Nekton (Bad News)

[diverdoug1]

Doriadiver, if my personal buddy of 30 years ran his business into the ground with poor revenue reinvestment, mismanaged his business with respect to logistics and customer communication, decreased the quality of services rendered to a despicable (and unsafe) level to maintain his profit margin, cheated his customers and employees, dogedly refused to acknowledge his mismanagement in lieu of blaming the 9/11 tragedy, and put his personal gain above honesty, I would probably still stick up for him too, sooooo-good for you! You are a good friend. Welcome to Scubaboard, and I hope your future contributions to the forum are more in touch with reality.

BTW, did he sell your kids?

 

[vladimir]

Belize for example, requires hiring only Belizean crew; who once aboard act like a bunch of tenured union school teachers who know they can't be fired, even if they just work 3 hours per day.

Can anybody confirm this? The last time I was on the Belize Aggressor (2005 or 2006) the American captain was joined by a Belizean divemaster, an American divemaster/engineer, a British divemaster, a Belizean cook and a Belizean maid.

 

[diverdoug1]

I did 5 Belize intineraries with Nekton (the last one being 3 weeks prior to thier final Belize sailing) and it was NEVER all Belizean crew. I know that they were required to hire a certain percentage of Belizeans (this usualy resulted in 3 or 4 of the crew being from Belize). During these trips, the crew from Belize always worked every bit as hard (if not harder) than the American crew members.

 

[UnderwaterBumbleBee]

Our Belize trip only had 2 Belizean crew (Cook & Maid). Everyone else was American.

 

[vladimir]

During these trips, the crew from Belize always worked every bit as hard (if not harder) than the American crew members.

On mine as well.

 

[kelly7552]

Nekton management did a spectacular job keeping the company afloat for the past 9 years in spite of these challenges, but seeing the writing on the wall now, the only good business decision was to shut down. When JD writes "It is with heavy heart and deep regret that we cease operations.."... you can be sure that this was probably one of the most painful decisions he's made in his life.

So JD, to you my friend, I send you and your lovely family my kindest and best wishes, and my sincerest gratitude for the wonderful experiences and memories I enjoyed aboard the Pilot, which would never have happened had you not had the cojones and entrepreneurial spirit to take on such a risk. You have my deepest respect.

Doriadiver,

Maybe you could spend your time reading the last 3-4 years of disgruntled employees who were routinely stiffed by JD. Or the employee's who complains that their Tips were taken by JD. I'm not an employee of Nekton, just a guy who went on board for a few cruises, but you'd have to be blind deaf and dumb to not see that this company was on a death spiral down. Was JD a hero for running the company into the ground? What about the people who lost their deposits which were required up front by check, did he do heroic things for those people?

Good management understands that when the bills can't be paid and the costs exceeds the income, action must be taken; bad management sticks it's head in the sand and keeps running the same bad business model. On my last Nekton trip we had about 18 guests and 10 crew; some of the rooms were uninhabitable due to mold. I prepaid for nitrox which had not worked in 6 months. If he cared about his employees and his company he would have shut it down 1-2 years ago and not flamed out so rudely.

I just took a trip on Aggressor and we had a crew of 6 for 18 guests. Had JD done the least bit of homework he would have understood that when you offer a lower price than the competition, and provide more staff per guest and defer every bit of maintenance this is a recipe for insanity.

Spend some time and search the Nekton threads here, it's a great education in how to take a committed customer base and destroy your reputation and all good will. JD is not a hero in my book, he's either an idiot or a criminal; I'd like to lean toward idiot since we should not assign to evil that which can be explained by idiocy.

 

[cappyjon431]

I just took a trip on Aggressor and we had a crew of 6 for 18 guests. Had JD done the least bit of homework he would have understood that when you offer a lower price than the competition, and provide more staff per guest and defer every bit of maintenance this is a recipe for insanity.

No doubt that deferring maintenance is a recipe for insanity and I believe it was one of the major reasons for the company going belly up.

Crew size, on the other hand, did not lead to this problem. First, unlike Agressor (which you mention), the Nekton Boats were US flagged vessels. Having a US flag requires a certain number of crew. You need a licensed mate in addition to the captain. you must have a designated engineer onboard. You also need enough staff to perform night watch, regardless if the boat is underway or at anchor. The pilot had watch from 9:00-midnight, midnight to 3:30 AM, and 3:30 AM to 7:00 AM. Obviously the crew who did the night watches aren't very useful working on the dive deck the next morning or cleaning cabins the next morning, so enough staff is necessary to carry out the necessary duties while the night watchpeople slept.

