Being a competent skipper goes beyond mastering boat handling skills. While knowing how to throttle, steer, navigate, or recover a casualty is essential, and the main focus point for our training, every skipper needs to focus on managing both crew and yacht effectively in a safe and controlled manner.
To help my students achieve this broader objective, I have integrated a process management approach into all aspects of my skipper training program.
What is Process Management?
Process management is a systematic method of making workflows more effective, efficient, and adaptable to changing conditions. It’s about understanding the series of activities needed to achieve a specific goal and ensuring each step is executed smoothly and strategically.
How We Apply It Onboard
Most tasks onboard have a clearly distinguished preparation and an execution phase. Optimizing the preparation will help to make the execution more fluid, a process guided by the following steps:
ASSESSING -PLANNING – BRIEFING – EXECUTING – MONITORING
Practical example: docking the boat
Let’s explore how a process management approach transforms the complex task of docking into a systematic, controlled maneuver:
PREPARATION
1. Assess: Analyze the key factors: the elements (wind and tide), the environment (pontoon height and cleats, room to maneuver) and crew abilities. Perform a visual check of the berth with a “Fly By”.
2. Can you do it? Evaluate the difficulty of the maneuver. Identify how much speed it requires, where is the point of no return, and a possible plan B. If the maneuver is beyond your capacities, find another berth, ask for assistance or wati for conditions to change. If it is manageable:
3. Make a plan: Determine the starting point for the final approach (usually downwind and/or down tide of berth), decide on bow -o or stern-to approach and the position of fenders and lines,
4. Brief the crew on the boat preparation: Communicate your plan to the crew. Ensure they understand how to prepare the boat by correctly positioning fenders and lines. Monitor this preparation and verify all is ready.
5. Head to starting position and brief the crew on the docking maneuver. As you head to your starting position explain the docking sequence: which lines to secure first, roving fenders and who is doing what. Make sure everyone fully understands their individual task.
EXECUTION
6 Monitor the Approach: Check if conditions remain consistent with your initial assessment. Be prepared to abort and reposition if the approach deviates from the plan.
7 Docking: Once the boat is stopped in its berth instruct and monitor crew (stepping ashore or throwing lines,, fenders). When external assistance on the dock is offered make sure they fully understand what is expected from them.
8 Reality check When the boat is snugly moored up in its berth make sure everything as it should be (all lines and fender positioned correctly).
9 Debrief the maneuver and the crews individual actions, enabling everyone to keep learning and improving
Applying the approach to simpler tasks
And even straightforward activities like setting or changing sails become far more fluid, minimizing the risk of mistakes, when executed with a systematic process management approach. Take for example the hoist of the mainsail:
PREPARATION
Assess: how much wind now and expected
Plan: decide on sail area (reefs)
Brief: brief the crew on preparing the sail (halyard attached, reefs prepared)
Monitor: check if sail is ready for the hoist, go to starting position
Brief: the crew on executing the hoist, delegate individual taska
EXECUTION
Monitor: check and control the hoisting process and guide and instruct the crew where needed.
Reality Check: control the final result after the hoist, correct and adjust where needed
By incorporating process management principles into the skipper’s duties and responsibilities, every task on board becomes more seamless and controlled. Crew involvement and satisfaction increase, the risk of mistakes decreases, and safety management improves. Altogether, this approach creates a safer working environment, a happier and more engaged crew, and a skipper with more control and less stress.
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