My Morning Routine: Captain Patricia Caswell, general manager of Super Yacht Service Center (SYSC)

Captain Patricia Caswell, general manager of Super Yacht Service Center: Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. Speaking to us this week is Captain Patricia Caswell (LinkedIn), general manager of Super Yacht Service Center (SYSC) and vice chair of the Leisure Marine Association for 2025. Edited excerpts from our conversation:

I’m Captain Patricia. I’ve been at sea full-time for the past 29 years of my life. I spent my junior year sailing, then moved over to superyachts and began to travel around the world. I was 21 or 22 when I got my first captain's license. In the early 2000s, I moved overseas and started doing it internationally, so I crossed over to the dark side of motorboats after sailing, and I was working and going to a maritime college in the UK. By the time I was 30, I got my Master 3000 ton license and was able to really take off around the world.

I crossed over to more land-based work with Gulf Craft about four years ago, where I am now the general manager of the Super Yacht Service Center. I get to drive and test the boats that we manufacture in our production facility, and now I'm also operating and constructing our new superyacht service and refit facility in Ajman, which should open its doors in late September.

Before Gulf Craft, I was working for an Emirati family that had a fleet of yachts, so I've been out here about 10 years now. I started out with Gulf Craft at their manufacturing facility in Umm Al Quwain as a test captain and quality control manager, driving all the new boats and all the prototypes.

Gulf Craft is actually one of the top 10 manufacturers of superyachts in the world; we have 40+ years of manufacturing experience. What we realized is when you build a yacht, that's only the start of the yacht's life. You need to be able to service it, maintain it, and refit it down the line. What we're working on is setting a benchmark in the region for service and refit facilities. There's nowhere around here that really will be able to give that full white glove, trusted service to look after yachts.

The UAE is really becoming a superyacht hub. I cruised down here multiple times over the years, and the growth that I've seen in the region as a cruising destination and as a cruising base has been exponential. This is why I’ve realized we need to be able to support not only visiting yachts but also all the local yachts we have here.

The Leisure Marine Association has been very cool to be a part of. We have a working group every month and we do a lot of workshops and meet with a lot of regulatory bodies, trying to help develop local regulations and see how we can make things easier for maritime users in the region, including visiting and cruising yachts.

I get one or two days at sea every week, testing different boats. The rest of the time is just working on training our staff, like our junior captains.

One thing I really enjoy is being able to put that practical, operational experience back into the boats. We have an amazing design and engineering team here, so I love to sit with them and put back a bit of practical knowledge into what they're doing so that we get a good crossover of look and function.

In October and towards the end of the year, we'll be focusing on the grand opening of the new facility and showcasing it to partners, engineers, and superyacht owners in the region. We currently have boats coming from Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia all ready to do work with us.

I usually start my day with a coffee and the weather forecast to see what mother nature has in store for us. I look at the synoptic charts and see how things are looking across the region and how it's going to affect us. I also look at the movements of boats that are in the region or boats that we look after as well, just to check in on how they're being affected and what they're doing.

SYSC also takes care of the warranty side of the vessels once they leave, so we want to make sure that we are really taking care of the products, the owners, the captains, and the crew. That type of follow-up support is important for us, so if they're cruising in the Caribbean or they're up in the Mediterranean during their season, we need to see what's going on up there and make sure and check in with everyone.

I'm currently training for an offshore ocean sailing race around the world, so I’m trying to take the time to train and turn my phone off for an hour at least so I can focus. It's good for the soul as well.

The race runs for 11 months but I'll be joining it for three months. I'll be joining the Southern Ocean leg from South America all the way around South Africa and across to eastern Australia. That's the area of the oceans that I haven't been across yet, and I decided before I turned 50, it was time to go sail across there and get to experience that while I'm still fit and young enough to be able to.

I'm currently reading an interesting book called A Voyage for Madmen. It’s about the first ever solo, round-the-world sailing race and how it actually came about and the mental fortitude that these sailors needed to become the first people to race around the world on their own, non-stop.

One piece of advice I think is important is about the importance of understanding how valuable everyone's time is, whether you’re dealing with clients or with your own time. That was drilled into me by one of my earlier captains when I was a chief mate on board. The other one is just the importance of giving back what you’ve been taught. I've been lucky enough to have amazing mentors in my career, so it’s so important to give that back as well as as you move into the next phases of your life or your career. And the advice for the younger generations is: Lean on mentors and seek them out because it will help you grow and learn the different tricks of the trade.