Back when I crewed the boat (1995-2003) we would occasionally run with nine crew (a full crew was 12), but is was miserable. Imagine doing a 12-3:30 watch, only to be awakened at 7:00 AM to work on the dive deck until noon. We did it, but it sucked. Obviously tips were better with a smaller crew, but passenger safety and comfort should always trump crew tips.

Finally, the proof was in the pudding. Nekton ran with 12 crew for many years (at least from 1994-2001) and did very well. The boat was well maintained, it got great reviews, and customer service was top-notch. I still maintain it was the addition of the Rorqual that doomed the company.

 

[cappyjon431]

First of all, let me say that I've known Nekton's owner personally for nearly 30 years, and there are very few people with his integrity. He's always been an impeccably honest, kind, and generous family man, and I'd trust him with my own kids. As far as what challenges there are to running the Nekton business, they are numerous and unique. He started this business from nothing but a vision, and designed these ships himself (together with his early partner Pete). With great admiration and a touch of envy, I watched him build this business from nothing but an idea. The risks are huge, and the capital investment is enormous. The operating and maintenance costs are as unpredictable as the weather and sea-conditions that they encounter. But even more difficult, has been the general economics of ALL "hospitality" businesses since 9/11 2001. Nekton's business model is like the hotel business on sterioids. THey are just as dependent upon occupancy rate, and the discretionary spending, but with NO business traveler as a source of income. They are solely dependent upon TOURISM, and with all of the additional risks that go along with conducting a diving operation, sometimes conducted in foreign waters who impose their own onerous regulations upon the operator. Belize for example, requires hiring only Belizean crew; who once aboard act like a bunch of tenured union school teachers who know they can't be fired, even if they just work 3 hours per day.

Unfortunately, Nekton has had to struggle with these challenges for many years, going as far back as the virtual stoppage of tourism for many months following the attack on the World Trade Center. These economic dynamics are ALL beyond the control of Nekton's management, and in fact, they did a remarkable job of sustaining the business model as long as they did after 9-11. This financial melt-down which started in 2008, and which is being exacerbated by the FDR-style economic INCOMPETENCE of this current president and his administration, is a situation that any knowledgeable business person can see is unmanageable. I currently run a manufacturing company with 400 employees and I for one think that the economy is no where near to starting any kind of recovery. This will be a sustained, and protracted contraction of American economic prosperity the likes of which hasn't been experienced since the 1930's. Just wait till the health care TAX kicks in...and you will see unemployment spike up another notch. Lower employment = Fewer Tourists. Nekton management did a spectacular job keeping the company afloat for the past 9 years in spite of these challenges, but seeing the writing on the wall now, the only good business decision was to shut down. When JD writes "It is with heavy heart and deep regret that we cease operations.."... you can be sure that this was probably one of the most painful decisions he's made in his life.

So JD, to you my friend, I send you and your lovely family my kindest and best wishes, and my sincerest gratitude for the wonderful experiences and memories I enjoyed aboard the Pilot, which would never have happened had you not had the cojones and entrepreneurial spirit to take on such a risk. You have my deepest respect.

I also consider JD a friend and I agree with the large majority of what you write. That being said, Belize never required that we have a 100% Belizean crew. When we first brought the boat down to Belize (I was on the original mooring expedition) we had a full crew of 12 Americans. Shortly after we began running charters down there both the Agressor and the Wave Dancer started raising a stink that we had no Belizeans on our staff. We slowly started adding Belizean crew and at one time we had as many as five Belizean crew members (out of 12). Most of them were excellent crew members, and they were no better nor no worse than the non-Belizean crew members. I was in Belize for six seasons and I can attest that having Belizean crew members was never a problem.

 

[vladimir]

I still maintain it was the addition of the Rorqual that doomed the company.

I wonder how many of the critics here have successfully run a business of any size (not directed at you Cappy). It may be easy to diagnose what was done wrong with the benefit of hindsight, but running a business is difficult, and often you need a little bit of luck to succeed. I am not defending JD's ethics or his business acumen, just observing that it's not as easy as some seem to think.

 

[diverdoug1]

JD must have told Doriadiver that the Belzean crew were lazy. That goes to show how poorly in touch he was with his own crews. The other thing I was considering is that the posting by Doriadiver may be a troll. I find it hard to belive that anyone can be that gullible and still have enough brains to use a keyboard. If it is a troll, we are the gullible ones, since it certainly has us posting!
Vlad, to help answer your last question, My business has 67 employees (not huge but big enough to feel that I am qualified to know bad business practices when I see them).