Keywords

Introduction

Yachting tourism is a type of special interest tourism (SIT) which has not been clearly defined (Mikulić et al., 2015). However, its various forms are interchangeably used to describe the nature of the activities associated with yachting tourism. Terms such as nautical tourism, leisure boating, marina tourism are often used as synonymous (Mikulić et al., 2015). The luxury yachting industry offers another form of yachting tourism distinguished by privately owned superyachts more than 30 m in length which are professionally crewed. An average 47 m motor yacht costs c.30 million Euros to buy new from a reputable European shipyard, and the operational and running costs can be estimated as millions (Adamczyk, 2015). Thus, this type of leisure activity is exclusively accessible to the super-rich (Spence, 2016) and the details of luxury yacht operations are not widely known to the general public.

There is some information currently available online in media articles (www.thetimes.co.uk) (Agnew, 2020) and on reality TV shows, such as Below Deck (shown on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV and Bravo TV) but this information is not conclusive. This chapter will discuss the claims made about the industry in the media and then go on to provide practical examples of real-life situations on yachts. It will systematically explain each department on board and elaborate on how the crew facilitate guests with a trip of a lifetime within this pinnacle of luxury tourism. Ultimately, this chapter will conclude that the industry’s unique orientation attracts many superficial onlookers who are quick to assume much about the ‘upstairs, downstairs’ culture of yachting and luxury tourism in general.

In reality, the luxury yachting industry is not nearly as exaggerated as the media portrays it to be. It brings local, shore-based tourism industries a myriad of benefits, specifically to popular ports of call and coastal areas worldwide. Benefits include employment creation and mass capital inflow, as well as income generation for shore-based industries that provide support for the luxury vessels that facilitate this sector of luxury tourism. Yachting is an extremely professional and lucrative sector of luxury tourism which is rarely considered in many studies. A simple search on Amazon Books shows that there are only three books available to purchase about the luxury yachting industry. These books are relatively recent, they were written between 2015 and 2018, which shows that there is interest in this subject but clearly there are not enough physical publications available to provide readers with a wide range of sources.

This chapter aims to fill a gap in luxury tourism literature while emphasizing the need for a deeper understanding of this sector that has currently not received the desired level of academic attention. It is written solely from a practitioner’s perspective using experiential evidence approach which builds on the professional experience and judgment of practitioners (Barends et al., 2014), with primary evidence generated through own first-hand experiences. Additionally, it utilizes subjective personal introspection (SPI) (Holbrook, 1995) into the findings of telephone interviews conducted with two crew who are currently working in this sector.

Media and TV

Despite the hardships that have been plaguing the world within the last two decades, such as the financial crisis of 2008 and more recently, the outbreak of COVID-19, the yachting industry has managed to remain confidently resilient. As an exclusive industry, its self-sufficient nature benefits from large sources of private funding which makes it continuously stable. It is not an industry that suffers hardships or losses, the world of luxury yachting is a world of its own. General public knowledge of the industry often comes from opinion articles written by journalists claiming to know what it is really like to work on board (www.thetimes.co.uk) (Agnew, 2020) and reality TV shows, such as Below Deck, which boast the ability to capture ‘reality’ vividly and let viewers dip a toe into yacht life. Below Deck has now been flanked by two other related shows: Below Deck Mediterranean and Below Deck Sailing Yacht, all of which have helped to greatly increase viewer interest in yachting but have not necessarily provided the most accurate depiction.

The escapism that Below Deck provides to viewers has helped to exponentially grow the show’s popularity, especially recently when many viewers have been trapped in a lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most recent season of Below Deck Mediterranean aired from 1 June 2020 until 26 October 2020, these exact dates blanketing a period when many individuals found themselves in periods of quarantine or lockdown worldwide. The correlation between this period and the huge increase in the show’s viewer numbers is obvious. The 2020 season achieved record after record and became the highest rated series in the entire history of the franchise, reaching nearly 1.9 million people during overnight viewing at one point (www.cheatsheet.com) (Ragusa, 2020).

