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A well-maintained yacht reflects the decisions behind it. From realistic crewing and consistent care to leadership and specialist skills, protecting a vessel’s condition starts with giving people the resources to do the work properly. Yacht maintenance shapes what an owner experiences on board and what a prospective buyer sees when the vessel comes to market. Its effects accumulate through routine washing, timely repairs, careful supervision and the practical knowledge of the people carrying out the work. When those foundations weaken, the consequences can reach well beyond a tired finish. The scale of that commitment is easy to underestimate. Andy Miles of Miles Yacht Group, whose brokerage career began in 1992, estimates that keeping Legacy, a 112-foot Westport, in what he calls “Palm Beach condition” takes around 96 hands-on maintenance hours a week. A thorough wash alone, he says, can occupy a good mate for three days. Those figures describe the demands of a particular yacht and standard of care. They also expose a wider challenge for ownership: the polished vessel waiting for a family’s arrival is the result of work that continues long after the guests leave. How yacht maintenance influences a buyer’s decision For Miles, maintenance is closely connected to a yacht’s position in the brokerage market. Buyers considering a familiar production model can often compare several examples. Condition becomes part of the decision about which boat deserves further attention and which one represents too much work. A buyer walking through a yacht begins assessing what needs to be repaired, replaced or investigated. Miles observes that the perceived cost of those jobs can exceed the amount actually required to complete them. An apparently manageable defect may prompt concerns about disruption, delays and the possibility of further problems. That perception matters before a price is negotiated. A yacht with visible maintenance shortcomings may lose a buyer’s interest while another example remains under consideration. Miles links the quality of a maintenance programme to both resale value and the time a vessel spends on the market. His argument begins with the crew. Owners need capable people, appropriate training and the willingness to let them carry out the work. Having a captain or engineer identify a problem achieves little if the programme cannot support the necessary response. Building a programme around the vessel There is no single staffing arrangement that suits every yacht. Size, systems, operating hours and the owner’s intended use all influence what a maintenance programme needs to provide. Miles distinguishes between a smaller vessel looked after through a management company and a larger yacht requiring a permanent crew with specialist responsibilities. A boat used heavily throughout the year presents different demands from one that spends much of its time alongside. Both need care, but the work must be organised around their actual requirements. That makes owner education an important part of yacht management. Miles describes a shift towards families flying to meet their yachts at a destination, rather than spending as much time aboard during the journey. Owners who are less involved in the daily operation may have fewer opportunities to see the workload for themselves. Managers and captains therefore have to explain what happens between visits: the yard periods, routine checks, repairs and coordination needed to make the next trip possible. A realistic programme gives that work time, people and a budget. Cost control remains part of the responsibility. Miles stresses that owners need to enjoy their yachts and understand how their money is being used. Protecting the vessel calls for considered spending, with clear oversight of the work and the reasons for undertaking it. The craftsmanship behind a well-kept yacht Captain Robert Sybrant, owner of Sybrant Marine Services, learned vessel care within a family whose involvement in yachting spans four generations. Working under his father, he developed an appreciation for the exacting maintenance standards associated with “Bristol fashion”. He describes maintaining that standard as a constant battle with use and exposure. Wind and salt can create another day’s work before a crew has begun its planned tasks. A yacht that looked immaculate the previous evening may need attention again the following morning. Much of the skill involved becomes almost invisible when the job is done well. Polishing, varnishing and bottom painting can appear straightforward to someone who sees only the finished surface. Sybrant regards them as crafts, developed through practice and an understanding of how to achieve a consistent result. He is concerned about how those skills reach the next generation. Experienced workers hold knowledge that cannot be replaced simply by handing someone a product and expecting a professional finish. Passing it on requires someone to demonstrate the technique, explain the standard and give another person the opportunity to learn. Recognition matters here, too. The people maintaining a yacht’s appearance are contributing specialist work to the wider operation. Treating that contribution seriously helps establish why the standard deserves to be maintained. Leadership gives crew a standard to follow Sybrant’s approach to training starts with responsibility. In his own crews, metal polishing can be an early task through which a new worker learns care, consistency and accountability. Progress follows as the person demonstrates that they can complete the work properly. The detail matters: leaving a clean finish, avoiding residue in surrounding teak, keeping the work area tidy and using time effectively. These habits give a crew member something concrete to take pride in, while showing supervisors where further instruction is needed. That sense of ownership depends on leadership. Captains, first mates and crew chiefs help establish what good work looks like and how people can develop. Clear communication gives the team a shared direction; practical teaching gives individuals a way to meet the expectation. Without that structure, effort can become fragmented. Crew may work hard while remaining uncertain about priorities or their prospects for progression. Sybrant connects the quality of leadership with a team’s ability to sustain standards, rather than achieve them only occasionally. Keeping practical knowledge in circulation Formal training is one route to stronger skills. Learning from experienced colleagues is another. Sybrant encourages ambitious crew to seek out people willing to teach, exchange techniques and recognise that different teams have different strengths. A useful mentor may be an older captain, a specialist tradesperson or a colleague whose method solves a recurring problem. Making time for those exchanges helps practical knowledge move through the industry. For owners and managers, that creates a reason to support development as part of the maintenance programme. A better-trained crew has a stronger basis for understanding the task, recognising the expected result and knowing when to seek help. The condition a buyer encounters at a viewing reflects the decisions made throughout a yacht’s ownership. It carries the evidence of staffing, supervision, investment and daily care. Sustaining that condition requires owners who understand the workload, leaders who teach and skilled people with the time and resources to do their jobs properly. ───────────────────────────────── PRESENTED BY VELLUTO PRODUCTS ─────────────────────────── High-performance ceramic marine care, freshly blended for yachts, tenders and personal watercraft. Engineered to protect against salt, UV exposure, oxidation and water spotting. Built for life on the water. vellutoproducts.com Yacht maintenance influences resale value long before a vessel reaches the market. Realistic crewing, practical training and consistent leadership give skilled people the time and resources to protect its condition.

With an expanding waterfront exhibition and growing international participation, the Malta Boat Show is giving the island’s marine industry a platform that reflects both its commercial reach and its maritime heritage. The Malta Boat Show brings yacht builders, local marine businesses and visitors into Dockyard Creek, where the waterfront of the Three Cities provides a setting closely connected to the industry on display. Organised by Yachting Malta, the event brings together boats, equipment and services that support recreational boating and yacht ownership. The 2026 edition runs from 29 October to 1 November at Dock 1 and Dockyard Creek in Cottonera. It is the third edition under Yachting Malta, following the launch in 2024 and a substantially expanded event in 2025. Its development offers a useful view of how Malta is presenting its yachting capabilities to an international audience. Why the Malta Boat Show returned Malta had hosted boat shows before the present event was established. The gap identified by Yachting Malta was the absence, for several years, of a coordinated exhibition capable of bringing the industry together and representing its breadth. In an official interview published ahead of the 2025 edition, Yachting Malta chief executive Michael Mifsud described the decision to revive the format as a response to that need. The organisation launched the current show in 2024, building on earlier events while developing a platform intended to connect Maltese businesses with international exhibitors, buyers and partners. That ambition sits within Yachting Malta’s wider remit. Established in April 2015 as a public-private partnership between the Government of Malta and the Royal Malta Yacht Club, the organisation promotes events, supports the development of yachting and works on issues relating to facilities, education and the visitor experience. A national boat show gives those activities a regular public meeting point. Growth across the Three Cities The clearest published evidence of the show’s expansion comes from the organiser’s account of the 2025 edition. Yachting Malta reported 176 boats, with 47 new exhibitors joining 32 returning participants. Three exhibitors came from overseas: two from Italy and one from France. These are figures for 2025, providing a baseline for the event’s subsequent development. The physical exhibition also grew. Its footprint extended across Cospicua, Vittoriosa and Senglea, bringing all three waterfront communities into the event. Grand Harbour Marina hosted a major part of the superyacht display, while the enlarged site accommodated marine equipment, services and hospitality alongside the boats. Yachting Malta’s year-end review added another indication of the audience’s reach: visitors had travelled from 28 countries. It also reported that exhibitors received strong enquiries and used the event for commercial discussions. Those observations suggest an emerging business function alongside public attendance, although they do not amount to independently verified sales results. The industry behind the boats The reasoning behind this broader exhibition is reflected in Maria Vella-Galea’s account of Yachting Malta’s development. A public relations and marketing consultant who works with Yachting Malta, she explained that an organisation initially associated with promoting sailing and racing had widened its attention to the businesses serving yacht owners and operators. Her examples included corporate services, chandleries, chartering and vessel registration. Together, these activities explain why a boat show can be relevant to visitors whose interests extend beyond choosing a yacht. Operating a vessel involves a continuing relationship with suppliers, technical specialists and professional advisers. Vella-Galea described the objective as: “promoting Malta as a leading Mediterranean yachting destination.” The show, in her account, grew from that strategy: it brings different parts of the sector into one place and makes their relationship easier to see. The organiser’s published description supports that range. Alongside sailing yachts and superyachts, it identifies watersports equipment, marine technology, accessories, finance, insurance and training among the areas represented. For a visitor entering boating, that breadth offers an introduction to the practical support available. For established owners and industry professionals, it creates opportunities to meet several kinds of supplier during the same visit. A working harbour as the setting Dockyard Creek gives the exhibition a particular identity. The show occupies a harbour environment framed by the fortifications and waterfront buildings of the Three Cities, placing contemporary boats within a recognisably Maltese maritime landscape. Grand Harbour Marina’s description of the 2026 event emphasises that connection between the island’s seafaring heritage and its present yachting activity. The marina provides year-round facilities within the historic harbour, linking the exhibition to an established location for visiting yachts and marine businesses. The expansion across the Three Cities also brings the surrounding waterfront into the visitor experience. For prospective owners, operators and international businesses, the harbour and its existing facilities form part of the introduction to Malta. International brands and local capability The 2026 exhibitor presence provides a concrete example of the relationship between international yacht brands and Maltese businesses. Azimut’s official event listing names the Fly 53, Fly 68, Fly 70 and Fly 82, together with the Grande 26m, Grande 30M and Grande 32m, in its advertised display. Its Maltese representative, Esprit Yachting, is both an official dealership and an authorised service centre. Its activities include yacht sales, technical support, management and charter services. That combination illustrates the continuing work associated with the boats on display: commissioning, maintenance and operational support remain relevant after an exhibition closes. International outreach has also formed part of Yachting Malta’s approach. Its 2025 review records participation at Boot Düsseldorf, Palma, Cannes and Dubai, where it engaged with manufacturers, operators, marina representatives and other industry participants. The domestic show gives those overseas relationships a place to develop in Malta itself. As the Malta Boat Show establishes its place in the calendar, its progress can be assessed through the range of participating businesses, its ability to attract visitors from abroad and the commercial relationships exhibitors develop. The published record shows a growing exhibition with a widening remit. Its longer-term value will depend on how effectively those four days at the waterfront contribute to the work of Malta’s yachting industry throughout the year. With an expanding waterfront exhibition and growing international participation, the Malta Boat Show is giving the island’s marine industry a platform that reflects both its commercial reach and its maritime heritage.

