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Command at Sea International Providing Elite Security for Yachts

December 19, 2011 by

Command at Sea International (CASI) isn’t just another security firm expanding its operations to the megayacht market. Its staff, already working with high-net-worth individuals, emphasizes risk mitigation in what it terms a “keel to mast” approach.

To say that Brian Peterman, CEO of CASI and a retired vice admiral of the U.S. Coast Guard, knows about security, piracy, and related issues is an understatement. Peterman spent nearly four decades in the Coast Guard, plus previously served on the National Security Council staff and as the Special Assistant to the President for Borders and Transportation Security. He and his staff were asked by a client with a yacht to provide security assistance, as the owner fired the prior firm. Peterman and his team decided to visited marinas in many different regions to learn more, in anticipation of addressing other owners’ and crew’s concerns. What they saw, Peterman says, is “some $25 Panasonic keypads” that were anything but deterrents. As far as some yachts were concerned, the crew knew when to call the authorities for additional help, but they didn’t stop to think that when they’re on the ocean, “help may be five to 10 miles away,” Peterman adds.

CASI’s approach involves assessing everyone and everything related to the yacht. This includes the crew, the owner, the management company, and anyone else in the owner’s team. CASI then develops a risk-mitigation strategy. It does so on a sliding scale, so that the owner can match it to the threat level matching the current needs. CASI’s risk mitigation additionally extends to advanced port assessments, to evaluate how secure a particular marina and/or general area is. Furthermore, Peterman says, the team will check out the local hospitals and medevac operations in an area megayacht clients might visit, if so desired.

Of course, CASI also provides technology-based security system recommendations. These include customary items like video surveillance, but also electronic security sweeps. CASI will also monitor possible electronic espionage, such as communications and navigation interceptions.

Because CASI wishes to balance its capacity to serve its clients, “We’re looking to be very selective as to who we work with,” Peterman says. Ultimately, he adds, CASI would prefer to work simultaneously with the owners and crew of two to three new megayachts and three to four megayachts in refit. Peterman says that CASI would also like to speak with naval architects and perhaps shipyards about what he calls “unobtrusive security.” “You start from day one, because otherwise it is obtrusive,” he says, “ a band-aid approach.”

For more information about CASI, visit its website or fill out our contact form.

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Megayacht News Leadership Series: Mark Robinson, Yacht Carbon Offset

November 13, 2011 by

PHOTO: Pamela Jones/Pamela Jones Photography

For the past four years, Yacht Carbon Offset has been allowing environmentally minded megayacht owners and crews the ability to balance greenhouse gas emissions by contributing to eco-focused projects around the world. The projects are carefully evaluated by Mark Robinson, the founder of Yacht Carbon Offset, as well as independent firms that verify the operations are indeed properly focused on preserving the environment. These are among the reasons why Yacht Carbon Offset was the recipient of the International Superyacht Society’s new Fabien Cousteau Blue Award last month during the Society’s annual Design Awards Gala.

It’s also a major reason why Robinson is the subject of this Megayacht News Leadership Series interview. Here, Robinson explains why he founded the firm, how it operates, and, equally important, how megayacht managers, owners, crew, and charterers alike can feel confident that carbon offsetting through Yacht Carbon Offset is a benefit.

 

Q:What inspired you to create Yacht Carbon Offset?

A: Carbon offsetting—balancing your greenhouse gas emissions with equivalent emissions reductions from approved projects—is an established environmental strategy in many sectors, from transport to hotels and leisure to financial services. Sometimes it is adopted as a matter of principle or part of a corporate social responsibility program, sometimes as part of a customer proposition. But in 2007 it was rare in yachting. Working as a  financial analyst in the utilities and energy industry, I was familiar with the impact carbon funding has on renewable power projects, and with carbon offsetting as a source of this funding. A family member has been a professional in the yachting industry for over 20 years, so I had followed the evolution of superyachts as an interested observer. The inspiration for Yacht Carbon Offset was simply a conversation combining these two—questioning what a superyacht owner would require to begin a carbon-offset policy. I realized that the requirements of this rather special group of clients were not fully met by “mainstream” carbon offset providers, and that this represented a new business opportunity. So I took the plunge, and Yacht Carbon Offset was born.

