Cruisers Forum
 


Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Rate Thread Display Modes
Old 16-04-2013, 22:34   #1
Goodwill Partner

Community Sponsor

Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 25
Sea Mercy Captain Article

Multihulls Magazine has written a very inspiring article about the Sea Mercy Captain program. If you are interested in sailing with a greater purpose, take a look at what they have to say about the captains and crews of this growing fleet of volunteer floating health care clinics operating in the South Pacific.



Link to article page on Sea Mercy:
Multihulls Magazine Article on Sea Mercy (March/April Issue) | SeaMercy.org

Direct link to article pdf:
http://www.seamercy.org/sites/defaul...r2013Issue.pdf

We are meeting with two more owners this weekend to discuss their dreams and incorporating them into future operations.

We are so proud of our Sea Mercy Captains/owners and their commitment to what Sea Mercy is doing for the remote island in the South Pacific that do not have even basic health care. We hope more owners take a look at the incredible possibilities of working together for this cause.

Richard Hackett
Sea Mercy
www.seamercy.org
Sea Mercy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 24-04-2013, 07:16   #2
Goodwill Partner

Community Sponsor

Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 25
Re: Sea Mercy Captain Article

We had an incredible meeting with two gentlemen (two separate 45+ foot catamarans) that flew from the East Coast to meet with us about joining the Sea Mercy fleet of Floating Health Care Clinics (FHCC) and sailing with a greater purpose.

After many email exchanges and phone discussions, it was great to finally meet face-to-face and answer their questions and ours. We are happy to announce that we now have two additional vessels that will be joining us for the 2015 season and beyond.

These two additional vessels will allow us to grow from our current island nation partners (Tonga 2013+ and Fiji 2014+) and expand our services to our next two targeted island partner nations (Solomon Islands and Vanuatu), with the eventual plan to provide an FHCC for all 11 of our targeted partners.

Our thanks again to CruisersForum and their members for helping introduce us to these incredible men, their families and their dreams.

Sea Mercy
Sea Mercy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 30-04-2013, 04:42   #3
Registered User

Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 1,065
Re: Sea Mercy Captain Article

Please be kind to further introduce us to your newest volunteer FHCCs.

May I ask specifically what requirements you may have for capt and crew regarding licensing, insurance, et al, and what specific requirements you have for the vessels.

Myself, I am looking to purchase a sailing catamaran in the near future. While I have fairly defined my "wants and needs" of the vessel I ask what Sea Mercy would want to see in the vessel. My perspective is with a prospective purchase on the horizon I am in the place where I can tailor the purchase to mine and Sea Mercy's liking. Please provide specifics of what would make a vessel most useable to your organization, ie, power consumptions, workspace, etc.
Richard5 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 30-04-2013, 07:57   #4
Goodwill Partner

Community Sponsor

Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 25
Re: Sea Mercy Captain Article

Richard5,

Thank you for the great questions on preparing for a possible relationship as a Sea Mercy Captain with us.

With regards to the two upcoming Sea Mercy Captains planning to join the fleet of Floating Health Care Clinic's (FHCC) in the South Pacific, I will contact them to see if I can release their names at this point in time and perhaps encourage them to post why they have made their decisions (verses me telling you). In the interim, you can visit our current two FHCC vessel pages at:

Rebelle 44 foot Lagoon Catamaran
Dragonfly 65 foot Custom Catamaran

Both vessels are great examples of meeting the need of the hour, even though they are different sizes. Where Rebelle can carry 3-5 health care volunteers, Dragonfly can carry 8-10. Rebelle will be used for targeted health care rotations (medical, dental or eye) on each rotation, where Dragonfly and their larger volunteer capacity will be used for a combination of the above health care needs.

Preferred Vessels:
Although we believe their is a need and opportunity for both Mono and Cat Sea Mercy vessels in the FHCC fleet, the Catamaran configuration is proving to be the more functional platform to work from. Traditional health missions treat/work from shore based facilities they setup up on arrival. This requires a constant need to transport and unload supplies, equipment and volunteers, setup facilities and power, protect/secure your equipment during the evenings and shifts, and then tear down and reload at the end of each rotation. The coordination and workload for the above process can be overwhelming.

Sea Mercy FHCC's operate directly from the deck of our vessels. This provides us with a more sterile environment, access to clean water, power, refrigeration (medicines), and secure storage for supplies and equipment at the end of each day. This allows us more control in our environment, protection of our volunteers, and increase our ability to spend more time treating patients and less time preparing to treat them.

With the above in mind, the best vessel is one that can carry maximum volunteers with flexible sleeping arrangements. Dragonfly (not counting the owners cabin) has 3 queen cabins and 4 single bunks available. Rebelle has 2 queen cabins and a salon area single/double available.

Best layouts:
For smaller vessel configurations like Rebelle, we would suggest a charter configuration (4 queen cabins) vs. an owner (3 queen cabins). If you have the ability to add single bunks in the bows, even better (more opportunity to bring on single volunteers not wanting to share a bunk with another volunteer). Larger configurations provide us with more flexibility, and better economies of scale, but the purchase costs to owners for such vessels are obviously higher. Our goal is to work with each owner and build a program that will work for them and for Sea Mercy.

The larger the cockpit working area, the better. Some vessels have large salon areas and smaller cockpits, while others reverse that trend. The more space we have to work with patients, the better. The Leopard and Lagoon configurations have some great workspace decks.

What's in it for you?
Although "sailing with a greater purpose" keeps every stop fresh and meaningful, not everyone is independently wealthy enough (we would all like to be) to just donate the use of the vessel. We understand that and our program is designed to make working with us a blessing, not a financial drain.

Our dedicated Sea Mercy FHCC vessels work on owner/Sea Mercy determined 2 week rotations. "Dedicated" means that you are committing to work with Sea Mercy on a set-schedule (12-15 2 week rotations) a year so that they can promote, organize volunteers, ship the necessary medical supplies, and facilitate operations with the Health Ministry of our island nation partner. In return, Sea Mercy covers all operational costs of the FHCC vessel (food, fuel, insurance, maintenance, etc.) and a captain/vessel use fee determined and agreed upon by both the owner and Sea Mercy. This has to be a win-win for both parties, if it does not work financially for you, we know that you will not be back the next year. If operational costs are too high for Sea Mercy, we will not be asking you back next year.

There is obviously a great deal more to the program (click here for more info), but I hope that answers most of your questions. If you want to talk specifics about how/if you were to join the Sea Mercy fleet in the future, please feel free to contact me directly. This program is not for everyone, but it is an answered prayer for many who desire to sail with a purpose, but need some assistance to sustain your dream.

All the best to you and your dreams.

Richard Hackett
Founder
Sea Mercy
www.seamercy.org
Sea Mercy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-05-2013, 12:10   #5
Goodwill Partner

Community Sponsor

Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 25
Re: Sea Mercy Captain Article

A Great letter and article from David Lawn, owner of Sea Angel, our most recent addition to the Sea Mercy fleet of Floating Health Care Clinics. He wonderfully answers the question of "Why join Sea Mercy?" from a owner/captains viewpoint.
Sea Mercy is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
captain

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Advertise Here


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 20:21.


Google+
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Social Knowledge Networks
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.

ShowCase vBulletin Plugins by Drive Thru Online, Inc.