Below Deck portrays life on board for the crew to be relaxed and lavish, with crew often seen engaging in partying with guests or walking around shirtless on a guest trip. According to a yachting crew member, Deckhand Steve Wright ‘A deckhand will never take his shirt off; that’s completely false’ (www.the-triton.com) (Serio, 2016). The lack of respect for hierarchy is also striking in the Below Deck series. Captains are often too lenient with the crew and are not disciplining unprofessional behaviour such as loud, bolshy arguments, especially with guests on board. First Officer Cornelis De Necker of M/Y Mia Elise agrees: ‘It’s terrible (and) seems scripted. The chit-chat to senior officers is not how it works’. At the end of the day, yacht crew are expected to embody the seven-star service that this sector of luxury tourism boasts. Perhaps an area of yachting that Below Deck does show well is the buzzing energy that crew radiate, stemming from the extremes of coffee and adrenaline-fuelled tiredness during a trip to utter elation once the guests have departed, with tip money in hand and a day off within reach: ‘the zigzag of frantic, round-the-clock shifts followed by sudden reprieves between charters… fosters a work hard, party hard atmosphere’ (www.nytimes.com) (Weaver, 2020).

Articles such as Megan Agnew’s piece for The Sunday Times, draw attention to the extreme negatives of the industry. The sombre tone conveys an image of the very worst in the general public that are reading the article, who often know very little about the industry itself (other than maybe what they see on Below Deck, glamorized, scripted and what actual yacht crew call ‘career suicide’). In addition, this article’s polarizing ideas continue to distort the practical and professional essence of yachting by making exaggerated claims of ‘Swarovski-encrusted anchors’ for example, which cannot be backed up by physical evidence. Simply Google search ‘Swarovski encrusted anchor, yachts’ and all the results that are shown are merely jewellery. From a standpoint of personal experience in this industry, these exaggerated claims beg the question of the credibility of the article.

As a result, there is a clear need for a deeper and more realistic understanding of the industry and how it operates. It is undeniable that choosing to work on a yacht is a taxing career to say the least, but this is the crux of the industry—hard work comes with great reward. Perks come in all shapes and sizes, from essentially ‘free travel’ to a large paycheck and living in luxury accommodation with a crew that one may come to love like extended family. Sometimes crew may even benefit from being ‘guinea pigs’ for the Chefs to try out their ideas for guest meals. Lesser known is the fact that juggling work and life on a yacht is not suited to everyone as living with the same crew while working, eating and also relaxing together in the tight confines of a yacht can be a real challenge.

When speaking about yachting or about the role of a crew member, it is often hard to generalize because no two boats are ever the same. Each yacht has its own itinerary, goals and culture, but there are many different paths towards the delivery of the luxury tourism service. The discussion below focuses on the three departments on a 60–80 m yacht, namely Deck, Interior and Engineering, and explores the main themes of their daily operations.

The Deck Department

The Deck Department is responsible for maintaining the exterior of the vessel (otherwise known as the ‘decks’), moving the vessel from A to B at the owners’ request, maintaining and operating the tenders (a smaller boat with a motor, usually stored inside the yacht’s own garage, used to transport guests, crew, provisions and to facilitate water sports activities) and any water sports equipment, as well as implementing and enforcing safety protocol on board. Deck hierarchy on a 60–80 metre vessel is organized in a traditional structure, the chain of command starting with the Captain, followed by the Senior Management, a Chief Officer and Second Officer, then the general employees, the Bosun and Deckhands (crewing numbers and hierarchical structure of course directly correlate with the size of the vessel).