It has been, and still is, a fascinating journey, and I’ve met many friends. The fact that so many yachts have chosen to participate in this entirely discretionary service despite very tough economic conditions proves that many owners and charterers do wish to balance their carbon footprint. We were delighted and honored to be recognized in Fort Lauderdale this year with the ISS Fabien Cousteau Blue Award—a happy milestone for the company.

 

Q: What is your selection process for the projects you support? For example, do you rely on a third party to analyze a project’s claims? If so, which one(s), and why?

A: We begin from our clients’ requirement for the highest levels of quality. Specifically, we need to be sure about three aspects of each project before we select it. Firstly, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions must be properly quantified using an approved methodology.  Secondly, the project must have clearly demonstrated “additionality”—that it could only proceed as a direct result of the carbon funding. Finally, the emissions reductions over the project’s operating period must be properly monitored and audited so that the correct number of carbon credits are issued to an approved registry. In addition to these fundamentals, I personally evaluate the documentation for each project so that I am satisfied that our quality requirements are met, and I also take into consideration a mix of green-energy technologies and geographic location.

We do rely on third parties to audit the projects themselves. This is a key part of the independent verification process that enables high-quality carbon credits to be sold by the project owner. For example, our recent projects have been approved by Det Norske Veritas, SGS, and First Environment. The approved audit organizations in each country have local experts that visit each plant. They review the output data, the monitoring equipment, and documentary records to validate the carbon savings that have been achieved. In our judgment, this is the correct approach—we could not carry out this task ourselves with the same degree of rigor or local knowledge. That said, we are always careful to confirm which audit company has verified each project, and our confidence in their credentials is a consideration when we select a project.

 

Q: There are a few programs offering carbon credits these days, but some consumers remain skeptical about where the money goes. Can you give two or three examples of specific projects Yacht Carbon Offset supports?

A: It is important to be discerning when selecting a carbon-offset provider, since it is essential to have clarity about the projects that have been supported. For our part, we follow three principles. First, we list all the projects supported by the offset program on our website—for example, a wastewater treatment and biogas recovery plant in Thailand, a small run-of-river hydro-electric power station in Brazil, and a geothermal electricity generation plant in Guatemala. Secondly, we have an external audit across our entire service-delivery process in order to maintain our Lloyds Register Quality Assurance Certification—and captains and yacht managers will know that this is a serious undertaking. Thirdly, we identify which fuel or energy quantities been offset as part of a yacht’s environmental-management procedures, so that the scope of the owner’s action is clear.

Q: How does Yacht Carbon Offset work with the yachts to determine their carbon emissions? Related to this, how does your company determine an equivalent offset?

A: Yachts need a flexible approach. Sometimes a charter broker needs to offset the fuel requirement for a fortnight’s cruise by a celebrity or eco-conscious family, other times a captain or yacht manager will want to present a carbon-offset program for the year during the budget discussions. Some of our clients administer their offset program in parallel with each fuel delivery.

We keep it simple: The process starts by the customer telling us how much fuel is to be included in their offset; we respond with a quotation for approval. The beauty of basing our methodology on the quantity and type of marine fuel is that we can respond to this with a pay-as-you-go service, offsetting any amount of fuel, large or small, for any type of yacht, commercial or private. This also helps when a rapid turn-around is required (e.g. for a charter), since there is no need to visit the yacht. I’m keen to beat our current record of 40 minutes to complete a carbon offset following first contact from the captain—and that includes waiting for payment!

The calculation of the greenhouse gas emissions (in tons of carbon dioxide equivalent) follows a detailed procedure based on the fuel properties and emission factors. Where the yacht wishes to include the emissions related to shore-power supplies, then we also need to know where the power was taken, since the generation mix in each country is different. Then, to achieve the offset, we balance the yacht’s emissions ton for ton, with emissions savings achieved by the carbon-saving projects. We do this by buying and retiring the required number of carbon credits from our selected projects. These retirements are recorded through the international carbon-trading registries and are regularly reviewed as part of our Lloyds Register Quality Assurance audits.

 

Q: Do you provide any type of certification or other documentation to the yachts—or even documents that charter clients of participating yachts can review, if they are environmentally minded?