Below Deck Down Under chef Tzarina Mace-Ralph draws on her experience on camera and across the superyacht industry to explain why crew need access to counselling, credible reporting channels and time to recover. A crew member can deliver dinner on time, keep a cabin immaculate and meet every guest request while struggling to cope. For chef Tzarina Mace-Ralph, that gap between outward performance and private distress is central to the conversation about yacht crew mental health. When seamless service is the expectation, admitting exhaustion can feel like putting a career at risk. Known to television audiences through Below Deck Down Under, Mace-Ralph brings experience from both filmed charters and yachts operating away from the cameras. Her account challenges assumptions about the programme while raising a wider question for owners, captains and management companies: how easily can someone working aboard their vessel ask for help? She describes boats she has loved, supportive owners and captains she respects. She also recounts working environments where fatigue, intimidation and fear of losing a job made speaking up difficult. Those contrasting experiences shape her argument that the conditions aboard a particular yacht matter enormously to the people working there. What the cameras show and what they leave out Mace-Ralph describes filming Below Deck as exceptionally demanding. The desire to demonstrate professional skill sits alongside the unfamiliar pressure of being watched, while production interruptions take time from an already busy working day. Short charters compress that workload into a cycle that she says can be harder than conventional yacht work. “I've never worked that hard in my life than what I do on Below Deck.” She disputes the idea that viewers can reliably judge someone's professional character from a television edit. An episode condenses days of work, and any individual may appear mainly during their best or worst moments. She acknowledges reactions of her own that she would have preferred to handle differently, while describing the fatigue and accumulated pressure behind them. For an industry concerned about how it is portrayed, her account offers a reason to look more closely. Alongside the conflict shown on screen, she describes support during filming that audiences may never see: access to medical professionals and therapy, HR meetings and oversight of alcohol consumption. These are her descriptions of the arrangements she experienced, rather than a statement about every production or season. That support is significant to her argument. Criticism of the programme's drinking and interpersonal drama, she suggests, should also prompt examination of how crew recover and obtain help elsewhere in yachting. Tzarina Mace-Ralph on Yacht Crew Mental Health Mace-Ralph speaks openly about attending therapy during filming. She describes announcing that she was going to a session, removing her microphone and finding somewhere private to speak. Appointments sometimes depended on a therapist accommodating difficult time zones, but the opportunity to step away remained valuable to her. The practical detail matters. Access to counselling depends on having time to attend, somewhere private to talk and colleagues who understand the absence. A service can be available on paper while remaining difficult to use during a busy charter. She wants owners and yacht companies to fund regular access to professional support, including opportunities to check in before someone reaches a crisis. Her proposal reflects her own experience of therapy and her belief that familiarity with support can make it easier to ask for help when circumstances become difficult. She also describes herself as neurodivergent and recalls messages from viewers who recognised aspects of their own experience in hers. Feeling misunderstood, she explains, can become particularly painful when workplace conflict leaves someone isolated. Her account makes space for crew to discuss that experience without reducing their professional ability to an emotional moment. When reporting a concern feels unsafe The existence of a reporting contact does little to reassure a crew member who believes their complaint will be dismissed. Mace-Ralph recalls a yard period when, she says, long working days and a lack of time off left crew exhausted before the charter season had begun. When a colleague discussed contacting the designated person ashore, she alleges that the captain mocked the prospect of a complaint being taken seriously. She subsequently left and says an owner's willingness to hear why helped bring the situation to light. Her account illustrates the importance of a route beyond the immediate chain of command when the concern involves someone with authority aboard. Mace-Ralph also describes sexual harassment and says she lost jobs after rejecting unwanted advances. She speaks of legal pressure that, in her account, has prevented her discussing other experiences publicly. These personal accounts underpin her concern about the professional consequences crew may associate with raising serious problems. Her willingness to challenge poor treatment is connected to having options outside a particular job. As an experienced chef, she can envisage work in private households or other settings. Someone entering yachting may feel far less secure. A system that depends on an individual being prepared to lose their position places a considerable burden on the person seeking help. Recovery needs room in the operating schedule Some of the changes Mace-Ralph describes begin with direct conversations about the work itself. On one yacht, she recalls telling the owners that the galley needed time for a thorough clean. They responded by arranging time ashore, giving the crew space to carry out the work. In that instance, explaining what was needed led to a practical adjustment. The example also exposes a difficulty in a culture built around anticipating every request. If crew continually absorb the pressure, owners may have little understanding of what maintaining that service requires. Captains and management companies have a role in making those needs visible and planning for them. Mace-Ralph advocates wider use of rotation and temporary relief, including shorter assignments that allow permanent crew to take a break. She also sees opportunities for experienced professionals with family commitments to remain involved through periods of relief work. Her proposal connects recovery for one crew member with continued employment for another. Recruitment is another part of the change she wants. She calls for more rigorous checks and closer attention to the people entrusted with authority. Her concern is the distance between how someone presents during recruitment and how they behave towards colleagues once aboard. Any checks would still need to sit alongside effective supervision and a response when concerns arise. Responsibility beyond the individual crew member The conversation was shaped by grief over the death of a fellow crew member, Paige, and Mace-Ralph's wish to use her public profile to press for change. Her appeal places responsibility with those who can influence employment conditions, approve expenditure and act on reports of mistreatment. She continues to value yachting and speaks warmly about the right boats and the people who have treated her well. That experience gives substance to her expectations. Supportive leadership, workable boundaries and owners willing to listen are all present in the examples she describes. The challenge is making those conditions dependable across a working career. A crew member's ability to obtain help should survive a change of vessel or captain. For owners and managers, that means making time for support, responding credibly to concerns and allowing recovery within the way a yacht operates. Crew wellbeing becomes tangible in those decisions, long before it appears in a statement of values. Below Deck Down Under chef Tzarina Mace-Ralph examines the pressures facing yacht crew and calls for accessible counselling, credible reporting channels and time to recover.

Beneath the luxury and discipline of life on board, an uncomfortable truth is surfacing: Toxic Leadership in Yachting is quietly breaking down some of the industry’s most dedicated professionals.Behind the gleaming decks and smiling service, many crew are navigating a culture of fear, manipulation, and psychological abuse that often goes unseen by owners or management. An experienced stewardess—who chooses to remain anonymous—shares her journey through narcissistic control and emotional bullying on board, shedding light on a systemic issue long brushed under the rug. “When you deal with a narcissist—and yes, abuse is a strong word, but that’s what it is—you start to constantly seek validation from that person. You crave their approval, even though you’ll never get it.” Her story isn’t just about one leader. It’s about an entire culture that tolerates—and too often rewards—destructive behaviour under the guise of “high standards.” When Standards Turn to Control The early warning signs of Toxic Leadership in Yachting can be deceptively subtle. What begins as firm management can escalate into micromanagement, humiliation, and isolation—leaving crew questioning their competence and self-worth. “She would publicly humiliate me in meetings, scream over the smallest mistake, and tell me I wasn’t capable. I started to believe her. Even though I was experienced and hardworking, I felt small.” When leadership becomes abuse, it’s no longer about performance—it’s about power. For this crew member, even seeking help was futile. “The captain knew what was happening,” she recalls, “but nothing was done. They were friends, so I had no support.” The Psychological Fallout The mental toll of Toxic Leadership in Yachting extends far beyond the vessel. Crew members often carry anxiety, hypervigilance, and post-traumatic stress long after leaving the job.Her experience illustrates how quickly confidence can unravel under constant criticism and gaslighting. “After one confrontation, I had a full anxiety attack in my cabin. My roommate found me crying and held me. Without her—and therapy—I don’t think I would’ve made it.” In an industry that celebrates resilience, vulnerability is rarely spoken of. Yet this silence only deepens the scars. Mental health breakdowns are often hidden behind smiles, professionalism, and the mantra of “getting on with it.” Healing and Finding Strength Recovering from Toxic Leadership in Yachting requires both personal courage and systemic change. Therapy, mindfulness, and emotional support networks are crucial for healing—but reforming recruitment and accountability structures is just as vital. “Just as we do physical exams every two years, there should be a psychological assessment for crew. We need to know leaders are mentally fit to manage others.” The idea may sound bold, but it reflects a growing recognition: leadership at sea isn’t just technical—it’s psychological. Emotional intelligence and empathy are as essential as maritime qualifications. Why Change Starts at the Top Host Karine Rayson, Founder of The Crew Coach and leader of The Wellbeing Project, says Toxic Leadership in Yachting has far-reaching consequences that extend beyond the crew mess. “When people are afraid, they make more mistakes. Toxic leadership erodes psychological safety, and that impacts everything—from service quality to guest experience.” Owners, management companies, and recruiters have a crucial role in setting the standard. Prioritizing compassion, communication, and accountability isn’t just good ethics—it’s good business. A Culture Shift Long Overdue Addressing Toxic Leadership in Yachting requires the courage to listen, the humility to change, and the willingness to confront what’s been ignored for too long.For this survivor, the lesson is clear: silence protects the abuser, not the crew. “We’re all in this for the same reason—to work hard and see the world. But yachting has lost some of its joy. Owners need to ask themselves if this is the kind of leadership they want representing their vessel.” Her story is not just a warning—it’s a call for humanity in an industry built on service. Real leadership is not about dominance; it’s about dignity. If You Need Support If you or someone you know is struggling with Toxic Leadership in Yachting, reach out for help. No one should face abuse in silence. 🔗 Connect with Karine Rayson – The Crew Coach 📧 karine@thecrewcoach.com 🌐 www.thecrewcoach.com 📱 Instagram: @thecrewcoach Together, we can build an industry that values integrity as much as excellence—and create a safer, kinder future for everyone at sea.

