There's no crisis in the yacht sector

I read Rob Coston's interview with yacht sector recruitment agent Max Lee on your website and found it sensationalist. In my opinion, it incorrectly described the situation regarding safety in yachting as a 'crisis'.

I liken this so-called 'crisis' to an episode of the TV series Below Decks. People ask me, 'Is it really like Below Decks onboard your yacht?' I respond that most of the things I’ve seen in Below Decks I have either seen happen personally or I know another captain who has seen it, but that’s across 28 years as a yacht Captain – not over a 45 minute TV episode!

The safety-related issues, harassment, and bullying 'across the industry' that Max Lee described are along similar lines. I'm sure those things have happened as isolated incidents onboard a few poorly operated yachts, but this is no crisis and it isn’t taking place across the industry.

There is also an implication that the yacht sector is somehow in a worse state than other sectors of the marine industry in terms of safety, harassment, bullying etc. That is most unlikely to be true. Yacht crew tend to be well educated, intelligent, highly motivated, well paid, and well looked after. Yacht owners, perhaps with their own safety and that of their family at heart, have money to spend on the very best safety equipment. Most commercial crew can only dream of the equipment standard provided onboard yachts. Contrary to the article, we train, we practice, and we look after the kit. Anything substandard is replaced immediately.

Regarding the descriptions of alcohol problems in the yacht sector, I would say that this was a much greater issue when I served on UK-registered merchant ships. Throughout my 28 years in command of yachts from 55m up to 117m LOA, I have had the pleasure to serve with the most professional and highly motivated crews, who work extremely hard, always striving to improve and aiming for excellence.

I feel that the tone of the article exaggerates any 'problems' in the yacht sector and suspect the piece has been written as clickbait.

Roy Dance

The editor responds: We appreciated the feedback in this letter, and have made a few tweaks to the way the article was written and headlined. However, we stand by the content of the article, which was based on a survey of yacht professionals Nautilus carried out in partnership with the maritime safety body CHIRP and the Crew Hunter agency. Readers can see for themselves what they think of the article here.