Customer stories


YachtCrews.com

YachtCrews.com Puts FileMaker to Work Assembling a Yachting Crew

You've made it. You've finally got the boat — and she's beautiful. But who's going to sail it for you? Assembling a yachting crew needn't mean a rough voyage, thanks to YachtCrews.com -- an online crew placement company built around the database power of FileMaker Pro, the award winning database software application from FileMaker, Inc.

Crew placement agencies aren't a new idea -- a hotbed of yachting activity like Fort Lauderdale, Florida has hundreds of them, paper-and-file-cabinet operations run out of offices all over the city. But YachtCrews is different. It's the brainchild of Captain David Cook -- a veteran of the yachting business who wanted to bring a new approach to the business. David's title isn't just for show -- he's an active captain who spends much of his time on the high seas. And he wanted a business that would go with him wherever he went — while still providing consistent and reliable service to his clients.

The solution? A web-based company powered by a FileMaker Pro database, serving both crew members and yacht owners. Crew members submit their resumes and photos, which are stored in the online database. When yacht owners need to assemble a crew, they can browse the listings and pick exactly the right personnel for the upcoming voyage. All crew are classified by specialty, from cooks to captains. 'I charge $30 for crew to register,' explains David, 'then I charge the owners two per cent of the crew's first month's salary.' It's as simple as that.

The database is hosted and maintained by digital.forest, the Seattle-based specialists in FileMaker database hosting, leaving David free to focus on his own seagoing activities -- but web access means he's never far away from YachtCrews.com, and he takes an active interest in serving his clients. 'My motto was 'your resume will NEVER be in a closed filing cabinet.' FileMaker did it for me'

YachtCrews.com now serves some 200 clients in its single FileMaker database -- but David says there's room for thousands more and he's confident his business will continue to grow. 'Seems once the word gets out even a little, I start getting busy,' he observes. 'I have placed several clients just this month -- nice to know I'm part of the future of someone's life. It has taken time, but I feel the site will only improve. FileMaker has made it easy to access my information. The other agencies are not even close to what I'm doing to make it easy for crew as well as owners to use the site. The owners like my solution because it is fast and they can see what a crew member looks like in a matter of seconds. The crew members love it because now their resumes are seen 24/7 – knowing that their password protected information is safe and secure.' And FileMaker makes it simple for them to update their resumes anytime, from any port, over the web.

Setting sail for success -- for YachtCrews.com, the voyage never ends, thanks to FileMaker Pro!



Contact information

Contact Info for Customer:

Captain David Cook
President
YachtCrews.com
954-540-4872
ships47@mindspring.com
http://www.yachtcrews.com


Chris Kilbourn
Chief Technical Officer
digital.forest
425-483-0483
chrisk@forest.net
http://www.forest.net


Filemaker Contact:

Kevin Mallon
Public Relations Manager
FileMaker Inc.
408-987-7227
kevin_mallon@filemaker.com
http://www.filemaker.com


Overview
  • At YachtCrews.com, crew members can submit their resumes and photos to an online FileMaker Pro database. Yacht owners can then hire their entire crews, from cooks to captains, by browsing through the database.
Industry
  • High Technology
  • Small Business