what do you love about being a super yacht captain?
Sure. For me, it's I was having this chat with a Charter guest last just last couple of weeks ago. I think I love the variety to be honest. That's one of the main things. You know, I'm, I'm a manager, I'm, you know, running a business as such for the owner. One minute I'm a refit manager doing technical stuff and refit and project management. The next minute you know you're out actually being a navigator selling across an ocean.
Actually doing the old school captain's job and then the next minute you're a hotel manager running high end charters, you know, giving, you know, working in the hospitality industry, you know, and there's sort of different three different modes of operation. Give it plenty of variety and ultimately the for me recently, especially on this program, having done a massive rebuild, so having progressed from a basically a new build because the boat was, you know, we did that much work to it to developing a team to getting. But out there for charter.
So the full evolution of basically we build through to team through to developing the program and then and then performing charters you know that full life cycle here that's that's it gives it. it's really, it's really motivating and it's really enjoyable the whole, all aspects of the job, the variety,
and have you seen the Super Yacht industry change over the last five years and that's sort of the post COVID section, what sort of the main changes, if there are any?
the last five years, so. I mean, not hugely, I'd say. I mean, we could talk about some stuff that's changed. I mean, we're going to get to it later with the crew. I think we've got a different breed of crew coming through and that's that's not just our industry, that's every industry dealing with whatever the latest age group of crew are. People are loose and lose track of the terms to be honest. So that's one change, but nothing particularly COVID wise or and I mean the industry.
we were talking about that last night.
I don't know. I had a bit of a, obviously a gap and there was a bit of a break with COVID. It's come back. It's come back fairly. Has it changed? It's come back fairly strong. I'd say it's it seems to be, but no, nothing particular, I'd say, really.
Mm. perfect. So what do you think the three or two or four or five, the sort of biggest challenges the superior industry are going to need to solve in the next 10 years looking forward?
Again, I'll see some of this coming up later, but I think the reputational side of it, you know the environmental, you know, I think we are, we make efforts to be to be more environmentally friendly, but ultimately you know by making your Yacht 20%. And more efficient still means that your carbon footprint is outrageous, you know, and so it's all well and good. It's, you know, making these boats more efficient. But the fact that we even have them and that they're running around the world to, you know, selling across the Atlantic, even at a more efficient level.
Is so the so the our impression you know just like private jets for people running around that we've got a huge challenge there in the in the perception of the industry and the fact that people are running around with this with this carbon footprint that's that's the environmental. Issue is huge. I'd say that's the big one. some people say there's a crew challenge. I don't think there is. I think it's not really a big challenge. I think there'll always be enough people. So I'm not. I'm not huge on saying there's a big crew problem. I'm I'm almost seeing the opposite.
Other challenges next 10 years. I think there'll be a bit, there'll be a, there'll be a space challenge in certain places, but hopefully that'll, you know, we keep saying it'll drive owners to go see new places, but they don't. They just, we still do. We still. We still do the same old thing, you know, we're there in a beat South of France and Ibiza and everyone wants to be in these places and we're piling in more and more boats and less and less docked space and that's certainly a challenge for captains and owners. It's it's finding spaces and.
And I think resources in certain areas with the amount of boats in the hot spots is and you know and space yes but even space in Anchorage is just insane and it's going to get I don't know how it we don't know where it's going to go in the next 10 years with the. With the fleet growing and the bigger yachts, that's that's gonna be a challenge.
Mm. amazing. So what trends in super yacht design and technology are sort of affecting your day-to-day operations these days? I mean you just said you've just come out of a. A big refit and stuff. What sort of trends or do you notice sort of new trends in the design and certainly like the integrated AV and IT and all that?
that's just been around forever. I don't know that there's that much of the AVIT that really, I mean we, you know, I'd say design and technology, I mean we put a lot of Tech on the boat, but we ultimately trying to keep it more simple, you know, good reliable systems on board. Rather than just going all out, you know, in my experience all that the more technology, certainly on the electronic side, the more advanced you make it, the more there is to go wrong and then you know you have a maintenance nightmare.
