10 ms·

Life and death on a superyacht

116 points by camtarn 8y ago

drcross 8y ago
There are 3,287 road deaths each and every day. I think this article is reaching when they have to go back as far as 2010 for an example.
- pmyteh 8y ago
  There aren't many crew on these boats, though. That its a small absolute risk doesn't stop it being relatively dangerous. The maritime union guy suggesting it was as risky than oil rigs was an eye opener for me, as that's one of the most hazardous current jobs.
  - kjksf 8y ago
    In this case it's much more likely shoddy journalism than those jobs being dangerous. The author says things that sound factual ("Accidents, injuries and deaths are also commonplace") based on zero evidence ("with union leaders believing working on superyachts to be more dangerous than life on oil rigs"). Note that believing in something doesn't make it so and it's journalist's job to verify data behind believes when they use them to make strong claims like "Accidents, injuries and deaths are also commonplace". Sadly, Guardian failed to do so, opting for lazy quoting that gives air of legitimacy to unsubstantiated "believes". It's not like it would be hard for the author to do the math. According to https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/careers/2018/01/09/workplace-fatalities-25-most-dangerous-jobs-america/1002500001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/careers/2018/01/09/work... oil rigs are not even in top 25 most dangerous jobs. The article claims there are 37 thousand jobs on yachts. 25th most dangerous job ("heating, air conditioning and refrigeration mechanics and installers") had 8.4 fatalities per 100k workers per year. That's 3.1 fatalities per 37k workers per year. The article found 3 deaths per 18 years, which is 0.17 fatalities per year. That's 16x less deaths than in 25th most dangerous job and 288x less than the most dangerous job. I'm sure they don't know about all the deaths and we can argue about not all jobs on the yacht being equally dangerous but the safety margin in those calculations is pretty big. The data doesn't support the claim that those are particularly dangerous jobs.
    - pmyteh 8y ago
      There have been more than 3 deaths in 18 years: you can look up the accident reports. Just because the Guardian focuses on three cases doesn't mean that those were all there were. The oil rig death statistics are also difficult to interpret. In the UK, for example, there was one offshore oil death last year (per the HSE). Because it's a small industry, there's massive year-to-year variation in per-hundred-thousand rates. The Piper Alpha disaster in the late 80s had 167 deaths, which overwhelms those years where little goes wrong - but only if you look at the statistics over a longer period than 1 year.
    - jonhendry18 8y ago
      The Guardian found three British fatalities. Presumably all the fatalities aren't British, it's just that information about the British fatalities were most accessible to the journalist.
- megablast 8y ago
  No, there are over a million roads deaths every single year, with a lot more people seriously injured.
- throwaway010718 8y ago
  After reading, it does seem like a megayacht is an overall safe place to work. In contrast as a teenager I worked the register at a convenience store in NYC for less than minimum wage selling cigarettes and lottery tickets to the poorest people in the city. At the time "convenience store clerk" was the most deadly job in the US and I really thought I wouldn't live to be an adult. There was also an 11 year old boy who was employed at that store for 25% of minimum wage (not a typo). The boy worked from 5AM to 7PM on Saturdays and was kept in the basement where he used a razor blade to prep magazines and newspapers that didn't sell. If you had given any of us a chance to work on a yacht, cross the Atlantic, and leave with a few $Ks in savings, we would have taken it even if the survival rate was 50%. And especially if people would still be writing about our deaths years later. Even now, I doubt the death of a convenience store clerk would make the local news.
  - Spooky23 8y ago
    Not to minimize your experience, but we have no idea what the actual safety statistics are, because they don’t exist. When your employer is a holding company in Cayman Islands, operating a ship flying a flag of convenience from some random country, located in yet another random country, expectations are limited... who would an accident be reported to?
    - stickfigure 8y ago
      I agree that actual safety statistics probably do not exist. But why would you assume they are especially unfavorable? People crew all kinds of boats, big and small. Many do it for fun, on their own boats, in places where law enforcement is barely present. "People sometimes get hurt on boats", sure. This fact doesn't stir much outrage.
matte_black 8y ago
Wonder if there might be any positions for software developers open on some of these super yachts.
- amelius 8y ago
  Perhaps check the Pirate Bay?
  - matte_black 8y ago
    Probably looking for experience with high Cs.
- tzahola 8y ago
  http://www.sea-code.com http://www.sea-code.com
- HarryHirsch 8y ago
  Doesn't Peter Thiel promote "seasteading"? It's like Galt's Gulch, but with Norovirus.
  - orbitingpluto 8y ago
