Yacht Crew Standards: Compliance vs Reality | Kirsty Porritt | The Crew Car

Does yachting have industry standards, or does it have industry minimums?

In this episode of The Crew Car, Captain James Battey sits down with Kirsty Porritt for a conversation about crew employment, MLC compliance, management responsibility and the gap that can exist between regulatory requirements and the operational reality onboard.

Kirsty brings experience across superyacht client and operations management, business development, crew employment, crew HR, MLC and compliance, offering a perspective that sits between owners, management companies, captains and crew.

The conversation looks at whether the Maritime Labour Convention adequately reflects the realities of modern yachting, particularly when the operational demands of a private 24-metre yacht can be completely different from those of a commercially operated 100-metre vessel.

They discuss Seafarer Employment Agreements, delayed wages, crew retention, hours of rest, management company accountability and why protecting crew and protecting owners should not be treated as opposing objectives.

They also examine the difference between minimum safe manning and the actual number of people required to deliver guest service, water sports, overnight passages and demanding charter programmes safely.

Kirsty questions whether yachting can realistically have one universal industry standard when every yacht, owner and programme is different, suggesting that good practice may be the more important benchmark.

James takes that argument further: too often, what the industry calls a standard is actually only the minimum.

Because ultimately, happy crew, happy boat, happy owner.

GUEST:
Kirsty Porritt
Superyacht Client & Operations Executive | Business Development | Crew Employment | Crew HR | MLC & Compliance

HOST:
Captain James Battey
Founder | Yacht Workers Council
https://yachtworkerscouncil.com/

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