The standards of a superyacht operation extend to the people who keep it running. From mental health treatment to support during recovery, understanding crew insurance reveals how thoroughly that care has been considered. A crew member recovering from an injury may need surgery, rehabilitation, a flight home and time away from work. Each stage raises a different question about who will arrange care, who will pay and whether an income will continue. Yacht crew medical insurance sits at the centre of those concerns, yet the reassurance of being insured can conceal considerable uncertainty about the details. For an industry built around exacting service, that uncertainty deserves attention. Crew should be able to understand the protection available to them with the same clarity that an operation brings to its other responsibilities. Michelle van der Merwe, a Monaco-based insurance specialist at Pantaenius, identifies a recurring misunderstanding: crew may expect a yacht’s medical policy to provide the same support they associate with healthcare in their home country. In practice, the scope of an insurance contract needs to be understood on its own terms. Benefits, exclusions and the circumstances in which cover applies can vary between vessels and products. Understanding yacht crew medical insurance The starting point is access to the benefit schedule and policy wording. An overall medical limit tells only part of the story. Within it, individual benefits may have their own financial ceilings, restrictions or limits on the number of appointments. Hospital treatment and outpatient care also need separate attention. A policy that provides substantial protection for surgery may offer a different level of support for the physiotherapy, consultations or therapy required afterwards. For someone recovering over several months, those details can shape the practical experience of getting well. Van der Merwe argues that this information should be readily available to crew. A benefit schedule accessible through an onboard system or app allows people to check their position before arranging treatment. It also gives a new joiner a useful basis for discussing any gaps with the broker or insurer. The conversation belongs within induction. Knowing the provider’s name is helpful; knowing how to contact the claims team, access the documents and obtain any required approval makes that information usable. Mental health deserves the same clarity A previous injury or history of treatment can affect cover under some insurance products. Crew therefore need to understand how their policy defines a pre-existing condition and whether any exclusions or waiting periods apply. Those restrictions are not universal. Pantaenius’ published crew insurance information states that its crew medical cover includes pre-existing conditions, while its Monaco product page describes benefits available without waiting periods. The distinction matters: general observations about the insurance market should never be mistaken for the terms of a particular crew member’s policy. Mental health requires equally specific questions. Access to outpatient psychotherapy, the number of sessions available and any relevant limits should be established directly. A broad reference to medical care does not, by itself, explain how a course of psychological treatment will be handled. Pregnancy introduces another set of considerations. Routine maternity care, complications and termination should each be clarified rather than assumed to fall within one benefit. Van der Merwe notes that pregnancy provision varies between products and levels of cover. For crew making personal healthcare decisions, written confirmation of the relevant terms is especially valuable. When illness affects the ability to work Medical bills are only one part of the financial pressure that can accompany illness. A crew member may have treatment arranged and still face uncertainty about salary, repatriation and the position they will return to after recovery. Van der Merwe distinguishes crew medical insurance from the yacht owner’s liability cover. The former concerns the crew member’s medical benefits; the latter addresses the owner’s insured liabilities, potentially including obligations arising from illness or injury. These arrangements can interact, but they serve different purposes. Employment rights also require their own assessment. Where the Maritime Labour Convention applies, its provisions address shipowners’ responsibilities for medical care and wages during illness or injury. The applicable national rules, employment agreement and circumstances remain relevant; a policy’s insured benefits should not be treated as a complete statement of the employer’s obligations. For crew, this means understanding both the medical policy and the employment agreement. Whether salary continues, how much is payable, for how long and through which arrangement are questions best resolved before an absence begins. Repatriation arrangements and the process for assessing a return to work belong in that same discussion. For captains and managers, reviewing these documents together helps identify where a reassuring description of cover leaves practical questions unanswered. Protection ashore, at home and between contracts A yacht’s cruising programme is an important consideration when choosing insurance. Van der Merwe highlights the need to consider visits to the United States, the nationalities and home countries of the crew, and the activities they undertake away from work. Home-country cover deserves particular attention. Time spent on leave or rotation may be subject to different conditions from time working aboard. A crew member returning home for treatment needs to establish whether that treatment remains within the policy’s geographical and benefit limits. Off-duty activities can introduce further distinctions. Skiing and recreational diving should be checked expressly rather than inferred from a general description of round-the-clock protection. Leaving a yacht presents another potential change. Van der Merwe cautions that employment-linked medical cover may end when the contract terminates. She describes limited continuation arrangements for certain eligible claims already under treatment, while making clear that these are policy-specific. Existing treatment and future healthcare needs therefore require separate confirmation when a crew member moves between jobs. Privacy is part of accessible care The claims process can influence whether someone feels comfortable seeking help. A crew member may be willing to discuss an injury with a head of department while preferring to keep a sensitive medical condition private. Van der Merwe describes arrangements through which crew can submit documents directly to a claims handler and receive reimbursement into their own bank account. The available process should be confirmed with the relevant provider, including who will receive medical information and what consent the claim requires. Administrative preparation can also reduce avoidable delays. Some claim forms include a section for the treating doctor, making it useful to obtain the correct paperwork before an appointment. Keeping invoices and receipts gives the claims team the documentation it needs to assess eligible expenses. Retaining a receipt does not guarantee reimbursement, but missing records can make an otherwise straightforward claim harder to process. Making crew care an operational standard Choosing cover involves decisions about an owner’s priorities, the vessel’s programme and the needs of the people employed aboard. Captains contribute practical knowledge of the operation; managers and insurance specialists help translate that knowledge into an appropriate arrangement. Van der Merwe has seen improvements in crew cover and greater openness in discussions about it. Sustaining that progress requires information to reach the people it is intended to protect. She brings the issue back to three questions: Am I covered? What do I do if I have a claim? And what happens if I can't work? A crew member who can answer those questions has a clearer basis for seeking treatment and planning recovery. A yacht that makes the answers accessible demonstrates care through its everyday management. In a sector where service depends so heavily on people, that clarity is a meaningful measure of the standards aboard. The standards of a superyacht operation extend to the people who keep it running. From mental health treatment to support during recovery, understanding crew insurance reveals how thoroughly that care has been considered.

