If 2020 was the year of survival for yacht crew, due to the pandemic collapsing recruiting early on, then 2021 was the year of revival. That’s what YPI Crew’s president, Laurence Lewis, says. Her company’s latest report on yacht crew salaries shows stability has re-emerged. Additionally, it reveals average pay rates for senior-level positions, junior-level…
Growing concern about mental health among superyacht crew is just one reason why Tim Clarke (above), the director of Quay Crew, says his company launched a global survey of more than 1,000 crewmembers. Quay Crew did so with Charles Watkins, the managing director of and a clinical psychologist with Mental Health Support Solutions (MHSS). MHSS…
When a sailor dies, the sounding of eight bells honors the crewmember, signifying that his or her watch is over. Several significant superyacht owner and industry figures ended their watches this year. These are just some of the notable individuals we lost in 2021, listed in chronological order. David Fraser The founder of Fraser Yachts…
Nearly 50 percent of superyacht crew have considered leaving yachting, due to stress, anxiety, isolation, burnout, poor leadership, fatigue, and more. These findings come from a survey by Quay Crew, polling more than 1,000 currently employed crew. It’s a wakeup call to owners, management companies, captains, and others onthe consumer and industry sides of yachting….
Consider, for a moment, that some U.S. states and other countries require background checks on bus drivers and teachers. Conrad Empson, a former superyacht crewmember, believes, “Why shouldn’t those who work for the most influential and powerful individuals in the world and their families?” As the managing director of CrewPass, the first background-checking service specifically…
Christine “Bugsy” Drake is a superyacht stew who thousands of television fans are familiar with thanks to the Bravo series Below Deck Mediterranean. More importantly, she’s a seasoned yachtie and a newly published book author. She wowed television viewers with her extraordinary creativity the way that she’s been wowing yacht owners and guests since joining the yachting…
When’s the last time you learned of something created for crew by crew? Or something created by crew that’s further caught the attention of megayacht owners and yachting-industry firms? Lauren Wardley has accomplished this with her company Ethical Yacht Wear. Wardley was working as a full-time second stewardess when she started thinking about traditional crew…
The pandemic has taken its toll on more than just physical health. It impacts mental health, too. In fact, the World Health Organization finds that mental-health services in 93 percent of countries were either disrupted or halted last year. Add in superyacht-specific issues like crew being furloughed or unable to return home, and the impact…
The sudden closing of borders due to COVID-19 and the related bureaucratic red tape in trying to get permission to leave has caused owners and their crews a lot of stress over the past year. Add in the fact that many crew spent significantly longer periods of time onboard, without seeing family, and the stress…
Today is International Women’s Day, a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. It further marks a call to action to accelerate gender equality. We can think of no better way to celebrate International Women’s Day in yachting than by re-publishing an interview with the co-founder of She of the…
