Category: IC in The Islander Magazine

Pay Peanuts get Monkeys.

Atlantic crossing  It’s that time of the year again when most yachts are preparing to cross the Atlantic aiming to be there for Christmas and New Year’s eve. Temporary crew In the Pocket Superyacht niche, which we exclusively work with, we see owners hiring temporary crew to deliver their yachts across. Some of them don’t have permanent crew and for others it is the right time for their crew to take time off between two busy seasons. Experienced crew At Invisible Crew we do quite a few of these deliveries every year. We price these deliveries in relevance to the size (and value) of the yacht. We only send crews who have done these types of trips multiple times before. We tend to send small but experienced teams. We see little use in spending travel expenses (only) on someone who has no idea what they will be doing on board these valuable yachts. Less people on board means fewer personalities to deal with. Not having enough experienced people is dangerous. Less than 70 € a day? Very recently I had an enquiry from an owner and upon receiving my quote he was surprised that we were twice as expensive as a professional yacht […]

Are the Pocket Superyacht owners employers or clients?

In our online course “How To Find Work On Pocket Superyachts” we are offering ways for Pocket Superyacht crews to increase their professional approach. This is why we discuss the question: Are the owners employers or clients? In theory, the owners are your employers but: what happens if you look at them as your clients? -And for now, I am not talking about the type of contract you have with them- What is the difference? An employer does not only pay your salary, he or she will give you instructions and feedback, have staff meetings with you, evaluate your work and help to improve your performance where possible. Clients, however, hire you because you are an expert in your field and because you know -better than them- how to perform the job. They expect to do much less follow up. And this is exactly the point. When owners come on board their yacht, the last thing they want is another staff meeting or looking into the operations and evaluating them. How do I know that? Because, this is exactly the service that we offer with Invisible Crew Management. We keep owners at bay from the organisation and the hassle around […]

Jens Oomes Sailing Captain Pocket superyacht Invisible Crew

What is it that Invisible Crew does and why?

  Present, History, Future.   Present: We provide worry-free ownership for Pocket Superyacht owners by selecting quality and compatible crew and supporting them with our proven system. We are working with some amazing crews and some amazing owners who all want to see a higher level of professionalism in the niche of 50ft-100ft luxury yachts. We affectionally call them Pocket Superyachts. The clients want the full service that allows them to enjoy their yacht to the fullest when they are on board while not having to worry at all about it when they are not on board. We help the crew to a higher level of professionalism by providing a professional frame work. We are their employer, their personal assistant, their representative and their advisor, all rolled into one. The owners have peace of mind knowing that their carefully selected crew is supported by a system that also provides seamless continuity, should their crew become unable to work. Our maintenance application is just one tool that we use to achieve that. This allows a new crew to step in and understand the detailed maintenance history of the yacht at any time. We have also started the pilot version of our […]

Interview with a worry-free Pocket Superyacht owner.

In the spring of 2015 we were contacted by the owner of the 21m catamaran Imagine Heaven. He was referred to us by our long standing clients of the Lagoon 620 Crocodile Daddy. Initially he only wanted to sign up for our Crew Management service. He told us his 7 year old yacht was in need of a respray among other jobs. A superyacht consultancy company had refused to help him as they didn’t bother with yachts below 44m. So he automatically turned to the Pocket Superyacht Experts of Invisible Crew. More than 2 years into our cooperation we asked him some questions. We were very proud of the answers and Mr. Bouwen encouraged us to make them public so we can help more owners that were in his position! I.C: How did you come across Invisible Crew and what kind of services were you looking for exactly? Mr B: A business relation of mine who also has a 20 meter catamaran recommended Invisible Crew to me. I told him that I had owned Imagine Heaven for 7 years already but now I was lacking the time and energy to follow up on the many aspects involved; maintenance, crew, exploitation,… […]

invisible-crew-find-work-on-pocket-superyacht

“How to (find) work on Pocket Superyachts” Training starting up this year!

Happy New Year to all the Islander readers! It’s going to be an exciting year at Invisible Crew. In fact the last 3 months of ’17 have been very exciting, indeed! Since we launched our new brochure and website our service offer is now resonating pitch-perfect with our market, the Pocket Superyacht Owners. But that’s not even the most exciting part!   The AHA Moment! For the last 7 years I have been breaking my head over how we can train yachties to become truly professional Pocket Superyacht Crew. My biggest concern was that people would not want to pay for yet another course after they’ve done their Basic Safety and Yacht master courses. These are the only two certificates that are officially required to skipper a Pocket Superyacht and as important as they are, they don’t prepare you for the full extent of the job. An extremely multi-facetted job that requires an understanding and knowledge on: • Owners: Who are they, how do they behave and communicate, what do they expect, how to represent their interests? • Charters: What is the position of the charter brokers, how to work with them, how to offer great service on board, how […]