The maritime industry has become increasingly comfortable talking about sexual harassment, assault and abuse. Employers publish policies, reporting procedures appear in handbooks, and promises of zero tolerance have become familiar language. Yet when a crew member reports misconduct, the protection described on paper may prove much harder to find. A complaint can pass from a captain to management, from management to legal advisers, and from there into a process the person affected cannot see or influence. The existence of a reporting channel does not establish that anyone will act. For yacht crew, the problem is intensified by an industry that crosses borders as routinely as its vessels cross seas. A yacht may carry one flag, operate in another country's waters, employ crew of several nationalities and be managed from somewhere else entirely. Maritime lawyer and former seafarer Ryan Melogy has spent years challenging failures in the handling of misconduct at sea. Yacht crew advocate Marién Sarriera has encountered those failures while helping individuals report harassment and assault. Their experiences expose a central question: when the system itself fails, who is responsible for protecting the person who spoke up? When There Is Nobody Independent To Tell On some vessels, a designated person ashore gives crew a route for raising concerns beyond the captain. On others, especially smaller yachts, the captain may be the most obvious contact, even when the allegation concerns the captain. Management arrangements vary just as widely. A company responsible for payroll or administration is not necessarily equipped to investigate misconduct, while the owner or senior personnel involved may exert considerable influence over what happens next. What appears to be a reporting structure can therefore become a succession of referrals with no genuinely independent destination. Sarriera describes contacting management companies, flag states and maritime authorities about allegations brought to her by crew. In her account, following the available procedures often produced little visible action, while some responses involved non-disclosure agreements rather than transparent accountability. She nevertheless argues for documenting concerns, because a record can establish when an allegation was made, who received it and how the organisation responded. Such evidence cannot guarantee justice, but it may be significant if a pattern emerges or an employer's response is subsequently questioned. Melogy's starting point is equally direct: "Everything starts with reporting." But he distinguishes between an organisation receiving an allegation and an independent authority being able to investigate it. A complaint sent to people responsible for protecting the employer's interests can enter a process shaped by legal exposure and reputation management. For crew, the immediate problem is practical rather than theoretical: they need somewhere they can safely report an incident, an explanation of what happens next, and confidence that the people examining it are not answerable solely to those implicated. What US Maritime Reform Can — And Cannot — Change Changes associated with the Safer Seas Act strengthened reporting and oversight requirements within the applicable US maritime framework. Under 46 U.S.C. § 10104, responsible entities must report qualifying incidents or complaints involving harassment, sexual harassment or sexual assault to the US Coast Guard. That obligation matters because the response no longer rests entirely inside a company's own procedures. The Coast Guard has investigative and enforcement responsibilities, although an external report does not guarantee a particular finding or outcome. The law provides a clearer route to scrutiny, not a promise that every case will be resolved. Melogy, whose advocacy contributed to the campaign for reform, argues that such scrutiny changes the incentives surrounding an allegation. A company may still investigate and obtain legal advice, but it cannot assume that its internal conclusions will be the only account considered. As earlier YIR reporting in The Law They Ignored and The Fight For Accountability examined, such change followed years of resistance and survivor advocacy. The difficulty is extending comparable safeguards beyond vessels subject to US requirements. Foreign-flagged yachts operate within different legal systems, and jurisdiction may depend on registration, location and the circumstances of an incident. Melogy believes progress will require work across individual flag states. For seafarers, that complexity exposes a troubling inconsistency: protection can vary according to the vessel on which they happen to be employed, even when the alleged conduct is much the same. When An Investigation Protects The Employer Companies are entitled to legal advice when serious accusations arise, and fair investigations must protect the rights of everyone involved. Problems emerge when an inquiry intended to establish what happened is dominated by the organisation's need to defend itself against liability. Melogy describes a case in which, according to his account, Coast Guard investigators concluded that sexual harassment had occurred while a company lawyer characterised the circumstances as a cultural misunderstanding. Those competing conclusions illustrate why the independence of the investigative process matters, although an individual account is not a substitute for examining the underlying case records. A lawyer instructed by a management company or vessel operator represents that client, not automatically the crew member bringing a complaint. An employee may believe they are participating in an impartial search for facts when the information gathered is also being used to assess legal risk. Sarriera describes frustration with reporting arrangements that leave complaints in the hands of organisations whose conduct may be under examination. Independent oversight does not remove the need for due process; it provides a way to test an employer's account rather than allowing that employer to control the entire story. Without it, even a technically complete procedure can leave the person reporting misconduct feeling less protected than before. The Crew Who Witness — And The Crew Who Stay Silent Workplace culture can discourage an allegation before any formal report is made. Sarriera recounts an incident in which a yacht owner exposed himself to her while she was working. When she told colleagues, they laughed, causing her to question whether the behaviour was as serious as she had understood it to be. That response reveals how misconduct can be minimised without an explicit order to remain silent. A joke, a shrug or an explanation that an owner was drinking can teach someone that challenging inappropriate conduct will bring embarrassment rather than support. Both Sarriera and Melogy discuss the difficulty of being a bystander. Melogy acknowledges that he did not intervene when he witnessed sexual misconduct aboard the Maersk Idaho, describing shock and uncertainty in the moment. Sarriera recalls witnessing circumstances she believed involved trafficking and exploitation on a yacht, and ultimately resigning rather than continuing to work in that environment. Their reflections do not suggest that every witness has the power to stop an incident. They show how authority, fear and dependence on employment complicate decisions that may look straightforward to outsiders. Melogy makes a sharper distinction between freezing during an incident and what witnesses do after a complaint is made. He recounts cases in which, he alleges, colleagues signed statements inconsistent with what they knew, damaging the credibility of people who reported abuse. The pressure to preserve a job or protect relationships may be real, particularly in yachting's closely connected employment market, but it does not make a knowingly false account harmless. A reporting system depends on truthful evidence, and that responsibility extends beyond the person who experienced the misconduct. Crew welfare cannot be credible if witnesses are encouraged to say nothing while the person reporting carries the entire risk. The Price Of Speaking Up Melogy describes whistleblowing as a lonely and demanding experience, involving not only the original harm but the prolonged work of seeking accountability. People who report abuse may need to preserve evidence, deal with lawyers, respond to criticism and continue earning a living while an investigation unfolds. For yacht crew, employment can also determine accommodation, travel and professional references, making the potential consequences particularly immediate. The fear of being labelled difficult or excluded from future positions can be powerful even where no formal blacklist exists. Melogy believes some assumptions about permanent professional exclusion are overstated, citing people who pursued claims and continued their maritime careers. That observation should not be mistaken for a guarantee against retaliation. Rather, it challenges an industry culture in which fear itself can become a reason to discourage disclosure. Sarriera also questions how readily maritime organisations celebrate commercial success while offering limited recognition to the people who expose serious wrongdoing. Awards would not replace independent investigations or practical support, but her point is about what the industry chooses to value. If honesty is publicly encouraged yet privately punished, promises about welfare will struggle to earn trust. What Crew Testimony Can Establish Sarriera describes a survey on sexual harassment, assault and bullying in yachting that, at the time of the conversation, had received responses from approximately 900 people documenting more than 1,500 accounts. These are figures she reported, not independently verified prevalence estimates. Without the full methodology, sampling information and underlying data, they cannot establish what proportion of the global yacht workforce has experienced misconduct. They do indicate that respondents were prepared to record experiences, sometimes more than one, that might otherwise remain confined to private conversations or individual complaints. There is also a distinction between an experience recorded in a survey and a formal allegation examined by an investigating authority. A survey can identify concerns worth investigating, but it cannot establish responsibility in an individual case. That requires evidence, a fair procedure and an authority with the power to act. Keeping these distinctions clear matters both to the credibility of survivors' testimony and to the fairness of any subsequent investigation. Melogy argues that bringing such accounts into the open can help challenge the tendency to treat each incident as isolated. But collection alone is not enough. Anyone sharing an experience needs to understand how their information will be stored, protected and potentially used, particularly if they remain employed in the industry. Good evidence requires careful handling and a clear purpose. If crew are repeatedly invited to disclose painful experiences without a credible path from documentation to investigation, the reporting process risks reproducing the very disappointment it was intended to address. Who Protects Yacht Crew When The System Fails? The reforms achieved in the United States demonstrate that reporting obligations and external scrutiny can change the way maritime institutions are expected to respond. They do not resolve the challenges of international yachting, where enforcement, management arrangements and employment protections differ across flags. Owners, captains, managers and regulators have distinct responsibilities, but those differences should not allow an allegation to disappear between them. A crew member should be able to identify a safe reporting route, understand who will investigate and receive fair treatment without having to become an expert in maritime jurisdiction. The responsibility is cultural as well as legal. Colleagues must be able to support those who report, witnesses must provide truthful information, and employers must separate a fair examination of allegations from the instinct to protect the organisation's reputation. Melogy's campaign for reform demonstrates what sustained pressure can achieve; Sarriera's experiences show why the need remains urgent for yacht crew. The industry has invested considerable effort in explaining why people should speak up. Its credibility now rests on what happens to them when they do. A policy is not protection. Protection begins when someone reports abuse and the system responds with independence, fairness and action. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SUPPORTED BY Moore Dixon ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Moore Dixon provides global insurance support designed for yacht crew, including medical cover for emergencies, routine care, and practical protection when the unexpected happens. 🌐 mdbl.im When yacht crew report sexual harassment or assault, who is responsible for protecting them? Maritime lawyer Ryan Melogy and crew advocate Marién Sarriera examine the failures of maritime reporting systems, the limits of existing legal protections, and the urgent need for independent investigations and accountability across the global yachting industry.

