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. Warren Garmany is third-generation from Zimbabwe. After university, he took off to teach in Thailand, becoming a dive instructor and a fire dancer before returning home to South Africa to do a one-month Coastal Skipper course with his dad — “a proper introduction by fire” to sea life, he says.
Not long after, he was offered a position on a 44-foot catamaran sailing with three others from Cape Town to Tampa. “We went to sea for 47 days and spent a total of six hours on land during the crossing. When we arrived in Tampa, we looked a bit like Robinson Crusoe,” he says. “After that, I decided I never wanted to work on a sailboat again; it was way too tough!”
So he took a bus to Fort Lauderdale, and the rest is history. Previous yachts he’s worked on include M/Y Te Manu, M/Y Starship, M/Y Legend, and M/Y Loon.
After an accident, Garmany dipped out of the industry to complete an MBA until he was strong enough to return and do his Master 3000. He has always chosen to do a couple of years on board, then take time off to drive around Africa or backpack in South America. “I made sure I did the courses along the way and then I would go back to sea, save a chunk of change, and go exploring again,” he says.
Garmany joined this planing fast yacht designed by Alberto Mancini with architecture and interiors by Overmarine six months after it left the shipyard. He oversaw the one-year warranty items at the Viareggio shipyard and worked with the crew to get things up to scratch for the season — testing the equipment, doing dry runs, launching, unlaunching, and testing watersports toys and drones. “It was nice to have the actual manufacturers of the boat right there to come and sort it out,” he says. “The Mangusta team were fantastic.”
Capt. Garmany describes this particular Mangusta as phenomenal. “It has four IPS drives, each engine is a 1,000 horsepower, and the maneuverability of this boat even in strong winds is just amazing,” he says. “She goes up to 26 knots and gets there in about 20 seconds. And if you drive it slowly at 12 knots, the fuel economy is very good, because with the four big engines, you are just idling along, so you keep your fuel consumption down. This is propeller driven, not jet drive like most of the Mangustas.”
In an ideal world, Garmany would have a bit more room in the garage for a bigger tender and more water toys. “But,” he says, “you sacrifice that stuff for more space for the guests, so it’s a choice that you make.”
He describes the GranSport as taller and more compact than other Mangustas, with high ceilings, a generous master cabin, and four state rooms. “The whole design is just beautiful,” says Garmany. “And you can drive it from three different places on the boat.”
He is particularly pleased with the interactive computer on the bridge, in the engine room, and the crew mess. From it, crew can control almost all operations on the boat such as shore power, bilges, firefighting pump, tank levels, and navigation lights. The interior décor offers a retro St. Tropez vibe and Garmany is impressed with the grandeur and appreciates the same systems found on larger yachts, but here, compacted and more manageable.
“We only have five crew so our jobs cross over a lot more than on a larger boat,” he says. “You can’t just be a captain or an engineer; we’re doing it all.” Garmany and his team have had back-to-back charters with a day or two between. “You get really nice guests coming on boats this size: they’re normal, successful people, relatable, polite, and here to have fun,” he says. “I’ve only ever done big boats and I’ve seen a different kind of people; I’m not saying one is better than the other, it’s just different. On the bigger boats, you don’t necessarily engage with guests as closely as you would on a smaller boat.”
The yacht is dual season and by September they will be ready for transport to Miami. Garmany will push for his favorite spots in the calm waters of The Bahamas. His goal is to promote Dopamine as a top-class charter yacht. Later down the line, he’s aiming for rotation to spend time with his Border Collie Maverick and South Africa-based family. “My ideal position?” he says. “Fleet captain on rotation; I like taking a lot on!”
This article originally ran in the September 2022 issue of Dockwalk.