Jargon: Words and expressions that are used in special or technical ways by particular groups of people, often making the language difficult to understand – Collins Dictionary.

Yachting and the nautical industry share a specific jargon, which defines elements and situations, in the same way specific jargons exist for horse riding, medicine or car racing. The proper use of such language among us is a lot more eloquent than a business card, as it helps to quickly assess the knowledge and experience of the person sharing the conversation.

It’s not the same language when talking to a yacht designer, a Class auditor or yacht agent. Each of them has a good general base of information inherent to their specific roles in the industry, with a deeper knowledge and experience in their professional tasks. It’s exactly this harmonious sharing of knowledge and experience at all levels that drives our industry forward.

Shipyards are a case apart. Coordinating the timings for lifting, working and launching, repair and refit yards will carry on works themselves, often sub-contracting, while some yards will offer a certain amount of flexibility in accepting third parties contracted directly by the yacht. This means not only dealing with their traditional duties and schedules but also establishing a complicated project-management protocol to deal with captain, crew (yes, crew, who are affected by hordes of people invading their boat/home), suppliers, agents, controllers, security … most speaking a different language and having been brought up in a different culture.

Since the nautical industry became more of a hospitality business than a purely maritime one, a lot of effort has been made to make the client/user feel comfortable and enjoy their time. Over time, we’ve learned that while you can address everybody in the same way, a much better outcome (as well as making the client feel comfortable) will be achieved when speech is accommodated to the person’s preferences: not what is being said, but how it is being said. You do not talk the same way to an Italian or to a German or Australian. Italians incorporate more emotions in the way they talk, Germans appreciate precision and respect timing. Australians are very open and speak exactly as they think – soft talk is for politicians, not real people.

This is the everyday of captains, crew, shipyard and subcontracted personnel. Even when everybody has their clear hierarchies in their organisation, sooner or later there will be situations when the captain or crew instruct workers about safety, boat maintenance or working limitations issue (like not being able to access the boat for a full day due to spraying application) and the workers will insist in carry on with their work by their own schedules and standards.

Those are the moments when both boat and shipyard can benefit a lot from sharing what I call the shipyard language. That language replaces straight negative answers (“no”) with an opening to an alternative (“I am afraid not, but I will double check”), using dialogue instead of imposing (“I thought this was going to be done in a different way. Let me have a chat with your supervisor” or “Of course you’re right, captain. I’m sure there’s been a misunderstanding”).

Good communication with the shipyard (everybody is the shipyard, from management to the cleaners) will play in the project’s favour. When people (workers, crew) feel appreciated by each other, there is not only less tension at work but also more communication, being able to address potential bad situations before they arrive. No, I am not a Barbie-protocol defendant. Yes, this may sound too sweet for tackling tough shipyard responsibilities and the hard driving required to maintain efficiency on a large yacht.

There are examples of some marinas that prefer certain yachts as clients because they integrate, understand the marina’s ways and interact harmoniously with marina personnel, while, on the other hand, gladly refusing to berth other yachts full of snobbish attitudes, complaints and demands. Some money is too expensive to be earned.

The other issue is workers’ standards. From CEO to cleaners, everybody is important. I recall the anecdote of President Kennedy visiting NASA and asking a cleaner what was his function there, and the guy goes, “I’m helping put a man on the moon”. That is the attitude to be teach to personnel and that is the way to address personnel.

It must be a combined effort: the yard accommodating the arriving client and the client accommodating the acting yard. Yes, the yacht will pay a serious amount of money for maintenance and repair, but the yard is not obliged to forget about national pride, tradition and local culture. Northern Europe lunches at 12.30. Greece does it at 13.30-14.00. Spain stops for coffee a few times a day. Holland does it at pre-established times, which is respected. Germany separates magnetic and de-magnetised tools. In the Med, you find all tools in a Carrefour cleaning bucket. And everybody can do a fantastic, very professional job, in their own way. A Greek with a welding machine and a grinder does not fabricate pieces, he create sculptures!

They must all protect the yacht, act safely and make it happen on time. Well, the timer has an anomaly: it fails in lower latitudes and gets more accurate when climbing up towards the Baltic. There are plenty of anecdotes about this. One I like very much is when a classic 22-metre yacht fell on her side at a boatyard in Mallorca, damaging many of her frames. The new owner found a shipwright in Naples who agreed to move with his family and a helper to Mallorca to make the repair. When agreeing the conditions, money was not really the main issue: he wanted his personal Italian cook to travel with them and cook every day. The boat was restored to perfection after more than a year’s work.

It is often said it there is more pleasure in giving than receiving. If we apply such a principle to all our behaviours, both parties will win.

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