"There is No Second Shift": A Key Industry Mantra

All the content of the article is valid, but its message is actually delivered by a simple brilliant statement: “There is no second shift”. This is a great choice of words to sum up the situation of unlimited guest expectations versus finite crew numbers. It should become an industry mantra, embedded in the day-to-day thinking and actions of all regulators, designers, builders, brokers and managers. If everybody spoke like that, and acted accordingly without exception, then owners and charterers would no longer be surprised and frustrated when confronting reality. What everybody knows about and talks about eventually gets baked into expectations.

Challenges of Meeting Expectations with Limited Crew

It is commonplace that delivering the yachting experience beyond guest expectations, while still complying with MLC hours of work and rest stipulations, becomes less and less feasible the smaller the yacht and the number of its crew. Generally speaking, above 55m the crew size is sufficient to schedule compliant work and rest hours, but even then, compliance starts to become problematical over extended periods of guest occupancy and/or short turnaround times. Rotation is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. Even a cycle of one month on and two months off would not exempt a yacht crew from full MLC compliance with working hours during the period on board. Non-compliance is actionable by flag and port states. That “there is no second shift” is no legal defence.

Addressing the Issue of the Absent Second Shift

What actions can be taken to address the issue of the absent second shift? Delivering a fit-for-purpose yacht would be a good place to start. However, “The crew are brought on too late in construction to provide an operational perspective and then are instructed to ‘make it work’. A series of innocuous compromises in construction combine to make a workplace that is physically improbable to operate efficiently." This is another commonplace, and there are endless anecdotes about design deficiencies that can directly affect crew performance and fatigue. When a yacht is delivered, it is too late to make changes to physical features which impede operational efficiency and even safety.

Familiar complaints include: obstructed bridge visibility; yachts of 50m with no office; 40-45m yachts expected to operate 24/7 on charter with two engineers and no UMS; 48m production yachts with the captain's cabin in the crew area, opposite the mess and at the entrance to the crew alleyway; and over-integrated bridge electronics meaning that one centralised computer with drop-down menus has replaced individual keyboards, thereby making bridge teamwork impossible.

Moving Beyond Complaints: Taking Action

Captains venting to other captains will achieve nothing. It is time to stop griping about these problems and instead take action to fix them. The leverage point is the REG Yacht Code, which was established to improve safety in yacht design by prescribing minimum standards. Its weakness is that many operational design deficiencies are allowed to pass unchallenged through the design approval process because there is nothing in the Code to prevent them.

To illustrate the fix: in order to address issues with bridge layouts, the REG has accepted a proposal from the PYA (which sits on the REG steering group) that one section of the next version of the LYC should be changed from “Bridge Visibility” to “Bridge Functionality”. This will cover all aspects of safe bridge operations and allow for discussions on matters such as a captain’s access time and route to the bridge in the event of an emergency. Any other operational design deficiencies affecting any department can be added to the agenda, provided that we give sufficient lead time.

The Superyacht Alliance: A Platform for Change

It should further be noted that with the establishment of the Superyacht Alliance (SYA) in October 2023, with the imminent inclusion of the PYA, there now exists an umbrella body to disseminate and address any issues of general concern to yacht designers, builders, managers and crew, with further outreach to flag and Class surveyors, and also owners. The REG has made it clear that in order to justify any amendment to the REG Yacht Code, it is essential to back up each proposed change with data.

How You Can Help: Providing Evidence

Accordingly, the PYA is now asking captains and department heads for as many examples as possible of operational design deficiencies which can be described, photographed, or video-recorded, in order to compile an illustrated dossier. This dossier will be presented to the appropriate bodies to argue for applicable changes in yacht design.

Please address any relevant examples to info@pya.org.

Rod Hatch PYA Director for Training (Deck)