Crisis leadership
Governing: STCW Table A-II/2 'decision-making techniques'; Table A-V/2-2 (crisis management and human behaviour); MCA The Human Element. Builds on: HELM - Operational Level L3.2.
Decisions at management level
The A-II/2 technique is the same as at operational level (situation and risk assessment, identify and generate options, select a course of action, evaluate outcome effectiveness), but the decisions are bigger and the pressure comes from more directions: owner, guests, charter broker, management company, weather.
Under pressure, people narrow their attention, fall back on habit, and stop listening. The MCA guide adds that fatigue makes some people slower to decide and others decide worse, often without realising. At 0200 after a long guest day, both apply.
What STCW says about leading in a crisis
Table A-V/2-2, written for passenger ships but directly relevant to yachts, lists:
| Area | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Leadership | Set an example; focus decision-making given the need to act quickly; motivate, encourage and reassure passengers and personnel |
| Stress handling | Recognise symptoms of excessive stress in yourself and the team; understand that stress affects performance and the ability to follow instructions and procedures |
| Resources | Resources may be limited; make full use of people and equipment immediately available and improvise if necessary |
| Human behaviour | People take time to accept there is an emergency; some may panic; people may look for friends or belongings, or retreat to cabins |
| Readiness | Pre-planning and realistic drills, with debriefing |
In the moment
- Take command visibly. Say who is in charge.
- Get the picture. What, where, how bad, who is involved, what is at risk.
- Set priorities. Life, vessel, environment, property.
- Decide and allocate. Give clear tasks to named people.
- Communicate. Short, calm, frequent updates up and down.
- Review. Is it working? Reassess at set intervals.
- Hand over or stand down deliberately.
Calm is contagious. So is panic. Your voice on the radio sets the tone.
Guests
On a yacht, guests may not have attended a proper safety briefing, may be intoxicated, may not speak English, and may expect to be treated as owners rather than passengers. A-V/2-2's human behaviour points apply: they may take time to accept the emergency, look for family or belongings, or go to their cabins. Assign crew to guests by name.
Afterwards
- account for everyone;
- look after the crew who fought the fire, performed CPR or recovered the casualty;
- preserve evidence and records;
- report (lesson 3.2);
- debrief honestly and change what needs changing.
Before the crisis
Most crisis leadership is done in advance: emergency plans that match the yacht, muster lists that match the current crew, realistic drills at awkward times, and a deputy who can take over. The captain will not always be aboard.
WARNING — The captain ashore Many yacht emergencies start when the captain is off the vessel. The chief officer and chief engineer must be ready to lead without waiting for a phone call.
TIP — Think aloud Saying your plan out loud ('fire team to the laundry, boundary cooling aft, guests to the sundeck muster') lets the team spot errors and keeps everyone aligned.
Crowd control and passenger behaviour are covered in more detail in Crowd & Crisis Management.