Guests generally spend more time off the boat than on it. ‘Owners or guests are typically not on the boat all that much, so most of the time the crew has the boat to themselves’ (www.businessinsider.com) (Hoffower, 2020). A common misconception is that crew are not required to work when the guests are not on board. In reality, a work list is infinite on a yacht and the crew are required to work year-round, much like a normal job. With no guests, working hours are reduced to a regular 8–5 and work is less demanding. Day-to-day maintenance of the exterior of a yacht usually consists of washing down the whole exterior once a week, solely to preserve the quality of the paint by preventing dirt and sand from accumulating on it and abrading it. This work is a Deckhand’s ‘bread and butter’. Other projects that are messier and require longer periods of time to complete are usually reserved for longer ‘off’ periods when the yacht is taken into a shipyard for refit. This usually happens once a year but can, of course, be more frequent depending on itinerary and budget constraints. These longer tasks include but are not limited to exterior painting and paint repairs of chips, scratches or imperfections, varnishing capping rails and furniture, carpentry jobs, replacing or laying new caulking as well as rust and metal works. Additionally, there are numerous smaller routine jobs such as whipping and splicing of lines, organization and cleaning of deck spaces as well as inventorying the deck stores of paint, tools, chemicals, varnishes, polishes, acids and hardware, to name a few. Stocktaking and reordering is usually the job of the Bosun.

When preparing for guest arrival, deck work starts to become more demanding with time pressures being introduced. The Bosun and Deckhands focus predominantly on washing and scrubbing the teak decks (usually using a machine to remove the top ‘grey’ layer of sun damaged wood on the decks, then brightening the newly exposed wood). Then detailing, which consists of polishing and protecting all the stainless steel on board (handrails, staircases, lights, anchors), removing any marks on the exterior paint that did not come off during the wash (usually using alcohol), followed by protecting the paint, polishing window glass and putting in place the exterior furniture and plants as per the ‘guest set up’. Final preparation details involve checking and detailing the beach gear and water sports equipment, particularly ensuring that all the ‘toys’ are working correctly.

The Captain liaises with the guests to plan their arrival and departure points and trip itinerary. His responsibilities are booking relevant marinas, organizing fuelling arrangements, dealing with budgets, expenditure and crewing requirements. Depending on the itinerary chosen, it is the responsibility of the navigational Officer (usually the Second Officer) to create appropriate passage plans and monitor weather forecasts. The Chief Officer focuses on safety, specifically the Safety Management System (SMS) to ensure that the yacht is conforming to legalities and has appropriate safety procedures in place before the guests step on board. Routine daily, weekly and monthly safety checks are completed by the Deck crew. The Captain and Officers also enforce routine drills and crew safety training.

Once the guests have arrived on board, workload increases considerably. A standard working day ‘on trip’ is anything upwards of 14 hours and days off are not permitted until the guests depart. The Deck crew are responsible for keeping the vessel exterior looking pristine. An anonymous First Mate who was interviewed for a Business Insider article is correct to point out that ‘they (guests) expect it to look like no one has touched it, so any rain or dew, water spots or salt spray has to be continuously cleaned, not to mention having to constantly wipe stainless (steel) and glass when guests move around the boat. They leave smudges and fingerprints everywhere’ (www.businessinsider.com) (Hoffower, 2020). This includes vacuuming the decks, fluffing pillows and collecting rogue, wet towels then sending them to the laundry. The Deck crew are responsible for all tender runs, either transporting guests from the yacht to town/the beach/lunch/other yachts or collecting provisions from the shore and delivering them to the vessel.

The Deck crew are tasked with navigational operations each day of the guest trip, either moving anchorages or coming in and out of port as per guest request, all the while practising good seamanship, watching the weather, tides, currents, advising guests on safe jet ski areas and using the tender to build excitement and adrenaline on this luxury holiday with water sports such as wake boarding, water skiing and tubing. Generally, the Deck crew do not communicate with the guests too often unless they are doing water sports or tender runs, in which case communication is usually verbal and casual with any guest requests to be fulfilled immediately and with no hesitation. Usually, the Captain will liaise with the guests throughout the day to verify that they are enjoying their holiday and to find out about any trip itinerary changes—it is normal for the itinerary to change several times each day which means that the crew must work quickly and be prepared for anything that the guests request—nothing is impossible in the world of luxury yachting.

