Reminder/Warning to Yacht Owners and Captains

"Chief Stewardess Rebecca Boyle was found dead on board 47-meter M/Y La Polonia while the vessel was docked at Imperia in Italy."

The initial belief is that she fell down a staircase and broke her neck while heavily under the influence of alcohol. Now, that may not turn out to be the facts. Also noted that she'd only been on that boat a week, but as Chief Stewardess she clearly was experienced. However, it does point to the dangers of overindulgence of guests and crew and the owner's legal and moral liability in such cases.

We see the most extreme excesses it seems on charters and on crew in their brief time to go ashore. Periodically, we seen persons overboard and more often persons injured on board. The owner and the captain both have responsibilities for everything that happens on board. I'd also suggest one thinks about how they'd feel if this happened on their boat. That's a burden you carry for the rest of your life, far more painful than the financial aspect.

None of us can stop our friends, family or employees from doing stupid things in their lives but we can manage what they do in our home and on our boat and in our presence.

Speculation was drunk and fell down stairs. The autopsy showed nothing to counter the initial findings of an accidental fall although the official coroner's report hadn't arrived as of Friday.

She and her fellow crew members plus the crew members from another yacht celebrated England's World Cup win then continued to drink in the hot tub on the boat. After that she went down the stairs.

Our solution isn't one most would like but it starts with reasonable schedules for crew. Our crew works a maximum of 220 days a year and that includes all days away from home plus any work days in Fort Lauderdale. So, they have time at home to party all they want. When cruising, they do have time off but they choose to spend most of it sight seeing with us or on their own.

We also don't require the long days that are the norm in the industry. We're overstaffed as to the work to be done, but very seldom will we require any crew member to be "on duty" (actively working vs. just being on board) over 50 hours in a week and never beyond 60. We do follow the rules of STCW and ILO Maritime Labor Convention but try to go far beyond them.

As to rules, no one is allowed to drink while on duty or within 10 hours prior to being on duty. Same rules as in our businesses and we do have breathalyzers to test if necessary. Anything over a .02 is a violation of the rules. If you've broken that rule and would test positive, then we want to be told and we'll give you the day off. Furthermore, you are not to be on the boat at any time drunk, defined as anything over a 0.12.

So, part of it is selection of crew. We don't have partiers who feel the need to binge drink. In fact, our crew rarely drinks. Also, we rarely drink and in 6 years have only had champagne aboard to celebrate special occasions two or three times and have had wine with meals only with a few special multi-course meals perhaps 4 times a year. We don't serve or make alcohol generally available on board.

It's really a combination of rules and of lifestyles. We are strict on alcohol but also trying to teach young people that if you're going to party, do so when at home and when you have no work scheduled the following day. Especially on a boat, a hungover employee isn't desirable either.

What we're all dealing with isn't just a boating issue but a societal issue. There are many boaters who seem to boat just to drink. While the CG has it's rules on use of drugs, and for that reason we don't tolerate their use, were it not for that, as a practical matter, I'd rather have an employee or crew member on cocaine than drunk.

Working weeks and months without a break, having only one day to yourself in between, is a plan for abuse and binge drinking. Our crew sees the sights of every place we go and they don't feel they have to pack all their fun into one night or a few hours. If their idea of fun is to get drunk, then we don't hire them. We've been fortunate as we haven't ever had to actually do any real recruiting, never posting jobs, but have just found people through word of mouth. However, our crew is also friends and much of what we have is like our friends, who just aren't big drinkers.

So, I can't suggest the above for others. What I would suggest though is reasonable work schedules and hard and fast rules on alcohol consumption while working or on board. While some of you can't control guests, I don't think crew should ever be drunk on board (over .12 by our definition) whether on or off duty or consume alcohol on duty or within 8 hours of duty (over .02 by our definition). A boat is not a place to be drunk. You have hard rules on the use of other drugs, so why not on alcohol? It is the most abused drug and the easiest tested. If your 20 something's or 50 something's can't live with these rules, then maybe they aren't the ones you want. We do apply the same rules to ourselves since we are captains and do operate the boats. On those rare occasions we choose to "party", we do so at home when we don't intend to boat or to drive a car within 24 hours. As to owners or guests, that's another problem. However, bars are required by law (even though 95% ignore this law) not to serve intoxicated customers more alcohol, so is it really unreasonable for a boat owner or captain to follow similar rules? A clear point of liability in that if you continue to serve someone already intoxicated and they fall overboard, you will be found liable.

Whatever, that policy is, I do think every boat should have an alcohol policy just as they do a drug policy. This isn't a subject to be completely ignored. As a practical matter, the vast majority of major conflicts between crew members from what I've been told, arise from alcohol. Binge drinking by young people is an epidemic in the US.

I'm a strong believer in rotation, like commercial vessels, especially for charter vessels. It doesn't necessarily have to be a 2 persons for 1 job rotation but can be more along the line of 1.6-1.8 perhaps. The larger the boat, the easier it might be. Our staffing is much like a modified rotation. When we're on our largest boat, we require most of our crew but on other boats, we require half or less of the crew so it's definitely a rotation like system, even if not a true rotation at all times.

Our boat, for all practical purposes is dry, with only the occasional champagne toasts.

Yes, rotation is more expensive but the constant turnover of crew and the difficulties in maintaining good crews is as well. All I can say is we hired our first crew member in 2012 and every one we have hired is still with us.

There are so many things that can be done rotation wise. Take a 130' yacht requiring a crew of 7 and it's in use about 15 weeks a year. You only need all seven 15 weeks a year. That's where many only have 3 or 4 fulltime and fill in the other positions, making continuity impossible and always having some new crew. However, what if you have the full seven and decide you want 3 on board all the time. Then rotating in the 37 weeks it's not in use, you average 16 weeks, so each crew member works 31 weeks a year. If you only needed 2 on board then out of the 37 weeks, they'd work 11 weeks so each would work 26 weeks a year and you accomplish that not by having full teams to rotate, but within your one unit.

Now, if that same boat is a charter boat requiring crew 30 weeks a year, you would require a couple of extra crew members to achieve similar results. However, it could be done by having 9 or 10 crew members, not 14. If you had 9 crew members, then of those 30 weeks, they would average 24. And if you needed three on board the other 22 weeks then they'd average 7 for a total of 31 weeks a year. If you only needed two aboard the 22 weeks, they'd average 5 for a total of 29 weeks a year.

Very few boats are in use enough that they would require double crew to achieve a good rotation.

When I'm talking two or three persons above, I'm talking about a boat docked at a marina, under 500 GT and with no passengers aboard so safe manning isn't an issue.