There has been a flurry of incidences where the names of superyachts have been bandied about the national and international press for reasons other than they have been sighted somewhere exotic or a celebrity has been sighted on board.
Think Kibo, Faith or even the Picasso carrying Adix. None of the fallout in the media seems to have been handled quite as well as the yacht’s owners might have hoped for.
But whose fault is that?
How prepared is the average yacht manager to deal with the public fall-out of a major incident or crisis?
Are owners confident in their ability to keep control of a story?
Crisis communications management is not just about reacting to an incident and issuing a press release. It is about implementing a carefully rehearsed and drilled plan to actively manage the incident and in the case of the superyacht minimise its impact on the owner.
Planning is vital. Yacht managers ought to receive expert assistance to create a media response plan, they should also receive regular and intensive media training and scenario-based drills.
Mark Clark a former Head of Communications at the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency now heads up a team of experience media specialists at Navigate Response Ltd a firm that scrutinises and tests the ability of yacht managers to respond to the aftermath of a grounding, spill, collision, hijacking or any event which could have an impact on their ability to conduct business and reverberate against the yacht owner
Partnering with Navigate Response may give managers the professional round the clock back-up they so clearly badly need to ensure that they can deliver a swift, professional response without leaving a vacuum to be filled by misinformed comment and speculation.