The Interior Department

The Interior Department is responsible for the comfort and entertainment of guests, service of meals, snacks and drinks, cleanliness of all interior areas and the laundry. This department is sub-divided into smaller areas of expertise, comprising of service, housekeeping, laundry and the galley. The Chief Stewardess leads the Interior, with assistance from the Head of Service and Head of Housekeeping. The hierarchical structure continues with Stewardesses who rotate between service, housekeeping and sometimes laundry duties, when there is no designated Laundry person on board. The Purser is also a member of the Interior team, usually working in the Bridge and assisting the Captain with guest excursions, accounts, vessel and crew movements. The galley team is a separate branch of the Interior Department made up of a Head Chef and Sous Chef.

As standard across all yachts, Interior daily duties include cleaning the bridge, all crew areas and doing crew laundry. The Galley department will prepare hot lunch and dinner for the crew and sometimes in addition will make breakfast or something sweet for afternoon tea break; crew are otherwise left to fend for themselves in a crew mess stocked with extensive snacks, hot and cold drinks. In this sense, yacht crew members are extremely fortunate to have all their food prepared by professional Chefs daily. This eliminates the need of having to prepare your own meals to take to work, as many people who work ashore do. It also ensures that crew members are fuelling their bodies with proper nutrients from a hot meal, which in turn assists them with energy for their physically demanding line of work. The Chefs will usually go provisioning for crew food once a week. Without guests on board, once the daily duties are complete, Stewardesses will ‘dust vac’ (the action of vacuuming up dust from all surfaces using the round, fluffy head attachment on a vacuum cleaner) and wipe all surfaces in the guest interior to eliminate dust build-up from the air conditioning. Other important tasks include inventorying every cupboard and area in the yacht’s interior, as well as following the monthly cleaning maintenance schedule which details a specific area of the Interior that gets ‘extra polished’ each month. By living on the fringe of luxury in spotlessly clean crew accommodation, crew are provided with a good quality of life, even when living in relatively small crew quarters.

Akin to military precision, a high level of organization is expected from yacht Stewardesses. After speaking with a Head Housekeeper on an 82 m yacht, the extent of preparations and detail prior to guest arrival became evident: ‘we have pre-charter checklists, for 20 days before a trip, 10 days, 5 days and 3 days before (After a crossing to a new destination), everywhere needs to be vacuumed again, everywhere needs to be cleaned. The boat needs to be set up to perfection. We measure the distance between an object and the edge of the table, everything is one cm. Most things are measured in place so that they are perfect. We have set up photos of exactly where things were the last time the owners were on board so that everything is exactly the same when they walk on’. Every detail is meticulously planned in advance and recorded, from sheet change schedules and theme night schedules to menus and service schedules. The most stressful time in the role of a Stewardess is in the lead up to the start of a guest trip. From the Head Housekeeper’s experience, once the guests are on board, everything flows because everything has already been prepared. The galley department will liaise with the Owners, the Captain and the Chief Stewardess to create menus for the trip, usually including some local cuisine for fun theme nights. Provisions will be ordered accordingly, with crew and guest food distinctly separated. The Chief Stewardess will also order wines and spirits for cocktails, as per the guests’ preferences.

Once the guests are on board, the momentum of hard work keeps going: ‘long days, little rest, expectations to perform at the highest level of service and not cracking under pressure’ (www.businessinsider.com) (Hoffower, 2020). To the right individual, being rushed and put under pressure to do a really good job is one of the most exciting aspects of the role. The success of the trip is very much dependent on the guests and their interests, to which the role of a Purser is key: to be a liaison with the guests and facilitate any requests regarding tourism excursions. Preferences are hard to generalize as all guests/owners have different ideas for how they want to spend their luxury holiday. Excursion tourism activities, such as seeing historic landmarks, are enjoyed mostly by charter guests that have hired the yacht to travel. However, to most guests, especially private vessel owners, the extent of tourism activities only stretches to shopping and restaurant meals.

From first-hand experience, most guests prefer to use the facilities on board such as the gym or spa and spend their time doing water sports before enjoying sunset cocktails and a meal prepared by the Chefs to suit their tastes. The Head Housekeeper agreed with this statement and added that: ‘the guests would rather stay on the boat and go off for 20 mins to go to Fendi, not to go and look at a volcano’. The clientele that the luxury tourism industry naturally attracts means that guests do not have shared values with other types of tourists, such as sightseeing on land. Instead, they specifically choose a yacht to be able to easily do water sports and spend their holiday in secluded locations on the water. The word ‘luxury’ appeals to high-paying tourists who want to take advantage of onboard spa treatments, personalized service and the freedom to do anything they want to on their own private yacht. To these people, exploring crowded tourist sites does not reflect their idea of a dream holiday.