In design wise we spend a lot of time making the spaces in the in the areas very efficient for service. So they so for instance right now we've got twin pantries on our on our main dining deck you know and twin outside spaces one that's a galley. The one that's a service side and we just we really designed the boat to be because we changed the layout all over the boat. So we changed the boat to make it efficient design for large parties for Charlie guests on board. So certainly we've developed a boat and.
I spent a lot of time thinking about those various spaces and how efficient we are at serving guests. So it was very much crew focused and service focused in terms of the design. And I don't know that most boats do that necessarily. You know, we also have a massive amount of crew cabins that when we need to, we can pile the boat full of crew, which we do occasionally. So a bunch of the stuff that we've done has meant that this boat is absolutely.
Thanks.
Fabulous to operate from a Charter perspective and which is brilliant. You know on the Tech side, you know the bridge, you know I think paperless bridges are fabulous. I'm and I'm a big fan of technology and paperless and just minimizing work. So you know, I know plenty of captains say they like to still have paper charts around but.
For me, the fact that the second officer goes click, click, click and the charts are up to date once a week rather than doing a do it doing a day of charts means that we can actually focus on the you know on the job of guests and navigating the boat and so you know really efficient bridge systems and you know they're they're they're great and the same with you know. And. I think it's going to come up a bit later, isn't it, with regulations and stuff.
But the, just being efficient in those operations, certainly in the bridge operations, you know, I feel like we're, you know, there's plenty of systems in within bridge and navigation that make us much more efficient than we used to be, which is great. That's been superb.
As you said, it wasn't that many changes, so it's probably consistent.
Not yet. Look, the challenge is always the same. It's it and it hasn't changed. It's people really, right. So you know whether it whether it's the crew side and people management on the on the team and managing that or whether it's you know guests and managing them, you know and their expectations and their experience and their.
And then so guest and crew management, I mean, nothing's changed there and it's it's, you know, I mean and also I guess the other challenges for me, I always find the weather challenging and managing you know that expectation with guests and moving the boat and you know trying to get certain anchors and the pressures to do.
Certain trips or anchorages and so weather's really weather can move some of the most stressful side of a of a charter when they you know but you know especially in the more difficult places like the Caribbean and they really want to go to places and they shouldn't but you know that's always hard. So nothing's changed. I mean, maybe it's, maybe it's changed a little bit in that we've got, you know, forecasting get in that side gets a little bit better, you know, and we've got better tools, but ultimately it's still the same challenge that the weather's there,
Weather and people, weather and people don't change that much, do they? OK, so then on to crew, then you know you mentioned it. What do you think about the new crew joining the industry? How are they?
In comparison to before.
we're seeing a obviously a whole different level of expectation from them. They're coming into the industry with, not like when we joined and we were just crew and you just get on with it now, now the crew, you know, demand a certain. Level of input and they, they, they, they. so I don't know how do you put this? I've been too diplomatic.
Well, I'm a I'm a teacher as I'm a teacher as well. So I'm there going you know you try and tell a kid off and they're like that's actually against my my rights
But but the you know we it's not, it's not all bad. I mean, people, people sort of say, oh, bloody, they whinge about the modern crew, but they bring another level to they bring a different mindset and it's and there's definitely some positives to that. You know, it does take a little bit longer to sort of assimilate them into the yachting way of thinking, I think.
And it takes them a bit more time to sort of assimilate to life on board and And so there are more challenges in dealing with perhaps the attitude because it does give them what we would perceive as an at times a negative attitude towards the sort of the working as a team. And and gelling as a as a team and a sort of family. And so they if they feel a little at times they feel a little bit too important and in the scheme of things then that can be challenging to manage. So it just it just adds another dimension to that crew management.
Different and but it has opened your our eyes to the fact that you know we now I do spend more time listening to the crew. We do we do feedback sessions with impact crew. You know we really it's it's forced us to take on board perhaps more. More of a, more of an approach of actually listening to the crew and there's certainly a lot of benefits to that. That's it's been great for us in some respects. So
I guess that's, you know, one example of how you're handling the sort of pressure cooker environment with relationships and you know, so feedback sessions is 11 good example. What else do you do in those sort of stressful situations to handle the crew?
we, I mean obviously avoidance is the is the best remedy. I mean we, you know we go, we well we've got numerous things. I mean the fact that everyone's on a rotation, so we so the minimum rotation is 31 on board. That that gets well 12 weeks that is the maximum that anyone does on board. That's that's a that's a big help. You know they're going away for we've got a crazy busy environment and so getting people off for that four weeks every 12 is you know a lot of crew on even rotation. So that's a big help.
