Brendan OShannassy - Superyacht Captain: Life and Leadership in the Worlds Most Incredible Industry

Cover

The cover reflects the power and beauty of a motor yacht as captured by the incredible photo-artist Guillaume Plisson. Guillaume and his team use their lenses to capture yachts in movement and see angles and tones that even the designers were not aware of. Having conducted photo shoots with Guillaume, I am in awe of an artist pushing everyone to find a higher professional plain.

Dedication and Acknowledgments

This book is dedicated to anyone that has ever said to a child, you can do it. A parent, a teacher, a friend, it does not matter; in my story it was a melange of friends parents and teachers and I thank them all. Their confidence in me when I had none has made all the difference.

It is a well-trodden path for a writer to thank their family and for good reason; my wife Yvonne and daughters Fabienne and Scarlett gave me the purpose to write and more than that they gave me the motivation to follow the career I have. To Yvonne, you are my greatest supporter when most of the time I do not deserve it. To Fabienne and Scarlett, my talented daughters, I am in awe of you both as you explore your worlds and find your own boundaries.

To my parents Allen and Annette. I am sorry our time together was shortened. We shared a stage but only for the first act. Despite knowing you cannot see these words, I still thank you for helping me to find the values I use through life.

Within the yachting community I know that acknowledging all is pithy and excluding any is fraught with risk. Acknowledging the latter, I wish to thank two groups: the yacht owners and the yacht crew.

To the yacht owners, thank you for committing to the adventure of yacht ownership. I have learnt so much from you and have never lost the overwhelming sense of privilege I felt on the first day stepping on a yacht (just before cleaning it).

To the yacht crew, I know how hard you work, how much you seek to deliver a never-ending expression of excellence and how much you misbehave when opportunity allows. For all the good, the bad and the downright unbelievable, I stand alongside you and thank you all.

Contents

Prologue

What could a superyacht captain teach me?

This is a captains story, my story, where I look back on the physical, emotional and professional challenges that I have faced working in support of the most exclusive client group in the world and their relentless demands. It also charts a journey into the heart of brightness that is the superyacht environment. It took me 15 years to earn the title of Captain and I walk through the narrow lanes, the dead ends and the bumpy distractions to that place.

The world of superyachts is far removed from most of the planets normal. It is a world where boundaries blur and the everyday rules of life seem to disappear. A world where lessons and insights are not read about and studied, but lived in an environment of constant pressure, where the consequences of actions result in immediate success or failure. This high stakes, no-safety-net workplace provided me with rolling insights that transfer directly for anyone looking for that edge to be their best version of themselves. My lessons are not hypothetical, gathered from postgraduate studies and delivered in a TED talk; I lived through the glory (but mostly the pain) of the constant scrutiny and expectations of billionaire superyacht owners.

A superyacht is also a study in globalisation. Yacht captains do not speak of diversity as a slogan or a company goal: we live it. The crews are multinational and multilingual and disperse around the globe when not on board. The same is true of the owners. It is common for a conversation to cross multiple languages and for all parties to be speaking in their second or third languages. Many businesses operate globally this is nothing unique but not many businesses move their office every few weeks to a new country, a different language, a new climate, a different legal system, and are expected to be experts on arrival. This is the expectation placed on a yacht and its captain. Whether it be Monaco, Miami, Palau or Papeete, there is an assumption that the captain will have the intimacy of a local by the time their feet are on the dock. They may have ducked an Atlantic hurricane (or two) during the office relocation, but this is not even considered. The business must be open on arrival. Yes, there are leadership lessons for all from this environment.

A better Bond villain

I will describe my actions in support of and in response to the billionaires I have served. I will peer deeply into their behaviours from my privileged position sitting in their inner sanctums: an area that normally is so fantastic it cannot even be represented in film. Superyachts have completely ruined the Bond franchise for me; when I watch a Bond film and I love Bond films I am always disappointed in how under-equipped the villains are, with minimal staff, small yachts and a general lack of resources.

The term typical day does not reflect yacht captaincy. One request from a guest takes the day in a new direction or even to a new location. To the eternal chagrin of my crews, I thrive on this disruption. I see each change as a chance to climb out on my performance edge, a way of freshly testing my creativity and problem-solving capabilities, a chance to see if my leadership can deliver what the team needs when their preferred initial solution has been cast aside on the whim of a guest. Alongside the crew, I bet heavily to deliver an experience that is comparable to the incredible investment of the yacht owner. I draw deep on previous yachts, previous performance and my crew; sometimes I win big and sometimes I fail, the outcome being more dependent on the mood of the client than the efforts of those of us working passionately in the shadows. This is harrowing, but an attraction at the same time.

On one of these just another day as a superyacht captain occasions, I was hosting one of the great modern Hollywood directors for a tour of the yacht. A director so fabled himself that I am sure a movie of his own life will be released if the Marvel back catalogue is ever cleared. I was struck by the inquisitiveness of this world-leading professional; it was intoxicating that he hung off my every word and then probed further with his questions. I found that I was drawing deeper into my knowledge to keep up and wanted to share the glory of this yacht with someone who was clearly interested. With all his success, the director had remained humble, engaged and good-humoured.

As enjoyable as his company was, it was a busy evening and I had hoped to slip through this private tour ahead of the main guests arrival. There was an intimate pre-party, and the very special of the special guests were already boarding. I was trying not to seem rushed, but my internal anxiety clock was ticking. Conducting the private tour did not allow me to maintain the necessary oversight of the full yacht during the critical guest arrival period.

The tour slowed further as, in addition to the questions the director was asking, we were being greeted by his friends: a tech founder, a global sportsman, an NFL team owner; they shared an intimacy that the yacht afforded. Without anyone having to say anything, they all knew: this was the rarest of air and they were truly the chosen few to inhale it.