    Yes, with the non-American and non-coding workers barely outside of American waters living in a perpetual lawless, union-less hellscape. They'd never even be able to take a day trip to San Francisco. It's seems perfectly reasonable if your goal is to enslave Filipino women into sex work without consequences. It'd probably be more like "Heaven" in the Netflix show Altered Carbon, but instead of floating in the air, it'd be floating in international waters. I've commented on this before. I think I was shadowbanned for a few weeks because I pointed the inescapable fact that the people who supply services in this coder's paradise would wish they chose to give up their passports and enslave themselves in Qatar instead.
  - rhaps0dy 8y ago
    Huh, what does norovirus have to do with this?
walru 8y ago
Doesn't this hold true for anywhere outside a major city? If it's going to take you hours to get to a hospital or a market, or for anyone to come to you, theoretically you're in the same predicament.
- robotkdick 8y ago
  Part of the issue is the lack of legal structure for ships at sea. Once you're on the boat and outside the legal boundary of a country, the captain is essentially a dictator with little legal recourse for complaints.
  - barbegal 8y ago
    Except in all the cases highlighted here, the boat was moored up in a port where the local jurisdiction would apply.
    - jonathankoren 8y ago
      Good thing boats can’t just leave.
    - jonhendry18 8y ago
      Risky maintenance activities don't stop when you're at sea.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
gaius 8y ago
gone to local bars to celebrate sailing across the Atlantic. Faith had been locked up for the night, and Michael climbed to its top in an attempt to get inside via an unofficial emergency entrance. An inquest found he fell from the top deck, hit his head on the quay and drowned It’s a stretch to blame that on the owner of the boat. He could have been drunk and climbed scaffolding to get back into his apartment.
- lmm 8y ago
  If someone climbed scaffolding to get back into their tied cottage because the owner had locked it up while they were out, we would blame the owner.
  - al_chemist 8y ago
    He was drunk. Top deck is around 15 meters climb. Previous name of this boat was Vertigo.
eric_h 8y ago
I was once invited by (and paid for by) a billionaire investor in the company I worked for to a resort in the Bahamas patroned exclusively by the rich and famous. The extent of the service offered by the (mostly black, Bahamian staff) — appearing, disappearing and offering way more attentive assistance than any reasonable person needs made me downright uncomfortable. It was lovely to be in paradise, but being waited on hand and foot just seemed wretchedly excessive. [edit: spelling]
- dweekly 8y ago
  You may find this short piece by David Foster Wallace amusing on the same theme: https://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/HarpersMagazine-1996-01-0007859.pdf https://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/HarpersMagazi...
  - dougmwne 8y ago
    Thanks for sharing this. It contains an insightful critic of native advertising starting at the end of page 9 that's doubbly worth a read.
- kkielhofner 8y ago
  It probably varies by person but I've experienced a version of this at Four Seasons and Ritz properties. On one hand I respect the incredible training, homogenization, attention to detail, etc. It really is amazing - impossible to compare their level of service to any other chain/organization at that price point (top 1%, not 0.01%). On the other hand after about a day or so and the novelty wears off it starts to seem a little "creepy" in a Stepford Wives/Get Out/etc kind of way... On a couple of occasions I was so uncomfortable I literally pulled someone aside and said "Come on, level with me dude. This isn't real. You don't really talk like this." In most cases they would respond with something along the lines of "Sir, I'm sorry but I don't know what you're referring to". It never quite rang as genuine but I couldn't help but wonder if the staff is trained or programmed. I know some people/families/etc who have never experienced lodging, accommodation, service, etc at any lesser level and it made me really wonder how aware they are of the bubble they're in (and how strange it really is).
awat 8y ago
It feels like this piece was written under the directive of write about super yachts and they sort of just made it fit.
jedberg 8y ago
I guess I'm not cut out to be a yacht owner, because I assume I would treat my crew the same way I treat my employees now -- demand that they try to stick to a 40 hour work week, feed them, and make sure they are well rested and being safe. I guess I would have to ask that magic yacht designer to design one that had double the normal crew quarters so that they didn't have to work doubles.
- al_chemist 8y ago
  Crew on your superyacht is not your employees, it's a service. It's more like a hairdresser or barista. Do you ask your barista if they had enough sleep? Do you ask your hotel room cleaner if they ate well? Do you have another bedroom for your dogwalker? Your employees and you are the team. You hunt together, you win together, you celebrate together. You may know the name of a waiter, but you don't have the same relationship with them, right?
  - siidooloo 8y ago
    You’re with a barista for 5 minutes. You’re at the hairdressers for an hour. Crew on a boat is stuck there mostly 24/7. Even if it’s contract work its clearly a different kind of job. Also, you should know your chef’s name after a couple of months at sea. That seems like basic humanity.
  - jedberg 8y ago
