See full version: Inside The Sordid World Of Superyachts
In December 2018, a British superyacht crew member, Andrew Clapham, 32, took his own life in the Caribbean. A few months before, Sinead McNamara, an Australian, killed herself in Greece while on board the $215 million Mayan Queen IV. In the June before that, a crew member of a superyacht in Boston killed himself. [links]
Meanwhile, the super-rich hover above the real world. They get whatever they want and are subject to no single authority. It makes it difficult to apply normal rules and ethics. In this realm, a pinch on the arse comes with a whopping tip; 18-hour days with three-month breaks; ridiculous demands with exotic backdrops. If you pay someone enough, their answer is always “yes”, but money is not the only price.
It wasn’t until Edson went home to New Zealand, 18 months later, that she felt able to address her depression and went to therapy. She still works in the industry, sailing high-performance boats. [links]
Woodly started taking antidepressants and slowly began to get stronger. One day she asked her captain for a day off to collect a new round of pills. She claims the captain fired her on the spot. “He used the words, ‘Your condition will be a burden on the crew. If you’re not capable of doing the job, then you shouldn’t have the job.’ I was capable, but this world has an obsession with everybody being perfect.”
In the world of the super rich superyacht owners, staff have to be able to get anything from anywhere within 24 hours. Recently, a “Mrs” (shorthand for a boat owner’s wife) woke up on a superyacht in the Caribbean, far from habitation. She wanted 1000 white roses to adorn the craft. The crew arranged for the flowers to be helicoptered from Miami, then brought to the yacht in time for dinner. The following morning, the Mrs wanted them gone. Unable to throw them into the sea and too far away to drop them at a port, the crew had to jam them into their tiny quarters.
While the Maritime Labour Convention protects the employment rights of people working at sea, private yachts don’t have to comply – they’re billionaires’ own personal floating kingdoms. “When you’re recruited by the richest people in the world,” says Rayson, “whatever you’re faced with, you just have to deal with it.” here
“Cruise-ship crew have such in-depth training and they would bring an awful lot of skills and knowledge with them into yachting, which is really good for the industry. ”here
There are other factors to consider for those cruise-ship crew applying for interior roles. With a growing number of boutique luxury cruise ships taking to the water prior to the pandemic, the gap between the service provided on board the top-end cruise ships and superyachts is narrowing. Peter Vogel, founder and managing director of Luxury Hospitality, previously worked as a butler and steward on board both luxury cruise ships and superyachts for more than 20 years. For him, the key difference between interior crew from the cruise-ship industry and those in the superyacht industry is their hospitality training. more
While the superyacht industry has, of course, been hit by the pandemic, albeit to a lesser extent than other industries, an influx of cruise-ship candidates may be of great benefit as many will have highly desirable skills and qualifications. On the deck and engineering side, most officers from a cruise background will have an unlimited ticket, so will be fully qualified for a role within their rank on a yacht – a significant advantage for their job search. “Especially on the engineering front,” says Laurence Lewis, director at YPI Crew. “These candidates have high certificates to operate cruise ships and their skills are sought after.”
The coronavirus pandemic has devastated the cruise-ship sector, with widespread disruption and cancellations leaving thousands of cruise-ship crew without work and no date to return. Consequently, these crew have been exploring alternative avenues, and a natural move for many has been towards the superyacht industry. Recruitment agencies in the industry are reporting a significant increase in job applications across all departments from crew with backgrounds on cruise ships.
However, to make the most of this opportunity there needs to be a shift in mindset towards recruiting crew from outside the industry. Wyborn adds that many captains don’t even think about hiring crew from other sectors. “They’ll look at whether they’ve got the necessary paperwork rather than looking at what their experience actually is and what that might mean if they were to transfer into yachting. A lot of these candidates from other industries won’t have the full package but it’s important to recognise their transferable skills.” [links]
Scroll below for more behind-the-scenes secrets about life on Bravo’s Below Deck.
Shh! Crew cabins are full of secrets on a superyacht, and the staff on Bravo’s Below Deck is no exception!
Additionally, Jessica revealed the cameras are always rolling. “I just know there’s cameras everywhere,” she shared. No matter if “it’s an actual cameraman or it’s placed on the wall somewhere or propped up somewhere,” they are always being filmed. more
When it comes to the film crew, they are all business all the time, chief stew Hannah Ferrier exclusively told In Touch. “On Below Deck, they’re very, very, very strict with the fourth wall. So even for myself, I’ve filmed five seasons of it, the camera crew, audio and everything like that, they won’t interact,” Hannah, who is expecting her first baby, shared. “They won’t say hello to me. They won’t.” more
According to seasoned yachtie Jessica More, who is the third stew on season 5 of Below Deck Mediterranean, there is “zero privacy unless you’re going to the restroom” aboard the massive boat, she exclusively told In Touch.
Despite the drama depicted on the superyachts, there really isn’t that much controversy, deckhand Colin Macy-O’Toole exclusively told In Touch following season 4. “I tell a lot of people this but with all the drama and stuff on the show, especially with the deck crew, we’ve had probably the funniest — like I don’t know, we would just go to sleep laughing so hard because Travis [Michalzik], Jack [Stirrup] — they’re goofballs and they’re so funny, but obviously they show the dramatic side of things like the work stuff that they don’t show how funny everybody is,” he dished in October 2019. “Not everyone knows that we had such a great time together. At the end of the day, we always know what’s going to happen.” here
A lot of the people who buy superyachts want to host parties and get togethers, which is why a dining hall might seem like an obvious addition. Space provisions will depend on the size of the yacht all together, but more sophisticated boats can also have complete, commercial-grade kitchens to achieve a five-star restaurant experience on-board. [links]
Interestingly, you can buy a superyacht through financing. But according to expert superyacht brokers who have been in the business for more than 25 years, there has yet to be anyone who has tried to buy a superyacht through financing. And that’s probably because even if you were to finance one of these luxury vessels, you’d have to pay a monstrous monthly mortgage that not everyone can afford. more
Seems farfetched but it’s true. Some superyachts come with a helipad. The main purpose of the helipad is to make exotic destinations more accessible from your boat, especially if there isn’t any local transportation in place just yet to bring you from the water on to land. Helicopter not included.
Other than that, superyachts require a crew - no questions asked. These vessels are exceedingly large, and may be a bit of a handful for just an amateur captain and his family crew. So aside from the yacht itself, you may have to consider the cost of the services of a crew to keep your superyacht operational and safe. here
One of the biggest, most popular superyachts in the world - the 136-meter Flying Fox from Lürssen is also home to one of the largest pools in the superyacht world. The vessel houses a 12-meter pool, aside from several hot tubs around the deck. [links]
If you can dream it, they can build it. Seriously, the sky is the limit when it comes to what kind of facilities you can have on your superyacht. But if you’re having a hard time imagining what you can get, here are some interesting facilities that many others have installed on their luxury boats: [links]