You know we'll go into the season doing some team building and leadership training and that team building and sort of those you know. Sort of mini psychometric shooting for all the crew and helping the crew understand different personalities and that type of thing. Pre-season that's a big help. And then morale, so. like you say you still, you're still going to have those conflicts and those challenges and you know training and the leadership training of the of the heads of departments really helps them manage their team without you know and understanding that we need to.
You know, get on top of those things early and not let them become a problem. So, so, so raising those conflicts early and people addressing it is a is a big side, a big help. And then we, you know, the morale in particular for us is, is, is. About keep people rested. I mean we actually managed to maintain hours of rest certainly for the junior crew. We've got, you know we've got plenty of crew at 2425 crew on a 73 meter. So we're well up on numbers in terms of in terms of that because we've got because we've got an owner that will let us do that and because we end up.
We believe in high quality service, but it also means that allows us to keep people rested and that's a that's a huge one as well. So plenty of tools there.
But I guess that must be one strategy that helps you retain crew. Sounds like you know they're going to be happy to stay if they, especially if they've come from another boat where that's not happening. But what other strategies help you keep your good crew?
I think I don't necessarily have some of the, you know, excellent sort of tools on paper in terms of package. We've got a reasonable package, but nothing crazy, you know, no particular great bonuses or anything. But as the sort of survey say, that's not the not the best. Anyway, you know, I think culture and ethos from the beginning is key respecting the crew. We, you know, we are crazy busy boat, but within that structure. Making sure that people feel empowered and that they and they feel part of the team and that they that they want to do a good job and succeed as a team.
So ensuring everyone feels part of that team from whatever level. What else? rotation is a huge one, although not the not the biggest. We've got, we've got a, you know, a lot of individual cabins. It's really helps with the senior crew. I think safety is a is a huge one. the safety culture on board is surprising how useful that is in sort of promoting a good culture on board and I think that the crew really respects. Really, they understand that and that and that actually having the highest safety standards is a surprisingly big factor. I think.
What examples of mentoring have you seen?
plenty of times. I mean you obviously as a as a captain you see it more on in our department. So you know, you know in particular I've had multiple chief officers that have you know trained and mentored through to becoming captains and. And and we're, you know we're not within our fleet. It's the beauty of having a bit of a fleet going with the owner is that you can you've people don't necessarily have to step up within this vessel and we've had people switch between the vessels if there's an easier jump somewhere else. So we're we're we're huge on promoting from within.
We really feel that you know we do much better. Our program is really quite challenging and it's it's it means that pulling people in from the outside is a huge learning curve for anyone. Coming in and that you know, we'd rather promote from within than bringing from the outside. So we do that, you know, massively. We've got a huge amount of people that have stepped up through the ranks, you know, second mate to but certainly on deck all the way and.
Likewise on the interior, you know our chief Stew on here has been on been in the programme five years on started as a junior Stew on or maybe a third Stew on the on the 50 metre. So plenty of plenty of that going on. And you know, for instance, you know one of our my chief officers has gone to run be captain of mischief the 54 and. So and plus, I mean, mainly, you know, mainly within the industry, like I say, plenty of chief officers of mine that have gone on to take over boats from me or and or elsewhere.
That's that must be cool when you sort of see them down the line and keep in contact and you know, see they're doing well and mentoring someone else, right? Probably.
exactly. A lot of my deckies are now running, running big boats. It makes me realise how long I've been doing this.
All right. And then so finishing on crew, there's a lot of talk about mental health and sort of burnout in the industry. You know, sounds like your support are really your crew are well supported. You know what your thoughts around? That issue.
we've taken this on board in the last year or so. So our last a year ago, I think our last, you know, crew training with Impact crew, we did a mental health first aid. I saw no, we did a mental health. What do we do? Stress happens. It was a personal mental health module as. Part of that for all the crew. So just sort of raising awareness there within the crew and ensuring everyone, well, trying to help everyone sort of be more aware of it personally. And then last what we did before this year we did, we did half of the crew or maybe not quite half. We did about 12.