    Given that these people would live in my "house", I would hire people that would be interesting to have around when they're not doing their job, so I would assume I would get to know them better than those other folks. I equate more to the nanny we have now -- she's only here about 15 hours a week, but we chat all the time, I know all about her family, and I've seen her engagement video.
    - al_chemist 8y ago
      Given that this is your fifth "house" where you spend about a month per year (maybe a week at a time), you wouldn't even be a person who hires them. And when you do spend time on your superyacht with your guests Bill Gates and Steve Jobs you wouldn't even be interested if your masseur is an interesting person. Because you can either hear about creation of Mac from the creator of Mac directly OR see your masseur engagement video. It's your vacation time and it's your decision what would give you more out of your life.
jonathankoren 8y ago
I've been watching this thread all day, not one person has mentioned that the entire article has an undercurrent of the unaccountability of the super rich. The article specifically mentions how the yachts move from port to port, have their ownership hidden, and constantly change flags, to avoid taxes and to avoid giving the legal protections their workers would have if they were employed on land. Where even the death of a crew member is shrugged off. This is article is about callousness.
blackrock 8y ago
To be honest, when I see all these excesses of the super rich, I just want to puke. I am dumbfounded how the normal people can just celebrate it, and dream that they too can one day become one of these billionaires. And yes, while it is true, that some people can truly rise from rags to riches, or create a computer program that can take over the world. For the majority of us, the odds are not in our favor. You can work hard, or work smart all your life, but you will never become rich. It takes money to make money. There is no truer maxim than that. These people live the life of luxury and pleasure, while the rest of us can barely make ends meet. And I'm not talking about the programmers, but rather, the other people that aren't blessed to have well paying jobs. Sometimes, I think that there should be a legal limit on the amount of wealth that someone can accrue. But even this doesn't solve the problems that our society is facing. It doesn't solve the homelessness. It doesn't solve the expensive housing crisis. Or the student loan crisis. Meanwhile, for the rich, life is great. Technology is abundant. Money just makes more money. Opportunities are plenty, if you have the right connections. Anyways.. back to the grindstone. When I become a billionaire, I'm going to buy myself a super yacht too.
- retrac98 8y ago
  It doesn’t need to be this way! Billionaire level wealth aside, amassing a few million over the course of a lifetime isn’t as difficult as people think, it just requires discipline. Live well within your means and invest your saved money in assets consistently, compounding and time will do the rest. Most rich people get there slowly, and don’t appear to live a rich person’s lifestyle. Conversely, a lot of people who appear rich have little accumulated wealth. If you’d like to know more, Have a read of “The millionaire next door” and “I will teach you to be rich”. They changed my outlook on what being wealthy meant, and I’m now putting thousands onto my net worth every month in a automated way.
  - closeparen 8y ago
    A middle-class person with a retirement account is not in anywhere near the same league as a superyacht owner. Yes, you can and should achieve financial independence in old age by investing a reasonable percentage of your income over time, but that has nothing to do with the billionaire class.
zappo2938 8y ago
Worse than the slips and falls is the unregulated use of chemicals with the crew not protected by OSHA.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
mn245 8y ago
Merchant navy deck officer from deep sea tankers and containers. 2nd off we have had the International safety mangment code for decades. They havent, these yachts need to be seen crewed and vetted the same level as commercial shipping. The real problem, unlike commercial shipping yachts dont really have a reason to exist and attract a certain type of person. Most of the accidents described would have been prevented if commercial code was in place and adhered to. Maritime labour convention for rest hours?? Not to put to blunt a point on it, the owners pay alot not to care. Theres not a bottom line.
golergka 8y ago
> None of the owners attended the three British men’s funerals. Are they trying to spin it as something negative? Why the hell would you intrude into a private and family matter of a person you most likely have talked to only a couple of times in your entire life.
SergeAx 8y ago
Former yacht pro here, been employed as a first mate by Russian minigarch (I am Russian too). Working on a yacht is indeed dangerous and all safety precautions must be taken. All cases described in an article are examples of deadly negligence: one should wear life west when operating tender boat after sunset, one should use additional harness line while hanging on significant height, and one definitely should not try to jump on a boat from pier after drunk night (did it once on my vacation, was centimeters from poor chap's fate, lesson learned). I don't see, however, how's boat owners are responsible for this except hiring slightly wrong people to manage and command their expensive property.

