Tales from crew New Zealand to the Virgin Islands.
A12, A14 It will never end Malaysia marina Meet new friends in a new facility. Vol.8, No. 6
www.the-triton.com
TRITON SURVEY:
Does your yacht have an operational budget ? Yes, monthly– 6% Yes, annual – 15% Other– 6% No formal, I spend what I need – 14%
No formal, but be careful – 58%
– Story, C1
B1
But keeping ahead of scams may help.
A6 September 2011
Yachts deal with grounding, crash, fire By Dorie Cox Three yacht incidents made news last month in separate stories in the U.S. and the Mediterranean. In Massachusetts, M/Y Cocktails beached after hitting an underwater obstruction and taking on water; in Croatia, M/Y Kai ran into other boats at a dock, causing injuries; and in Sicily, M/Y Godspeed caught fire and burned. Yacht captains are trained for such incidents, but an accident, by definition, is unplanned and
unexpected. Crew usually adhere to emergency procedures, secure their vessel and check that all involved are attended to. But, after that, Michelle Otero de Valdes, partner at the law firm of Houck Anderson in Ft. Lauderdale, said yacht captains and crew need to take care of the bigger picture. “These captains are very knowledgeable, and know right from wrong,” she said. “But they may not realize the best ways to protect their commercial interests.
“No. 1, call your insurance company,” she said. “No. 2, consult personal counsel, maritime or not, for advice on what to do. No. 3, send a surveyor or someone to document what happened.” At press time, the causes of the three incidents were still under investigation. But, Internet forums and Web sites are full of speculation. Many witnesses and friends of witnesses have communicated with The Triton, but they spoke on condition
See INCIDENTS, page A9
10 years later, grief and love of 9-11 still real Captains:
Lots to do when joining a new yacht
Sept. 11 marks the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania. In the fall of 2001, Alene Keenan was the new chief stew on the 163-foot M/Y Mystique docked at Chelsea Piers in New York City and witnessed the event. Here are her thoughts from that day. We were called out on deck moments after the first plane struck and, of course, were confused and disoriented. When the second plane hit, there was no question that this was no accident. I have never been so afraid in my life. I expected more planes to fall from the sky, and probably bombs, too. Stew Cues The U.S. Coast Alene Keenan Guard closed the port immediately. We could not move the boat, so we sat at what rapidly became Command Central. Along the sidewalks on Westside Highway came a flood of people heading north. There was a hush to them, hardly anyone spoke, and here and there people were caked in fine beige powder. By 11 a.m., the authorities had established a security perimeter at Canal Street, a demarcation line between civilization and madness that civilians would not be allowed past. The problem was, the police detailed to this task were just as lost and stunned as the rest of us. Once past this line, authority had little to do with rank
us that we were asked to wait outside for the ambulances to start arriving. It was a shock to suddenly be out in the beautiful sunshine, with the carnage just a few blocks away. By this time – it must have been 4 p.m. – ferry service had been set up at the pier and thousands of people waited patiently in line to get on boats going across the Hudson to New Jersey. A man noticed that most of us volunteers had respirator masks around our necks. He cried out something about chemical or biological attacks, but was quickly silenced by the response,”they’re volunteers,” after
Although longevity on yachts is desired and a goal, at some point in their careers, most captains join a new boat. With the myriad things to grasp in those first few days and weeks, we gathered captains this month to talk about how they do it – and the lessons they learned the From the Bridge hard way about how Lucy Chabot Reed not to do it. But first thing’s first. “The first thing I do is check the insurance policy to make sure it covers the captain in case of a collision or anything,” one captain said. “You also want to see what the manning regulations are, and if they’re not good, I’m going back to the owner to change them.” 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. “I check the insurance, too,” said another captain, who went on to describe a scenario where a crew
See STEW CUES, page A18
See THE BRIDGE, page A16
Yacht Stew Alene Keenan watched history unfold in New York City 10 years FILE PHOTO ago, waiting for the injured to arrive. They never did. or uniforms; in the peculiar kind of meritocracy that takes over in a place of chaos, leadership now fell to anyone with the surety or charisma to seize it. Our crew volunteered as soon as we could. We met two recruits, Ben and Laura, who instructed us that we would be patient administration volunteers. Our job was to accompany the stretchers from the ambulances to the doctors, getting as much patient information as possible to maintain records and so we could inform family of the patient’s whereabouts. We were told to expect 20,000 casualties that first night. The number of volunteers increased every minute. There were so many of