Swinging the Moral Compass: What Should Crew Do?
Episode 15, Jun 30, 2023, 04:54 PM
It’s a weird time to be a yachtie. There’s a new attention on the industry that has just never been there before. It’s all got a bit…heavy. Remember when you used to struggle to explain to people that no, you don’t work on a cruise ship? We were off the radar, and that was just fine. We were the oddball friends that flew home with suntans, charter tips and mad stories.
Reality shows have filled in some of those blanks but now, unfortunately for some, real notoriety has arrived in the form of the front page of the Daily Mail and even worse, sanctions lists. Russian-owned yachts are listed as assets of Very Bad People. The crew? Well, they’re the new Stormtroopers on the Deathstar.
There have been examples of this kind of scrutiny before. Remember the ‘BHS Destroyer’ banner some wise guy stuck on the side of Philip Green’s yacht in 2016? That was during the retail magnate’s pension deficit scandal. Not a comfortable day for the crew.
Even further back in the 90’s, Robert Maxwell fell to his death from his yacht as it was emerging how much money he’d stolen from his company’s pension fund. Seriously, what is it with these guys and pension funds? Anyway, those were isolated incidents and the alleged crimes of the owners were white collar in nature. The crew were probably bewildered and had a grim meeting that day, were probably briefed to avoid press and wait for it all to die down.
Now an entire nationality of owner is deemed unacceptable and linked to a war. Not fraud or financial criminality - actual, hideous, bloody, war. Overnight, not only do their crew’s jobs hang in the balance but the moral plates have shifted seismically under their feet. Questions are popping up that are making brains hurt. Are we bad people if we work for ‘bad’ people? Is it bad to work for an owner who is alleged to have done bad things? How many owners (or indeed humans) have perfect track records? I guess the key question is how bad is BAD?
For the full story, head over to OnboardOnline.com
#Yachting #YachtCrew #SuperYacht #Russian #Oligarch #Morality #TheKFlag #OnboardOnline
Reality shows have filled in some of those blanks but now, unfortunately for some, real notoriety has arrived in the form of the front page of the Daily Mail and even worse, sanctions lists. Russian-owned yachts are listed as assets of Very Bad People. The crew? Well, they’re the new Stormtroopers on the Deathstar.
There have been examples of this kind of scrutiny before. Remember the ‘BHS Destroyer’ banner some wise guy stuck on the side of Philip Green’s yacht in 2016? That was during the retail magnate’s pension deficit scandal. Not a comfortable day for the crew.
Even further back in the 90’s, Robert Maxwell fell to his death from his yacht as it was emerging how much money he’d stolen from his company’s pension fund. Seriously, what is it with these guys and pension funds? Anyway, those were isolated incidents and the alleged crimes of the owners were white collar in nature. The crew were probably bewildered and had a grim meeting that day, were probably briefed to avoid press and wait for it all to die down.
Now an entire nationality of owner is deemed unacceptable and linked to a war. Not fraud or financial criminality - actual, hideous, bloody, war. Overnight, not only do their crew’s jobs hang in the balance but the moral plates have shifted seismically under their feet. Questions are popping up that are making brains hurt. Are we bad people if we work for ‘bad’ people? Is it bad to work for an owner who is alleged to have done bad things? How many owners (or indeed humans) have perfect track records? I guess the key question is how bad is BAD?
For the full story, head over to OnboardOnline.com
#Yachting #YachtCrew #SuperYacht #Russian #Oligarch #Morality #TheKFlag #OnboardOnline