We did mental health first aid for about 12 people on board two or three day, two or three day course. So we've got a bunch of mental health first aiders as well now on board. So we've we've spent a bit of time on that. I think it's important and it's the numbers are quite interesting, aren't they? Quite scary in fact about how many. How many challenges we've got there on the mental health side.
So, so I think everyone's just generally more open and more aware and obviously you know we have all the various support lines, you know this the ice one, but also we have we have actually a support line with our with our medical insurance as well completely anonymous. And the various other ways of getting support. So we're doing our, we're doing our best to support that on the mental health side. And then, the burnout, well, I mean, it's amazing. People still feel they're working very hard, but it's we always say it's nothing like we used to be when.
When we started in the industry and we were working crazy hours, but ultimately, you know, these guys are, you know, they, they, you know, the complaints we get now was that I didn't, you know, I didn't get my two hour break and it wasn't the right time and I couldn't gym exactly at the right time and blah, you know, it's so it's like, OK, you know, you're still within your hours of rest. You didn't quite get the break you wanted. So if those are the complaints I'm getting, then I think we're at the right level in terms of making sure they don't burn out.
amazing. OK, so on to the owner and guest section then. Oh, so. You know you're talking about, you know sometimes the weather meaning so the weather meaning you can't like anchor where the where the where the guest might want you know what other examples are there. So I'm messing with this. Where you've sort of sort of toe the line, it's the sort of grey area. Sometimes you might have had to say no, or sometimes you had to, you know, go crazy to make it a yes in terms of these sort of unexpected requests.
Jumped in from yes.
From guests.
I mean our usual biggest challenge is these big guest parties and relocating the boat, you know and it's and it's the last minute madness, you know getting approvals from flag and local authorities for this huge party that just came up last minute. And we technically need three days for approvals and at last minute they want you know 80 people at anchor and you've got to get extra chase boats and launch all your tenders and have enough people and you know all the safety side of things and we have all the live dockets everything ready. So that's that's one of the examples that's that's but that's fairly regular. So we're now. Sort of ahead of that, generally. I mean, most of these examples you don't really want to give necessarily, do you?
There you go. No, no, no, that was that we'll we'll we'll tick that box. That's great. what trends and changes with the newer generation of ultra high net worth individuals?
we, I mean there's a slight change, isn't there? So you know, you know, like I say, I've been, I've been doing it as a captain for a while now, but was it 20, over 20 years and the there was the fairly sort of typical type of clients and now we're just seeing another. Sort of, you know, another set of clients, the younger, you know, the Bitcoin millionaires and other, you know and other people and other people that are just simply successful from a very young age. So, so certainly seeing a lot of younger ultra high net worths and. And they bring more of a party atmosphere.
So yes, perhaps more, you know, although we like to personally, we just like the family charters and the three generation charters and those nice easy ones. But so we are seeing a bit more of perhaps a party. Party atmosphere sort of type of client.
interesting as the young people do. OK. And then regulations and sustainability. So this PDF being that is the next section, right?
what are your thoughts on the mountain regulatory load and how do you manage it?
It's often talked about, isn't it? I, I, I, you know, back in the day when it we first started getting regulated, let's say back fairly heavily 2020 odd years ago, it did come as a shock I think back then. I think now we've got so much of it and we have so many systems in place. Yes, OK. Every few months is something else and something else and we complain about it, but I think it's over complained about. I think I mean for me it is what it is and it's most of them are fairly, you know, sensible and yes, it increases, increases the workload.
You know we talked about the efficiencies in the bridge anyway on a larger vessel it's it's it's very manageable. You know you've got you've got a Chief Officer, second officer and these guys take care of the you know most of that regulatory load, regulatory load. And and just having systems in place that are that they keep you efficient in managing that is key and I think you know most big boats are on it. The the challenge comes you know a lot of the boats I've run well one in particular for a long time was just over 500 gross tons and it was 50 meter and you. Don't have a second officer.
