My ESVAGT: ”You take safety home with you”

Jann Bach, master on board the ’Esvagt Beta’, has the ESVAGT safety culture under his skin.

Jann Bach’s neighbours have had to get used to the fact that they cannot paint the house or cut the hedge on unsafe ladders.

Jann Bach will have a word or two to say about it if they try. They will be told to remember to work safely; “have you secured the ladder” and “remember to be careful”.

The 44-year-old master from Esbjerg is not a busy body or self-appointed police officer. He just cannot look the other way when something is not being done safely.

”I can’t help myself. I feel compelled to act if I see things being done dangerously. I do it with a smile and in a friendly way without pointing a finger, but I do it,” says Jann Bach.

He puts this down to his many years at ESVAGT. The company’s safety culture has imprinted itself on him and it is now second nature.

”You take safety home with you,” as he says.

Safety culture in the fishing industry

Jann Bach followed in his family’s footsteps and became a fisherman when he left school. Within a few years, several of his colleagues left fishing to join the expanding company, ESVAGT. They spoke so fondly of the shipping company that in 1991, he took the leap too and enjoyed a few good years with ESVAGT. Fishing still beckoned to him though and after 2 or 3 years, he returned to the sea with a trawler and net.

”When I came to ESVAGT from fishing, ESVAGT’s safety culture was quite a shock and I wasn’t used to such focus on safety. After coming back to fishing after a few years with ESVAGT, I felt the safety culture change again and by then my view on safety had changed. The fishing industry hadn’t changed – but I had,” he says.

When Jann Bach returned to ESVAGT in 1998, it was for good. He was employed on coastal skipper training, sailing on most of the fleet’s ships as ship’s mate before training to become a trade master in 2002.

He was appointed ESVAGT master in 2002 and after working on the ‘Esvagt Bravo’ and the ‘Esvagt Preserver’, applied to join the crew change vessel, the ‘Esvagt Beta’ and became its master in 2011.

”The ’Esvagt Beta’ is a nice place to be. We interact with a wide range of contacts, including customers and colleagues, and I really enjoy being in contact with so many people every day. I enjoy the service-minded side of it. We always tell our passengers, whether they be customers or colleagues on a crew change, that they should make themselves at home on the ship. They aren’t guests! Our aim is to create a homely atmosphere and a pleasant base for colleagues on the way out and on the way home,” says Jann Bach.

Wind is the way forwards

Everyone is behind this mantra. The crew of the ‘Esvagt Beta’ is normally seven but at the moment there are 13 men on board because the next job will need the extra hands.

”Everyone on the ’Esvagt Beta’ is here because they like to be service minded. Being outgoing is an advantage, as is having the ability to work together as a team to get things done. People are chosen to succeed together,” says Jann Bach.

The master has found his calling with ESVAGT, where he can combine his working life at sea with an array of leisure interests on land. And he still sees plenty of ways to learn new things.

”One of ESVAGT’s qualities is that you keep on developing personally. I feel I grow every day – either through training or by taking on new challenges. In the long term, I can see myself working with wind energy, which is why I find it very exciting to see ESVAGT moving into that sector too. I am sure that there are plenty of challenges waiting for me at ESVAGT in the years to come,” says Jann Bach.

Facts

Jann Bach is a father of three - two boys aged 24 and 16 and a girl aged 20. He lives in Hjerting, Denmark and enjoys all sorts of sports in his spare time, including golf, diving, cycling, swimming and skiing.