Interview with Captain Nathan

During these turbulent times , our sincere thanks go out to those persons managing to keep the SYM Superyacht Management fleet safe and operational our hugely important network of crew.
Join us as we catch up with one of our longest serving Captains (with us since 2009) Captain Nathan of Volpini 2, an AMELS 188 Superyacht currently on lockdown in Barcelona. We posed him some questions over the phone about how him and his crew are coping with this tough situation in Barcelona.

1. What extra safety measures have you put in place onboard?

Captain Nathan actually had “restricted crew movements” one week before the official lockdown in Spain as a precautionary measure. He went on to say that he “implemented alcohol wiping of surfaces 5-6 times per day” onboard and had “supplied each member of crew with a personal mask and hand sanitiser” to keep everyone safe.

2. What are you doing to keep crew morale high?

Captain Nathan has seemingly been very creative in his approach to maintaining crew morale! Alongside the lengthening of the workday to accommodate midday exercise and socialising for crewmembers, he holds onboard events every other day. “We’ll do something like monopoly, a casino, movie night or a comedy night…every second day there is something different!”. His crew are all in high spirits and his approach seems to be striking well with those onboard.

3. Do you have any other advice for yachts in the same situation?

We asked Captain Nathan for any parting advice he had for many other yacht crews that will inevitably find themselves in a similar situation around the world. His overwhelming message was to ensure that a captain “reads their crew” effectively and to be incredibly “aware of the circumstances that we are in”. Captain Nathan also ensures that crew meetings are far more regular, up to “double the crew meetings as normal…to ensure everybody is updated and involved” with the current situation. The times are unprecedented and consistent updates amongst crew members are keeping operations flowing efficiently onboard.

You can listen to Captain Nathan’s full responses in the videos below. The SYM Superyacht Management Team would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our highly-skilled and invaluable crew members around the world well and to keep up the good work.