foreign country, [and] you don’t know anything about it.”
While surveys are usually the answer to his questions, inspections also happen in the aviation world, but that doesn’t prevent them from maintaining logs of everything. Jackson was surprised by a captain aboard a yacht he looked at who kept all the original records and documents for everything that had been serviced.
“That’s like an airplane — I like the way you manage the boat,” Jackson said. Jackson also mentioned that the captain he spoke to has been working on board for a long time, which prompted Lord to bring up the topic of crew retention and rotation. Jackson has had trouble keeping a captain due to his goal of traveling around the world, as world travel is not something all crew want. Meanwhile, Stacey doesn’t see his yacht having rotation on board, but not because he doesn’t like the concept.
“I want to have a boat that I can captain as well, so I would probably rotate with the captain and myself,” Stacey said.
The conversation then shifted to insurance. Lord asked various audience members working in insurance what they see clients do wrong most often, with one audience member noting a general lack of knowledge about insurance. Another mentioned that insurance is not your friend and that clients need to know the conditions, limitations, and exclusions. Finally, one audience member shared his secret to the best insurance out there — good fenders.
ussuperyacht.com
Triton Daily is published by YATCO, LLC, the parent company of Triton: News & Networking for Captains and Crew. Copyright 2021. All rights reserved.
PHOTO BY ORIANA SCHNEPS
It’s day two of the show — check out captains and crew keeping busy on the docks!
PHOTOS BY KEVIN MAHER AND FLAVIA PATINO-PAUL
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