I’ve been on rotation for three years now and it sure has made yachting a sustainable career. So let’s talk about what makes it all work — the handover.
Sometimes, you get 10 minutes on the dock together, other times, you get to spend a 24 hours with them. Either way, the same information needs to be shared every time. A good rotational partner is the key to making your life easy, and you want to set each other up for success.
I recommend having set expectations about what should be done before handover, the most obvious ones being cleaning and accounts related. I once came back after having a temp chef on board and she had left 50+ unfiled receipts on Voly. Also, cleanliness is next to godliness — make sure you’re both on the same page about what “clean” means. That aside, here’s a breakdown of everything else to cover:
Upcoming itineraries
- Charters or boss trips, pick-up dates and locations
- Boat movements or planned work
Accounting
- All previous receipts filed and invoices submitted for payment
- Hand over the cards, show how much petty cash the galley has and what’s left on the card
- All pins, passkeys and authentication numbers
Emails
- Change the email signature
- If you have ongoing dialog with someone, hand it over or state if you will be continuing and that they should leave emails unread
Stock
- Check fresh provisions, how soon they need to restock, what items in the fridge need using first
- Levels of guest and crew proteins
- Keep a running list of dry goods Some of it seems common sense, but I highly recommend a shared Google document that you can update each time. This means there is a written history of everything covered, and it follows the same format every time.that have run out or is running low.
Updates
- Any changes in preferences or dietary requests of guests or crew
- Any change in crew numbers, aka day workers or mass holiday exodus
Sous chef
- How they’ve been going, any extra duties they have taken on and when next leave is planned
Cleaning schedule
- What jobs have been done recently and what still needs to be done
- Cleaning product stock-take
Maintenance and defects
- Any scheduled maintenance that the engineers need to take care of
- Anything broken or in the process of getting fixed, if any parts are on order
Some of it seems common sense, but I highly recommend a shared Google document that you can update each time. This means there is a written history of everything covered, and it follows the same format every time.