Telling it like it is
Yacht crew share their sage wisdom with others. C1
Pretty is painful Not much left Shark joins crew while river fishing. A6 Vol.8, No. 11
www.the-triton.com
Lionfish packs a powerful sting on unsuspecting.
B3
February 2012
Medical rules can be a hurdle to a mariner license By Dorie Cox Last May, Capt. Renee Hobart sent in her Merchant Mariner Credential Medical Evaluation Report to renew her U.S. license. In her application, she missed something. “I had accidentally left a blank, a square on the medical condition list,” she said. The application came back with
a cover letter requesting more information. It was the beginning of a six-month process. Hobart started her career 26 years ago with a 100-ton ticket. Now on her sixth issue, she decided to start her renewal in May, seven months early, to be sure to have her new license in time for a scheduled yacht delivery. “It used to be much easier,” Hobart said of her previous renewals. “There
were about 33 items on the list last time.” Now the list includes 88 medical conditions that must be attested to. That increase, in effect since September 2009, gives mariners at least 50 more items to clarify about their health status. Hobart identified that she takes blood pressure medications, previously had a small heart murmur and has had
neck pain due to mild migraines. She said she manages her blood pressure and minor headaches and it was questioned if she even had a heart issue. “I wrote a letter explaining everything and the migraines I’ve managed since I was 10,” she said. In August came a letter from the Coast Guard requesting “amplifying
See MEDICAL, page A15
You’re fired!
WON’T BACK DOWN FROM HIS CHALLENGE
Why and how yacht captains fire crew
Capt. Jody Hill, paralyzed from the chest down in a 2006 car accident in Tortola, was competing in the OCR Miami regatta in late January, hoping to qualify for the U.S. paralympics team. Read more about his attempts thus far on page A8. PHOTO PROVIDED
Titanic, no, but a night to remember nonetheless By Capt. Bruce Gregory Before I begin, let me first say that in spite of the odds against it, I suffered only a few bruises, some sore muscles and a fractured ego. On a Friday night in early September, I nearly died in a boating accident. That night was like a hundred
others at the club. Sometime between 9 and 10 p.m., I loaded gear into a tin boat and brought it to Morning Star. I tied the painter to the boat, loaded items into the cockpit, climbed aboard, unlocked the cabin, put my gear below, locked the companionway and climbed into the tin boat, so far without a hitch. My usual procedure is to start the
tin boat motor and then and only then, untie the painter. This trip was no different. The night sky was cloudy with little or no moon. (Had it been visible, its crescent shape would have offered little light.) The seas were nonexistent so there was little noise heard between
See LESSON, page A18
Drug use, fist fights and insubordination will get a crew member quickly fired from a megayacht. But so can an accumulation of small infractions or an owner’s whim, said captains at this month’s Triton From the Bridge luncheon. “If it’s major, there is no question,” a captain said of the reasons crew are fired. “If it’s minor, From the Bridge that’s when it’s more difficult.” Dorie Cox 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 a photograph on page A16. When asked if they had ever fired a crew member, several of the captains enthusiastically began to recall their most extreme stories. “I had a fight between several crew, one guy broke another’s jaw,” a captain said. “I fired all three on the spot.” “I had one that had to go,” another captain said. “He was totally drunk.” “Unfortunately, you find yourself getting good at it,” a captain said. “It gets to be repetitive.” Illegal and dangerous acts are cause for dismissal in most sectors of employment, but in yachting, a captain said such situations must be addressed immediately. “Things like sleeping on the job are easy to write up; other things seem small,”
See BRIDGE, page A16