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COMMENT


WHAT A WASTE O


K listen up, I want you to nip down to your local bookstore and buy yourself the complete set of Harry


Potter books by JK Rowling. I am sorry to say it will set you back a bit cash-wise. Next I want you to put them on a bookshelf, there will be no need for you to read them because you know the story anyway and for those of you who don’t, you can watch the movies and get the general idea. Now after you have kept those books for a year I want you to burn them! Do that just before you go down to the same bookstore and buy yourself another, almost identical, but very slightly updated version of the same thing. Sounds bonkers doesn’t it? But that is exactly what the flag states are doing when they insist that superyachts carry hugely expensive publications that no one looks at, no one really needs, and only contain information that is, if we care to look for it, freely available elsewhere.


The cost to the yachts is astronomical and the wastage absolutely shocking! The Cayman Islands Shipping Registry for example, mandates that CI Flagged vessels carry costly and rarely looked at publications on board. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a specialised agency of the United Nations (UN) that promotes international cooperation to improve telecommunication infrastructure in the developing world, publishes three of them. The agency makes a huge amount of money selling vastly overpriced reference documents and lobbying flag states to make their carriage on seagoing vessels mandatory.


Among these publications is List V, a list prepared and issued, every April, by the ITU, to be carried by all ship stations for which a Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) installation is required. Do you know where your own on board copy is? And if you do, when was the last time you looked for it? I am guessing the only time you did that was at the last audit! Somewhat shockingly despite its huge cost, List V was when first published, useless because due to an ITU administrative error, a large number of vessels from one particular flag ship state were not included.


Another example of waste is called List IV, a list of coast stations and special service


Michael Howorth asks, “Why are we forced to waste money on publications we never even look at?”


radio stations, while a third specifies the carriage of a maritime manual listings. In the case of large yachts, each tome is as useless as the other. Yacht Captains I have spoken to, never look at these publications and some of the honest ones even confessed to me that they don’t even know what they are for!


What makes matters more frustrating is that the Cayman Islands last updated their notice on what should be carried by yachts 14 years ago. The notice makes no reference at all to the use of equivalent electronic versions, which can be used in lieu of old fashioned paper publications that cost the earth to ship to yachts scattered around the globe. Many yachts do not realise that by using CD versions of the books huge shipping costs can be avoided. And while we are on this point, may I point out that my computer and the one I owned before that, does not even have a CD slot so I view the CD as being as dead as yesterday’s porridge.


Together these three publications cost the yacht a staggering £870, and for what? Steve Monk, Managing Director of DaGama Maritime, a company that focuses on more professional navigation management and on board crew training, frequently finds that the cellophane has not even been broken off the CD case when he goes to see clients. When he then informs them they must pay for a new edition, they are to say the very least he tells me, ‘A little miffed’.


So what is the way round this? I have an answer and because I am no longer serving as a Captain, I will tell you what I used to do. I created an on board order for the publications but kept it on my computer but never sent it off for fulfilment. Whenever the Cayman Islands Surveyor challenged me, I pointed out that it was on-order and that seemed to be the end of that! But if they ever try to cut up hard about it, may I suggest you point out that their own shipping notice differs from the form ‘Y’ carried by their inspectors when it comes to what should and should not be carried. You then borrow a copy from the yacht the next door berth assuming of course that they know where their copy is!


The cost to the yachts is astronomical and the wastage absolutely shocking!


ONBOARD | SPRING 2018 | 5


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