June 27, 2011
Experience is the key to weathering storms, said captains at The Triton's monthly From the Bridge luncheon.
"You learn from finding yourself in an awful situation and realizing, 'I don't want to be in that spot again'," a captain said.
Tornadoes, blizzards, heatwaves and floods have made headlines around the globe, and that was before the Atlantic hurricane season started June 1. The well-traveled group in attendance cited years of work in the United States, Caribbean, Marshall Islands, Tierra del Fuego, Tahiti, Mediterranean and Bering Sea, as their most useful training for the upcoming stormy season.
"If you know you're staying, you start to gather up your equipment now," a captain said. "Get the fenders, boards and lines, and check them."
As always, individual comments are not attributed to any one person in particular so as to encourage frank and open discussion. The attending captains are identified in the photograph above.
Almost all of the captains plan to be within hurricane areas this season at the owner’s request. Several had previously ridden out hurricanes on their yachts, including Hugo in St. Thomas and Charleston, Mitch in Honduras, and Andrew in Ft. Lauderdale.
The reason many are staying within the hurricane box, the boundary lines created by insurance companies to define coverage, is because there are options.
"For insurance, you just have to pay more to have less restrictions," a captain said. "It's more negotiable than people think.
"The owner wanted to stay, so we got the insurance to change it for us to not go south of Hatteras during season," he said. "The owner negotiated by a month and a half to get to stay to July 15."
But captains still worry about storms on the U.S. east coast, he said.
The captains discussed how their recommendations and knowledge differ from the owners' plans.
"We know the weather, but it's the people we work for," a captain said. "They will push and push because they don't understand the situation. They don't know the weather, the equipment, what can happen."
"The owner said what are you going north for?" another captain said. "I said, ‘do you want the boat or the insurance?’"
"The client has to know we are using the best information," a third captain said. "This is the nature of the business; get over it."
Several captains said they educate the boss and include him in their decision-making process.
"I always send the boss all the links I'm checking, so there won't be any question later with insurance and him," a captain said.
Another captain used a more hands-on approach to give an owner a taste of severe weather by setting sail in less-than-dangerous conditions.
"I'll take them out without the stabilizers to give them a feel," he said. "I'll take them out and they'll want to turn right back around."
So how do captains learn? They learn from being at sea. It's experiencing severe weather that gives them confidence.
A captain said you don't have to be in a hurricane to understand what can happen to a boat. Even when it's not called a tropical storm it can still be dangerous, he said.
"The Med is good training ground for weather," a captain said. "Sometimes you have a couple of hours max before it hits, with all the air masses and land and sea breezes."
Most all of the captains agreed that captains and crew with experience from a background in sailing inherently understand weather better.
"Sailing people are the best,” a captain said. “They know the weather and can read it."
"Years of delivery is also good training," another captain said.
But how do new crew learn, or do they?
"You learn some in class -- what that cloud is and what things are -- but you really don't experience it," one captain said.
"Crew today doesn't get out in it,” another said. “They should, but they don't.”
"Today, the client doesn't want to go out in nasty weather that could break the stemware," a third captain said. "So they don't understand what can happen in the weather. That's the only way to learn the vessel's dynamics. You've got to know your equipment, as well."
Several of the captains experienced bad weather during time on commercial vessels and talked about how difficult it is to teach crew when they haven't been exposed to it.
"In the commercial industry you don't get to pick your weather, you go out in all kinds," a captain said. "But in yachting, you can pick your weather."
"All of us here in this group have been through serious weather, but what about that deckhand with one season experience?" another captain said.
"With crew, they hear hurricane and they're scared,” said a third. “They've seen so much on TV. We have to tell them how this is going to unfold and what they can expect."
This captain said people can be desensitized with media such as The Weather Channel.
"It can get people up out of their seats but sometimes the opposite happens," he said.
"Crew says 'Come on, we're going to a hurricane party'," another captain said. "Sometimes it will motivate them and sometimes, they just see so much."
These storms are a big deal that require full crew and a lot of preparation time, one captain said. Most expect their crew to stay at work to help.
"The crew staying has to be voluntary," a captain said. "You can't legally make them stay."
"I had a mutiny, my crew left,” said another captain. “It was just me and the engineer.”
Several captains have sent crew to hotels during storms.
"But it may not be an option to get the crew off, depends on where you are," a captain said.
"I say it's safer to stay aboard,” another said. “We've seen all the hotels gone before. I feel safer on the boat. I bring the family and the dogs. You have water, generators, food."
"If you're in the Caribbean, you have to run," a captain said.
"But if I'm out there in the storm, the crew will suffer and you don't want to make that call to their family if someone's hurt," a captain said.
How do captains decide to stick out a storm or try to evade it? They said they use all services available, especially the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Internet and several weather routing services.
"I get a subscription for weather routing every passage," one captain said.
"In the old days it was single-side band and we all talked about it," another captain said. "Now, I check six or seven different sites."
The years of experience have created a cumulative effect of knowledge that enables captains to make good decisions in case of storms. But one area has changed for several captains; the topic of personal safety versus the yacht's protection.
"Now that I'm married, I see this differently," one captain said. "It's more about us being safe."
"In the beginning, I would to everything to protect the boat from the smallest damage," another captain said. "But 25 years later, I realize the crew is far more important."
If you make your living working as a yacht captain, e-mail dorie@the-triton.com for an invitation to our monthly Bridge luncheon.
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