Bloomsbury
Superyacht Success **PRE-ORDER - AVAILABLE 9th October**
Superyacht Success **PRE-ORDER - AVAILABLE 9th October**
**PRE-ORDER - AVAILABLE 9th October**
Description
An insider's guide to the superyacht industry, detailing how to get in, progress through the ranks and thrive on the journey.
I have made a life's career within the superyacht community, and in Superyacht Success I share this openly. This is for readers who want to start or continue a career in the superyacht industry, as well as for those who want an insight into the most amazing workplace.
Superyacht Success is an audience with one of the most experienced superyacht captains in the business, and gives you the insider's take on the culture of the industry, how to get hired and how to thrive as you progress through the ranks – handling the demand for absolute perfection at all times, yet avoiding the easy trap of allowing yachting to become your life.
- Section 1 provides an overview of the industry and its history.
- Section 2 examines getting hired (detailing useful qualifications and experience, and advice on agencies and interviews), embracing being new, understanding life on board, and typical career pathways.
- Section 3 covers questions of leadership: establishing a culture of openness and trust, setting boundaries, dealing with the demands of perfectionism.
- Section 4 dives into questions of captaincy: communication and crafting a superyacht life well lived.
-Section 5 comprises of an invaluable toolbox of advice and techniques for crew at all levels from boat handling to briefing teams.
-Chapters also feature '10 Dos and Don'ts' boxes, as well as insights from other high-profile professionals within the industry.
This is the definitive insider's guide to the normally shielded world of Superyachts, and clearly sets out what crew need to know to progress and succeed.
Table of Contents
- we meet the yachting community, learn some of the history and the web that is the superyacht diaspora.
Section 2: The Humans
- Yachts are platforms to carry humans. This section looks at how this plays out in a superyacht.
- Getting hired: qualifications, crew agencies, interviews,
- Green is good: learn to embrace being new, communal living, taking direction
- Career progression: typical pathways
- The advice is brought to life with stories of Brendan's own progression through the ranks (he acknowledges that even as a successful captain the human side of the industry (rather than the professional skills side) is where he has most to learn.
Section 3: The Job
- Being more than 'crew': the sea/shore roster
- Establishing long-term security
- Strength in diversity and differing outlooks
- Creating a culture of openness and trust
- Work/life balance and setting boundaries
- Perfection: the hardest taskmaster
Section 4: Life as a Superyacht Captain
- Look after yourself first: maintaining the SHED (Sleep, Hydration, Exercise and Diet)
- Communication Up: Saying no is not a failure
- Communication Side and Down: clarity and motivation
- Communication outside: importance of non-industry family and friends
- A superyacht life well lived
Section 5: The Toolbox
Onboard communications
- Situation/Mission/Execution/Administration/Command and comms
- Public speaking
- The written word
- Listening effectively
- Anatomy of a communications failure
- 'Sell the job'
Leading teams
- Recruitment (inc interview questions)
- Crew Lifetime Value: professional skills, crew culture, guest experience
- Feedback: giving and receiving
- Psychological safety and creating an environment of optimal performance
- Core values
- Loose guidelines/tight objectives
Boat handling
- 1% of the job, but the 1% that has to be right
- Berth to berth planning: resourcing and communication
- Bridge briefing step by step
- Setting multiple anchors
Dos and Don'ts:
- Stewardess perspective
- Chief Officer perspective
- Others to come
Further reading
About the author:
I was a shy, bookish boy in a small Western Australian coastal town. By age 11 I was a little overweight, and the last to be picked for any team sports. Fortunately, a growth spurt during my 12th year helped me climb the sports social ranking, but I always carried the shadow of those days when I was a little on the outside and not quite expecting to be chosen.
I would never have thought that I would one day as the Captain of some of the World's Greatest Yachts I would be at ease with the wealthiest people on the planet and I would feel more at home in Monaco, Geneva, St Barths, Moscow and London than I did returning to my home town.
This is a captain’s story, my story, where I look back on the physical, emotional and professional challenges that I have faced working in support of the most exclusive client group in the world and their relentless demands. It also charts a journey into the ‘heart of brightness’ that is the superyacht environment. It took me 15 years to earn the title of Captain and I walk through the narrow lanes, the dead ends and the bumpy distractions to that place.
The world of superyachts is far removed from most of the planet’s ‘normal’. It is a world where boundaries blur and the everyday rules of life seem to disappear. A world where lessons and insights are not read about and studied, but lived in an environment of constant pressure, where the consequences of actions result in immediate success or failure. This high stakes, no-safety-net workplace provided me with rolling insights that transfer directly for anyone looking for that edge to be their best version of themselves. My lessons are not hypothetical, gathered from postgraduate studies and delivered in a TED talk; I lived through the glory (but mostly the pain) of the constant scrutiny and expectations of billionaire superyacht owners.
A superyacht is also a study in globalisation. Yacht captains do not speak of diversity as a slogan or a company goal: we live it. The crews are multinational and multilingual and disperse around the globe when not on board. The same is true of the owners. It is common for a conversation to cross multiple languages and for all parties to be speaking in their second or third languages. Many businesses operate globally – this is nothing unique – but not many businesses move their office every few weeks to a new country, a different language, a new climate, a different legal system, and are expected to be experts on arrival.
This is the expectation placed on a yacht and its captain. Whether it be Monaco, Miami, Palau or Papeete, there is an assumption that the captain will have the intimacy of a local by the time their feet are on the dock. They may have ducked an Atlantic hurricane (or two) during the office relocation, but this is not even considered.
The business must be open on arrival. Yes, there are leadership lessons for all from this environment.
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