116 points by camtarn 8y ago

There are 3,287 road deaths each and every day. I think this article is reaching when they have to go back as far as 2010 for an example.

pmyteh 8y ago
There aren't many crew on these boats, though. That its a small absolute risk doesn't stop it being relatively dangerous. The maritime union guy suggesting it was as risky than oil rigs was an eye opener for me, as that's one of the most hazardous current jobs.
- kjksf 8y ago
  In this case it's much more likely shoddy journalism than those jobs being dangerous. The author says things that sound factual ("Accidents, injuries and deaths are also commonplace") based on zero evidence ("with union leaders believing working on superyachts to be more dangerous than life on oil rigs"). Note that believing in something doesn't make it so and it's journalist's job to verify data behind believes when they use them to make strong claims like "Accidents, injuries and deaths are also commonplace". Sadly, Guardian failed to do so, opting for lazy quoting that gives air of legitimacy to unsubstantiated "believes". It's not like it would be hard for the author to do the math. According to https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/careers/2018/01/09/workplace-fatalities-25-most-dangerous-jobs-america/1002500001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/careers/2018/01/09/work... oil rigs are not even in top 25 most dangerous jobs. The article claims there are 37 thousand jobs on yachts. 25th most dangerous job ("heating, air conditioning and refrigeration mechanics and installers") had 8.4 fatalities per 100k workers per year. That's 3.1 fatalities per 37k workers per year. The article found 3 deaths per 18 years, which is 0.17 fatalities per year. That's 16x less deaths than in 25th most dangerous job and 288x less than the most dangerous job. I'm sure they don't know about all the deaths and we can argue about not all jobs on the yacht being equally dangerous but the safety margin in those calculations is pretty big. The data doesn't support the claim that those are particularly dangerous jobs.
  - pmyteh 8y ago
    There have been more than 3 deaths in 18 years: you can look up the accident reports. Just because the Guardian focuses on three cases doesn't mean that those were all there were. The oil rig death statistics are also difficult to interpret. In the UK, for example, there was one offshore oil death last year (per the HSE). Because it's a small industry, there's massive year-to-year variation in per-hundred-thousand rates. The Piper Alpha disaster in the late 80s had 167 deaths, which overwhelms those years where little goes wrong - but only if you look at the statistics over a longer period than 1 year.
  - jonhendry18 8y ago
    The Guardian found three British fatalities. Presumably all the fatalities aren't British, it's just that information about the British fatalities were most accessible to the journalist.
megablast 8y ago
No, there are over a million roads deaths every single year, with a lot more people seriously injured.
throwaway010718 8y ago
After reading, it does seem like a megayacht is an overall safe place to work. In contrast as a teenager I worked the register at a convenience store in NYC for less than minimum wage selling cigarettes and lottery tickets to the poorest people in the city. At the time "convenience store clerk" was the most deadly job in the US and I really thought I wouldn't live to be an adult. There was also an 11 year old boy who was employed at that store for 25% of minimum wage (not a typo). The boy worked from 5AM to 7PM on Saturdays and was kept in the basement where he used a razor blade to prep magazines and newspapers that didn't sell. If you had given any of us a chance to work on a yacht, cross the Atlantic, and leave with a few $Ks in savings, we would have taken it even if the survival rate was 50%. And especially if people would still be writing about our deaths years later. Even now, I doubt the death of a convenience store clerk would make the local news.
