BOAT International and Hill Robinson hosted a roundtable at the Monaco Yacht Show 2024, bringing together yacht owners and captains to address some key issues in yacht management. The conversation was conducted under Chatham House Rules, meaning participants remain anonymous in quoted remarks.
Earlier this year, leading yacht management firm Hill Robinson recognised a lack of comprehensive data on yacht management services within the industry. To address this, it partnered with BOAT International to launch a survey aimed at gathering insights from industry professionals and ultimately enhancing the quality of yacht management services. How essential are yacht management services? Who is truly in charge of a yacht’s management? These were just a few of the crucial topics explored.
With the survey results published in the October issue of BOAT International, the roundtable discussion addressed some of the survey's most pressing issues. BOAT highlights the key takeaways…
The discussion kicked off by examining the level of involvement yacht managers have with a yacht. Some owners prefer to be more hands-on, while others take a more relaxed approach. As a result, it's up to the management company to customise its services to meet the unique needs of each vessel.
“This is about learning what everybody wants from a yacht management company,” explained Paul Cook, COO of Hill Robinson. “Just because you have done it once doesn’t mean you know best, because everything’s different; every yacht is different; every captain is different; every owner is different. It’s not a ‘one size fits all’.”
One yacht owner highlighted the roles of the captain and the management company when it comes to regulations. “From my perception, regulations are changing all the time and becoming more and more onerous. I think it’s incumbent on the yacht management company to be au fait with them, not necessarily the captain to the same degree.”
A captain added: “The captain should have a close relationship with the owner because that’s where the trust will lie. But, as you say, the landscape is changing so quickly, so it’s my responsibility to keep up with all those regulations for my own benefit and for legal reasons as well if something goes wrong.”
Agreeing, an owner commented: "The need for a yacht manager is vital from a regulatory point of view; for compliance issues and crew issues. You just cannot be in the industry without having a very good yacht management company handling that for you."
Another captain emphasised the advantages of having ex-crew members in yacht management teams: “This is where yacht management comes in by putting out the fliers and bulletins and updates, and directing you to where things are. I’m always interested in how much ex-yacht crew is in various management companies because I think that experience is very useful. It doesn’t have to be entirely made up of ex-crew, it’s healthy to have people from all sorts of backgrounds, like finance, to provide input, but when there is a yachting touch, there is a bit more understanding.”
While much of the Hill Robinson team has experience working on board, spanning deck crew, engineering and interior roles, Cook is a former superyacht captain and therefore has the knowledge and understanding of superyacht crews' needs.
Another captain shared his firsthand experience with an inexperienced yacht manager, highlighting the potential impact this can have on a yacht's operation. “I’ve had lots of different yacht managers over the years. Recently, I got a very good one who just gets involved when I need them. Previously, I had somebody who came from shipping and then suddenly became a yacht manager and didn’t know anything about it. The first thing they did was send me a barrage of emails saying how everything was wrong. Unfortunately, I had to educate the yacht manager on what they needed to know.”
The roundtable participants agreed that while many companies in the industry offer both brokerage and management services, it's essential to keep these teams separate to avoid conflicts between the two areas. This approach ensures that management and commercial interests don't clash. Hill Robinson serves as a prime example of this, with its management services handled independently, while its sister company, Moravia Yachting, manages the brokerage side of the business.
The discussion then shifted to the pressing issue of staffing and crew rotational patterns. An owner pointed out the challenges of having two rotational captains, noting that proper handovers are often not completed effectively. On the other hand, relying on a single captain is also problematic, as it can lead to burnout. This highlighted the need for a balanced approach to managing crew rotation.
A captain highlighted the benefits of having a close relationship with his fellow rotational captain, which positively impacts the smooth operation of the yacht. “I have a very personal relationship with the other captain. We’re friends, and we speak once a week and give a weekly update, just to catch up and talk about who played football last weekend, how the family is doing, then you’re continuously up to date with what’s going on.”
Another owner added: “Both of our captains get on really well and have a genuine interest in the boat. So when they get off, they don’t just forget about their job, they genuinely care.”
It was consensus that crew retention and satisfaction are crucial for maintaining effective rotation schedules and that high turnover rates are red flags that need to be addressed. “I think that crew placement is a matchmaking service,” said Barrett Wright, president of Hill Robinson USA. “It’s about listening to both sides and making sure that there’s going to be a match for the long term.”
When asked what one task owners would like yacht managers to handle on their behalf, the entire table unanimously agreed: maintenance. They noted that the use of various providers, each offering different services and opinions, leads to inconsistencies in maintenance schedules and costs. “You could spend £1 million per year or £5 million per year,” an owner remarked, highlighting the importance of streamlined maintenance management.
“It’s very hard but you must build up a team around you,” said a captain. “We spend literally hundreds of millions each year on maintenance in different yards so we try to build up a preferred partner arrangement so that at least we’ve got some hold on them and we can say, ‘look, this needs finishing’, if necessary.”
According to Hill Robinson, its accounting services can use data to compare inflationary costs, taxes and location to better judge a cost or quote and ensure the owner gets the best price.
Another owner said: "The best advice I can give is to get a base. If you cruise around the world, go back to the same place at least every 2.5 years for the mid-term survey. If you see service providers in different locations, they don’t speak to each other, even though they all work for the same company. So you end up spending five times the money as opposed to going back to the same guy who has been surveying your engine for the past five years. I think it's important to have a base."
Another owner does it differently. “We use the same people and the same companies, but not necessarily in the same place," he said. "You can move around anywhere in the world but just have those people come to you because they are the ones that know the boat.”
"We would like to thank all participants of the roundtable for their honest comments," concluded Kurt Fraser, CCO of Hill Robinson. "We are so pleased that Hill Robinson's personalised approach is appreciated by captains and owners, and we are very much looking forward to working even more closely with them to improve our services further in the future."
To find out more information about Hill Robinson’s yacht management services, visit its website or contact the team today.
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