Crew conference highlights importance of relationships

“Building a good relationship between seafaring and shore employees is very important,” says OSG’s Captain Yun Ho No. And he knows what he’s talking about. Prior to V.Ships taking full technical management of OSG’s 44 international vessels in 2014, Captain No was responsible for leading the crew management for OSG.

Starting off his career with OSG as third mate in 1981, he rose through the ranks to Master before coming ashore from 1997. We caught up with him after the recent crew conference in Manila to understand more about his hopes for the V.Ships relationship and his thoughts on leadership.

“Seafarers work many months away from their families,” he says. “This can be hard – both for the crew but equally for family members too. It means that the relationship between crew and those ashore becomes even more critical.

“To build this relationship I personally like to spend time talking with and listening to crew members. There is no hierarchy – onshore or onboard – it’s about being visible and offering support,” he adds.

Captain No believes that V.Ships brings benefit to OSG: “V.Ships is a big ship management company with good, experienced and skilled people. Being part of the wider V.Group, we know that V.Ships has the resource to optimise the cost of technical ship management, which is good for clients like us, but we can never forget the value and efforts of the people on-board.They are the face of OSG and V.Ships.”

Now that we’re more than a year in to the relationship, Captain No wants to see an increased focus in our engagement efforts between crew and shore employees in the future. There was a great energy at the crew conference – people from many different nationalities coming together for a common purpose – to deliver value to the client.

“We have to take learnings from the event back to the crews,” concludes Captain No. “I also think for future events we should consider widening the agenda to add more case studies and enhance awareness of changing requirements from customers.”

Captain No believe the crew conferences are of value – it’s a great opportunity for him and others to meet with the senior officers. The next OSG crew conference is due to take place in November.

OSG is one of the largest tanker companies in the world, delivering crude oil, petroleum products and liquefied natural gas with a fleet of 78 international and US registered vessels. Founded in 1948, OSG’s international fleet came into full technical management with V.Ships in 2014.