Mile Makers

In the October issue of the Islander magazine I wrote about the questionable offers that so called professional delivery companies make to Pocket Superyacht owners. As of mid October you can read that article in our blog section here.   I rant about companies sending inexperienced crew, “mile makers” who don’t expect to be paid. On yachtie forums like Palma Yacht Crew I often see very passionate reactions to people looking for crew who are willing to help out on a yacht delivery at expenses. Using power words like slavery and exploitation and other name calling from keyboard heroes towards those who ask and those accept. Under the right circumstances I am not against these mile making experiences because we all have to gain experience somewhere, some time.   In my opinion there are 7 criteria that need to be met when taking on an unpaid crewmember: – If the yacht’s experienced core crew is strong enough to handle the delivery without the extra person (but is a little extra comfortable with yet another hand.) So this is related to the distance that will be covered as well as the size of the yacht. – If said crewmember has a good […]

Lots of yachts on show, but can we offer the best experience?

POCKET SUPERYACHTS AT THE BOAT SHOWS This month we’ll see 78 (!) 20m to 30m yachts at the Cannes Yachting Festival, a dozen Pocket Superyacht brands at the Southampton Boat Show and even the Monaco Yacht Show, traditionally a super- and mega yacht show, will host a handful of -100ft luxury yacht brands. These yachts offer more than just sailing. So naturally, these owners expect their crews to offer more than just sailing too. But what exactly is it that they require and who’s going to offer it? QUALITY Yacht builders are investing huge amounts of time and money in their designers and engineers to come up with solutions to make the owners experience a spectacular one. Meanwhile, everybody who is familiar with this industry knows that an owner or guest experience is -at least- equally dependent on the quality of the crew.