So I think for the smaller vessels, it's a lot more challenging. So you know, perhaps I'm a bit out of the loop on those size boats, on the bigger boats it's a bit easier, but certainly managing that on a sort of 5055 meter is a, you know, is a lot, is a lot. You know, they need, they need more crew. We're we're at the right crew level. We're we're an outlier in terms of crew numbers, but we should be the norm. And I see some smaller boats now starting, you know, boats that were running with 3-4 crew now running with four and five. I see the 20-30 metre boats running with more crew.
But then still see some of them running with you know way down and then we know that the crew cabin challenges they've got because they're simply as I see new builds coming out and they just don't put enough crew cabins on. So you know handling that is a is a massive challenge you know. Especially when they don't have enough deck offices,
environmental regulations, you mentioned those, you know, is that going to affect the future of yachting much or you know, like say prevent you doing some things that you've done before?
And. we well, we're trying to get to Alaska last year. We would have to do stuff with emissions. You know, we're on a 1994 boat and you know, our main engines are original. So there's a there's a few challenges for us there, but nothing too. Too difficult. You know the environment of regulations aren't particularly good to maybe move on to the next one as well. But you know, then they're not particularly onerous, I don't think, probably not onerous enough. And then, but the flag states and port states are pretty good at not forcing older vessels to necessarily fully comply.
So you don't have to rebuild your vessel, but they're making sure that the new boats have to, you know, have a high level of emissions and or you know, waste management, but. The. You know, what's the next one? Are they actually effective? No, is the answer. I think they're not particularly. I don't think. I don't think we're doing well enough is the answer. I mean, waste management is one thing that frustrates me is, you know, we, we, you know, we separate all that. we always think, oh, where's our next port? OK, next port's X.
So we start rejigging our separation of, you know, of waste on board and then you see all go short. It just all ends up in one bloody place anyway, you know, and I think it just seems to be this excuse in the maritime world. That that yes, you know in Spain for instance I see boats coming into STP and you know shoreside is fantastic the recycling and the separation of waste and then all these boats come in and just chuck everything all in one dumpster. And you know, we all say, well, Oh we're working hard to make sure we do this on the other.
But the reality is we're just not doing very well, I don't think so.
that might that might be one change, right? That you know, the marinas and the ports need to actually, you know, do as well as the yachts, right?
They, they, they, they talk, they talk a good game, but they just on. So there's the odd one that you see out there talking a good game and then they aren't necessarily do it, you know, doing that. And then there's plenty that aren't talking about it and aren't doing it either. That's a frustration, especially in parts of the Med, you know, Italy, and Italy's particularly bad, and they charge an absolute fortune for getting rid of all this garbage. It seems to be this distinct link between. You know, the boats also don't, they don't, they don't have the room to separate it all out and store it separately. So I think designing the boats better in terms of, you know, garbage management would be would be a good thing,
technology, security and innovation then. So how, I mean, you've got a fairly sort of recent brief experience, you know what technology has been integrated that's changed? Your role, you mentioned the sort of the electronic bridge stuff. Anything else?
not particularly. I mean, it's it's been around there for a while. It changed my world. Yes, change in terms of, in the last 20 years for sure, but nothing's hugely more recently. like I said, I love the digital bridge systems and you know, a lot of the systems. But really nothing. Proportion wise, we have a super efficient, we have controllable pitch propellers and our boat's super efficient, but it's nothing that's a big change really. It's it's been like that for a while. So in terms of my role. no, no. I mean, maybe technology. I mean, look, certainly on the communications side or you can talk about that a bit. I mean, Starlink has obviously been a game changer. You know, we were, we were an early adopter, you know, 2 1/2 years ago, three years ago actually.
No, not so much, right?
3 1/2, So we were an early adopter, put a temporary Dome on very early on and now we have 5 Starling cantennas on board and we're just waiting for a competitor to really get into the game and we'll have someone else's on because it was interest, so?
it's the first question, isn't it? What's the, what's the Wi-Fi carriage?
So I guess, I guess that connectivity has helped in terms of in terms of, you know, we're also very good on IT systems on board. Everyone's got really good computers and screens and laptops and we don't, we don't spend any money on the IT side. So IT certainly improved and. And the connectivity and the ability to be able to work efficiently. So we make, you know we make sure that everyone has a work phone. We probably have what 10 positions that have work phones and a computer on board and just making sure that everyone's efficient in that in that sort of.
