Some ships are using one man bridge watches but generally you'll find a
Mate and one helmsman/lookout...average crew size is 21 and decreasing,
with lowest I've seen being certified for six.
Paperwork has become the biggest problem for all...depending on the ship
the Mate may be or may not be allowed to do paperwork on the
bridge.....too much of the paperework is just to justify the existence of
the various regulators and company pencil pushers who are too lazy to dig
through to find the info on their own BEG.
As for getting a yacht from Bangkok to West Coast US..... hardest part
would be getting it to Japan or Korea for a carcarrier. Point being that
there are alternate methods to container ships, but as was stated end
result may not justify expense


(Richard Casady) wrote in
:

On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 06:05:01 -0000, otnmbrd
wrote:

wrote in news:qaupc3h03p9djjkjr2fidcn3tmfhs02em2@
4ax.com:


Where you folks get your versions of ship's crew is beyond me.

In my case, pure guesswork. I can see getting by without the lookout
and/or the helmsman. The Captain is stuck with all the paperwork.
And that has to be damn near full time? Or is it? Could be a lot less
of that than there used to be, if it is now mostly done on shore.

So, you got in your sneer, now tell us the true facts.

Plenty of "breakbulk" still running...

You see them on the webcam at the canal.

Casady