For a long time luxury yacht owners and captains have been bemoaning the inter-seasonal yacht hoppers; crew endlessly searching for the perfect itinerary/owner/crew/salary combination. Suffering from the grass is greener syndrome, yacht crew are seemingly always hearing stories of yachts with better owners, training allowances, endless tips and time off.
The global credit crunch seems to be the answer these yachts have been looking for. Whilst most of the multi billionaire yacht owners are managing to get through these hard times without having to sacrifice their yachts, the lowly crew with mortgages and dwindling investments fear being out of work for any substantial period and worry that perhaps the jobs are no longer out there. In this climate , the crew seem to have had a change of heart and are going with the “better the devil you know” way of thinking and sticking it out.

This is definitely a bonus for the yacht industry, which is one of the few industries in the world which 6 months in one position is considered a fair amount of time and 2 years a miracle. There are of course reasons for which in this industry there is a higher turnover of crew. Crew burn out quicker with little time off, working 12-16 hour days and living in such close quarters with their colleagues. Also, though more and more qualifications are required, yachts are reluctant to give crew extra time off to train which leaves their only options either to use their annual leave sacrificing respite and time with their families or to leave a yacht altogether and take the time out unpaid to study and look for a new position once they have finished their training.

With 900 super yachts currently in construction, there has never been higher demand for qualified, experienced crew, so those who have done their time and study are perhaps right to believe they will be able to get bigger better jobs. We know that deck officers and engineers have to be recruited from outside the industry to fill these qualified positions, so the demand is surely there. Crew are demanding more time off for themselves and support for training, and this is definitely warranted but who can blame the yachts for being reluctant if the crew then leave as soon as they are qualified? This has been the impasse for a while between the yachts and their crew, perhaps the credit crunch will be the encouragement for crew to stick things out and show some more commitment to their positions and in return the yachts may see their way to rewarding loyalty.

In order to for crew longevity , what is required is a little give from both sides. Yachts need to support valuable crew in regards to fair amounts of leave and giving time off for training and putting their yacht crew on required courses. The crew need to reciprocate and commit to a yacht, accepting that in all walks of life there is very rarely the perfect job.