A: Yacht Carbon Offset issues a unique, auditable certificate for each transaction, detailing the fuel or other energy that has been included in the offset, and identifying the vessel, including the IMO number if available. The certificate can then be further customized with a caption and supporting comment. In other words, the certificate can be made out to the vessel itself, or to a named charter client for their holiday in St Barth’s, or it can be presented as a gift from the captain to a favored guest; the customer is free to choose. We are always happy to provide any additional documentation required by the yacht—for example, details of individual projects, brochures in various languages, or briefing notes to help explain the service to those onboard.

Looking ahead, as more and more destinations become sensitive to environmental performance of visiting yachts, proper evidence of operational practices will become ever more important. In the meantime, it is also helpful to have an external signal of environmental leadership, which is why we invite our customers to fly a flag (pictured above), which has been seen from Fort Lauderdale to the Maldives, from Newport to the UAE.

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Megayacht News Leadership Series: John Mann, U.S. Superyacht Association

October 2, 2011 by

If you’ve ever stopped in at Bluewater Books and Charts’ shop in Fort Lauderdale, then you may already know John Mann, the owner. While Mann has been providing navigation products and services to boaters, yacht owners, and yacht crew for more than a decade, he also holds another important position. He’s the incoming chairman of the U.S. Superyacht Association (USSA), which advocates on behalf of the American megayacht industry as well as owners and crewmembers. (Full disclosure: Megayacht News is a founding member of USSA.) USSA also pushes for better understanding of regulations and enforcement among government officials and foreign-flagged megayachts and crew entering U.S. waters.

In this Megayacht News Leadership Series interview, Mann discusses what USSA has successfully achieved in just five years of existence, and what it’s focused on for the near future.
Q: Many people in the industry have interesting stories about how they became involved in yachting. What was your initial introduction, and how did you decide to make it a career?

A: Twelve years ago my wife and I purchased Bluewater Books and Charts after long careers in corporate America. We were both ready for a career change, and the combination of my having been a boater all of my life and my wife’s background and family business in the UK being in marine publishing, we decided that the  marine industry was a good fit.

Q: What convinced you to become a founding member of the U.S. Superyacht Association?

A: With the U.S. being among the top three nations in the world for building large yachts, and with over half of the owners of large yachts being Americans, it seemed pretty obvious that we should have a trade association in this segment of the marine industry. As the self-proclaimed yachting capital of the world, I felt business owners in Fort Lauderdale should take the initiative to form a trade association to give a voice in regulatory and legislative matters to the large-yachts segment of the recreational-boating market.

Q: You’ve held a few positions with USSA, including with the Advocacy Committee. What are some of the things that particular committee has done, and is continuing to do?

A: As Advocacy chairman in the association’s first three years, our committee really focused on entry issues that large yachts were facing coming into the United States. We worked very closely to establish close working relationships with the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, as well as the State Department. All of those regulatory and enforcement departments are important for large yacht and crew, particularly foreign flagged, when entering U.S. waters. While we have made great strides in educating these government departments on the economic importance of large yachts coming to the U.S., the work in ongoing.

Q: A few years ago the USSA, along with the International Superyacht Society and the Marine Industries Association of South Florida, invited representatives from the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs & Border Protection to a captain’s briefing. The goal was to clear confusion over things like what visas are needed for crew entering the United States, plus start a direct line of dialog between key crew personnel and government officials. Have things improved, or are there still problems, and if so, how is USSA able to intercede?

A: We have held various captains briefings with regulatory officials in Fort Lauderdale; Newport, Rhode Island; and in St. Maarten to inform and educate both the U.S. officials and crew to make it easier to enter, cruise, and charter in U.S. waters. As I said earlier, while progress has been made, the constant change in personnel, both regulators and crew, as well as changes in regulations make it necessary to continue these briefings. This year at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, we’ll have experts in maritime law, insurance, and yacht importation at our captains briefing to give their insights on foreign-flagged yachts in U.S. waters.

Q: The USSA continues to advocate on behalf of the industry. What are some of the primary objectives you and the board are working on for the coming year?

A: Next year is going to be an exciting year for the U.S. Superyacht Association. We will truly become a national association, with the addition of seven new board members representing specific regions of the country. Regional committees for advocacy  working with the national committee will allow us to have a stronger voice in Washington with regulators and legislators. The regional marketing committees will help the national marketing group promote the U.S. as a destination for these large yachts. USSA is an operational partner with America’s Cup 34 and will be encouraging large yachts to attend and be part of the race course for the Cups Challenger series in San Diego and Newport.

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