A safe haven
When considering the security of your yacht, three key elements are paramount: a sound strategy, acknowledging the true security situation and relevant tactics. Patrick Estebe, president of AffAirAction, explains the key points to ensuring the security of your yacht.…
When considering the security of your yacht, three key elements are paramount: a sound strategy, acknowledging the true security situation and relevant tactics. Understanding the difference between tactics and strategy is essential, and can be simply defined in business terms. Tactics is about doing things the right way, whereas strategy is about finding what is the right thing to do. However, strategy will always determine the outcome, explains Patrick Estebe, president of AffAirAction, a Florida-based security firm that emphasises avoidance over reaction.
A comprehensive strategy or security concept should encompass an owner’s profile, the yacht’s type, cruise areas and the crew profile. It is always much easier to start such a concept at the construction of the vessel, as a few modifications can make a big difference and can widen the future operational options.
When it comes to planning security, strategy is established in the war room; it should never be discussed in the boardroom and should consist only of the owner, his shore security advisor, the captain and the captain’s maritime security advisor.
Too few experts acknowledge that the enormous, tax-free profits generated worldwide by organised crime have been invested in many industries.
The major difference between the war room and the boardroom lies in the very intangible nature of security. One can see why boardrooms are still making security decisions, as the war room will tell an owner what he needs instead of what he wants. A boardroom will easily decide to have a commercial registration for the vessel, describing how piracy can be defeated easily with a professional armed escort, while discarding any other security concerns.
The second element of yacht security is acknowledging that the true situation requires an open mind and being capable of accepting new information. While piracy may be a serious threat to shipping and transiting yachts, the current threat to yacht owners is of a different nature. Two yacht owners were killed recently, neither of them by pirates. The first was by terrorists when he left his yacht to go to a restaurant, and the second by a hit man while on his yacht.
Too few experts acknowledge that the enormous, tax-free profits generated worldwide by organised crime have been invested in many industries. The threat of organised crime is often dismissed because its structure escapes scrutiny. It is not a network structure that can be dismantled, but rather a rhizomatic structure that is profoundly rooted inside the system it lives off. Therefore most of its activities escape the best efforts of law enforcement and in more and more cases the determination of entire governments.
Tactics is the third element of yacht security and a more delicate subject to broach in an article, as the element of surprise is an important advantage in any confrontation. However, it is essential to understand there is much more to yacht security than CCTV, night vision cameras and glare projection lighting. These are mere tools and, like most tools, the most important issue is the expertise of those who will establish the procedures and the skills of those who will use them.
A yacht can be the safest haven in the world but you need to make sure your maritime security expert is exactly that: an expert.
COMMENT:
Andy Young
Special Projects and Services Ltd (SPS)
SPS has a range of extremely wealthy clients who own or charter yachts on a regular basis. The security and safety threats they face and their vulnerabilities vary significantly. Factors will include the profile of the clients or other guests invited on board, the geographical area and how the yacht is used.
Physical security measures are only a small element of the risks that clients typically face, which can include medical issues, accidents or illness, loss of information (private or business) and land-based travel or visits.
Read the full article in Issue 6 of The Superyacht Owner, out in February.
A comprehensive strategy or security concept should encompass an owner’s profile, the yacht’s type, cruise areas and the crew profile. It is always much easier to start such a concept at the construction of the vessel, as a few modifications can make a big difference and can widen the future operational options.
When it comes to planning security, strategy is established in the war room; it should never be discussed in the boardroom and should consist only of the owner, his shore security advisor, the captain and the captain’s maritime security advisor.
Too few experts acknowledge that the enormous, tax-free profits generated worldwide by organised crime have been invested in many industries.
The major difference between the war room and the boardroom lies in the very intangible nature of security. One can see why boardrooms are still making security decisions, as the war room will tell an owner what he needs instead of what he wants. A boardroom will easily decide to have a commercial registration for the vessel, describing how piracy can be defeated easily with a professional armed escort, while discarding any other security concerns.
The second element of yacht security is acknowledging that the true situation requires an open mind and being capable of accepting new information. While piracy may be a serious threat to shipping and transiting yachts, the current threat to yacht owners is of a different nature. Two yacht owners were killed recently, neither of them by pirates. The first was by terrorists when he left his yacht to go to a restaurant, and the second by a hit man while on his yacht.
Too few experts acknowledge that the enormous, tax-free profits generated worldwide by organised crime have been invested in many industries. The threat of organised crime is often dismissed because its structure escapes scrutiny. It is not a network structure that can be dismantled, but rather a rhizomatic structure that is profoundly rooted inside the system it lives off. Therefore most of its activities escape the best efforts of law enforcement and in more and more cases the determination of entire governments.
Tactics is the third element of yacht security and a more delicate subject to broach in an article, as the element of surprise is an important advantage in any confrontation. However, it is essential to understand there is much more to yacht security than CCTV, night vision cameras and glare projection lighting. These are mere tools and, like most tools, the most important issue is the expertise of those who will establish the procedures and the skills of those who will use them.
A yacht can be the safest haven in the world but you need to make sure your maritime security expert is exactly that: an expert.
COMMENT:
Andy Young
Special Projects and Services Ltd (SPS)
SPS has a range of extremely wealthy clients who own or charter yachts on a regular basis. The security and safety threats they face and their vulnerabilities vary significantly. Factors will include the profile of the clients or other guests invited on board, the geographical area and how the yacht is used.
Physical security measures are only a small element of the risks that clients typically face, which can include medical issues, accidents or illness, loss of information (private or business) and land-based travel or visits.
Read the full article in Issue 6 of The Superyacht Owner, out in February.
NEW: Sign up for SuperyachtNewsweek!
Get the latest weekly news, in-depth reports, intelligence, and strategic insights, delivered directly from The Superyacht Group's editors and market analysts.
Stay at the forefront of the superyacht industry with SuperyachtNewsweek
Click here to become part of The Superyacht Group community, and join us in our mission to make this industry accessible to all, and prosperous for the long-term. We are offering access to the superyacht industry’s most comprehensive and longstanding archive of business-critical information, as well as a comprehensive, real-time superyacht fleet database, for just £10 per month, because we are One Industry with One Mission. Sign up here.
NEW: Sign up for
SuperyachtNewsweek!
Get the latest weekly news, in-depth reports, intelligence, and strategic insights, delivered directly from The Superyacht Group's editors and market analysts.
Stay at the forefront of the superyacht industry with SuperyachtNewsweek