- Spooky23 8y ago
  Not to minimize your experience, but we have no idea what the actual safety statistics are, because they don’t exist. When your employer is a holding company in Cayman Islands, operating a ship flying a flag of convenience from some random country, located in yet another random country, expectations are limited... who would an accident be reported to?
  - stickfigure 8y ago
    I agree that actual safety statistics probably do not exist. But why would you assume they are especially unfavorable? People crew all kinds of boats, big and small. Many do it for fun, on their own boats, in places where law enforcement is barely present. "People sometimes get hurt on boats", sure. This fact doesn't stir much outrage.

matte_black 8y ago

Wonder if there might be any positions for software developers open on some of these super yachts.

amelius 8y ago
Perhaps check the Pirate Bay?
- matte_black 8y ago
  Probably looking for experience with high Cs.
tzahola 8y ago
http://www.sea-code.com http://www.sea-code.com
HarryHirsch 8y ago
Doesn't Peter Thiel promote "seasteading"? It's like Galt's Gulch, but with Norovirus.
- orbitingpluto 8y ago
  Yes, with the non-American and non-coding workers barely outside of American waters living in a perpetual lawless, union-less hellscape. They'd never even be able to take a day trip to San Francisco. It's seems perfectly reasonable if your goal is to enslave Filipino women into sex work without consequences. It'd probably be more like "Heaven" in the Netflix show Altered Carbon, but instead of floating in the air, it'd be floating in international waters. I've commented on this before. I think I was shadowbanned for a few weeks because I pointed the inescapable fact that the people who supply services in this coder's paradise would wish they chose to give up their passports and enslave themselves in Qatar instead.
- rhaps0dy 8y ago
  Huh, what does norovirus have to do with this?

walru 8y ago

Doesn't this hold true for anywhere outside a major city? If it's going to take you hours to get to a hospital or a market, or for anyone to come to you, theoretically you're in the same predicament.

robotkdick 8y ago
Part of the issue is the lack of legal structure for ships at sea. Once you're on the boat and outside the legal boundary of a country, the captain is essentially a dictator with little legal recourse for complaints.
- barbegal 8y ago
  Except in all the cases highlighted here, the boat was moored up in a port where the local jurisdiction would apply.
  - jonathankoren 8y ago
    Good thing boats can’t just leave.
  - jonhendry18 8y ago
    Risky maintenance activities don't stop when you're at sea.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

gaius 8y ago

gone to local bars to celebrate sailing across the Atlantic. Faith had been locked up for the night, and Michael climbed to its top in an attempt to get inside via an unofficial emergency entrance. An inquest found he fell from the top deck, hit his head on the quay and drowned It’s a stretch to blame that on the owner of the boat. He could have been drunk and climbed scaffolding to get back into his apartment.