In the world of private wealth, the most significant decisions are rarely made in public view. They are shaped quietly, through trusted relationships, careful structuring, long-term thinking and an understanding that the asset itself is only one part of a much larger picture. Yacht ownership belongs firmly in that world. For an ultra-high-net-worth family, a yacht is not simply an acquisition. It is a private environment, a family space, a mobile residence, an expression of lifestyle, and in many cases, a legacy decision. It carries the obvious markers of luxury, but behind the beauty of the vessel sits something far more complex: ownership structures, succession planning, privacy, tax considerations, finance, operational costs, management, crew, advisors, cruising plans, family priorities and the question that should come before everything else. How will this yacht actually be used? Nick Walker, Director at Imperium Group, understands that question from a perspective that is unusually complete. His career brings together private client work, family office services, financial structuring and a genuine life on the water. Before yachts and family offices became part of the same professional world for him, he had already crewed in a Round the World Yacht Race, run an RYA sailing school in Mallorca, completed charter and delivery work, and built the kind of maritime experience that cannot be learned from a spreadsheet. That matters because yachts are not passive assets. They move. They employ. They require judgement. They carry people, expectations, privacy and responsibility. They are deeply personal, often emotional, and always operational. A family office may help structure the ownership, support the administration and coordinate the wider advisory landscape, but the yacht itself will ultimately be judged by something much more human: whether it enhances the life of the family it was meant to serve. The Family Office As A Trusted Structure Around Private Wealth Imperium Group works within the private client and family office world, supporting families across wealth, structuring, succession planning, luxury assets, lifestyle and long-term legacy. This is not a transactional environment. It is built on confidence, discretion and relationships that often extend across generations. For Nick, that trust is central to the work. Families are not simply asking for help with numbers, paperwork or structures. They are placing meaningful assets, personal priorities and long-term family interests into the hands of advisors expected to understand both the technical and the human side of wealth. That distinction is important. In the UHNW world, technical competence is assumed. What separates a trusted advisor from a service provider is the ability to understand context. A yacht may sit inside a legal or financial structure, but the reasons behind ownership are rarely only legal or financial. It may be about family time, privacy, freedom, access, adventure, legacy or a way of stepping outside the demands of a highly visible life. The best advice begins by understanding that. Why A Yacht Is Different From Other Luxury Assets Nick is clear that a superyacht should not be treated as a conventional wealth-management asset. It may sit within a family’s broader asset base, and it can certainly be structured intelligently, but at its core it belongs in the world of lifestyle and passion assets. That does not make it less serious. It makes it more layered. A yacht is not comparable to an artwork on a wall or a classic car in a collection. It is a living operation. It has crew, movement, maintenance, regulations, logistics, charter considerations, seasonal planning, refits, management, flag implications and constant decision-making around how, where and why it will be used. The purchase price is only the opening chapter. The true ownership experience is shaped by annual running costs, crew quality, operational planning, compliance, management, maintenance and the owner’s own clarity of purpose. This is where the wrong advice can become expensive in more ways than one. A yacht bought without the right questions asked at the beginning can quickly become a source of frustration rather than pleasure. At this level, a poor fit does not just waste money. It undermines the very experience the yacht was meant to create. The Questions Serious Owners Should Ask First Before a family begins looking seriously at vessels, Nick returns to two essential questions: how and where. How will the yacht be used? Will it be purely private? Will it charter? Will it serve as a family retreat, a place to host guests, a mobile office, a platform for exploration, or a vessel built around children, privacy, wellness, sport, diving or remote cruising? Where will it be used? The answer changes almost everything. Mediterranean summers, Caribbean seasons, long-range exploration, northern cruising or expedition-style itineraries each point toward different vessels, different structures and different operational requirements. These questions are not cosmetic. They influence the type of yacht, the flag, the ownership structure, the tax position, the management, the crewing, the cruising programme and the long-term reality of ownership. For some prospective owners, the most intelligent first step may not be purchase at all. It may be charter. Chartering allows a family to understand what they genuinely value on board before committing to the scale, responsibility and structure of ownership. It reveals how they like to spend time at sea, what kind of spaces matter, how much range they need, whether privacy outweighs entertaining, and whether the dream they imagined is the one they actually want to live. That is not hesitation. It is sophistication. The Advisory Circle Around Serious Yacht Ownership The strongest ownership journeys are rarely built around one advisor. They are created through alignment between the family, the family office, broker, lawyers, tax advisors, yacht managers, captain, designers and other specialists who understand their part in the process. Nick’s view of the broker’s role is especially important. A great broker is not simply someone who can sell a yacht. A great broker understands the client, the wider context of ownership and the many moving parts that must come together for the decision to be right. Pressure has no place in this environment. If a yacht is being pushed toward a client rather than chosen with genuine conviction, something has already gone wrong. The best outcomes happen when the desire belongs to the client, and the advisory team is there to test, refine, structure and protect that decision. The same principle applies to yacht management. Governance, safety and compliance are essential, but they are not enough on their own. Serious owners need a tailored approach, not a standardised system placed over a highly individual lifestyle. No two families use a yacht in exactly the same way, and no two owners require the same level of involvement, privacy, access or support. True luxury is not noise, pressure or excess. It is precision. It is discretion. It is the feeling that every detail has been considered before it becomes a problem. The Human Reason Behind The Asset What makes Nick’s perspective valuable is that he does not reduce yacht ownership to either glamour or administration. He understands the structure, but he also understands the sea. He understands the asset, but he also understands why people become emotionally attached to it. That combination is rare. For some families, a yacht becomes a place where generations gather away from public life. For others, it becomes a platform for exploration, a place to work privately, a way to entertain with discretion, or a means of creating experiences that could never be replicated on land. In private wealth, time is often the most protected luxury. Time with family. Time in nature. Time without interruption. Time to move through the world on one’s own terms. A yacht, when chosen and managed well, is one of the few assets that can create that kind of time. It is not simply owned. It is lived through. A More Refined Conversation Around Ownership Yacht ownership at the highest level requires a different kind of conversation. It should begin long before the purchase, before the shortlist, before the emotional pull of a particular vessel takes hold. It should begin with purpose, structure, use, location, family priorities and the right people around the table. Nick Walker brings a perspective that speaks directly to that world. His work with private clients and family offices, combined with his maritime background, gives him a clear understanding of what yacht ownership can be when it is approached properly: not just a luxury acquisition, but a carefully considered part of a family’s life, legacy and private world. For ultra-high-net-worth families, the yacht is never only the yacht. It is the structure behind it, the people around it, the purpose beneath it and the experiences it makes possible. That is where the real value lies. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PRESENTED BY International Yacht Register ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ International Yacht Register provides luxury yacht charter, ownership and advisory services for clients seeking trusted guidance, exceptional yachts, discreet support, market knowledge and access to the global yachting lifestyle. iyr.net Nick Walker, Director at Imperium Group, brings a private client and family office perspective to yacht ownership, exploring how luxury assets, structure, discretion and long-term legacy shape decisions at the highest level.

At Chapman School of Seamanship, donated boats, practical training and plans for employer-led apprenticeships reveal what it takes to turn an interest in the water into a lasting marine career. Before Mystic became a teaching vessel, the Grand Banks had carried its owner around the Great Loop. When that ambition was complete, the boat was donated to Chapman School of Seamanship, where it could become part of someone else’s education. It is a tangible example of marine workforce development: a vessel’s usefulness continuing through the people learning to operate and care for it. For John Haggerty, Chief Operating Officer of Chapman School of Seamanship, access to boats is the beginning of a much longer undertaking. Students need the opportunity to discover an aptitude, develop it through practice and find employment in which that ability can grow. The work of the school reaches into all three. Founded in 1971, Chapman occupies a waterfront campus in Port Salerno, Florida, where classrooms, workshops, accommodation and a donated training fleet bring education close to the conditions in which it will be used. A student can learn about a system, encounter it aboard a vessel and begin to understand the responsibilities attached to working on someone else’s boat. Haggerty’s approach at Chapman School of Seamanship connects those responsibilities. Alongside Adrian Farmer, Operations Manager at TESS Electrical, and Bobby Mac Keen of the Marine Industries Association of the Treasure Coast, he makes a case for building the workforce through a closer relationship between education and employment. Marine workforce development starts with the work For Haggerty, curriculum development begins with conversations beyond the classroom. Shipyard owners, business managers and the people supervising technical teams can describe where skills are missing, which capabilities they need to preserve and who may soon retire. Those conversations help a school decide what deserves a place in its teaching. A course can attract students and look impressive in a prospectus while still failing to prepare them for an available job. Haggerty’s stated objective is an entry-level technician who can make a useful contribution from the beginning, with a foundation for further development. The distinction matters. An employer should understand what a graduate has learned, what they have practised and where supervision remains necessary. Students, in turn, should understand the kind of work their training prepares them to enter. A first qualification begins that process; competence continues to develop through experience. Farmer brings the perspective of a marine electrical specialist. He describes vessels whose increasingly complex systems require people with the knowledge to maintain, repair and upgrade them. TESS Electrical’s work spans power management, automation, electrical engineering and refit support, illustrating how much technical capability sits behind a yacht’s day-to-day operation. For an American refit business, the ability to attract work is tied to the people available to carry it out. Expanding facilities and winning projects also creates a need for technicians who can deliver the promised service. Training therefore belongs in the same business conversation as capacity, scheduling and customer confidence. Learning on boats that people actually use Chapman’s donated fleet gives students access to different vessels and stages of learning. Haggerty describes a progression from single-engine outboards to twin-engine boats and larger vessels, allowing students to build capability as their experience grows. The same fleet supports technical training. Boats used by professional mariner and recreational students also create opportunities for maintenance students to encounter problems arising through actual operation. Equipment gets used, faults occur and repairs have a practical purpose. Students can connect what happens in the workshop with what happens on the water. That is valuable preparation for service work, where a technician needs to understand the equipment in front of them and investigate the problem it presents. Classroom knowledge gains meaning when a student can apply it, see the result and discuss the next step with an instructor. Chapman’s Yamaha Marine Maintenance Certification Program provides a structured example. The school currently describes a nine-week course combining lectures, interactive labs and competency testing, with training covering maintenance tasks associated with Yamaha’s specified service intervals. It is a defined route into outboard maintenance, with scope to build further expertise through work and continued training. Professional habits are part of Haggerty’s account of that preparation. Attending consistently, arriving on time and learning how to function in a workplace matter alongside the technical material. An employer taking on a new entrant needs someone who can learn reliably within a team. The campus also makes the range of marine work easier to understand. Engines, electrical systems, fiberglass, detailing, surveying and boatyard operations offer different kinds of work to people with different interests. Early exposure helps a student make a more informed choice about where to concentrate. Apprenticeship needs an employer on the other end The apprenticeship model discussed by Chapman, TESS Electrical and the American Refit Leadership Council would connect related technical instruction, often shortened to RTI, with structured learning at work. In that