It is day nine of a back-to-back charter. Your junior stew has been turning cabins since 0600, served a late dinner, and is now being asked to help with a 0200 guest departure. She is exhausted and so are you. Somewhere in the middle of this is a legal limit, a safety limit, and a human limit — and as HOD you own all three.
Hours of Work and Rest
MLC sets maximum hours of work or, alternatively, minimum hours of rest, and the flag state chooses which regime applies. Rest must be divided into no more than a stated number of periods, one of which must be a substantial unbroken block. The principle to hold in your head:
- Rest is rest — not on standby, not on call in the crew mess with a radio.
- Records must be kept and signed by the seafarer and by a responsible officer, and the seafarer gets a copy.
- Exceptions exist for drills, emergencies and safety of the vessel, and compensatory rest must follow.
Do not quote the numbers from memory. Take them from the flag state requirement, the yacht rest-hour system and the SEA. Interior departments falsify rest hours more often than any other, usually because a HOD signed off a schedule that was never achievable. That is a management failure, not a crew failure.
Leave
Paid annual leave accrues under MLC and is set out in the SEA. Rotational crew often have leave built into the rotation pattern; permanent crew accrue days. Two management points:
- Leave is not a favour you grant. It is an entitlement you plan for.
- Untaken leave that is quietly bought out year after year is a fatigue risk and a retention risk.
Repatriation
MLC gives seafarers the right to be repatriated at no cost to themselves in defined circumstances — including at the end of the agreement, and where the seafarer can no longer perform duties. There must be financial security in place so a seafarer is not stranded if the shipowner defaults.
| Situation | Typical position | Where the answer lives |
|---|---|---|
| SEA expires in a foreign port | Repatriation at shipowner expense | SEA + flag state |
| Crew member resigns early | Cost may fall differently | SEA terms |
| Medical disembarkation | Repatriation and medical care obligations engage | SEA, MLC Title 4, insurer |
| Summary dismissal for gross misconduct | Contested territory — take advice | SEA, flag state, lawyer |
Accommodation, Food and Welfare
Cabin size, ventilation, lighting, heating, noise, recreational facilities and sanitary facilities are all regulated for vessels in scope. Food and drinking water are provided free of charge and must be of suitable quality, quantity and nutritional value, with regard to crew religious and cultural backgrounds. On a yacht this is real: a crew mess where the interior team eats guest leftovers standing up at 2300 is not a catering plan.
Onboard Notes
- If you are asked to sign rest-hour records you know are false, that is a red line. Raise it with the Captain, and record that you raised it.
- Build the rest into the roster before the charter, not as an apology after it.
- Repatriation entitlements and notice interact in ways that catch crew out. Always read the actual SEA.
- General professional guidance only. Not legal advice.