lmm 8y ago
If someone climbed scaffolding to get back into their tied cottage because the owner had locked it up while they were out, we would blame the owner.
- al_chemist 8y ago
  He was drunk. Top deck is around 15 meters climb. Previous name of this boat was Vertigo.

eric_h 8y ago

I was once invited by (and paid for by) a billionaire investor in the company I worked for to a resort in the Bahamas patroned exclusively by the rich and famous. The extent of the service offered by the (mostly black, Bahamian staff) — appearing, disappearing and offering way more attentive assistance than any reasonable person needs made me downright uncomfortable. It was lovely to be in paradise, but being waited on hand and foot just seemed wretchedly excessive. [edit: spelling]

dweekly 8y ago
You may find this short piece by David Foster Wallace amusing on the same theme: https://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/HarpersMagazine-1996-01-0007859.pdf https://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/HarpersMagazi...
- dougmwne 8y ago
  Thanks for sharing this. It contains an insightful critic of native advertising starting at the end of page 9 that's doubbly worth a read.
kkielhofner 8y ago
It probably varies by person but I've experienced a version of this at Four Seasons and Ritz properties. On one hand I respect the incredible training, homogenization, attention to detail, etc. It really is amazing - impossible to compare their level of service to any other chain/organization at that price point (top 1%, not 0.01%). On the other hand after about a day or so and the novelty wears off it starts to seem a little "creepy" in a Stepford Wives/Get Out/etc kind of way... On a couple of occasions I was so uncomfortable I literally pulled someone aside and said "Come on, level with me dude. This isn't real. You don't really talk like this." In most cases they would respond with something along the lines of "Sir, I'm sorry but I don't know what you're referring to". It never quite rang as genuine but I couldn't help but wonder if the staff is trained or programmed. I know some people/families/etc who have never experienced lodging, accommodation, service, etc at any lesser level and it made me really wonder how aware they are of the bubble they're in (and how strange it really is).

awat 8y ago

It feels like this piece was written under the directive of write about super yachts and they sort of just made it fit.

jedberg 8y ago

I guess I'm not cut out to be a yacht owner, because I assume I would treat my crew the same way I treat my employees now -- demand that they try to stick to a 40 hour work week, feed them, and make sure they are well rested and being safe. I guess I would have to ask that magic yacht designer to design one that had double the normal crew quarters so that they didn't have to work doubles.

al_chemist 8y ago
Crew on your superyacht is not your employees, it's a service. It's more like a hairdresser or barista. Do you ask your barista if they had enough sleep? Do you ask your hotel room cleaner if they ate well? Do you have another bedroom for your dogwalker? Your employees and you are the team. You hunt together, you win together, you celebrate together. You may know the name of a waiter, but you don't have the same relationship with them, right?
- siidooloo 8y ago
  You’re with a barista for 5 minutes. You’re at the hairdressers for an hour. Crew on a boat is stuck there mostly 24/7. Even if it’s contract work its clearly a different kind of job. Also, you should know your chef’s name after a couple of months at sea. That seems like basic humanity.
- jedberg 8y ago
  Given that these people would live in my "house", I would hire people that would be interesting to have around when they're not doing their job, so I would assume I would get to know them better than those other folks. I equate more to the nanny we have now -- she's only here about 15 hours a week, but we chat all the time, I know all about her family, and I've seen her engagement video.
  - al_chemist 8y ago
    Given that this is your fifth "house" where you spend about a month per year (maybe a week at a time), you wouldn't even be a person who hires them. And when you do spend time on your superyacht with your guests Bill Gates and Steve Jobs you wouldn't even be interested if your masseur is an interesting person. Because you can either hear about creation of Mac from the creator of Mac directly OR see your masseur engagement video. It's your vacation time and it's your decision what would give you more out of your life.