The Engineering Department

The responsibilities of a yacht’s Engineering department is to ensure that all of the mechanical, electrical, electronic, hydraulic and structural systems on board are operating correctly and are maintained and repaired as required so that the yacht can operate freely and is able to use all of her machinery areas. On a vessel between 60–80 m, there would commonly be a Chief Engineer and Second Engineer, in some cases a Third Engineer and/or an Electronic Technical Officer (ETO). Successful engineers have a good breadth of technical knowledge as well as a sharp attention to detail. The ability to spot minor changes or differences in the engine room, such as a small leak in a bilge, could potentially point to a larger, hidden issue and could be the difference between a quick repair or a full-blown disaster.

A lot of work in the engine room is based around planned maintenance and scheduled checks, with a lot of yachts relying on yacht management software, such as Idea, an ‘industry leading yacht management software…(which) supports…execution of key operational tasks on board a vessel’ (www.idea-yacht.com) (Idea Yacht, 2020) to ensure that there is no human error with maintenance scheduling. According to a Second Engineer on a 48 m yacht, every task on board is organized into a maintenance schedule and will have a date or time for completion. Once you have done the task, you sign it off and the schedule will reset until it needs to come up again. This highlights the systematic and organized nature of a yacht Engineer’s line of work. Much like the Stewardess’, everything is pre-planned and organized, however with Engineering the stakes are much higher. In this department, planning is done to eliminate the risk of human error when working with critical machinery for the safety of life and the vessel.

The Second Engineer shared that when preparing for a guest trip, Engineers go through all the safety systems, fire alarms and fire procedures for the vessel so that they know by law that everything is working correctly.

In addition to this, the Engineering department will perform any maintenance or repairs on tenders or mechanical water sports toys to ensure that everything runs smoothly while the guests are on board. Tenders and water sports equipment are heavily used so if they were to fail during a trip, it would result in the quality of the luxury tourism experience deteriorating. Prior to a guest trip, the Interior crew usually do an Interior walk-through to make sure that everything is working in the guest areas. From the Second Engineers experience, the main things that could fail in the guest interior are lightbulbs. Fuelling also needs to happen prior to guest arrival. Together with the Bridge team, the Engineers would consult the itinerary and passage plans for the duration of the upcoming guest trip and then perform calculations to ascertain how much fuel and oil would need to be taken on for the duration of the trip, with extra leeway in case of an (inevitable) change in plans or in an emergency.

During guest trips, Engineers must be on call 24/7 in case of any issues or when the yacht is underway to a new location. When at sea, many systems on board are safety critical so breakdowns and failures offshore bring a whole new set of challenges and risks. This puts pressure on the Engineering department to keep all systems working to eliminate down time and negative impacts on the itinerary and guest expectations (www.wilsonhalligan.com, 2020) (Wilson, 2020). The Second Engineer highlighted other priorities of Engineering when the guests are on board, including ensuring that the Internet is working as fast as possible, the air conditioning is getting down to the requested temperature, the crew radios and communications are working perfectly as well as the guest entertainment centres. If that is all working, the guests are happy.

Compared to the service-orientated work of the Deck and Interior departments, the Engineers are more technically focused due to the nature of their profession. From the Second Engineer’s experience, if the Engineering department can do a whole guest trip without seeing the guests, then they know that they have done their job well because nothing was broken. When the guests do see the Engineers, they panic a little and think that something is wrong, so they generally try and stay out of the way. In addition, one of the biggest roles of a good Engineer is to relieve some of the stress from other crew members whose jobs, at the time of a guest trip, are the most under pressure. The Second Engineer elaborated on this point and shared that one of the challenges of his role is keeping the morale of the crew going: ‘we try to keep everyone happy, keep laughing and also try to keep ourselves sane! During the season, it is our (the engineering department’s) quietest time, hoping that nothing breaks and trying to keep busy’.

