A friend of mine owns a 60 meter LOA, 1000 GRT expedition/research vessel – a former Dutch Navy vessel now used as a private yacht. He is very far from the typical mega yacht owner – he has a serious interest in the Arctic, and donates time on his vessel to different research projects.
He needs to hire a new master and/or first officer, and has asked me for advice on how to go about it. Talk about the blind leading the blind. Can anyone here give me sound advice about how to do this?
There are several recruiting agents on line. Here is links to two of them:
https://www.jf-recruiting.com/
Thanks very much. Anyone have experience with Faststream in Southampton?
Where is the vessel flagged?
I have worked with Faststream recruiters in Houston and Fort Lauderdale. Faststream is a competent and trustworthy company.
Flag is the Red Duster.
That means UK flagged? So one would need a UK COC/CEC to run it?
You are right about Faststream, it’s a good place to start
Maybe?
The Red Ensign is also used by several other former British dependencies that register ships, such as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. I do not know whether any of those other countries also issue their own CoCs.
Those are Defaced Red Ensigns! This vessel is UK registered and flagged.
Yes, UK.
Then as a practical matter, only Americans with Unlimited licenses would be able to get a U.K. CeC.
It’s posssible for US limited license holders to get a U.K. CeC, but it’s quite a process with the U.K. Master’s orals exam and the UKLAP exam, and a U.K. Approved GMDSS course.
I thought Faststream was only involved with Cruise and Commercial vessels, not Yachts?
WAFI:
Since the flag is UK proper,(not IOM, Bermuda or Gibraltar etc.) that limit the options considerably, for Master at least. Unless the rules for Yachts are different?
There are several Crewing Agents that specialize in Yachts, both for private and commercial charter purposes, but if Polar endorsement is required the pool is probably limited: http://www.acronautic.com/crew-agencies/
Faststream’ s Fort Lauderdale office places crew on yachts, at least they have in the past. I don’t know what they specialize in at Southampton, but I don’t see why they would turn away business.
I do know a few American yacht captains that have MCA CoCs. There are two schools (MPT and Bluewater) that provide the MCA approved courses in Fort Lauderdale and the MCA comes at least once a year to give the yacht exams in Fort Lauderdale.
The vessel will be governed by the MCA Large Yacht Code 3
the employment posts on gCaptain would probably get him quite a few interested people. I would be interested myself. Sounds like the kind of work I’ve been looking for. I do not have a UK license. I have a US master unlimited, also Bahamas. Panama and Vanuatu are in the process (I had to renew when renewing my US license in December). Please have your friend contact me.
If I renew my license will he take me as Capt and Wife as something? Haven’t had command since 1989 because of shore mgt job (now retired) but sailed my own (Pearson 35) and allot of bareboat yachts since then.
Ex- VELA ship manager and ex Sun Oil Co. captain (unlimited USCG Masters license with Pilotage and radio station license)
Capt Tom Scott
tom.scott@aol.com
Thanks very much for all the replies. The owner has hired Faststream, so anyone interested should get in touch with them.