Teamwork wins with Yachty Hockey

After a week of detailed yacht polishing, cleaning, repairing and organizing, a group of crew members face each other at center court to do the opposite. Under night lights on a concrete street hockey field in South Florida, it's time to dress down, get sweaty and dirty and play hard.

Several yacht crews compete in this weekly fetch game in a recreational group founded in 2013 by Kevin Quirk. Quirk is co-publisher of Triton and a partner at US Marina Group.

But my title is goalie, he said with a laugh as he removed his face mask and wiped away sweat on a Wednesday evening in February, just north of downtown Fort Lauderdale at the city's Holiday Park.

There are many friends on the field this week, both new and former. Several regular yacht crews are out of the country on charter or owner voyages, but First Mate Kim van Jaarsveld and Second Stew Kylee McLoughlin are in town. Van Jaarsveld is working on M/Y Kashmira 133 foot Splendor, and McLoughlin is on M/Y Dona Lola, a 130-foot Westport. They met about 10 years ago during school hockey games in their home country of South Africa.

We weren't friends, we were rivals, McLoughlin said. Now they were teammates.

They are usually the only women on the field and are competent competitors even when the game gets physical.

It's intimidating. We play grown men here, some of whom weigh double our weight, said Van Jaarsveld.

Kim and I were good, we can play, and sometimes they are shocked, McLoughlin said.

It does surprise them, Van Jaarsveld added.

The two explain that the sport is similar to ice hockey, but without ice, without padding and with a ball instead of a puck. It is perfect for exercise, flexibility and to reduce the stress of life on board.

It's my time, I really enjoy that, said Van Jaarsveld. It's competitive and good for cardio. Many sailors love pickleball, but many don't know about it. I know Kylees and my love for the sport, and I'm bringing my friends.

They are each armed with a hockey stick and wear white shirts in hopes of being on the same team this week. Teams are differentiated with black or white shirts. There's some discussion tonight as a few guys wear gray shirts and a shirtless player laughs: What color am I?

The players are distributed fairly randomly and change every time, sometimes even halfway through the game if someone steps out or the required number of players are not on the field.

What makes a good player?

They're fast, they don't look at the ball to make sure they hit it, they can get around anyone, and they have speed, Quirk said. This is a very fast game with no timeouts; this is non stop.

At 63, he enjoys playing with the younger players.

“I can still set them on fire,” he said, adding that he will play another 25 years until he is 88.

For years there was no official scorer, but now there is an electronic scoreboard that is somehow updated by whoever is closest as the ball goes past a goalkeeper.

Mano-a-mano and looks a bit chaotic to the uninitiated: three 30-minute games pass quickly with short breaks in between. Apart from the fancy scoreboard, this is the opposite of the pristine, high-tech and stressful world of hunting.

Parker Simon, first officer on M/Y Calypso, a 126-foot Feadship, missed this week's race because he was working on the yacht in the Bahamas. He called to talk about his love for the game and his fear of missing out.

“I got FOMO when I saw videos of the goal bench and stuff,” Simon said. I wish I was there.

He knew the game from playing street hockey as a kid on cul-de-sacs in Philadelphia. As he grew up, his life shifted toward working on the water: teaching sailing, a stint in the U.S. Coast Guard, as a crew member on a Maine lobster boat, and the last eight years in yachting. His interests converged one evening after meeting Quirk when the yacht was in the 17th Street Yacht Basin at the Hilton in Fort Lauderdale.

I was worried at first, Simon said about playing. What level was everyone? Were they ice hockey players?

He was told there were players of all levels, which dispelled his preconceptions about this.

I immediately fell in love with the game. It's great to blow off steam, and I've met a good group that I would never have met before, Simon said.

He now goes every Wednesday as possible and often introduces new crew members, even making the hour-long drive from West Palm Beach when the yacht is at Safe Harbor Rybovich Marina.

The work of the yacht crew and street hockey intersect, Simon said. Dynamic, fast-paced and full of last-minute decisions, both crew members and hockey players must adapt to the environment, interact with people from all walks of life, remain flexible and perform their duties. In a moment, he said, we must all come together for a common purpose, read situations and figure out how to use that to win or have a good competitive game or a successful hunting trip.

We work together and focus on people's strengths and weaknesses on the hockey field, Simon said. We are changing the style of our team to make people feel welcome and to balance this. We make it fun and inclusive for everyone. Everyone needs to help at any time, anyone can be asked to fulfill a role.

Just like on board, if I know a sailor isn't as coordinated, I can jump on the tender and let him handle the lines when the boss is on, Simon said.

In both sailing and hockey, he said: 'We don't let people fail.

Fort Lauderdale Yachty Hockey

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