Private and confidential
While private security may be an option for yacht owners to keep their families and guests safe, privacy can be protected with a few steps that start at the beginning of the build process. Quentin Bargate of Bargate Murray shares an example of how the firm works with clients to create crew agreements that protect the privacy and commercial interests of owners. …
While private security may be an option for yacht owners to keep their families and guests safe, privacy can be protected with a few steps that start at the beginning of the build process. Quentin Bargate of Bargate Murray shares an example of how the firm works with clients to create crew agreements that protect the privacy and commercial interests of owners.
Crew agreements
An obvious way in which confidential information can leak is through the yacht’s crew, and particularly the captain who will have more personal interaction with the owner than most. Irrespective of the quality and integrity of your crew, I always advise clients to stress how important the issue of confidentiality is to all matters relating to the yacht and the owner, and back this up by using a confidentiality clause in the seafarer employment agreements (SEAs) that we prepare for clients.
The Maritime Labour Convention 2006 is due to come into force in 2013 and will bring with it a swathe of new employment rights for the crew who work on vessels that are flagged by one of the Member States to which it applies. When reviewing their crew agreements to ensure they are MLC-compliant, owners would be well advised to ensure they upgrade the confidentiality provisions of their MLC-compliant SEAs, if they have not already done so. We also advise that all crew are required to ‘deliver up’ all material in their possession that belongs to the owner at the end of their employment, whether it be a copy of an internal crew memo, their uniform, or any other property of the owner that may have fallen into their hands.
The comments below are from an additional three law professionals on the issue of privacy:
“Owners should be aware of the increasing risk of cyber attack, targeting all IT software, particularly in an environment where almost all systems (not just navigation and communications or entertainment, but also the yacht’s engineering and underlying systems without which the yacht cannot move). It’s said that all computer systems operating on-line are now under almost permanent attack from hackers.”
Tony Allen
Hill Dickinson
“Legally you can do everything, which Quentin quite correctly suggests must be done, but as with any contractual relationship, you cannot stop people being malicious, careless, boastful or stupid. Even though people know they are supposed to keep matters confidential, that does not always happen. Yes there are remedies, but once a confidence is broken, it stays broken. Damages and injunctions might scare others from repeating the breach, but as the Chinese say, ‘What is told in the ear of a man is often heard 100 miles away’.”
John Leonida
Clyde & Co LLP
“I was recently acting for a designer on a design contract and the owner’s lawyer was struggling with a client who seemed excessively worried about confidentiality. I was asked to consider a very long and onerous clause, the effect of which was that the designer needed the owner’s written consent on each and every occasion that a design drawing had to be sent to the shipyard. I’m pleased to say that good sense prevailed and we ended up with an adequately protective but workable solution but the owner’s obsession might otherwise have killed a perfectly good relationship with an honest and diligent designer.”
Jay Tooker
Holman Fenwick Willan LLP
To read the comments in full, please visit SuperyachtNews.com or click here.
Crew agreements
An obvious way in which confidential information can leak is through the yacht’s crew, and particularly the captain who will have more personal interaction with the owner than most. Irrespective of the quality and integrity of your crew, I always advise clients to stress how important the issue of confidentiality is to all matters relating to the yacht and the owner, and back this up by using a confidentiality clause in the seafarer employment agreements (SEAs) that we prepare for clients.
The Maritime Labour Convention 2006 is due to come into force in 2013 and will bring with it a swathe of new employment rights for the crew who work on vessels that are flagged by one of the Member States to which it applies. When reviewing their crew agreements to ensure they are MLC-compliant, owners would be well advised to ensure they upgrade the confidentiality provisions of their MLC-compliant SEAs, if they have not already done so. We also advise that all crew are required to ‘deliver up’ all material in their possession that belongs to the owner at the end of their employment, whether it be a copy of an internal crew memo, their uniform, or any other property of the owner that may have fallen into their hands.
The comments below are from an additional three law professionals on the issue of privacy:
“Owners should be aware of the increasing risk of cyber attack, targeting all IT software, particularly in an environment where almost all systems (not just navigation and communications or entertainment, but also the yacht’s engineering and underlying systems without which the yacht cannot move). It’s said that all computer systems operating on-line are now under almost permanent attack from hackers.”
Tony Allen
Hill Dickinson
“Legally you can do everything, which Quentin quite correctly suggests must be done, but as with any contractual relationship, you cannot stop people being malicious, careless, boastful or stupid. Even though people know they are supposed to keep matters confidential, that does not always happen. Yes there are remedies, but once a confidence is broken, it stays broken. Damages and injunctions might scare others from repeating the breach, but as the Chinese say, ‘What is told in the ear of a man is often heard 100 miles away’.”
John Leonida
Clyde & Co LLP
“I was recently acting for a designer on a design contract and the owner’s lawyer was struggling with a client who seemed excessively worried about confidentiality. I was asked to consider a very long and onerous clause, the effect of which was that the designer needed the owner’s written consent on each and every occasion that a design drawing had to be sent to the shipyard. I’m pleased to say that good sense prevailed and we ended up with an adequately protective but workable solution but the owner’s obsession might otherwise have killed a perfectly good relationship with an honest and diligent designer.”
Jay Tooker
Holman Fenwick Willan LLP
To read the comments in full, please visit SuperyachtNews.com or click here.
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