Having finished first, directors getting from ship to water (9)
I believe the answer is:
overboard
'from ship to water' is the definition.
(as in going overboard)
'having finished first directors getting' is the wordplay.
'having' becomes 'boar' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'finished' becomes 'over' (similar in meaning).
'first directors' becomes 'd' (bst letter of 'directors').
'getting' indicates putting letters inside.
'over'+'d'='overd'
'boar' going within 'overd' is 'OVERBOARD'.
(Other definitions for overboard that I've seen before include "From a ship into the sea" , "Man . . . . . . . . . - launch the lifeboat!" , "heading for the water" , "Man ...! Stop the ship" , "in need of a life jacket" .)