model, the school would provide the educational component while employers would help turn it into occupational experience. The discussion concerns development of that pathway. Its importance lies in how the participants divide the responsibility. A company receiving an apprentice needs to help define the skills required, provide appropriate supervision and assign people with the time and ability to mentor. Feedback to the school matters too: employers can identify where a learner is progressing, where further instruction would help and how the work itself is changing. Maria Pierce Schoenheit, representing the American Refit Leadership Council, argues for employers to become active participants throughout that process. A training provider can prepare someone to enter the workplace, but the employer determines much of what happens after arrival. For smaller businesses, participation requires real decisions about staff time and supervision. An experienced technician mentoring a newcomer is making an investment that must fit within the working day. A credible programme needs employers willing to make room for that learning and explain how increased capability can lead to increased responsibility. Haggerty also sees an opportunity to expand the number of people available to the industry. Moving experienced workers between businesses may fill individual vacancies, but bringing in new entrants can increase the workforce itself. “It's not recycling the same employees. It's bringing in new people that want to be in our industry, giving them the skills they need to make a difference.” John Haggerty, Chapman School of Seamanship. That gives competing businesses a reason to cooperate on training. They share an interest in developing a larger pool of capable people, even as they continue to compete for projects and employees. Retention is part of the training investment One of the most revealing parts of the discussion concerns what happens when a trained employee leaves. Haggerty acknowledges the concern employers express about paying for someone’s development only to see that person join a competitor. Farmer accepts that possibility while placing responsibility on the business to create a workplace where people want to remain. Better-trained employees can improve the working environment and strengthen the company’s ability to undertake more demanding projects. Mac Keen takes the argument into pay and benefits. If the industry invites people to build their futures in marine work, employers must make that proposition credible. Compensation, working conditions and opportunities to advance all influence whether someone stays. This is particularly important for a new entrant whose skills are developing quickly. Haggerty describes the risk of bringing someone in at a low starting rate and failing to advance them as their contribution grows. The employee may leave because another business recognises the value they have acquired. An employer’s training investment therefore continues beyond the course fee or hours of instruction. It includes reviewing progress, recognising increased competence and showing the employee what comes next. A conversation about a two-year or five-year future becomes more convincing when the steps towards it are visible. The discussion offers a useful challenge to the industry’s language around shortages. Recruiting more people and keeping capable employees are connected tasks. A school can introduce and prepare candidates; a company must then give those people good reasons to build their careers there. Opening routes for young people and veterans For some potential entrants, the first obstacle is awareness. Haggerty points out that people can live near the water without understanding the range of careers in the marine industry. Youth boating programmes create an early point of contact. Learning to handle a vessel can develop confidence and reveal interests that a conventional description of the trades might never reach. Haggerty describes the satisfaction of seeing a young student progress to handling a larger boat appropriately. The experience gives them something concrete on which to build. Short introductory technical courses can take that exploration further. Chapman’s ABYC Fundamentals of Marine Service Technology programme currently offers two weeks of hands-on exposure to marine systems. For someone considering the trades, an introduction across several areas can help them decide whether to pursue more specialised training. Veterans bring a different starting point. Some already have technical experience and a strong understanding of working within structured teams. Farmer discusses the possibility of recognising relevant military skills within the apprenticeship pathway being developed, so that previous experience can inform an appropriate starting level. That requires an assessment of what the individual can demonstrate and how it relates to the work. The U.S. Department of Labor’s apprenticeship guidance recognises the principle of advanced standing based on documented prior experience; applying it within a particular programme depends on that programme’s arrangements. Chapman also provides information for veterans about eligible educational benefits and its career programmes. Access to support and recognition of prior skills address different needs, but both can help a veteran make a more purposeful transition into civilian marine employment. Training capacity has a physical footprint There is a practical limit to every ambition discussed on the tour: the school needs room to teach. Haggerty describes classroom constraints affecting plans to work with local school districts, alongside efforts to adapt teaching spaces and explore additional premises. A potential pathway for students in Martin and St. Lucie counties depended partly on finding somewhere to deliver it. The waterfront has its own requirements. Shoreline improvements and floating docks support the setting in which students gain experience. Donated boats need appropriate berths, maintenance and a clear educational purpose. Equipment and instructors must be available when a course needs them. These details help explain the range of contributions an industry partnership can make. Employers can share their requirements, support mentoring and offer genuine entry-level opportunities. Owners and other supporters can contribute suitable vessels, equipment or resources that strengthen the school’s ability to teach. The value of that involvement is clearest when it connects to a specific learning outcome. A boat such as Mystic gives students something to work towards as their handling skills progress. A workshop gives a developing technician somewhere to practise. A committed employer gives that preparation a direction. For American refit, building capability means sustaining those connections over time. The student’s first useful contribution matters, and so does the opportunity to become the experienced person who eventually teaches someone else. That is how an introduction to the industry can grow into a career, and how today’s training investment can support tomorrow’s work. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SUPPORTED BY Maritime Project Solutions ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Maritime Project Solutions provides experienced oversight for yacht refits, new builds and vessel operations. From early planning and project coordination to logistics and administration, MPS helps owners, captains and management teams navigate the decisions behind a successful project. Independent. Experienced. On your side. 🌐 mpsolutions913.com At Chapman School of Seamanship, donated boats, practical training and plans for employer-led apprenticeships reveal what it takes to turn an interest in the water into a lasting marine career.

For former Georgia trial attorney Howard Scott, years on the water brought new responsibilities, unexpected friendships and the experiences that would eventually become fiction. Howard Scott came to Florida looking for a second home, somewhere to enjoy the sunshine and a different pace of life. A fixed address, however, began to feel like another limitation. Yacht ownership offered the possibility of moving with the seasons, spending summers along the New England coast and winters exploring the Caribbean, while discovering what lay between those destinations. After three decades practising law in Athens, Georgia, Scott had begun to question the direction of a career rooted in generations of family history. He had worked in his father’s office from the age of 13, absorbing courtroom stories and learning the business long before becoming an attorney himself. Leaving that profession meant stepping away from an identity he had spent much of his life building. The alternative developed through property investment, travel and an increasing commitment to life on the water. Over time, the sea became both a place to live and a source of material for a new creative career. Yacht Ownership Through a Different Lens Scott owned three Burger yachts, drawn to their classic proportions and the opportunity to preserve a particular style of American boatbuilding. His longest relationship was with an 80-footer, which he owned for 13 years and valued for its practical layout, straightforward machinery and enduring character. His approach combined respect for the original design with improvements that made the yacht more comfortable and capable. Traditional interiors could accommodate contemporary details, while equipment upgrades supported the realities of travelling and living aboard. There was considerable pleasure in that process, but ownership also introduced a different kind of education. Machinery, maintenance, passage planning and the people responsible for a vessel became part of everyday life, alongside the freedom to choose the next destination. For Scott, the value lay in having time to move between places and get to know them, exploring different cultures through their food, music and people. A yacht made it possible to follow those interests without returning to the same address after every journey. When Freedom Comes With Responsibility Some of Scott’s clearest memories concern moments when the comfort of life aboard disappeared. During a passage between the Turks and Caicos Islands and Puerto Rico, his yacht lost propulsion in rough conditions. He recalls dishes falling from cupboards, furniture moving and the unsettling experience of having limited power while the crew worked to understand what had happened. The problem, he explains, involved fuel being transferred out of the main tanks rather than into them. The incident exposed how quickly a routine operation could become consequential offshore, and how much depended on the crew remaining composed. A later passage brought an entirely different emergency. While keeping a nighttime watch, Scott noticed what appeared to be fireworks several miles away. With no island shown in that direction on the charts, he woke the captain, who decided to investigate. They eventually found an overturned freighter. Scott recalls rescuing three people from the water and learning that two others remained trapped beneath the vessel in an air pocket. The survivors said they had been there for approximately 20 hours, watching vessels pass without stopping. Without the equipment to reach those underneath, the yacht’s crew sought help from authorities, and Scott says a rescue team subsequently recovered them. The encounter depended on a sequence of decisions: noticing something unusual, questioning it, investigating and recognising the limits of the equipment aboard. It also explains the depth of Scott’s appreciation for the captain and mate whose actions helped save lives. The People Who Become Part of the Journey Life aboard a smaller yacht can bring owners and crew into close contact, creating relationships that extend beyond the work itself. Scott speaks warmly about people he welcomed aboard, including those learning their roles, and about being present when crew members faced difficulties in their personal lives. Shared passages and daily routines created a familiarity that he describes as becoming something of a family. He also acknowledges that those relationships could be complicated. Trust did not always lead to a positive outcome, and some experiences ended with difficult staffing decisions. Both sides belong in an honest account of ownership. A yacht is a workplace as well as a private space, and the quality of life aboard depends heavily on the people sharing it. Scott’s recollections repeatedly return to that human dimension, whether he is describing a member of crew, someone working on a dock or a stranger whose conversation opened an unexpected door. Turning Experience Into Fiction Long before he became a novelist, Scott had accumulated stories from courtrooms, family life and years of travel. A chance encounter with people working in the film industry encouraged him to begin developing those experiences into a screenplay, giving him a creative pursuit he could continue between destinations. That work eventually contributed to Rascal on the Run, followed by Rascal’s Redemption. His fiction draws on legal cases and experiences at sea, bringing together the two worlds that have shaped his adult life. The books also explore addiction and personal change. Scott lost his father to alcoholism and later chose to stop drinking himself, a decision he credits with greater clarity and a broader engagement with art, literature, music and travel. His involvement in the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise grew from another unexpected meeting, this time with a man promoting a blues event outside the New Orleans Jazz Fest. A conversation developed into further meetings and, eventually, a music venture at sea. “But if you don’t try, you’ll never know.” For Scott, reinvention was a series of decisions whose full significance became apparent over time. Buying a boat, speaking to a stranger and attempting to write each created possibilities he could not have mapped out in advance. His experience gives yacht ownership a personal measure of value: the opportunities it created to learn, contribute, build relationships and discover work he had never imagined doing. The stories he now writes carry those experiences forward, preserving something of the life he found after leaving the courtroom. Discover Howard Scott’s novels Drawing on his years in the courtroom and experiences at sea, Howard Tate Scott brings legal intrigue, family secrets and personal reinvention into Rascal on the Run and its sequel, Rascal’s Redemption. Buy Rascal on the Run Buy Rascal’s Redemption Explore Howard’s website ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SUPPORTED BY Engineered Yacht Solutions ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Specialist welding, fabrication, and onboard engineering for yachts where precision is not optional. https://eyswelding.com Yacht ownership opened a new chapter for Howard Scott, taking him from Georgia courtrooms to Caribbean passages, a rescue at sea and the experiences that inspired his novels, Rascal on the Run and Rascal’s Redemption.

