CHAPTER 00 · HOW TO JOIN YACHTING
A letter from the bridge
Who I am, why this guide exists, and how to use it if you are already booking flights.
I am a superyacht captain. I started green, with no sea time, no contacts and a certificate I had just paid for. Every season I hire people standing exactly where you are standing now, so I have seen this from both ends of the gangway.
I was born in South Africa and I have spent more than a decade at sea. I have taken a yacht to Antarctica. The same industry also parks crew in cold shipyards for weeks, with no guests, no view and a jobs list that grows every day, and both of those are yachting.
Why this exists
Green crew ask me the same five questions every season, in roughly the same order. Where do I go. When do I go. How much will I earn. Which certificates do I actually need. How do I walk a dock without embarrassing myself.
The answers exist. They are scattered across sales pages, forum arguments and advice that was true in 2015. Almost nobody sits down and answers all five properly, for free, without selling you a course on the last page. So I did.
I am not neutral about this industry. It gave me a career I could not have bought. It also costs you weekends, privacy and a fair number of birthdays spent at anchor, and you get both halves in here.
How to use it
Read it front to back. It takes about an hour, and the order is deliberate: what the job is, whether it suits you, what it pays, then the practical steps.
If you are in a hurry, or you have already booked a flight, go straight to chapter 04 on certificates and chapter 06 on where and when. Those two decide whether your money and your timing get wasted. Then chapter 07 for the dock and chapter 09 for your CV.
From the bridge: The crew I remember hiring are rarely the most qualified ones. They are the ones who came back the second morning at 07:30, without being asked, and started where they left off.
What this is not
This is not legal, visa or tax advice. I am a captain, not a lawyer, and immigration rules change while you are reading them. Check the official page before you book anything.
It is not a job board. It is not a course seller either. No school paid to be in here, and I get nothing if you book one.
There is a paid guide coming later this year, the 2026-27 Atlantic edition, and it goes deeper. This free one still has to stand on its own. If it does not, tell me.
The Captain