Comms world, it's been a big one, more so than the actual boat. It's more shoreside type of things. But I guess, I guess the styling just gives you that connectivity and having a dedicated dish for the officers, dedicated dish for the crew and for the guests, you know, they've all got their own. so we have a massive amount of, you know, Internet connectivity that's that's helped.
So, sort of linked to that then cyber security and that's obviously getting bigger and bigger. You know, what do you do and what are your thoughts moving forward about, you know, how to protect, you know, the guest data really, isn't it? And the up data.
And. I mean there was, we had to know it's just it's been a lot of time and effort doing surveys and you know we have a we have a dedicated SOC, what is it SOC Security Operations Centre. You know, monitor our network in real time. I don't know if I can actually do anything, but we certainly seem to pay an invoice every month. It's the buzzword, isn't it? So we, you know, and we spend a lot of time with some crazy big policy that we.
Enough,
Sort of bring out and review once in a while and talk about those fancy words. I don't really understand most of them and then and then forget about it for another six months or however long it is before we before we look at it again. we're looking at, we're at the size, we've got a dedicated ETO, so they're they're obviously taking care of that most of the time, but. I guess, I mean it, it keeps coming up and we talk about it and it is a concern. We haven't had any particular problems ourselves. And so I mean mainly to be honest.
You know the biggest, the biggest actual day-to-day sort of threat for us and as a as a company and as a as a group because obviously the boss owns a few boats and the Ahoy club is it's really the invoicing and the you know the payments. I mean there's so many people you know we haven't touched would had any challenges with our demand. But you know plenty of our suppliers have you know got hacked and sending out people sending out fake invoices and you know we've we've had some payment issues you know not with coral ocean but with other parts of the fleet and business.
And those challenges with you know with that and ensuring you know you know checking any new bank details verbally and even then when he checked it verbally could you know where did he get the phone number from and is that you know literally we've had it where somebody checked the number checked it but the number the. The number they were using was the hacker's number. So then obviously they confirmed them as correct and you know so that's become in terms of that the ensuring that we don't pay anyone. You know we had one we got scammed once the ETO got scammed with some.
And parts on our on our website. So, so the, you know, fortunate credit card use, that's more the biggest challenge really is the money side of things has been for us.
then what are your thoughts on autonomous systems and remote monitoring and all of all of that side of things?
interesting. I'm a friend of mine, an old friend of mine, he actually, he works with one of the autonomous. It's well, it's his whole business is an autonomous boat that they run out of the UK. They've done lots of testing and stuff. So I haven't actually been in touch with him recently, but I see him on LinkedIn. Him on LinkedIn. it's really quite interesting, isn't it? And this sort of this idea, some of the boats, they're putting the bridge down on the on the tank deck, you know, and then you just have a bunch of screens and audio.
And once you've put it there, then, you know, if the Internet's good enough, then why can't it be? Why can't it be sure side? Because it doesn't even need to be on board at that point. Once you get a good enough Internet connection, I mean, will it significantly change? Yes, in the future. I think it's a lot more distant than people think. I think it's happening anytime soon, but I mean ultimately in terms of the vessels, we're still, we're still a service industry. So we'll still need plenty of people serving them on these boats.
And you know, and if you didn't have that, then I can understand in certain parts of the maritime industry where the vessels don't need. You know, you know if they're operating in the North Sea and they're not actually taking people anywhere, then the vessels are just doing a job. Then I see this autonomous systems coming in and but ultimately it's the personal aspect of the job we do and half of our job as a captain is actually just like we say, people management and playing the host role.
And you can't imagine on yachts that would take that off the vessel, you know certain aspects maybe and but in terms of captaining of yachts, I don't think it's going to change much of it. In the near future, that's for sure.
we touched on this a little bit earlier. You know what, you know, do you have concerns about, you know, misinformation, all these sort of kind of forums is next, isn't it? But you know, have you have any experience of just this misinformation? Online about super yachts and what's going on and.
it's interesting. I mean, you know, you see the you see the articles in the in the major press and they and it's it's it's always a little bit frustrating to see how poorly the, you know, the writers sort of educate themselves on. On on turn my camera off. Anyway, my camera's not working apparently. OK, So there's that, which is, which is one side of it. But then obviously we get, we get some pretty bad press. Certainly some of the accidents that happen, you know, get misconstrued in the, in the, in the, in the press.
