Anyone know about large luxury yachts, circa 1980's?

debirlfan said:

I'm currently working on a story, part of which is set on a large luxury yacht, circa mid 1980's. Said yacht is owned or leased by a very wealthy drug lord, who currently has two captives he is holding on the yacht.

My thought is that they are otherwise alone in the tender bay, left handcuffed to something (support beam? shelving unit?) Does this seem reasonable? If so, what else would be in the tender bay? When one of my hostages escapes, might he be able to find a tool box or the like where he could get a good sized wrench to use as a weapon?

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How big is this yacht? The really big ones would have plenty of places where someone could be chained to something. There would be tools of various sorts especially in or around the engine room and maybe elsewhere.

Also, from what I can see, the usual crew on a yacht like this would be about eight crew members. Where would they be located? What would they be doing? Would some be "on duty" while others were sleeping? This would probably be in an around 10 pm to midnight time frame. Specifically, while the yacht was out to sea (and under power) who would be on the bridge? Would there be more than one person there? Would there be anyone in the engine room?

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If there are only eight crew members, then this isn't an especially large yacht.

When I think large,luxury yacht, I thonk of something like this, except thatI prefer sails.
http://www.galatiyachts.com/all-use...-PAZ-BAJA-CALIFORNIA//MX/details-4486935#info
here are some more listings
http://sarasotayacht.com/co-brokera...000000&toPrice=5000000&searched=true&lineonly

debirlfan said:

Ok, not that large. I'm thinking something in the 50ft range. I looked up some yachts in that range, and they're mostly listed between 8-10 crewmen. Thanks!

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That makes a difference. Is it sail of motor primarily? Assuming motor, there would be at least two on duty any time it was moving and more likely three or four, maybe including someone handling food and beverage, especially at that hour. There would be one on the bridge and one in the engine room or immediately adjacent to it. Someone manning the galley, and someone cleaning or similar. If you want people in particular places, then do it; it's your story. You might want to find detailed plans of a particular make, model, and size to figure out where people would be.

You might also want to make it somewhat larger, maybe 70 or 75 feet.

debirlfan said:

Definitely motor, no sail. The yachts I found pictures/plans of were more in the 50 foot range, and I was going off of that - the only problem being that the ones I found were either newer models or were completely refurbished. I'm assuming things would have been a little more primitive 30 years ago (no jet skis, for example.)

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There wouldn't be much difference in amenities or anything else, if the yacht has been kept up to date. They would have had a computer network or WiFi 35 years ago,but those can be installed easily. There are many 35 yearold yachts that haven't been refurbished.

I'd actually rather avoid having too large a crew, because between crew and lackeys, my heroes are already going to be well out numbered. I'm sure that once the gunfire starts, everyone will show up, but I just wanted an idea of where the opposition would be to start with.

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I understand, but on a large boat there would be more distance to cover. Find the layout of a 50 foot yacht and notice how little room there is for anything. Then look at a layout of a 70 footer, and I think you will see plenty of space for things to go on, and there might not be any more crew on a 70 footer, or maybe one or two more.

I'm assuming that the bridge crew would rotate - someone on duty and someone sleeping, and the same with the engine room?

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Yes, but how they would schedule watches would be up to whoever was running things.

debirlfan said:

The 70 footers I've been able to find have a considerably larger crew, but some of the 60s don't. Not that I'm giving any dimensions, anyhow, but I'm just trying to get an idea whether what I've been picturing would work. I definitely like the idea of one crewman (who can be overpowered) alone on the bridge. Thanks much.

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I understand about wanting to see what would work in the space. Good luck

I'm thinking of using a 50 foot motor yacht in my next manuscript for some nefarious activities.

I'm going with one very experienced sailor and another crew. Auto-pilot can control the boat when out to sea, docking is an issue but doable, and engine maintenance can be done while docked. If anyone wants a beer, they can go down to the fridge and get their own beer.

A fair amount of crew work is taking care of the owner and his guests. Beyond that, it depends upon where you're sailing and what you're trying to do.

Point I want to make is you can fiddle with the crew size quite a bit. People have sailed around the world by themselves. I want a small crew so that no one can discuss the illegal activity that they're using the boat for. There's no sense having too many people to blab.

I'll be basing this in Massachusetts Bay, Narragansett Bay, and the Cape Cod Canal. I'm reducing the number of other boats on the water by going out of season. But I'll also having the boat tie up a couple of times to deal with the Canal (which is also a function of the tidal flow through the Canal).

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

Radios on civilian small aircraft and yachts are very similar.

Main radio would be on the bridge, another might be at the navigation station. With minimum crew, you might also want to clip a handheld to your belt.

Channel 16 is the default channel and is monitored by the Coast Guard. All boats are supposed to maintain a radio watch on channel 16.

Marine radios are very easy to operate.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe