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October brings Triton Expo and networking. See pages A3,16,17.
C2-3
Opportunities for others Yacht couple build custom boat to help injured soldiers. B1
Beautiful and impoverished Crew visit Cuba despite island’s stark contrasts. C1
What was that you said? Shift in words make all the difference in a leader. A18
ALL SYSTEMS GO
Engineers without a Y chromosome By Dorie Cox Many people have never met a female yacht engineer. So until they do, we talked with nine of them about their jobs, what they have learned and share their visions for the future in the field. One of the reasons people rarely meet female engineers is that engineers are probably the least visible crew onboard a yacht, said Mate/Eng. Karen L. Murray. By definition they manage behind-the-scenes systems such as engines, plumbing, electrical, water, air conditioning, refrigeration, hydraulics and pneumatics. “It’s the most important part, but the least sexy side of yachting,” Murray said. She started as a deck/stew in 2005, has served as 2nd engineer and currently works on a 96-foot yacht. Another reason people rarely meet female engineers is that they don’t meet that many engineers overall. A crew roster may include multiple stews and deck crew, but only one engineer, if any at all. Although there is usually one captain and one chef, they are more visible because of crew and guest interactions. Occasionally, engineers may work a dual role like captain/engineer, deck/ engineer or mate/engineer. In 2012, junior engineer Cailin Reid worked as mate on a boat with a captain/ engineer, who was stressed with the work load. “Show me how to do some of the engineering, give it to me,” Reid said to the captain. And soon the crew called on her to fix things instead of him. “It was better for my interests and I thought, ‘this is really cool’,” Reid said. The 24-year-old has since worked on several yachts more than 100 feet in length as deck/engineer and 2nd engineer. Melissa van der Walt has been in yachting for 14 years, working her way to be captain, and then changing over to engineer six years ago. “There are more female captains than female engineers,” van der Walt said. “We’ve been in the shadows for some time.”
October 2014
IN THE WORKS Engineer Melissa van der Walt works in the engine room PHOTO PROVIDED during a recent yacht job. So what’s the big deal with female engineers? Not much, said most of the ones we talked with. “It’s not a guy/girl issue,” Reid said. “The competition is the same. If it is meant to be, you get the job. It’s not more difficult for us. We’re no different.” When a yacht docks in a new port, other engineers are more interested in the boat and what systems are onboard, Reid said. “When we pull in, people are intrigued,” Reid said. “First, they’re surprised and say, ‘you’re the engineer?’, but then they just want to talk and see the engine room.” Nadia Uccello began yachting as a deckhand on a 108-foot yacht and headed toward engineering when she worked on projects like re-wiring
shorepower sockets and cleaning out bilge pump valves. “The captain treated me like neither a male nor a female but an engineering assistant,” Uccello said by e-mail. “I carried what I was told to carry and fixed what I was told to fix.” So why aren’t more women in the engine room? “It is a non-traditional job for women, and not something we are socialized to do,” said a Canadian engineer who has worked on megayachts since 2009 and asked not to be named. She said it is not a very glamorous job and the position calls for a lot of time in a noisy, dirty, hot engine room. “The job can be physically
See ENGINEERS, page A11
Triton readers respond ‘Below Deck’ rankles editor and readers. A25-27
Captains deal with ‘entitled’ crew attitudes differently This month’s From the Bridge captains’ discussion topic was suggested by a captain who has been surprised this summer at what he called a sense of entitlement among some crew members. When the topic was introduced, some of the captains From the Bridge in the room let out a Lucy Chabot Reed collective groan, all at once saying they had dealt with this issue themselves and that they were frustrated, too. And they each had a story to tell. One captain mentioned his former bosun who, in the middle of a busy charter, announced that it was break time according to the MLC rules, and went below for a nap. Another captain told the story of the deckhand who didn’t like what the chef was making for dinner so excused himself for dinner off the boat, then returned to submit the receipt for
See BRIDGE page A22
TRITON SURVEY
Have you ever been to Cuba? Yes, w/o Yes, personally yacht 6% 7%
Yes, w/yacht 34%
No 53%
– Story, C1