The ease of a luxury yacht experience depends on decisions, preparation and people whose most demanding work often happens beyond the guest’s view. A guest asks to stay another night in a favourite bay. Dinner arrives as the sun reaches the horizon. An anniversary becomes an occasion the family will remember for years. These are the experiences that make yachting exceptional, and their apparent simplicity is part of their appeal. For a superyacht captain, each rests on a network of practical considerations, from weather and technical readiness to the crew available to deliver the next request. Keeping those demands from intruding on a guest’s enjoyment requires judgement, coordination and a clear understanding of what the vessel can safely provide. Captain Ronny M. Roskosch has spent three decades working at sea across commercial diving, shipping and private and charter yachts. His career has given him a candid perspective on the responsibility behind the glamour, alongside an enduring attachment to the ocean that first drew him into the profession. Learning the vessel from the inside Ronny’s fascination began in childhood, inspired by Jacques Cousteau’s documentaries and the underwater world they revealed. By the age of six, he had decided that his future would involve the sea. Commercial diving followed, including saturation diving and offshore work. Becoming a captain developed alongside that career, encouraged by the connection between diving operations and the vessels supporting them. Commercial shipping brought experience of strict procedures, discipline and the importance of a clear chain of command. He particularly values having worked across different parts of a vessel, including deck duties and the engine room. Understanding how the work is done gives a captain insight into what is being asked of the people carrying it out. That experience remains important when the polished presentation of a yacht conceals the complexity of keeping it ready, reliable and operating to the standards its guests expect. The responsibilities of a superyacht captain Driving the boat, Ronny estimates, represents only a small proportion of his job. The wider role involves managing an expensive asset, overseeing expenditure and maintenance, leading people and communicating with owners, guests and shoreside professionals. Much of that work centres on anticipation. A technical fault may need attention while guests continue their day. A changing forecast can make an anchorage unsuitable. Another boat dragging its anchor can require action before anyone outside the bridge notices. Ronny describes responding to those situations through training, preparation and coordination. Guests may see an engineer walking past with a smile while a problem is being handled elsewhere on board. Preserving that confidence sometimes requires an unpopular decision. A preferred berth may be unavailable, a maintenance issue too important to postpone or a requested position too close to shore. The captain must explain the restriction and find an alternative, keeping safety central while protecting the experience wherever possible. The workload behind “Can we just…?” Few phrases reveal the gap between a guest’s expectations and a crew’s workload more clearly than “Can we just…?” A beach setup can involve hours of preparation and several crew members. An inflatable waterslide brings handling and storage demands that extend far beyond the brief time someone may spend using it. Ronny describes the frustration of packing equipment away, only to be asked to deploy it again. A change of plan can therefore affect much more than the itinerary. It can reopen completed tasks, draw people away from other responsibilities and alter the programme already being prepared. His examples are humorous, but they also explain why clear communication matters. Guests are better placed to make decisions when they understand the practicalities, while crew have a clearer opportunity to deliver requests well rather than constantly recover from surprises. Trust between an owner and the crew The relationship between an owner and a captain becomes particularly important when expectations meet the cost of operation. Ronny describes owners who have received an incomplete picture of staffing, maintenance and the resources needed to run a yacht. Charter income may appear to offer a straightforward way to offset expenditure, while the demands placed on the vessel and crew receive less attention. Those assumptions become conversations about repairs, budgets and technical reliability. Ronny speaks about reporting planned work and explaining expenditure, while expecting the judgement of the captain and engineer to carry weight. “You must trust your crew,” he says. That trust can deepen when an owner sees more of the vessel than its guest spaces. Ronny recalls showing an owner the crew accommodation and hearing his concern about the room available. Their discussion extended to incorporating part of the guest area into the crew facilities. It is a positive example of ownership becoming more informed through direct interest in the people supporting it. Questions about cost remain legitimate, but they are more productive when everyone understands what the operation requires. Leading people who live where they work Shared cabins, limited privacy and the noise of working areas can make the separation between a demanding day and meaningful rest difficult to achieve. Personal difficulties continue, too, regardless of when guests arrive or the yacht leaves port. Maintaining motivation means leading a team whose members bring different personalities, experiences and levels of energy to their work. For Ronny, that responsibility continues beyond allocating duties or checking that tasks have been completed. Clear expectations matter, alongside recognising when someone is struggling. Homesickness, family concerns and relationship problems can become particularly difficult when a person is far from their usual support network. Ronny places particular emphasis on honesty. Practical skills can be taught and mistakes addressed, but the captain needs truthful information about what has happened aboard. His description of himself as the locomotive pulling the train conveys the pressure of keeping everyone moving. The person supporting the team must also find a way to sustain their own focus and motivation. A charter begins before anyone boards The experience delivered aboard a yacht is influenced by conversations that take place well before departure. Ronny distinguishes between experienced brokers, whose professionalism he values, and arrangements where the practical or financial picture has not been explained clearly. Misunderstandings about expenditure, service or crew availability can leave the yacht managing expectations that should have been addressed earlier. He recounts instances of guests departing with outstanding expenses, while making clear that he has also worked with excellent brokers and respectful clients. Those experiences have strengthened his emphasis on professional relationships and knowing the people involved in a charter. The responsibility extends across the booking and delivery of a charter. A compelling itinerary needs a clear explanation of the arrangements supporting it, giving guests confidence while helping the crew understand and fulfil their expectations. Why the experience still matters Despite his candour about the difficulties, Ronny’s enthusiasm is clearest when he describes what the work can create. An anniversary dinner, fresh bread in the morning or a sunset viewed from the right position can become the detail a guest remembers most vividly. He recalls guests moved to tears on departure and returning charterers telling the crew how much their time aboard has meant to them. There are personal rewards, too. A recent overnight passage from Mallorca to mainland Spain brought the sight of the moon setting into the sea, a moment that retained its fascination after decades on the water. His commitment now includes passing experience on through diving instruction and helping newcomers find their way into the industry. He sees sharing what he has learned as a purpose that would continue even if he could no longer work aboard yachts. The career that began with a child’s fascination still draws meaning from the same ocean, enriched by the people he has worked with and the experiences they have created together. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PRESENTED BY International Yacht Register ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ International Yacht Register offers luxury yacht charter, ownership and advisory services, helping clients navigate the yachting world with discretion, market insight and personalised support. iyr.net Behind the superyacht glamour lies a working world of technical decisions, owner expectations and crew care. Captain Ronny Roskosch brings three decades of experience to the responsibilities that shape life on board.

When a yacht becomes somewhere an owner can live, work and spend extended time with family, the expectations placed on the vessel change. Connectivity becomes part of the working day. Privacy influences how spaces are used. Longer stays place greater emphasis on comfort, reliability and the crew’s ability to sustain a consistent experience. These expectations reach beyond accommodation and equipment into the organisation supporting the yacht. Designers, project managers, captains, crew and specialist businesses each contribute to making the vessel function as intended. Across the superyacht industry, changes in ownership and technology are therefore closely connected to the experience of the people responsible for putting them into practice. Where engineering meets experience Black Pearl provides a striking example of the relationship between a yacht’s capabilities and its everyday operation. Her sailing systems can deploy approximately 2,800 square metres of sail in six and a half minutes through a preprogrammed process. On a passage from Montenegro to Amsterdam, 95% of the journey was completed under sail. That level of use brings together engineering, operational confidence and a crew committed to sailing the vessel. Competition between rotational captains to achieve the most sailing adds a human incentive to the technology. The result illustrates an important consideration for yacht projects: practical usability influences how consistently a capability becomes part of life aboard. Equipment enters a working environment in which people must understand its behaviour, maintain it and make decisions about its use under changing conditions. The time required to operate a system, the demands it places on the team and the confidence it inspires all affect its value in service. Operational experience consequently belongs within the wider conversation about design and delivery. Decisions made during construction or refit become part of someone else’s daily responsibilities, making the knowledge of those who operate yachts relevant well before a vessel leaves the yard. How Experience Shapes the Superyacht Industry That knowledge travels as people change vessels, take on greater responsibility or move ashore. Commercial shipping provides one route into superyachting, allowing officers to accumulate sea time and qualifications before transferring into an environment where maritime responsibilities sit alongside the expectations of private owners and guests. Experience then develops through different vessels, projects and operating circumstances. A build introduces its own demands, while command brings responsibility for coordinating the people, systems and decisions on which the yacht depends. Further along a career, that understanding can support a business serving other vessels. During its first three years, OCCAM Marine grew from two former captains working in a barn to a company with 12 full-time employees and additional consultants. Established professional relationships helped generate recommendations and build trust with clients. Growth introduced further responsibilities. A larger project portfolio required sufficient staff, a continuing flow of suitable work and attention to profitability. The founders’ experience became the basis for an organisation that also needed the capacity to deliver through other people. The progression reflects a wider connection between life aboard and the businesses ashore. Practical understanding can help identify a service the industry needs, while lasting commercial success requires that understanding to be supported by people, processes and consistent delivery. Consolidation across management, brokerage and media adds another dimension. Changes in ownership reshape the organisations through which clients obtain services, advice and information, bringing questions of independence, continuity and professional trust into commercial decisions. The working conditions behind the experience A successful trip depends on coordination across the yacht. Navigation, engineering, maintenance, hospitality and administration contribute to an experience whose complexity may remain largely invisible to owners and guests. For captains, completing an ocean passage or handling a demanding docking manoeuvre can provide considerable professional satisfaction. Receiving thanks for a successful trip also carries a responsibility to recognise the team whose work produced it. Passing that appreciation through the vessel acknowledges the contribution of people across departments. It also reflects an understanding of command as a role involving both accountability and representation. Sustaining performance requires similar attention to the demands placed on crew. Stress, sleep and recovery vary between individuals, including those working within the same operation. Physiological measurements can provide additional information about those differences, contributing to a more personalised understanding of wellbeing alongside conversations about workloads and life aboard. Recruitment establishes another part of the operational picture. Certificate verification and relevant background checks provide evidence on which employers can base decisions about the people joining a team. Services such as CrewPass have developed around integrating additional checks into existing recruitment processes. Their development also demonstrates the importance of understanding how a proposed service will fit the working practices of the people expected to use it. From recruitment through to daily leadership, the usefulness of information depends on its relevance to the decision being made. Giving knowledge a wider purpose Crew accumulate experience that has value beyond their immediate duties. Returning repeatedly to familiar waters can reveal changes in marine life, biodiversity and pollution. That regular presence offers conservation organisations access to observations gathered over time. The International SeaKeepers Society connects yachts and crew with opportunities to support marine research and conservation. Those relationships can extend between vessels as people change jobs, taking their interest and understanding into a new team. Safety knowledge can travel through the industry in a similar way. An incident experienced by one crew may contain a lesson relevant to people working elsewhere, particularly where familiar routines or assumptions contributed to the circumstances. Confidential reporting through CHIRP gives those experiences a route beyond the immediate vessel. A professional’s willingness to share what happened creates an opportunity for others to examine their own practices. Both activities depend on a connection between the person holding useful knowledge and someone able to act on it. Maintaining that connection gives individual experience a wider purpose. The infrastructure behind the yacht Navigation services, software, recruitment systems, project management and specialist advice form part of the infrastructure supporting superyachting. Much of this work takes place ashore, with its consequences felt aboard. The Queen’s Awards received by dsnm, including recognition for its Compass software, brought that supporting work into a wider business setting and led to visits to Buckingham Palace. Such recognition gives visibility to achievements in a part of the industry whose work often sits behind the finished vessel and the guest experience. Superyachting continues to develop through these connections. Crew knowledge informs projects, professional relationships support businesses, and experience gathered at sea contributes to safety and environmental work. As vessels become more capable and owners’ expectations develop, the demands on that supporting infrastructure develop with them. Progress depends on how effectively the industry carries knowledge between the people designing a yacht, the businesses supporting it and the crew responsible for making it work. Technology, professional experience and crew wellbeing shape how modern yachts operate, while specialist businesses and shared knowledge connect life at sea with the industry ashore. Together, they form the working infrastructure behind an evolving superyacht industry.

