What training did you undergo to become a captain?
By 1987 I’d become a deckhand doing a sailboat delivery. A man said he was going to the Caribbean and needed a hand for his 88-foot sailboat. He asked me, “Can you navigate?” I said yes, and then I got onboard and asked the crew how to navigate. So then I learned that.
I ended up in Falmouth Harbor on Antigua, where I took more jobs and worked my way up along various sailboats and powerboats. I eventually became first officer onboard a 180-foot motoryacht called Cedar Sea. That boat didn’t charter, but I completed my captain’s courses while I was there.
When did you join your current yacht?
I finished my Class IV captain’s license work in 2002, and I went to a couple of the crew agencies and gave them my resume. I basically said, “Here’s an update in case that dream job comes along.” I was working onboard Cedar Sea in the Western Mediterranean at the time. I was still the first officer, but it was mostly a paperwork job.
Not a few weeks later, I got a call about a job on a yacht in Antibes. I thought it was the crew agency, and I had no idea what job they were calling me about. The man on the phone just wanted me to go see a boat in Antibes.
It turned out that it was this boat, the 97-foot Georgia Rose, and the man on the phone was the owner. The captain who was onboard when I got to Antibes took a shine to me, and he was looking for his own replacement.
I knew I was ready. It took me a lot of years to become a captain because I was having a good time. But I found that this owner and I get on well. We have a similar sense of humor. We’re both from Cheshire in England, so we understand each other.
What do you think makes your yacht’s crew unique or special?
We’re not an old classic that goes really slowly, and we’re not a really fast, sleek, new, glorified taxi. We’re a proper charter yacht. We do proper cruising.
How do you determine what itinerary you will set for a given charter?
I call the brokers and say, “The sooner you give me an idea of the itinerary the guests want, the sooner I can sort it out.” Here in the Western Mediterranean in the summer, there’s a problem of not enough berths in the marinas for all the boats. So the sooner the better, so I can make the reservations. That really has a lot to do with the itineraries here.
How flexible are you about changing the itinerary on a day-to-day basis?
I’m flexible if I can be, but hopefully people understand that we have to have marina berths booked here in advance.
The only other factor is the weather. If the weather is bad, I won’t put the boat in danger or the guests in a situation where they’re all going to be miserable. It’s amazing how many people blame me for the weather. They think I’m God!
What are some of your favorite cruising destinations, and why?
I like Elba, an island off the coast of Western Italy. She’s a nice size, and weather-wise we can scoot around either side if we need to.
The Bonafacio Strait is also quite nice if you don’t have the bottleneck winds rushing through.
What features onboard your yacht do you particularly enjoy sharing with guests?
We have good volume, which makes the boat comfortable to relax inside and onboard.
Describe a typical guest’s day onboard your yacht.
They get up as they please. If it’s 11 o’clock in the morning, that’s fine. Maybe they want us to move the boat as they sleep. Maybe they want to watch while we cruise.
We get the idea of what they want and then adapt to that.
What kind of charter guests are your favorites?
Almost all of our guests have been fantastic, no matter what kind of people they are.
I do watch carefully when it’s corporate, all the boys, a day off from the family, that sort of thing. But usually, most people are just fine. I’m adaptable to all kinds of people.
What else should CharterWave readers know about you, your crew and Georgia Rose?
If you want black, chrome, fast—it’s just not us. We like to cruise, have lunch, swim. That sort of thing.
