Hi John
Having read The Islander´s articles and correspondence re Joves Navegants has anyone looking for support gone to the Internet and put any of the key word searches below into any of the established Search Engines?
joves navagents; charities in Mallorca; education & yachting in mallorca; multinational Youth Sail Training; Youth Sail Training Scheme Mallorca; ensenanza de navigacion a vela para ninos- Try it!!!
I can assure you in spite of many attempts over the last 2 years the only persons to have communicated with us were James Waters & Christine Wachmuth their input was immediately used.
Maybe a little soul searching from within is in order!
We believe we have established a formidable platform where promotion and advertising could have been exploited- Unbiased and FREE
Please note our slogan- "Actively Supporting The Marine Industry in Mallorca Baleares Espana"
Regards
Maz (Marilyn Greenwood)
YachtingDirect
Dear Sir,
To whom it may concern.
Please be aware that I, Udo Bielitz and the company Marinanet Wire S.L. have nothing to do with Latitude 39 nor Mr.Christopher Sardo.
Yours sincerely,
Udo Bielitz.
OPEN LETTER TO THE MCA
Dear Captain Tony Drury,
Further to our conversation at this years´ Monaco Yacht show about my Class 4 problems and Due to a family illness, here is my long awaited report: sorry this has taken so long to reach your desk.
I thank you in advance for taking time to appraise my situation.
M.C.A Report & Proposals
Introduction:
The basis of this letter concerns the transition and crossover of the Master class 5 (500gt) & the Chief Officer (3000gt) certificate and upgrade to the Masters (3000gt) licence before and after the 31st July 2003. My concern, shared by many of my yachting colleagues, is the miss-information we have received from the M.C.A. and the lack of answers or conflicting answers to our questions when dealing with the M.C.A. or other information bodies, i.e. P.Y.A or various yachting schools.
My name is Steve Lenton I am 37 years of age and I have 10 years experience in the yachting industry and over 50,000 sea miles logged. I along with many of my fellow yachting colleagues completed all the necessary courses including the Masters 3000gt Oral examination before the cut off date of July 31st 2003 and passed.
The ruling in question is in direct conflict with information given earlier this year by an M.C.A representative. I attended a Blue Water seminar in March of this year in Palma, on the subject of the harmonisation and transition of S.T.C.W.78 to the amended S.T.C.W.95.The meeting was chaired by Captain Tony Drury, of the M.C.A., who was in Palma examining students for their Class 4 Oral´s. My questions, noted by all present were as follows: -
Q1 "After completing and passing my Masters Class 4/ 3000gt oral examination, without my Yacht Master Ocean Practical, and on receiving my Masters 500gt, (knowing I had to obtain my Yacht Master Ocean Practical thereafter for completion of the certification) how long do I have to complete this module to obtain the Masters Class 4/3000gt after July 31st 2003?
A1 "An un-specified amount of time". (When pushed on a definition of an "un-specified amount of time",) I was informed: "18 months from your pass date would be a responsible time frame."
Q2 "If I sat and failed the oral examination before the cut off date of July 31st 2003, would I be able to re-sit the oral examination after July 31st 2003?"
A2 "Yes you could sit your Oral again at least once and as soon as possible after the cut-off date, before going into the new system"!!
Proposal:
Myself, and I think I speak for most of my colleagues, agree that the yachting industry as a whole certainly needs to be governed and standards set, especially with regard to crew qualifications, manning requirements, and all safety issues. I hope the M.C.A. would take into account the fact that most yacht crew do not come from a commercial shipping background, and the amount of money we have spent on getting ourselves qualified has for the majority, come out of our own pockets. I would also like to note that for most yachting crew our summer season started at the beginning of May, and so many people found it very difficult to attain all modules and orals in this time frame and a great deal of extra effort was made to reach the dead-line.
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FROM PAGE 5
A little understanding on the above issues would go a long way to improving our relations between one another. May I request/ recommend that those who have passed their oral examination and have attained the Master´s (500gt)/ Chief Officer (3000gt) are given the 18 months from July 31st 2003 to obtain the up-grade, as was our understanding before and after July 31st 2003.
I am currently 2nd officer on the 60m M.Y. Libertad, refitting in Barcelona until March 2004. My current mailing address and mobile number are as follows: -
Steve Lenton. M.Y. Libertad. Barcelonetta, Spain.
Telephone:-00 34 647 940163
mail:slenton@attglobal.net
Ed’s note: Steve would be pleased to hear from anybody who has the same problems, ideas or suggestions.
Dear John,
Just thought you might like to hear a little tale of Christmas Joy and goodwill!!
NEW YEARS EVE!
FROM VIRTUAL HELL TO SANCTUARY AT THE RED BAR!
