If you asked a super yacht owner what he wished his boat had more of, the most
common answer would most likely be space. Most yacht owners want more of
everything and when this happens eventually it leads to the commission of
a new build, or the purchase of already built yacht. A new build usually takes
two to three years depending on the size and complexity. At some point they will
put their old yacht up for sale and this is what the moniker Yacht Show and
others like it are all about. Whether it be experienced yacht owners or
first-time yacht owners they all need a crew to man their new vessel. Old yachts
bought on the used market come ready crewed. New vessels assemble a crew during the
construction process. So when a yacht is put up for sale this can mean
uncertainty for the crew.
The majority of the crew is usually pretty safe on a boat that's for sale but there
are some people who are targets for being replaced. It just depends
on the owner if you have an owner who's new to yachting then most
likely he'll come in and he'll just take the whole crew part and parcel it by the
boat and then the crew will stay. Even if that happens there is usually a period
where especially in the Interior Department's if he doesn't like certain
people who's serving him and stuff like that usually gets rid of the places with
people that he does like. That over a period of time that happens same with a
new boat they'll often bring in a new crew and then the owner will say I don't
like this person, I don't like that person they'll get rid of those people. If it's a new owner
that that has probably happened you know it may be that he loves everybody and he
keeps everybody. If the owner is not new to yachting and he's owned yachts
before usually you'll have some people already like a captain, he'll have a
captain which is his captain so when he when he views the boat or when his
people view the boat because they never view the boat, but when they
view the boat they'll usually send the captain the chief engineer or some crew
from his previous boat who he's retained employment of they will they'll
come and look at the boat. And they'll check it out and everything and if he
likes it I'll buy it now obviously the boat's already got a couple of captain's
a couple of Chief Engineers on rotation so usually some of them are gonna get
the chop. So that's how it works so in the extreme case like there was one in
in Palma last year the guy fired everybody on board the whole crew got
fired overnight and they were all off the boat so there was no crew. There is a
twist to this story that will come back to if you take a job on a boat that's
for sale it's always a risk and they will always tell you they should always
tell you in the interview process 'this yacht is for sale' because what they're
doing is basically saying there's a possibility that you might come here and
then six months down the road you actually end up with no job again
another position that is popular for replacement if the if the owner is not
new to your thing is the ETO. The ETO looks after the bridge equipment,
satellites and radio communications, computer network, AV systems, basically
anything that is plugged into an electrical socket. As the owner talks to
him directly for any issues with his onboard entertainment they generally
develop a working relationship as the ETO learns what things the owner likes
and how to set up the equipment's in a way that he prefers if he's not an old
boat then he's probably possibly has the need to know who we brought with them
and so yeah so the ETO might go as well. That's one of the things about going to
work on a boat so if you ever you're new to the industry and you're
you're interviewing for jobs and they tell you the boats for sale that's the
reason why they tell you the boats for sale. It's not just a bit of trivia for
you to enjoy it's because there's a potential for unemployment
a few months down the road
He actually did re-employ some of the people who got
fired so they all got pay offs and then they all got re-hired so that was
actually worked out quite well for the crew