Having just come off s/y Fanny I messaged around my contacts to see if there was any other deliveries needing doing as the summer was in full swing I didn't expect anything turning up, at least not immediately. Almost straight away I was asked by Burgess if I'd be game for a smaller yacht based in Singapore, they needed a Captain asap to crew her up, put maintenance up and plan cruises in the area. I said yes, where can I sign so things went into motion pretty quickly. Sometimes you have to be careful what you ask for and it will appear. Well, I wasn't complaining.
Signed on urgently to m/y Trident on request by Burgess as the Captain had resigned and was leaving at short notice. Some time was spent on zoom calls for interviews but the Owners party missed their slot. Then a few days haggling about the flight as time was short and the Owners arranged the flight, in the end I ended up taking train to Milan and flying from there. It didn't matter to me, long haul flights are very boring no matter from where they depart.
Arrived well and was put up into a hotel on Sentosa island near the 1deg15' marina for the days the handover was going to take place. I was met by Burgess people straight away and rushed onboard, oddly enough the Captain was not onboard. Anyway, I was shown around by the crew that was there and it wasn't a lot to see for a small boat of this size. Of course it had all the bits a larger yacht would have but compacted much much more. The hull was steel so it was strong, the only design I didn't like was the low stern that could be easily flooded in bad weather and had only glass doors to separate from the rudder compartment.
Delivered 2014
Length overall: 46 m
Beam: 9.3 m
Top speed: 17 kn
Crew: 8
Guests: 10
TRIDENT is a 46.0 m Motor Yacht, built in Italy by
Sanlorenzo and delivered in 2014. She is one of 7 46 Steel models.
Her top speed is 17.0 kn, her cruising speed is 15.0 kn, and she boasts a maximum cruising range of 3500.0 nm at 11.0 kn, with power coming from two Caterpillar diesel engines. She can accommodate up to 10 guests in 5 staterooms, with 8 crew members waiting on their every need. She has a gross tonnage of 499.0 GT and a 9.3 m beam.
She was designed by
Francesco Paszkowski Design, who also designed the interior. Francesco Paszkowski Design has designed 276 yachts and designed the interior of 252 yachts for yachts above 24 metres.
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The next day I didn't see the skipper either, I was rooting around by myself onboard and finding out about her documentation etc. I had a zoom call with the owners office and the office manager was an elderly Chinese lady who started the session by declaring that I'll be fired if I do this that or the other thing. I thought to myself to what have I gotten myself into?
Interesting enough she had an office behind the bridge which I think was a special feature for this size of vessel. Looking at the old documentation I think she was designed to be a charter yacht (and apparently having been operated as such when she was in the Med) so an office would have been a must for all admin. They had also managed to house the old man behind the bridge as well, not very spacious but I had my own cabin with shower.
The interior was in acceptable condition but I could see that she was carrying her years of use in places, somewhere the flooring sagged and on other places there were scratches and patches on the paintwork. After all she was over 8 years old, almost 10years if one considers the keel laying. Still considering a high end yacht the deterioration was quite remarkable. Maybe she had had heavy use.
Looking around her and speaking to the Chief Engineer, an old Briton, I quickly learned that there was a long to-do list pending in the mechanical garden but no crew or spares available. Burgess had just taken over her management and the move to Singapore had come suddenly, she had only spent a few months or so in Singapore, having been sailed over from Hong Kong recently.
Finally the skipper made an appearance, he sad he was suffering from covid, having allegedly taken a lateral flow self test. Nevertheless, he was never onboard but now he was as he was packing his stuff, 2 days had gone to waste already. I've never had a handover like this. I made him start up the engines and show me the sequence to ascertain her propulsion, it was all fired up and run astern/ fwd kicks so it seemed to work including the bowthruster and rudders.
I was thinking I've seen all he could show me and was willing to tell me, I could see the ground was burning under his feet, probably to another gig. Asking him additional stuff was like pulling nails. So I told him I'm ok and signed the official logbook. Didn't take him long to scramble his stuff and disappear. I had a bad taste in my mouth about this but I had cast my lot so had to try make it work.
The rest of the crew also left within the week, them being local crew based out of Hong Kong so they were out of their comfort zone and didn't want to stay. I think they also possibly had other jobs and families in HK waiting for them. I was busy getting in touch with flag state converting my certificates to their equivalent endorsements.
So the next task was to find replacement crew and I proposed a Thai Ch Stew and 2 Filipino stewardesses, I was only allowed 2 stewardesses. Then next I proposed a mate and deckhand but this was not approved, the deckhand I had, started despite his good first impression, to falter in work quality and odd behavior. At same time I started doing the chief engineers job of work lists and spares needed and surfed the net for local service providers for solutions to our issues on the auxiliary systems. I also researched the pilot exemption and started doing that course too (actually a lot of self study only).
Next thing I knew the engineer left as he had been offered better T&C's elsewhere so he was going. I managed to find a replacement a couple of days later from Croatia and got him onboard, as the old chap had gone I could only show him what I had been showed and learned the few weeks I had been onboard. Apparently knowledgeable and experienced elderly chap but he had also zero talent in doing his own spares research and getting work done so had to hold his hand and do this work for him.
Then our emergency genset gave up when tested and would not start, I was preparing for annual surveys so needed to have this done asap, Office in HK was dragging their feet but finally they understood it had to be done so got the go ahead. I organised the survey for ABS to attend and he checked only the necessary items for private yacht which was the genset and MARPOL. basically a breeze as the genset was fixed.
I wrote on daily basis updates of work needed doing, sent stuff off to Italy for repairs and organised local contractors for carrying out works so actually was really busy from morning until evening but I never received any additional approvals. Slowly a picture started to emerge, the issues we were finding out about were all old and had been quoted for many times over but never approved for a reason that eluded me.
As new crew was also not forthcoming the Stewardesses grew tired of cooking only meals and had hardly time for the interior otherwise. The engineer turned out to be a bit of an obtuse person not so friendly with the girls and the atmosphere suffered onboard. I had to send the deckhand home as he started going off his rocker, everything started collapsing and I made no headway with anything so I started thinking that I was having enough of this house of cards.
I had 7 days notice that I tendered just in time before my trial period ended. Luckily I had acquainted myself to a local captain from Malaysia who was in between jobs so I managed to slot him in to relieve me and soon enough I signed off and was on my merry way. It was a pity because had I had the wherewithal and budget to fix things I could've had her in a much better state than she currently was.
Only a week later when the new skipper had taken the boat out for a spin on the local waters the rudder had failed upon arrival into the marina he slightly bumped into other yachts next to the berth so I guess I dodged that bullet alright. Luckily no heavy damage was sustained to any party.
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