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SOP Manuals

Discussion in 'Yacht Captains' started by rocdiver, Oct 31, 2006.

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  1. August

    August New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2014
    Messages:
    4
    Location:
    Singer island, Florida
    I'm not the captain. I'm actually a stew. We are in the process of renovations and I have been assigned to this task.

    Please if anyone has any standard Owner Procedures, service standards, etc. via PDF or a similar manual that they can share please pm me, or post here.

    Thanks in advance!

    Cheers.
  2. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 2, 2013
    Messages:
    7,132
    Location:
    Fort Lauderdale
    Omg you'd hate our boat. Now, I'll admit we're the extreme of informality, but I'd also say that if you hire the right crew, they should know more about many of those things than you do. And what is really most important for the stew or stews? To stand in the right place, have the stateroom always looking exactly like the perfect prototype or to see that guests are taken care of and that service is provided and safety assured. I don't know your experience but I'd generally expect to hire and engineer and them prepare a maintenance program to meet my requirements and then I'd review it.

    Superyachtos.com has a lot of standard procedures that might help you as a starting spot. Some are probably more general than it sounds like you want.

    Our approach is more CEO than micromanaging crew. Provide general direction and expectations and let them handle the details necessary to meet them. For instance, if it's crucial to you how the stateroom is set up, why not let the stew prepare one and then address any changes you want.

    Now my other comment is just personal preference and not saying we're right and others wrong or that your approach to this is wrong. However, a 100' boat with owner, guests, and crew is ultimately a small area one will spend a lot of time together on. Some like rigid five star hotel, I'm the guest, you're just staff, run this strict and formal and 100% business and not get to know the crew at all. We can't imagine living like that, especially on a 100' or even a 120' or 130'. We absolutely adore our crew. And while we become a lot closer to them than we'd suggest for others, I can't imagine living so much of the time with crew and not being friends, at least on some level. To me it would be like working in an office as an executive with say 5 direct reports and never discussing anything but business with them or knowing anything about them.

    And as a comparison to business operating procedures. If I hired an IT manager I'd make him responsible for developing standards, which then we might discuss. My head of engineering would be responsible for building a plan and reviewing it with me. I wouldn't tell the VP of manufacturing how to make something, just what my expectations were as to finished quality.

    I showed this post to our Head Stew who has 25 years experience on everything from 80' to 400'. While she said I was being too tough on you, she also said that most owners or captains she'd seen try to micromanage found it hard to ever be happy with things. Her advice was to hire the right crew and give general direction but let them figure out the details for you.
  3. rocdiver

    rocdiver Senior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2006
    Messages:
    190
    Location:
    Ft Lauderdale, Florida
    Hello August!

    As I was the OP on this thread, let me take the opportunity to welcome you to the Forum and ask a couple of questions. If you could give us a little more info we could tailor our responses a bit better. Size of vessel? Number of crew? Charter or private or both? Expected itinerary?

    Also, level of service expected. This comes into play when it comes to scheduling specific duties, turndowns, uniform of the day and different uniforms for different times of the day, etc.

    There is a huge amount of experience present in this forum and I have been fortunate enough to have had help from some of the most esteemed members (see post 14).

    I have an SOP manual I would be happy to send you, written for a 118 foot vessel with 5 permanent crew (we bring on a chef when owner or guests are on board, making it 6). PM me with your email address.

    It will need a bit more tweaking as I haven't addressed the cell phone use issue in writing as yet. That is something that will vary greatly from vessel to vessel anyway, depending on numerous factors.

    Good luck with your new yacht. I'll be interested to watch the replies you get.

    ROCKY
  4. August

    August New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2014
    Messages:
    4
    Location:
    Singer island, Florida
    Hi Rocky!

    Thanks so much for your reply.. I would be eternally grateful for any manual you could share. If you pm me, I can give you my email address as well as specifics of our vessel.

    The response on this forum has been wonderful, super speedy, and greatly appreciated.

    Thank you for your offer to help. I'll look forward to hearing from you soon.

    Cheers,

    August
  5. NEO56

    NEO56 Member

    Joined:
    May 2, 2014
    Messages:
    656
    Location:
    Miami
    Wow YES! Very well said, does your last paragraph include Moron's like me?:D
  6. August

    August New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2014
    Messages:
    4
    Location:
    Singer island, Florida
    Thank you!

    Thank you to everyone that reached out to help me. Your kindness is greatly appreciated, and you really saved me with the materials you sent to help reach the owners deadline. Many thanks again!

    Cheers,

    August
  7. JohnFMitchell

    JohnFMitchell New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 20, 2013
    Messages:
    1
    Location:
    middle tenn
    A very broad subject. Is the yacht currently for sale or potentially in the foreseeable future? I would suggest interviewing yacht owners or their captains to acquire a sense of preferences and demands. This might help narrow down the ‘great detail’ on the boat and crew’s appearance and conduct. I also suggest keeping a eye on operational procedures and safety.
  8. domcar

    domcar New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 9, 2015
    Messages:
    1
    Location:
    Caribbean
    Hi Rocky
    I am in the same position you were 2 years ago. I will be launching a 50m motor yacht in December and need to draw aup a full set of SOP's. I was hoping you would be able to help. Any info you have can be helpful.
    Thanks
    Domcar
  9. rocdiver

    rocdiver Senior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2006
    Messages:
    190
    Location:
    Ft Lauderdale, Florida
    Hello Domcar and welcome to YF!

    Actually I started this thread closer to 10 years ago, not 2, so I have many incarnations of the documents customized for different vessels since then. PM me your email address and I'll be happy to share what I have with you as others have been so kind as to do with me.

    Best of luck with your new command!

    ROCK