More than 60 yacht captains and senior crew attended the U.S. Superyacht Association's 7th annual Captains Briefing in St. Maarten last month, attending several informational sessions and networking events.

Julie Liberatore of Maritime Professional Training and Michael French of International Yacht Training spoke on the changes to STCW and the implications of license requirements that took effect on Jan. 1. 

A panel featuring Billy Smith of Trinity Yachts, Peter Southgate of the Cayman Island Registry and Gene Sweeney of the Marshall Islands Yacht Registry discussed how the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) will impact yachting.

"This event was fantastic," said Capt. Jeffrey Guymon of M/Y Huntress. "It is great to have this opportunity to hear this important information from such solid sources … and not the usual rumor mill."

Donna Bradbury of BWA Yachting and Laura Conway of the U.S. State Department gave a presentation about entering U.S. waters. 

"There were a number of important take-away issues that were identified by the attending captains that we will be following up on," said event moderator Kristina Hebert of Ward's Marine Electric. "That is the benefit of these briefings as we get to hear first-hand the challenges that captains face when entering the United States and hopefully are able to do something about it."

The U.S. Superyacht Association is a membership driven trade association for yacht-related businesses in the United States. The St. Maarten even was sponsored by AERE Docking Solutions, IGY Marinas, Marina Port Vell, MTN Satellite Communications, National Marine Suppliers and Yacht Chandlers. It was held at the Yacht Club at Isle de Sol.