jonathankoren 8y ago

I've been watching this thread all day, not one person has mentioned that the entire article has an undercurrent of the unaccountability of the super rich. The article specifically mentions how the yachts move from port to port, have their ownership hidden, and constantly change flags, to avoid taxes and to avoid giving the legal protections their workers would have if they were employed on land. Where even the death of a crew member is shrugged off. This is article is about callousness.

blackrock 8y ago

To be honest, when I see all these excesses of the super rich, I just want to puke. I am dumbfounded how the normal people can just celebrate it, and dream that they too can one day become one of these billionaires. And yes, while it is true, that some people can truly rise from rags to riches, or create a computer program that can take over the world. For the majority of us, the odds are not in our favor. You can work hard, or work smart all your life, but you will never become rich. It takes money to make money. There is no truer maxim than that. These people live the life of luxury and pleasure, while the rest of us can barely make ends meet. And I'm not talking about the programmers, but rather, the other people that aren't blessed to have well paying jobs. Sometimes, I think that there should be a legal limit on the amount of wealth that someone can accrue. But even this doesn't solve the problems that our society is facing. It doesn't solve the homelessness. It doesn't solve the expensive housing crisis. Or the student loan crisis. Meanwhile, for the rich, life is great. Technology is abundant. Money just makes more money. Opportunities are plenty, if you have the right connections. Anyways.. back to the grindstone. When I become a billionaire, I'm going to buy myself a super yacht too.

retrac98 8y ago
It doesn’t need to be this way! Billionaire level wealth aside, amassing a few million over the course of a lifetime isn’t as difficult as people think, it just requires discipline. Live well within your means and invest your saved money in assets consistently, compounding and time will do the rest. Most rich people get there slowly, and don’t appear to live a rich person’s lifestyle. Conversely, a lot of people who appear rich have little accumulated wealth. If you’d like to know more, Have a read of “The millionaire next door” and “I will teach you to be rich”. They changed my outlook on what being wealthy meant, and I’m now putting thousands onto my net worth every month in a automated way.
- closeparen 8y ago
  A middle-class person with a retirement account is not in anywhere near the same league as a superyacht owner. Yes, you can and should achieve financial independence in old age by investing a reasonable percentage of your income over time, but that has nothing to do with the billionaire class.

zappo2938 8y ago

Worse than the slips and falls is the unregulated use of chemicals with the crew not protected by OSHA.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

mn245 8y ago

Merchant navy deck officer from deep sea tankers and containers. 2nd off we have had the International safety mangment code for decades. They havent, these yachts need to be seen crewed and vetted the same level as commercial shipping. The real problem, unlike commercial shipping yachts dont really have a reason to exist and attract a certain type of person. Most of the accidents described would have been prevented if commercial code was in place and adhered to. Maritime labour convention for rest hours?? Not to put to blunt a point on it, the owners pay alot not to care. Theres not a bottom line.

golergka 8y ago

> None of the owners attended the three British men’s funerals. Are they trying to spin it as something negative? Why the hell would you intrude into a private and family matter of a person you most likely have talked to only a couple of times in your entire life.

SergeAx 8y ago

Former yacht pro here, been employed as a first mate by Russian minigarch (I am Russian too). Working on a yacht is indeed dangerous and all safety precautions must be taken. All cases described in an article are examples of deadly negligence: one should wear life west when operating tender boat after sunset, one should use additional harness line while hanging on significant height, and one definitely should not try to jump on a boat from pier after drunk night (did it once on my vacation, was centimeters from poor chap's fate, lesson learned). I don't see, however, how's boat owners are responsible for this except hiring slightly wrong people to manage and command their expensive property.