This often results in the Engineers helping other departments, for example assisting the Deck crew to launch tenders and do waste disposal ashore or helping the Interior crew by taking over the crew mess and packing it up after crew mealtimes. Successful yacht crew members understand that everyone, regardless of which department they are in, is working towards a common goal—the delivery of a luxury tourism experience. In contrast to Below Deck, where the crew often make life difficult for themselves by arguing and pulling each other apart, real yachting is about a collective approach to working, rather than the individual differences. Important qualities of crew members are to be respectful of different cultures and of each other, as well as being able to work as a team under the umbrella of shared values. This really shows the essence of the togetherness of yachting and how, contrary to the picture painted by the media, the spirit of collaboration really goes a long way in an industry like this.

To conclude, this chapter has presented the image of the luxury yachting industry that is being portrayed in the media and has offered a real-life account of the main responsibilities of the Deck, Interior and Engineering departments. By offering these opposing aspects on the same industry, this chapter has emphasized that there is a need for a deeper understanding of this sector and how it operates so that information across the board is cohesive and fills the gap in luxury tourism literature.

This chapter has also demonstrated that each department on board has varying levels of direct exposure to the experience of luxury tourism. The Interior and Galley have the highest level of exposure, organizing excursions and meals featuring local cuisines; followed by the Deck department who organize travel itineraries and water sports activities. On the contrary, the Engineering department are practically and mechanically orientated, trying to limit guest interaction as much as possible. However, without these departments collaboratively working together, a smooth and professional luxury yachting experience cannot be guaranteed.

Without the technical knowledge of the Engineering department, the yacht would not run and without the Captain’s and Deck Officer’s navigation skills, there would be no opportunity to cruise to secluded bays and show the guests a truly unique experience, otherwise inaccessible to the general public. It is this togetherness that really highlights the contemporary realities and professionalism of this sector, something that can be misrepresented by media and reality TV shows that popularize a one-sided portrayal of the industry. Ultimately, this points to a need for more publications like this one, with the sole purpose of deepening a true understanding of how this niche sector operates and how it really embraces the demands of tourists, professionals and the luxury tourism industry itself.

Certification and Training

The development of yachting tourism, as well as luxury yachting tourism, has significant economic benefits such as increased tourism investment, lower seasonality of tourist demand and more attractive destination image. Another notable impact is employment possibilities (Mikulić et al., 2015). This section aims to provide basic guidance for anyone interested in embarking on a career in the yachting industry. The requirements below are aimed towards people who are in the initial stages of a yachting career and who are looking to gain the basic qualifications that are necessary for simply working on board a vessel, before beginning to consider specializing into one of the aforementioned departments.

Below are two compulsory requirements for every professional job in the industry:

International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW)—STCW certification was created to promote safety of life, safety of the vessel and to protect the marine environment. It establishes internationally accepted standards of training and certification of seafarers, ensuring that crew are qualified and fit for duties at sea. The course is five days long and covers basic training in personal survival techniques, firefighting and fire prevention, personal safety and social responsibility, elementary first aid and proficiency in security awareness.

UK flag-state medical examination (ENG1)—The ENG1 is a medical examination set by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to assess whether individuals are fit to work on a seagoing vessel and perform duties at sea. This medical examination is only performed by MCA-approved Doctors. A full explanation of the medical exam can be found online when searching ‘MCA ENG1’.

As always, there is an abundance of information that can be accessed online regarding maritime training and certification for further knowledge such as:

MCA Training and certification: detailed information—https://www.gov.uk/topic/working-sea/training-certification

Seafarer skills and training—https://www.gov.uk/seafarer-skills-and-training

Bluewater Yachting—https://www.bluewateryachting.com/crew-placement/yacht-crew

Superyacht UK—https://www.superyachtuk.com/careers/

List of MCA Approved ENG1 Doctors (UK based)—https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mca-approved-doctors-uk-based

List of MCA Approved ENG1 Doctors (overseas)—https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mca-approved-doctors-overseas