You have three stews, a fourteen-day charter, a yard visit at the end of it, and a varnisher coming aboard on Thursday to touch up the sky lounge — while the owner is still onboard. Nothing in this week is a cleaning problem. All of it is a planning, delegation and protection problem.
Scheduling around guests and crew
- Guest areas are worked around the guests, not through them. Know the day plan: breakfast, beach club, tenders ashore, dinner ashore. Those windows are your cabins.
- Noise and smell are the two things guests will not forgive. No vacuuming outside cabins in the morning, no chemicals before a meal, no deep work in an adjacent space during a rest period.
- Protect crew rest. Fatigued stews break things and cut corners; hours of rest are a legal obligation under MLC, not a nicety.
- Coordinate with deck and engineering. A wash-down onto an open door, or an engineer lifting a deck plate through the saloon, ruins your morning if nobody spoke.
Delegating and mentoring
- Delegate the task, the standard and the deadline — then let them do it. Handing over a task and hovering trains nobody.
- Match the task to the person. A brand-new junior does not learn on the shagreen bar.
- Teach with the SOP in hand: show, do together, watch them do, sign off. Then check again in a week.
- Give feedback privately, immediately and specifically. "The gloss has swirls, because that was a circular wipe — long straight passes with a fresh cloth" beats "be more careful".
- Praise in public, correct in private, never in front of guests.
- Build them: rotate juniors through the harder materials under supervision, and explain why — a stew who understands that acid etches marble will never reach for the wrong bottle.
Contractors and shore-based specialists
Contractors are not your crew and do not know your boat. During a yard period they are the single largest threat to the interior.
| Control | What it means |
|---|---|
| Induction | Brief every contractor on routes, no-go areas, shoe covers, smoking, no eating in guest areas |
| Escort | Someone from the interior accompanies work in guest spaces |
| Access log | Who came aboard, when, where they worked |
| Condition record | Photograph the space before they start and after they finish |
| Sign-off | Do not release the space until you have inspected it |
Protecting the interior during works
- Route protection: a defined path from the passerelle to the work area — hard floor protection, taped-down protective board, corrugated protection on corners.
- Floor and furniture: breathable protection over carpets and timber, furniture moved out or wrapped; never tape directly onto a finished surface — use low-tack tape onto protective sheet.
- Dust control: zip walls and dust screens, negative pressure or extraction where possible, AC returns in the work zone sealed off so dust is not distributed through the boat.
- Soft furnishings, art and loose objets go into storage before the work starts, not after the first accident.
Onboard Notes
- Sanding dust in an AC system haunts the boat for a season. Seal the vents before the first tool is switched on.
- Snag every contractor defect at handover, in writing, with photographs, while they are still alongside. Nobody comes back for free.
- If a contractor asks you to move a piece of art or a high-value item, get the Chief and the correct procedure — that is not a favour you do quickly.