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a view from the chair 'Skipper and Commander' – the concept of command for boaties BY DAVID LEDSON, CHAIR OF THE MARITIME NEW ZEALAND AUTHORITY I 've noticed recently that there has been a lot of discussion in various media about life jackets and recreational "boaties" – particularly in relation to those who go out onto the water in boats under six metres long. LIFE JACKETS Here are some facts about recreational boating in New Zealand: • Maritime New Zealand estimates that there are around half a million recreational boats. • MNZ research since 2010 shows that safety awareness campaigns have been successful in increasing the number of boaties wearing life jackets. • Between June 2009 and June 2012, 51 people died in recreational boating accidents; the majority from drowning. • Only a small number of those who drowned were wearing life jackets. • About three quarters of those boaties who drowned last year may have been saved if they had worn a life jacket. My reading is that on one side of the discussion there are those who say the current maritime rule is at the right level of "regulatory intervention". This rule requires there to be a sufficient number of life jackets for everyone on board and sets the responsibility for when they are to be worn on the shoulders of the skipper. On the other side are those whose position is that the wearing of life jackets should be compulsory – similar to the requirements around seatbelts in cars. There is also a group in the middle who believe the default position should be that life jackets must be worn, except in very benign conditions. As I thought about what people across the spectrum of possible approaches were saying, it seemed to me that the discussions were skewed too far towards the life jackets and were not focussing sufficiently on the skipper and their responsibilities for the people on their boat. relationship to leadership: When an organisation is successful, outstanding leaders look out the window, when it fails, they look in the mirror. • Command is about the easy stuff, and the hard stuff. There are days at sea when only a light touch on the helm is required and others when the helm needs to be taken firmly in hand. There are times, too, when quick decisions need to be made in the interests of the ship and those under command – and not necessarily in the interests of "the commander". I was often told that if you were the commanding officer on the bridge, and the officer of the watch/deck was taking the ship into hazard, it was your duty to take responsibility for the ship and to give the orders to get out of trouble. Whether the situation set the commanding officer up for success or failure was, it was stressed, an irrelevant consideration. • Command is a serious business. Those who wish to be successful set out to achieve the right level of professional competence in relation to the vessel, the maritime context and the hazards that characterise the maritime environment – with the determination that you would expect to see, for example, from successful doctors or lawyers. The six lessons and the concept of command apply to any sort of vessel of any size • Command that is not firmly based on leadership is nothing more than dictatorship. While both dictators and leaders tell people what to do, leaders also tell them the why they are doing it. And if things turn bad then the "why" is especially important in providing the emotional connection between what is being done at sea, and doing it in a way that will get each person safely home to their loved ones. COMMAND SKIPPERS AND COMMANDERS How I think "being in charge" should work at sea has been formed by what I read, saw and did while I was in the navy. I'm sure my views will resonate with those who have been in charge across a variety of merchant vessels. At the very centre of my approach is my belief that, irrespective of the size of the vessel, the person in charge is the person who is in command. So, whether someone is "in charge" as the master of a large merchant vessel the commanding officer of a navy ship, the skipper of a fishing vessel, or the skipper of a small recreational boat, fundamentally they are exercising command. Thinking about my experiences at sea, I came up with a list of my top six "lessons learned" for exercising successful command: • Command is a privilege. Not everyone who wants it gets it, and it needs to be treated as something precious. • As with all privileges, command has obligations attached. The most important of these is the obligation to ensure the safety of the boat and everyone on board. • Command is about sharing the good decisions and taking ownership of the blame. Jim Collins, (one of my favourite writers about organisations and leadership), describes it in The six lessons and the concept of command apply to any sort of vessel of any size. To reinforce this very important point, whenever as chief of navy I moved between a ship and the shore by boat, I never embarked, or stepped out of a boat until the coxswain told me that I was able to do so, because that person, irrespective of navy rank, was in command. So, any skipper of any recreational boat who goes out to sea or onto a lake or river, whether they know it or not, or whether they acknowledge it, is exercising command. And the six lessons for command apply as much to these skippers as they do to the commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, which has an overall length of 333 metres and a crew with aircraft embarked of around 5,600 men and women. If we are to make having fun at sea as safe as we possibly can for New Zealand's recreational boaties, then the wearing of life jackets is a very, very important thing to do. It is equally important that those stepping on board recreational boats as the skipper, and as they settle in for a great day on the water, realise and accept that they are now both the skipper and the commander. 34 Professional Skipper September/October 2013 www.skipper.co.nz