Dovaston Crew, crew and maritime agents, has announced the opening of a new UK office for marine recruitment, as well as the appointment of Simon Harvey who will represent the new office.

Almost one year ago, Sovren House Group took over ownership of Dovaston Crew, which has since seen a brand new team welcomed to the company, spurring the expansion to the UK. 

Harvey has enjoyed a lifelong relationship with sailing and yachting, naturally working his way up through the ranks of superyacht crew, from deckhand to captain. He also holds years of management and leadership experience, has been serving on the International Superyacht Society (ISS) board of directors since 2013, is a CHIRP maritime ambassador and contributes to many maritime publications such as ALERT.

Working across all levels of management and leadership in a range of sectors, Harvey knew that to ensure top performance from employees, the resources must be in place for continual skills development.   

With the growing size of vessels, regulations increasing within the industry and a lack of training courses to keep up with industry movements, Harvey formed N2 People Skills, a business specialising in crew training, recruitment analysis, management and team building, to bridge the growing gap in the market. 

Harvey said, “As the founder of N2 People Skills, I worked hard to find a crew agency that was willing to go that extra metre or two to get the results that owners expect, and captains want. I found with the wealth of first hand industry knowledge Helen Warren brough to Dovaston’s leadership, and the company’s willingness to look outside the box meant Dovaston was the perfect company to work with in bringing profiles into the selection process.

“Personally, taking on the role as Dovaston agent in the UK made complete sense. It allows me to be at the front end of the process of recruitment, and means N2 can adapt and adjust to new needs of captain and candidate. While I may have hung my captain’s hat up some years ago, the problems created ‘if’ the wrong person is put into a position are still large, perhaps today even larger.

"Finding the right person for a position is never easy, yet most successful onshore companies today use some type of profile system. Today we offer captains the same opportunity but with industry experience and knowledge. Making the wrong decision costs a lot more than a little extra time it may take in using profile analysis in your recruitment process.”

For more information, visit Dovaston Crew.

Find Crew Agents in your location.