Vin Gupta purchasing commericals on WABC-770AM during Rush Limbaugh show

WABC Radio just played a Vin Gupta "Sales Genie" commercial in the last five minutes of today's Rush Limbaugh show.

For those of you who don't recognize the name Vinod "Vin" Gupta, here are a few links:

Here’s the real reason why BJ Clinton and Gupta are such good buddies.

Capt. Linda Lupi notices everything.

That tiny scratch in the gel coat, she sees it. That book out of place on the shelf, she straightens it. That napkin holder that’s not where it’s supposed to be, she moves it.

She notices when her first mate isn’t doing precisely what she asked, and she notices when her stew is in the weeds and needs a hand making beds.

All that attention to detail has gotten Lupi noticed as well. Her owner, an owner for 14 years, says she’s the best captain he’s ever had. The manufacturer, Lazarra, keeps referring her for jobs.

Her crew notices, too.

“I love working with Linda because I know the condition the boat will be in,” said Jennifer Mooney, the stew/mate.

“I’ve been on so many boats where the maintenance is not followed,” said Catherine Albright, the mate/stew. “I feel very fortunate to be on this boat.”

Even yards notice.

“It is absolutely the cleanest, most well-maintained vessel we’ve seen in a long time, and we see a lot of boats,” said Kaye Hendrix with Rolly Marine Service in Ft. Lauderdale where Lupi’s boat, M/Y American Princess, recently visited. “The engine room was so clean you could have prepared food in there.”

Getting all that attention hasn’t come easy. Lupi has been boating since 1988, starting out as a dive instructor on those liveaboard yachts in the Caribbean and Central America that are in port for just a few hours once a week to pick up guests.

She moved around and up on those 120- to 130-foot yachts, working in the engine room while doing her other job so she not only earned her hours but also the knowledge to one day be a good captain. She got her captain’s license in 1995.

But in 1998, after a decade away from port all the time, she decided to give private yachting a shot. She asked a few crew agencies what her chances were, being a woman with a 1,600-ton captain’s license. Her gut told her she was rare, but a stack of resumes on a bottom shelf in an agency office told her she was nothing special.

“I kind of felt at the time that I was being judged against people who were wives or second captains, who were not really experienced like I was,” she said.

So she took a job as chef/mate. It didn’t take long for that owner and crew to see she could handle more. When the captain left, Lupi said she got the job.

That was an 80-foot Lazarra, and while she’s move up and down in size, she’s been on a Lazarra ever since.

Now she runs the 80-foot American Princess with a female mate and, when the owner is on board, a female stew, making the boat a rarity on the mega-yacht circuit with an all female crew.

“I’m very particular how the boat looks,” said Lupi, who joined American Princess about a year ago. “I may have had to work a little harder in this industry, but the boat’s spotless.”

Working for a woman can be challenging, but it has its advantages.

“She helps with the lines and fenders,” said Albright, who has worked on boats since 1989. “On some bigger boats, you get captains who say that’s not my job, or I wasn’t hired to do that.”

But Lupi has done it all.

“I’ll clean the head, make a bed or help the chef,” she said. “I’ve worked with plenty of people who just want to stick to their jobs, they didn’t want to carry a wine bottle or set up a food tray. But I have done every aspect of service on a yacht.

“It just kind of flows now,” she said. “It’s hard to put into words.”

The word is magic. It’s magic when a crew clicks, when each member – simply because of the kind of people they are – work toward the same goal without being prompted or nagged.

Perhaps it’s the magic that gets noticed.

“I can’t wait to do a trip on this boat,” said Mooney, who also works as stew on another megayacht. “We have a good time. It’s fun when we work hard together. There’s a lot of pride.”

“She runs a very tight ship, and I like it,” Albright said. “Some people like to work a bit more casual, but I prefer to know what is expected of me.”

It took Lupi a while to get this mix. She knows her style of management isn’t for everybody.

But at this moment in time, on this boat, with this crew, it works. It’s also the first time she’s had an all-female crew.

“I know there are crew members who maybe weren’t so happy that I was so strict,” Lupi said. “But I’ve had maybe six call me in the past few years and say, ‘I didn’t know how important all these things were.’ They didn’t understand until they went somewhere else.”

Lupi knows the magic doesn’t end with getting the right crew. She credits Lazarra with having a strong support system, and she credits her owner with providing her the money to maintain the boat properly.

“I feel very fortunate,” Lupi said. “I have a good owner and a good manufacturer that stands behind its product. That makes my job easier, and it enables me to do my job better. They give me the opportunity to do my job the way I think it should be done.”

“She taught me that,” said owner Vin Gupta. “With a $3 million boat, you cannot be cheap about maintenance. Whatever she needs, we have to make sure she gets it.”

Gupta, founder and chairman of the database company InfoUSA, said he has many female managers among his 1,500 employees, and he notices that women are “more conscientious, more responsible.”

“There’s something about women,” he said.

And there’s something about his crew. It’s called magic.

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