AS a young boy, his dream was to become a captain, be it on a vessel or on an aircraft. Today, Captain Syed Fazil Binyahya, 58, is not only a veteran offshore vessel master but also a resident consultant and operations director with Wise Innovations Sdn Bhd.
He is also the managing director and chief executive officer of Crystal Offshore Sdn Bhd, an offshore marine service provider.
Born in Singapore (then Malaya), Capt Syed Fazil embarked on a sailing career after completing his Senior Cambridge in the late 60s.
He started out as a deck boy on a Greek cargo vessel.
“I had wanted to travel and the cheapest way was to work on a ship.
“I started out in the engine room but found it claustrophobic, so I asked if I could be moved to the deck instead,” he recalled, adding that he lasted only a week in the engine room.
He progressed from a sailor to an able seaman on cargo vessels, oil tankers and bulk carriers, completing five and half years of sea time.
“This was required of me before I could take up my Mate Home Trade/Near Coastal certificate of competency in navigational studies at the Singapore Polytechnic. I later took up my Master’s degree at ALAM,” he said.
After sailing on cargo vessels and oil tankers, Capt Syed Fazil wanted a change and decided to move into the offshore support vessel (OSV) sector.
In the early 70s, he joined Offshore Logistics as its chief officer and later moved on to several companies, which conducted similar activities until he ended his sailing days in 1996. His last position was as a Captain with Smit Lloyd (M) Sdn Bhd.
He joined Borcos Shipping Sdn Bhd in Miri as a fleet manager cum general manager and later Petronas Carigali as a marine superintendent at its Kemaman Supply Base in 2001.
He moved into freelance OSV consultancy in 2003.
He has fond memories of his seafaring days which exposed him to the various cultures, people, food and places around the world.
“When the ship called at a port, I would take a bus to the city and venture into the rural areas, just to get to know the people and their culture.
“There were places in South America where I could walk alone at 3am and nothing would happen.
“But today, it is not possible to do such things,” he said, adding that it was sad that some of these countries were now at war with one another.
He also recalls collecting various currencies and coins of the places he had visited, the biggest being a Tahiti bank note (slightly smaller than the size of a A4 size paper) and plastic coins belonging to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.
The Cocos Islands are located in the middle of the Indian Ocean, some 2,750km northwest of Perth.
“These plastic coins were special because although they were legal tender on the island, they could not be used elsewhere,” he said.
Capt Syed Fazil said seafarers belonged to a unique group because not everyone could stomach sailing.
“You live within a small community and you have to get along, tolerate one another and adapt.
“Then agin, it takes a different class of seafarers altogether to work on board OSVs. The boats are much smaller which make them very uncomfortable during rough seas.
“The job is also very high-risk, especially during anchor handling. The OSV crew works day and night on six-hour shifts. They even discharge and load cargoes in the oil fields,” he said, adding that the nature of work was totally different from that on board tankers or cargo vessels.
He said he was glad to be providing support services ranging from anchor handling requirements, towing of offshore installations to transporting crew to satellite platforms from mother platforms.
“OSV is a specialised area, which you cannot learn in theory. You have to be hands-on on the job. It starts with surveys and then involves drilling, construction of platforms and pipe laying. I play a role in all aspects of the job,” he said.
In fact, Capt Syed Fazil feels it is a unique and demanding task to be involved in projects where an oil field is developed.
“It is a wonderful feeling to play a part in oil field development and to be involved when platforms are being built,” he said.
He remembers his first OSV project was the Tapis oil field off Terengganu in the early 1970s, when he had to sail between Singapore to the East Coast.
“Back then, there was no offshore supply base in Kemaman and we had to travel between the site and back to the base in Singapore, either at Jurong Marine Base or the Loyang Supply Base.”
In the course of his sailing career, he has visited the Pacific Islands, North and South America, Africa, the Middle East and other Asian countries.
Capt Syed Fazil said his family had been supportive for all the times he spent at sea, adding that his longest time at sea was the five and half months spent in pipe laying works in Bombay High South, off India.
A true seaman at heart, Capt Syed Fazil also believes that every ship has a soul.
“When I was a captain, I maintained a very disciplined environment on board, I could not accept people throwing rubbish or cigarette butts or spitting on the deck. And I if I saw a dirty toilet, I would create havoc,” he said.
In his spare time, Capt Syed Fazil indulges in fishing, swimming, social golfing and bowling.
The captain, who lives in Miri with his wife Nur Fazillah Lunan Abdullah, 38, speaks Malay, English, a bit of Thai and Hokkien. – By K. RUKA
RSS