neolith2099
01.05.2021 1:55:10
When people are paying millions to run the yacht or hundreds of thousands to charter it out for a week, they expect to get their money's worth — and everything they want.
See full version: 8 superyacht crew members share the most extreme requests they; ve had to deal with on the job
When people are paying millions to run the yacht or hundreds of thousands to charter it out for a week, they expect to get their money's worth — and everything they want.
Michael, a former yacht captain who worked on yachts ranging from 130 to 170 feet, recalled a time when a superyacht owner wanted to watch the NBA basketball team he owned play in the semifinals or finals. At the time, the yacht was anchored near a reef off of eastern Honduras, where there was terrible satellite coverage, he said.
That leaves many superyacht crew members running around trying to meet the highest expectations. From the funny to the ridiculous to the tedious, here are some of the strangest requests they've received on the job.
About 95% of owners have boats 26 feet or less at an average cost of $18,000, according to the National Marine Manufacturers Association, and more than 80% of those buyers shelled out for used or brokerage boats. But buying a boat or yacht is just the start. Bentley Collins of Sabre Yachts says to budget 10% of the boat’s value annually to cover expenses. And then there are the extras.
Toys may not be a priority on your yacht, but jet skis, seabobs, kayaks, canoes, tenders, paddleboards, and inflatables cost an extra few thousand dollars each. A seabob costs about $1,000. And if you have kids, the RedShark 10-man Towable 17′ floater will bring hours of fun attached to the back of your boat for about $1,600. [links]
High-quality life jackets can run about $70 each. A package with a safety gear bag, a Freon horn, a fire extinguisher, a visual distress signal kit as well as dock lines costs $170. Add to electronics — such as a GPS chart plotter and a radio system — items that easily tack on an extra $20,000 per boat. here
After sailing and racing multihulls for over 30 years I can say with absolute confidence that—all things being equal—trimarans and monohulls are quicker upwind than catamarans. They generally sail a good five to seven degrees higher. I can also say with equal confidence that a daggerboarded catamaran sails considerably faster and makes far less leeway upwind than a catamaran with keels. In fact, daggerboarded cats point nearly as high as most monohulls and sail much faster upwind. For many sailors up-wind performance is not a significant consideration. This is certainly so for those who place a catamaran in charter. In fact, catamarans with keels make better charter cats because you never have to worry about broken daggerboards. Keels also offer a good deal of protection for the rudders—another huge plus when your boat is regularly being sailed by novices. If you happen to cruise off the California coast, however, where Mexican waters are frequented, upwind performance is crucial. Sailing up the Baja shore-line is a long and arduous upwind slog. Similarly, if you are sailing on an extended cruise, excellent upwind sailing performance is beneficial for safety as well as personal comfort. Off wind speeds will also be higher on a daggerboarded cat due to reduced drag, steering will be more responsive and lively, and you will be able to reach shallower anchorages. The largest negative to daggerboards is that they are very costly to add to a catamaran and therefore few builders offer them, particularly the larger production builders who must sell more than half of their production into charter programs. more
When a naval architect sets out to design a catamaran one of his chief goals is to design the narrowest possible hulls required to carry the intended load. If the hulls are wider than necessary, the boat will be slower than necessary. If the hulls are too narrow, the design will suffer dramatically in performance when the boat is overloaded because narrower, flat-sided hulls respond negatively to excess load. A designer who is working with a builder using the most advanced materials to shed overall construction weight (say, an epoxy Gunboat catamaran) will design considerably narrower hulls than he would for a builder using less costly, heavier building materials (say a Lagoon or a Robertson & Caine). Yet no matter what materials are chosen for the construction, the boat must be carefully designed to have the buoyancy required for the user’s load needs. In short, if you feel the need for televisions, microwaves, computers and scuba gear, be sure to get a multihull designed to handle this extra weight. If you want good sailing performance, however, you will most certainly need to spend more to purchase either a very light, high-tech catamaran, or a longer, narrower design to displace the greater loads you intend to carry. If performance is of no concern you can purchase a shorter, heavier, fatter-hulled cat at far less expense. As always, you must think very carefully about how you will be using your boat before you can make an intelligent decision. more
Speed is seldom given serious consideration as a safety factor, but it ought to be. Everyone wants to know if a boat can take a pounding, but seldom ask if a boat can avoid one. One of the great safety advantages of a multihull over a monohull (in addition to unsinkability) is that it can attain much higher speeds. And the faster you can sail, the less exposure you have to dangerous storms. In fact, with modern satellite communications and weather routing services, a performance catamaran that can pull 12 knots running before a storm can easily sail away from just about any sustained winds over 50 knots.
Unfortunately, many catamarans on the market today are very slow and made even slower because the bulk of them were rigged for the charter trade. These underpowered rigs are a major drawback for serious warm water cruisers because 70-percent of your sailing will be done in winds of 12 knots or less. To overcome this problem I highly recommend adding a bowsprit to carry a permanently mounted roller-furling screecher. This easily handled sail will boost your multi-hull’s sailing performance dramatically and there-fore greatly add to your safety if you need to reach or run away from bad weather. On longer passages the increased speed will also en-able you to carry less provisioning.
Because sailing is a romantic enterprise, it attracts a wide range of dreamers, myself included. The downside is that there is often an enormous gap between our dreams and the reality in which we find ourselves. Many people I speak with tell me they are planning to take a long-distance cruise. “When?” I ask. “Oh, as soon as I retire…I’d say in four or five years we’ll be headed for Tahiti.” Alas, the four or five years often stretch to 10. So there they find themselves sailing a large offshore yacht on the Chesapeake for 10 years. Sure, they may make it to Maine or the Bahamas from time to time, but the big offshore multihull is essentially underutilized on most weekend sailing excursions. A smaller and less seaworthy multihull would probably do the job just as well for a lot less expense.
Picture it: It's a beautiful summer day and you're laying out in the sun, a cold drink by your side, your favorite music playing softly in the background, and you're slightly rocking to the motion of the waves.
Before you get there — you know, to all the relaxation — there's a lot that needs to happen first, like actually buying the yacht, hiring the staff, making sure everything is being cleaned and fixed when necessary, and being prepared for a lot less isolation than you've been imagining. [links]
Someone comes to refill your ice bucket and tells you lunch is almost ready. more