Day Captains - Food for thought

We do understand very well. You're asking for a U.S. shipping industry with American money, but no American workers or ships. IOW, we should give up the oceans.

"The US shipping industry is incredibly constrained by stringent flag rules."

Constrained in what way? How about some details to go with the claim?

"For starters ships in domestic or intra-NAFTA trade should be allowed to employ anyone from the three NAFTA countries... "

What, both ships? Just how many ships do you believe are in this "intra-NAFTA trade?"



"... and ships in international trade should be allowed 50% NAFTA and 50% foreign crew."

What purpose is this supposed to serve? Do you simply object to Americans making wages enough to buy food and medical insurance or do you feel that Canadians and Mexicans are under-represented in the maritime industry?


"The Merchant Marine act of 1920 is an antiquated fossil. What the US needs now is a growing, competetive shipping industry, not a stagnant one. If you Americans call yourselves capitalists you should understand this."

Sort of like the German flag merchant fleet, eh? Develop a "second register" so that investors and bankers can make money off cheap village labor? How many German seafarers have jobs on deep sea ships these days?

Sort of like the German flag merchant fleet, eh? Develop a "second register" so that investors and bankers can make money off cheap village labor? How many German seafarers have jobs on deep sea ships these days?[/QUOTE]

Go to Cyprus and you will see how many Germans actually do work on German owned ships, Cypriot registered etc but still german owners.

You could ask how many ships in Liberia are owned by Liberian's and at the same time ask who promoted the Liberian flag of convience in the first place.

I was deep sea when the "wall" came down and the Romanions and Bulgarians amongst many others jouned the international labor pool. A Bulgarian Captain joined my company and I paid him ten times what he had been paid the month before but was 5 times less than a German Captain was being paid. He was so happy when he joined the ship but three months later after he had a chance to go over the ships paper work and discovered he was being paid alot less he demanded a pay rise.

I pointed out that he only had to work a few minutes at his new increased wage to pay his rent whereas a german had to work 5 days to pay his rent but he still demanded a pay increase. He got his second demand and that was a ticket back home.

So you used him to drive the areas labor costs down and put the Germans out of work. That way the German ends up living in a slum and has to accept less than the Bulgarian. Good formula. Eventually you'll be able to hire top notch crew and pay them slave wages. At least until they kill you for your gold fillings and your wife's jewelry.

So wrong, they are platinum fillings.

It's getting so deep in this thread that I'm going to have to put my Grunden's on. What does any of this have to do with day captains?

The thread started as a discussion of how little day captains get paid and how some owners try to get $1,000 worth of work for each $100 of pay. So, continuing on that line: Yachtjocky, platinum eh? Hmmmm. Need a U.S. captain and are you a sound sleeper?

My theory is people get exactly what they pay for in this business. If you want to pay peanuts, you're going to get monkeys! Both their yachting enjoyment and their investment suffer from it, and in the end they are unhappy with their yachting experience based upon their own doing. Yachts get reputations really fast from what I've seen.

And yet they try. Some treat their crew as they would their household help, not realizing that they can make a cruise a wonderful experience or a trip from hell. Or that they can save an owner many thousands of dollars or let them do themselves in physically and financially. I believe I'm familiar with the boat the OP referred to and a bit of their captain history (there have been several). I pulled them into their slip with ropes when one had them laid across their neighbor's bows when an engine quit and the captain couldn't bring it in on one and a thruster (big slip and no boats opposite). They were also left for an entire summer with their quarter banging on the dock. But they probably saved money on boatwashers and captains. Most local captains know them and stay clear, in fact I've dumped that entire marina. Penny wise/pound foolish. But hey, Monkeys need a place to work too.