It’s official. A crewing crises is hitting the superyacht industry. With full order books and mega yachts being launched on an almost daily basis experts estimate that the crew shortage for this year alone will amount to over 3,000 persons. A new training academy with Royal Navy connections has been launched at the Monaco Boat Show (19-22 September, 2007) to help fill the gap. Flagship Superyacht Academy (FSYA), a British-based academy partnered with the Royal Navy, will provide a range of accredited training programmes that match the standards of the Royal Navy and are tailored to meet the industry’s specific needs.

They will encompass a wide spectrum of crew training requirements, including navigation, engineering, medical care, stewarding, and the full range of safety and specialist training, such as aviation and security. Through FSYA, yacht builders and owners can access the Navy’s custom built training facilities, including state-of-the-art fire fighting training facilities and the renowned Damage Repair Instructional Unit – a sea survival simulator which dramatically replicates onboard flood damage situations.

Sir Tim McClement, the newly-appointed Managing Director of FSYA, and a former Royal Navy Deputy Commander-in-Chief-Fleet, says: “The shortage of well trained Superyacht crew is a major headache for the industry. What we uniquely offer is ‘whole crew training’, which will help Captains and Owners to form their teams into cohesive units, capable of delivering the exceptional service expected in this industry.

“We will also work directly with individual crew members, enhancing their career prospects through high quality role-related and management training. It doesn’t matter what you want to be: a deck hand, a Captain or cordon bleu chef – this industry has some exciting and potentially very rewarding opportunities.

“With the superb training resources of the Royal Navy at our disposal, and its global reputation for maritime training excellence, we expect significant interest in our new capability.”

Visit the website of Flagship Super Yacht Academy. The Flagship parent company already trains Royal Navy personeel and has 400 customers worldwide.

Further articles on crewing can be found in Yachtbuddy’s The Crew Mess.