So it is something that we need to manage better talked about a bit earlier, but the industry as a whole needs to manage their perception outside of the industry better. And I think there's certain aspects that are doing that and are taking steps to try and improve our public image, but it's going to be, it's going to be a big challenge going forward I think that's for sure.
a link to that, you know, you've got this a lot of the super yacht specific groups and forums online. There's more and more. Do you have they? Because obviously, you know, like engineers talking about how to fix engines. Brilliant.
But there's a lot of that are getting, you know, like name and shame and all that. Have you sort of got any thoughts or experiences around them?
we've, plenty, I guess. I mean, WhatsApp groups are now the sort of latest, greatest thing and they're they're massive and they're just more and more cropping up and there's a huge amount of them and if they're they. They just get too much nowadays though, you know, I just archiving everything and then you know, you know and you sort of.
They're very useful tool if you want to get on there and ask a question and then and it's funny the other day someone was saying on one of the one of the groups was like oh we should we've gone full circle and you know people are saying oh well we just we all these questions that we asked we need to write them down somewhere and have a have a have a database. It's like well we're back to where we used to be with like. You know. Well, no, but also just like yachting pages or, you know, super Yacht guide, you know, you know, you're back, you're back, you know, full circle.
Whereas, you know, yes, of course we should, you know, we were asking, oh, anyone know a good, you know, upholstery guy in Palmer. It's like, well, yes. You know, and so we so, but everyone wants that instant gratification and they want that connection with people and that's what the forms give. And so everyone's on there and everyone's just asking a question and then those WhatsApp groups are, they are brilliant. I've used them especially everyone's like, oh, you got the contact for so and so and if you want to get hold of another boat or you know you want information. It's incredibly useful.
It's it's it's, you know, you know, you know. So I mean the WhatsApp groups are great and horrible at the same time. They're they're brilliant source of information the. the forums. Wow, there's a lot of keyboard warriors. There's the problem, isn't there? I mean, we ended up briefly on name and shame. You know, we had an issue on board and it was, you know, and we needed a lot of crew quickly because of our warrior death on board and. we ended up on there because someone was like, oh, they're going through a crew and everything. And it was, you know, it was quite upsetting for a lot of us.
And well, luckily we knew someone who knew the Admin and we got it pulled down, you know, because normally it's hard to get it pulled down, right? Because everyone's like, oh, we've got the right to freedom of speech and blah, blah, blah. We want to talk about this. But it was a it was a pretty. Unique situation is why we needed a bunch of crew quite quickly and we're suddenly getting bloody, you know, name is shamed on the website, you know, for going through crew. So it's they're good and bad. Mainly bad, I think most of them.
I think it's probably better systems for managing blacklisting crew and all of that. But that's a whole other topic, isn't it?
absolutely. So, just. Public perception of super yachts. I think you've covered that it that it's fairly negative and you know anything that you think you can do. I sort of think actually the people that work. In the Super Yacht Hubs, actually, you know, they rely on it for their for their income, right? So overall, you know, the public perception that are reading, you know, like the The Sun newspaper or whatever, you know, may be negative. But you know, there must be quite a lot of, you know, positive public perception as well.
In, in, in and around, yes. I mean those that those that earn money from the industry, of course they love it. And look, I don't think it's all bad. I mean, it's No, I think generally the I think the industry is doing OK. I think it needs to like I say it needs to at least do something towards improving it in the in the wider public, but. In and around the industry, those that know it know that it's it's it's it's got some, you know certainly it's a it's a brilliant distributor of wealth. Let's put it that way. You know it's getting these people spending their money on building boats, on operating boats, on maintaining boats is fabulous. There's a lot of people, a lot of people, jobs and incomes and you know.
then. So to finish, if you could change one thing with your magic wand, what would it be and why?
interesting. I mean, we could start talking about a whole other subject again there, I mean. You're coming. We could talk about brokers and the whole that side of the things, but I mean I think the, the. The. there's something incessantly wrong with the way that boats are sold and chartered. But that's like I say a whole nother topic. That's that's that's it. I don't know there's there's it's that whole system and that whole the way that the industry is in that regard, I think.