Triton January 2014 Vol. 10, No.10

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January 2014 The Triton starts networking in the new year on Jan. 15. See A5.

C2, 3 Stew injured on bicycle Crew house friends raising money for her recovery. A3

Owner won’t give up Restoration of weather-beaten S/Y Legacy continues. B1

Whales, bears and food Chef’s challenge worth it in waters of the icy north.

B1

Fire, noise, MOB affected Regulations to hit new and existing yachts this year. B1

Leadership skills coveted, not required for captains

his friends in Ft. Lauderdale soon after the accident. “I can vouch for his skills. I’m a Y1 and there’s not much higher than that.” “He had docked a million times Capt. Miller and worked with shore power,” said Gary Skinner of project management company Yotfix. “He was far from stupid.” Best man at Capt. Miller’s wedding, Skinner was a long-time friend and had worked with Capt. Miller and seen his abilities since serving as his deckhand on a boat delivery from Venezuela nearly 15 years ago. Capt. Miller had since divorced. “’I can’t run this if I don’t know the systems,’ Pete said on every boat,” Skinner said. “He would start in the bilge and figure it all out; why this A/C runs here, why this is run like this. Lohengrin in particular. He worked himself into being indispensable.” “He was a really good engineer; very hands on,” said long-time friend

As long as I have been hosting these lunches, the issue of leadership skills among captains has come up. The skills aren’t required for licensure yet most captains and crew rank them high on the list of qualities of an effective yacht program. So why aren’t they taught and From the Bridge required? And Lucy Chabot Reed even if they aren’t, perhaps the more important question is how do captains successfully run a program without them? (We conducted our monthly survey on this topic of leadership as well. Read those results and comments beginning on page C1.) I invited a group of captains respected in this area of yachting to talk about leadership at this month’s From the Bridge luncheon. And although we didn’t arrive at any ground-breaking resolutions, we did agree that captains themselves are key to improving this area of yachting. “So many times it [leadership training] is identified as important but who takes their own time to do it?” one captain said. “In yachting, I haven’t seen much of this,” another captain said. “We talk about the need for it but I don’t see it.” “I think people like us need to be responsible and give back to the industry that has given us so much,” said a third. 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 A17. The captains have decades of experience running large yachts, managing large crews and operating them for a long time. Several also had

See MILLER, page A4

See BRIDGE, page A16

A TOAST: Crew celebrated the 14th annual Concours de Chef at the Antigua Charter Yacht Show in December. See PHOTO/DORIE COX stories and photos on A10 and more about the chef competition on A12.

TRITON SURVEY: Leadership

Captains, how would you rate your leadership skills?

Captain leaves a legacy as master, engineer and mentor By Dorie Cox

Above average 70%

Average 31%

Crew, how would you rate your captain’s leadership skills? Below average 37%

Above average 24%

Average 39% – Story, C1

Capt. Pete Miller of M/Y Lohengrin was electrocuted in a shipyard accident in late November in Hong Kong. The accident involving shore power is under investigation. With a career that spanned decades, Capt. Miller is remembered as a captain, engineer and mentor on yachts including Silent Wings, Princess Tanya, Princess Lauren, Picante, Akim, Monte Carlo, Lohengrin and Audacia. He was 62. The accident confounds friends and colleagues who remember Capt. Miller as a competent and qualified engineer. Plus, Capt. Miller knew the Lohengrin well after years working onboard, said long-time friend Laurence Dickinson of Elan Maritime. “It’s mind-boggling he died this way,” Dickinson said. “He had a full life, but no one deserves to die like that.” Friends since the 1980s, Dickinson said Capt. Miller always paid attention to detail, maintained equipment and did preventive maintenance. “Pete said, ‘You should know how to engineer the boat if you want to drive the boat’,” Dickinson, an MCA chief engineer, said in a gathering of


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Triton January 2014 Vol. 10, No.10 by Triton News Network - Issuu