Claire Griffiths is Dockwalk’s contributing editor in the Mediterranean. She fled to the sunny south of France from Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Claire has a background in journalism for national and regional UK press and a career in political and corporate PR prior to that. Claire’s hobbies include eating, sleeping and dancing at inopportune times. She tries to avoid sheer drops and Olympic bobsled runs. Email Claire at claire@dockwalk.com
Capt. Dan Khedun grew up in The Wirral in North-West England. A contact helped him get his first job as a junior deckhand 11 years ago, which he was grateful for since he isn’t sure he was cut out for the endless rejection of dockwalking. “It was a special boat — 86-meter M/Y Seven Seas. Once that was on the CV, it was pretty easy,” he says. “After a week, I knew I wanted to make this my career and from then on, I sacrificed every vacation, all my salary, to do courses. I wanted to get them out of the way as quickly as possible and then get the experience. I knew I’d reap the rewards in the future, and it’s worked out pretty well so far. I’ve got my 3000GT ticket; anything bigger and it gets too bureaucratic with crew management, etc., I think.”
He became a first officer on M/Y Turmoil. “The first day on board, Capt. Will Kaye taught me how to drive the boat out of the dock in Simpson Bay, St. Maarten. Driving-wise, all my learning comes from him; he was a great influence.” Driving the boat makes Khedun happy, and he plans to continue that teaching tradition. “Every boat is different, and I am still learning — I want to know the answers before I pass [the driving] over. But in the future, I will definitely be handing over the driving.”
M/Y Come Together is the first Amels 60 with hybrid power and propulsion technology. Espen Øino is responsible for the exterior design and Winch Design the bespoke interiors. She was launched in June 2022, and Khedun joined the project seven months before that with his chief engineer at Vlissingen, the Netherlands. “This Amels is a series, not a custom build, and we know they are so efficient at building series boats,” he says. “They know what they are doing, so this was a lot easier than building a custom yacht.”
Khedun arrived toward the end of the build for the inspections. He inspected the paint, teak, and the deck caulking — a long, tedious process, but a vital one. “It’s such an expensive mistake if I miss something,” he says. “You do reach a stage where if you keep saying, ‘That’s not good enough, the boat is going to be late,’ so you need to find a happy medium and a compromise with the shipyard. Amels are very good that way — it’s not all contract this, contract that. It’s a family business and you definitely see that throughout the whole team.”
Amels have built 26 of these series yachts — that’s feedback from 26 different captains and Khedun has reaped the benefits. “The wing station is my favorite bit, actually — it’s extra wide, which makes it better for vision down the side of the boat and you can see everything,” he says. “As well as looking pretty cool, it’s very functional. I like the way Amels [doesn’t] sacrifice the look of their series boats, but also incorporates functionality; superyacht production is a small part of their business, and all their shipping experience comes into their yachts.”
Khedun loves the bridge — simple, no fancy touchscreens — the result of feedback from countless captains. “The galley is brilliant,” he says. “It’s on the main deck level and has a large, asymmetric window. I hadn’t realized but having that big window in quite a small room makes a big difference to interior crew — another result of feedback from crew over the years.”
At the end of the build, Capt. Khedun had just one week to employ 11 crew, only one of whom didn’t work out. If crew have the right qualifications and sound nice on the phone, Khedun scans straight to hobbies, where you get a good feel for the person. “I try and hire as many people as possible with a second useful skill -— yoga, carpentry, videography, etc. Yachting is modernizing and you need a second string to your bow,” he says. “Gone are the days when the captain looks on from the bridge. I wash down most days and help crew if they need it. They’re the best crew I’ve ever had; I knew the engineers from previous boats, but that’s it, so it was quite a risk, but it paid off. We all have the same mindset; there are no drama queens or big personalities — just nice, normal, discreet people.”
Khedun, still young at 35, envisions moving onto a bigger boat before the end of his career, but hopes to stay on board M/Y Come Together. “I love yachting now more than ever and having your own team and putting that together is one of the proudest things you can do.”
This article was originally published in the May 2023 issue of Dockwalk.