For all the procedures, policies and reporting channels that now exist across global shipping, one uncomfortable problem remains: an industry can only respond to what it knows about, and much of what happens to people at sea may never be formally reported at all. That gap between what takes place onboard and what eventually reaches management, regulators or investigators sits at the heart of Unspoken, an initiative developed through the All Aboard Alliance to better understand abuse and misconduct at sea, particularly sexual misconduct, by listening directly to the people who experience it. Susanne Justesen, Director of Human Sustainability at the Global Maritime Forum, describes the initiative as part of a much broader effort to improve safety, health, inclusion and wellbeing across maritime. The All Aboard Alliance, established in 2022, now brings together dozens of maritime companies around shared industry challenges that no single organisation can realistically solve alone, from diversity and inclusion to psychological safety and the long-term attractiveness of a career at sea. Unspoken is one part of that work, but it tackles an area where silence itself has become part of the problem. The experiences traditional systems may never capture Most responsible shipping companies already have grievance procedures, whistleblowing mechanisms and investigation processes, and those systems remain essential, but the existence of formal reporting channels does not necessarily mean they are capturing the full reality of what people experience onboard. Jeremy Sutton, Chief Executive of Swire Shipping and newly announced co-chair of the All Aboard Alliance, describes that gap plainly. Misconduct and abuse are difficult enough to report in a shore-based workplace and can become considerably more complicated onboard a ship, where the workplace is also home, hierarchies are pronounced and the same people may continue living and working together for months. Unspoken therefore asks a different question: what could the industry learn if seafarers were able to share experiences anonymously and confidentially without believing they were entering a formal company reporting process? The initiative invites seafarers across ranks and trades to describe experiences of abuse and misconduct, with a particular focus on sexual misconduct, so those lived experiences can be used to build a clearer global framework around what the behaviour looks like, how it can be prevented, how organisations should respond when it occurs and what effective accountability should ultimately look like. The All Aboard Alliance describes the project as using anonymised insights from seafarers to identify systemic gaps and develop practical standards for preventing and responding to unwanted sexual behaviour at sea. That distinction matters because Unspoken is not an alternative route for reporting an incident that requires immediate company action, nor is it intended to undermine existing procedures. Its purpose is to expose the patterns, behaviours and experiences that those procedures may never capture in the first place, creating a body of knowledge from which the wider industry can begin to understand not only what is happening, but why people may choose not to report it through conventional channels. Psychological safety is more than having a hotline It is easy to assume that creating a mechanism for reporting automatically creates a culture in which people will use it, but psychological safety is far more complicated than the existence of an email address, phone number or policy. Justesen points to the calculation people often make before deciding whether to disclose an experience: what will I gain by telling somebody, and what might it cost me personally? If somebody fears retaliation, damaged career prospects, disbelief, social isolation onboard or an investigation process they do not trust, the perceived cost of speaking can easily outweigh the potential benefit, making silence an understandable response rather than evidence that nothing is wrong. This is why trust in the process matters as much as trust in colleagues or management. An organisation can state that reporting is encouraged, but unless people believe the process will protect them, support them and lead somewhere meaningful, there can remain a substantial distance between what a policy promises and what an individual actually experiences. For maritime, that distinction matters because every experience that remains unreported represents more than a missing statistic; it is also a lost opportunity to understand where systems, leadership or onboard culture are failing, and without that understanding it becomes considerably harder to design meaningful prevention. Sexual misconduct is not solely a women's issue Much of the industry discussion around harassment and sexual violence has understandably focused on women, particularly as maritime attempts to attract and retain more female seafarers, but the issue is broader than gender alone. Sutton argues that some behaviours now receiving greater scrutiny may have existed for years within overwhelmingly male shipboard environments, meaning the lessons emerging from Unspoken could ultimately prove relevant to everybody working at sea rather than only to women entering traditionally male crews. At the same time, gender balance remains an important part of the wider cultural conversation, and Swire Shipping provides a useful example of how collaboration can force companies to reconsider approaches they previously believed were sensible. Its earlier strategy had been to place women across a larger number of vessels, spreading representation throughout the fleet, but work undertaken through the All Aboard Alliance prompted a different approach, with higher concentrations of women placed aboard fewer vessels in order to create a stronger onboard community rather than leaving individual female seafarers isolated within heavily male crews. Sutton says that experience changed the company's thinking, while Swire Shipping has also set a target for women to represent 20% of its seafarers by 2030, compared with approximately 15% currently. The significance is not simply the percentage itself, but the willingness to examine an established approach, acknowledge that another model may work better and make a measurable change as a result. Culture is also a business issue For years, conversations around diversity, inclusion and welfare have often been framed primarily as matters of corporate responsibility, but that framing becomes increasingly inadequate when the same issues directly affect whether maritime can attract, retain and develop the workforce it needs. Sutton is clear that these challenges have a real business impact, because companies that cannot create environments in which people feel safe, respected and able to build sustainable careers will inevitably struggle to compete for talent. That commercial reality may prove one of the strongest forces for change, because human sustainability stops being something separate from operational performance when recruitment, retention, leadership, safety and reputation are all affected by it. Justesen's longer-term ambition pushes that accountability further. Under its 2030 strategy, the All Aboard Alliance is working towards greater transparency, global standards defining what good, better and best practice look like, and financial incentives that encourage adoption across the maritime value chain. Its four overarching goals encompass safe working conditions, physical and mental health, inclusion and diversity, and flexible and attractive careers. The potentially transformative element is that responsibility does not necessarily stop with the shipowner. Justesen envisages a future in which cargo owners, charterers, major consumer brands and other parts of the supply chain increasingly consider the conditions experienced by the people aboard the vessels carrying their goods, creating commercial incentives for companies that invest seriously in crew welfare while making poor practice progressively harder to hide behind minimum compliance. That would represent a significant shift in how maritime understands responsibility, because the treatment of people at sea would no longer be viewed solely as an internal employment matter between a shipping company and its workforce, but as something the entire supply chain has a legitimate interest in understanding and influencing. What Unspoken at Sea Is Asking the Industry to Confront There will be no single initiative, regulation or corporate policy capable of eliminating abuse and misconduct at sea, and neither Justesen nor Sutton presents Unspoken as an instant solution. Its importance lies instead in creating a structured way of listening before the industry claims to understand the problem, because effective standards cannot be built solely from assumptions about what happens onboard when the experiences of the people living those realities remain largely unseen. That is particularly important in an industry accustomed to solving highly technical problems, because human behaviour does not always respond neatly to procedures, checklists or minimum standards. Changing culture requires evidence, trust, leadership and a willingness to listen to experiences that may be deeply uncomfortable for organisations to hear, while meaningful accountability requires those lessons to result in something more substantial than another policy document. Unspoken begins with an acknowledgement that maritime does not yet know enough about what people experience, what prevents them from speaking and what makes them believe that reporting will or will not lead to meaningful action. Rather than representing a weakness, recognising that gap may be one of the most important steps the industry can take, because maritime cannot prevent what it does not understand, cannot correct what it cannot see and cannot credibly promise safer careers at sea while some of the experiences shaping those careers remain unspoken. ──────────────────────────── SUPPORTED BY CHIRP Maritime & The Seafarers’ Charity ──────────────────────────── CHIRP Maritime is an independent confidential reporting programme that helps improve safety across the maritime industry by sharing lessons from real incidents, near misses and concerns raised by those working at sea. www.chirp.co.uk The Seafarers’ Charity supports seafarers and their families around the world through grant funding, practical assistance and partnerships focused on welfare, safety, health and long-term wellbeing. www.theseafarerscharity.org Susanne Justesen of the Global Maritime Forum and Jeremy Sutton of Swire Shipping join Sea Views to examine Unspoken, psychological safety, reporting culture and the difficult realities surrounding sexual misconduct at sea.