Yes. Such a small word, three tiny letters that are barely heard. Yet it can contort and distort the realms of reality and it can bind yacht crew link rusty iron chains to the whims of the owner. Yes.
As all good yacht crew know a Captain is an all powerful being. A god of sorts on the yacht. He is to be obeyed, somewhat worshipped and most definitely a little bit feared. But he should also be a benevolent god, whose aim is to protect his crew at all costs, in both physical and emotional senses. They say however, that absolute power, corrupts absolutely. We know all to often how much this can apply to yacht captains.
There will always be the Captain Blighs, who rule the ship with a iron and uncaring fist. But Blighs also tend to control their vessels, and are almost 100% likely to say NO to an owner on a ridiculous request. They after all see themselves as in charge.
There is the Captain Friend, who fails to control his crew as well as he should. Discipline slacks, there is little respect for authority and the vessel kind of wanders of its own free will. This also kills crew moral and eventually the boat and owners pay the ultimate price.
Then there is the Captain “Yes”. This is a Captain who for whatever reason, refuses to say no to the owner. The Owner wants to eat a marsh deer, while sitting in Nassau, the Captain cheerfully says “yes sir”. The chef then spends the next 9 hours with the proverbeal spear, sitting the marshes of the local grocery store and he for all his good intentions comes up empty. After telling his skipper that marsh deer is impossible to catch, the Captain will say “well you go tell the owner he has to eat chicken”. And ultimately it is the Chef who becomes the bearer of bad news.
The Owner says, “I want the deckhands to do a wash down”, even though they have all already been up for 17 hours running guests to shore and back and putting in toys and tenders, “yes sir” says your captain. And there you are, 3:30 in the morning falling asleep in the tender, your head bobbing ever so softly against the hull, while your illustrious skipper is asleep in his cabin.
There is a saying in business, “under promise and over deliver”. It is folly to over promise and under deliver. Unfortunately there are Captains who just can’t say no.
Now it is our job to meet our clients every wish and desire. Our clients are all the very upper echelons of the world and they have certain expectations. We must never forget that it is their high standards that allow us the luxury of living in a 2o million dollar floating palace every day. We must as yacht crew say “Yes” whenever we can. However, a captain should never say that he can do something for the owner, when he in fact cannot. I see all to often in this business, Captains that will promise the client the world and when it proves to be impossible to achieve blames the failings, on his horrible crew.