Christmas was fast approaching and the usual wonderment of where to see in the New Year was pressing on my mind. Having been through a New Year in the past without a booking my girlfriend and I knew we should have one sorted well in advance.
A group of friends were off to a place in Illetas that was unknown to me and asked if we wanted to join them; The venue and company sounded great so they kindly booked us a table too, two friends came over from England for the occasion and two good friends that were wintering here made the table up to six. At 135 Es a head it wasn´t the cheapest spot but did include wine, a six course meal and the nightclub after midnight.
Our table arrived before the other group of seven at the Virtual club, home to the ´La Solana´ restaurant, on paseo de Illetas. WOW! The initial impression was great! The waiters and waitresses were polite and attentive, the restaurant, set in the Cave looked magical and we enjoyed an aperitif on the terrace in the marquee that was set up to watch the fireworks at midnight. Back inside before 9pm, the other table of friends had arrived and the reserved seating was slowly filling up.
If you think this sounds good, you´d be right, it was, that is, up until 9 o´clock after which time we entered the matrix and the normal expectations in life got left behind as we discovered the real ´Virtual´ world! After about 20 minutes we received some wine and bread, after a little over an hour we received the first course of a single oyster. By this time everyone was getting pretty hungry and polite requests were made for further courses. We all waited and waited and waited then at 11pm half the table received their COLD soup, one just got a bowl! The other two waited another 10 minutes to be served. At a quarter to midnight the third of the supposed 6 plates arrived, again stone cold!
By this time our friends on the neighbouring table had justifiably had enough and were told that if they left they could have a refund. Our plans of seeing in the New Year together were ruined, we bid them farewell and hoped to catch up later in the night. (Later we learnt that they had been very rudely directed out of the building and some of the ladies had had their glasses snatched out of their hands as they awaited their refund.)
Oblivious to these acts I spoke with the waitress who had been as attentive as possible all evening, although she and the waiters were having a hell of a job trying to make up for the kitchen and managements obvious shortcomings! She put me on to her superior who after explaining the problems offered us a 35Euros discount, I said not to worry about that but could they just replace or reheat the cold food we had been given and put some bread, wine and water on the table ASAP and try and fit the other 3 courses in quickly. She agreed, again we waited but nothing was done until it was almost midnight and we had still only eaten two courses of 6!! So sadly we decided to leave, the waitress said we would be refunded and whilst the ladies nipped outside to try and catch a glimpse of Palma´s fireworks we 3 waited by the lift for our refund. Thanking the waitress and stating they had done a great job, the fault was neither her´s nor that of the waiters, I gave her a 20Euro tip!!
A few seconds later I had my glass snatched out of my hand and I was confronted by Patrick, a French man who appeared to speak neither Spanish or English and who was apparently the owner. Patrick ordered us out and we agreed to leave happily with our partners once we had been refunded, as promised by his staff. Not content with this he got incredibly angry and pinned one of the group up against a wall whilst a waiter punched him. Meanwhile the astounded friend from England and I were thrown into the lift by the rest of the waiters who were obviously eager to please their boss and one of them decided to plant a punch in my face. I must state that all of this was completely unprovoked.
This was getting totally out of control and while the lift slowly took us out of the cave we were worried about the girls getting out safely. Met at the top of the lift by Patrick and his waiters we were then marched off the premises and pushed into the road, soon the ladies arrived with their angry ´guards´, all of us then received various taunts and throngs of verbal abuse.
Common sense prevailed, we remained calm and called the police, and then we called the police again, and then again. It was obviously a hectic night for the men and women of law enforcement in down town Illetas as no one arrived! A seemingly level headed friend of the irate Patrick then came over and kindly tried to sort the problem out and so a few minutes later a virtually hysterical daughter of the owner showed us her boots and explained what they could do! Then threw our refund onto the pavement, a pleasant girl.
Ours were not the only tables full of people to leave ´Virtual´ before the evening was over.
Eventually the Taxi´s arrived and we were finally out of there, and out of the twilight zone. The sound of verbal abuse faded in the distance.
We are so looking forward to the time when Patrick, the owner sells up and moves on like so many new arrivals before him, and then maybe we´ll be able to enjoy the caves again. Until then I would not recommend to anyone, that they visit the club/restaurant Virtual/la Solana unless they want to risk the evening being ruined by such an unprofessional restaurateur moreover if it´s a special occasion.
The Red Bar in Portals was our saviour for the rest of New Years and the staff and atmosphere were great which helped to see in the New Year in a happy way again amongst friends old and new. So a big thank you to them and well done.
My Very Best Regards and I hope you all had a less dramatic evening
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Tim Sealy