ONBOARD Magazine summer 2019

THE NEED FOR FIRST RATE YACHT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
HAS NEVER BEEN GREATER WITH SAFETY AND EFFICIENCY
BEING THE MOST IMPORTANT AREAS TO COVER ALLOWING
THE CREW TO RUN AN EFFICIENT YACHT AND BUSINESS
WORDS: CLAIRE GRIFFITHS
Some of us will remember the bell pull in the salon that tinkled
in the kitchen and summoned the maid to her mistress.
Or the orders barked from the bridge. It wasn’t all that
long ago. And few now navigate by the stars except to relive the
romance of olden days. In their distant past, some yacht captains
did work that way: but whether they remember it nostalgically
or with a sense of nausea, the digital age pounced fast and
fearsomely and systems on superyachts changed lightening quick.
And they’re not finished yet: This month ONBOARD magazine
consults the systems experts to find out what’s new and crucial
to run a tip-top-tight and safe ship.
If the barking orders and the bell pulls are finished, any management
system still needs to be as simple as possible for all the crew to
use, not just the engineers, suggests David Clarke at Superyacht
Operating Systems (SOS). It should allow the crew to enter and
update their own details and upload certificates, whether they’re
on board or ashore. And it should have a built-in verification
process for the captain or purser to monitor. All data entered
should seamlessly populate crew lists, digital In/Out Board,
Vacation Tracker, Hours of Rest, Familiarisation, Muster List,
and so on without the need to re-enter duplicate data. “Lastly,”
says Clarke, “all this information needs to be accessible to the
80 | SUMMER 2019 | ONBOARD