The principal has a favourite Sancerre. There are two bottles left, the next port is a three-day sail away, and the guest list just grew from six to ten. Bar and cellar stock is where interior admin gets expensive fastest — and where informal control fails most visibly.
Amenities and consumables
Amenities are the guest-facing consumables: bathroom products, slippers, robes, stationery, sun care, guest gifts. Consumables are the operational ones: cleaning chemicals, laundry products, cloths, bin liners, batteries, candles.
Control them differently:
| Amenities | Operational consumables | |
|---|---|---|
| Driver of use | Guest-days and cabin turns | Cleaning hours and boat size |
| Visibility | Guests notice absence immediately | Nobody notices until you run out |
| Storage risk | Expiry, sun damage, scent transfer | Chemical safety, COSHH, ventilation |
| Order pattern | Ahead of each trip | Bulk, seasonal |
The provisioning list
Build one master provisioning list per category, held as a live document with: item description, brand and exact specification, supplier, pack size, current par, and the reorder point. The specification matters. "White candles" gets you the wrong height, the wrong burn time and the wrong smell. "Unscented, 25cm, 8-hour, brand X, box of 12" gets you what the owner expects.
Cellar and bar control
Wine and spirits combine high value, high shrinkage risk and guest visibility. Basic control:
- Bin card or digital cellar log per wine: bottles in, bottles out, current count, location.
- Issue by requisition. Bottles leave the cellar against a written movement, even if the written movement is a line in an app. No bottle moves on a verbal.
- Location tracking. Bilge cellar, bar chiller, service fridge — a bottle logged in the cellar but chilling at the bar is a discrepancy that is not a loss.
- Opening and closing bar counts on every charter, signed. Spirits counted by bottle and by weight or by measured level for open bottles.
- Owner stock versus charter stock kept separate. Owner wine consumed on charter must be recorded and recharged, or it is simply given away.
Onboard Notes
- Fine wine has storage requirements the boat may not meet. Heat, vibration and light will ruin a cellar quickly; know where the stable, cool stowage is and defend it.
- Duty status matters. Stock drawn from the ship's bond is not ordinary stock — see the bond lesson before you touch it.
- Photograph and record the label, vintage and producer, not just "Sancerre". Vintages differ in price by multiples and a replacement bought blind will be wrong.
- Never let bar stock be the one thing nobody counts because it feels rude to imply mistrust. Counting is not an accusation; it is the reason nobody ever gets accused.
- Guest gifts and high-value amenities belong in a locked, logged store, and should be counted with the cellar.