The Yacht as a Household at Sea
A serious private yacht is best understood not as a vessel but as a household at sea, governed by the same disciplines as any well-run residence.
A private yacht of any consequence is too often regarded, by those who do not own one, as a kind of luxury vehicle. That is a misunderstanding. A serious yacht is, in operational terms, a household, and one with several considerable complications which a residence does not face. It is mobile, it is governed by maritime regulation in addition to the ordinary law of the jurisdictions it visits, and it accommodates its principal and their staff in close proximity for extended periods. The disciplines required to run it well are, in their essentials, the disciplines of any well run household, but they must be exercised with greater rigour because the consequences of error are less easily corrected.
The two appointments that determine, more than any others, the character of life on board are the captain and the chief stewardess. The captain is responsible for the vessel and for the safety of all on board; this is, properly, their domain, and not one in which the principal should expect to participate. The chief stewardess, by contrast, is responsible for the experience of the principal and their guests, and here the principal's preferences are properly central. The two roles overlap in a thousand small particulars, and a vessel on which the captain and the chief stewardess work in evident harmony is, almost without exception, a vessel on which life proceeds well.
On more than one occasion we have advised principals contemplating the appointment of a captain to consider the existing chief stewardess's view of the candidate. The reverse holds equally. A captain whom the chief stewardess cannot work with, however accomplished as a mariner, will not produce the conditions in which the principal's hospitality flourishes. These are appointments that must be made together, and which, once made well, ought to be retained at considerable cost rather than disturbed lightly.
A private yacht, paradoxically, can be among the least private of the residences a principal occupies. The vessel is visible from the shore, often photographed from the air, and tracked, in many cases, by maritime authorities and by enthusiasts whose interest is harder to characterise. The crew is necessarily large, and crew members move between vessels with consequences for what is known in the industry about each principal's habits. We strongly recommend that principals who use yachts seriously retain crew on terms that encourage long service. Confidentiality undertakings should be substantive and properly explained. The practice of communicating sensitive matters by radio or by unsecured electronic means should be assumed to be the practice of communicating them publicly.
On board, what is overheard is rarely forgotten. Discretion at sea must be a culture, not a clause in a contract.
We close with the observation that the most distinguished yachts we have known are not, in any visible respect, the most ostentatious. On such a yacht, everything is exactly as it should be. The cabins are prepared with the same care as the principal's own bedroom, and the meals planned with the same attention as the table at home. The staff are turned out to a standard indistinguishable from that at the principal's residence. The yacht, in such cases, is not a separate enterprise; it is the principal's household, transposed to the water. That is, in our view, the standard to which serious yachting properly aspires.
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