17TH BENETTI YACHTMASTER: AN INTERNATIONAL TRAINING OPPORTUNITY FOR CAPTAINS AND CREWS

Captaining a ship is a serious matter which requires skills, competence and a deep knowledge of sailing techniques. This why captains always need to keep their knowledge up to date.

If England, the country of the Royal Yachting Association – a government body born in 1875 dealing with all the maritime activities in UK – remains the birthplace of maritime professional training, many schools and specific courses to become a professional captain are multiplying in the world. RYA itself operates in 55 different countries through 2500 affiliated centres issuing the so-called Yachtmaster, a prestigious sailing certification.

Azimut-Benetti is certainly one among the nautical brands most involved in professional training. The group, in fact, has being organizing Benetti Yachtmaster for years. It’s an important annual gathering for experts coming from the superyacht industry organized by the yard of Viareggio, which is getting increasingly more international.

The first phase of the 17th edition of Benetti Yachtmaster 2016/2017 has just taken place in Hong Kong (November 22-23) . It was dedicated to Asian crews but it will join Italy, from 1 to 3 February 2017, and America, from 3 to 5 May 2017.

At each stage, Yachtmaster will be attended not only by Benetti yachts’ captains but also by many project managers, surveyors and the representatives of the owners who collaborated with the yard. The invitation also extends to customers of Lusben – the department of the group specifically specialized in refit projects – and crews of larger Azimut yachts, in addition to some selected suppliers and nautical experts.

The participation of experts coming from important workshops and round-tables focused on some concrete and significant subjects, such as the ideal management of both the boat and crew, is an important feature of the event. Moreover, the yard adds new interesting subjects every year.

Alessandro Gallifuoco, Quality and After Sales Manager of Benetti and Yachtmaster Director, claimed: “ We’re proud of the experiment we did last year, when we organized Yachtmaster in three different locations. We managed to make our event more and more international. For the new season, we will not only repeat the experience but we also will try to make the event richer and more attractive. In each location, we’ll offer something more than last year in order to keep our promise: we want to be the world’s largest reference point for captains and nautical operators”