Category: Pocket Superyacht Blog

Yacht crew couples on Pocket Superyachts.

The multifaceted job of yacht crew couples on Pocket Superyachts. Great news for Invisible Crew as the niche of 50ft to 100ft luxury yachts a.k.a. Pocket Superyachts is on the rise. (60ft is the new 50ft by the way) Unfortunately it seems to become harder and harder to find those yacht crew couples  that have the knowledge, experience and passion to run these type of yachts. We are always looking for the full package. Especially for sail yachts, the variety of skills and knowledge required is vast. The captain of a 70ft luxury-charter-sail-yacht has got to be (in no specific order of priority) a good navigator, boat handler, engineer, people’s person, communicator, negotiator, accountant, doctor, waiter, water sports instructor, safety officer, sailing instructor, dishwasher and more… He’s got to have the energy to get up before the guests to chamois the deck, serve breakfast, prepare the water toys, take the guests snorkelling, check the engine, raise the anchor, hoist the main, plot a course, drive the boat, (or even more tiring, assist the guests while they are helming), drop anchor, shake cocktails, take the kids on the ringo or knee- or wakeboard, set the dinner table, unblock the toilet, (wash his hands!) […]

Pocket Superyachts? What’s that?

It’s time to identify the market of Pocket Superyachts. The term Pocket Superyachts has been around for a number of years. We’re not even sure who came up with it. It is a great and sexy term for the 50ft to 80ft yachts that are run by professional crew and maintained to the highest standards, which we refer to as Superyacht standards. Looking around the Mediterranean marinas it is apparent that this is a huge market. In a Yachting World article in 2013 Toby Hodges already stated that 60ft is the new 50ft. Yacht builders like Nautor’s Swan, Oyster Marine, Baltic, Discovery and others have provided custom and semi-custom yachts in this range for years. Today we see builders like Jeanneau who have made a name manufacturing serial build smaller yachts, venturing into the semi-custom market with a 64 footer. Motor yacht builders Princess offer 7 options and  Sunseeker no less than 10 options between 50ft and 80ft. New building techniques allow buyers to get more boat for their buck. An interesting example is the beautiful CNB76. The interior is built in 3 segments while, at the same time, the hull is being constructed. Once completed the three interior segments are inserted and […]

Pocket Superyacht sailing in Fiji

Fiji: one of the “10 places to take your Pocket Superyacht.” “Sailing is the slowest and most expensive way to get where you don’t plan to go.” This running joke is partly true but none of  it is relevant anyway. It’s an amazing feeling of freedom when you are in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, looking at the chart and realising that Canada is just as far away as Senegal, Brazil or Norway. Just by spinning the wheel and altering the sails you could go to any of these places! Granted,the journey won’t be equally as comfortable in all directions, but it’s still possible. Why not go to the other side of the world, to Fiji? More and more owners spin the wheel and set sail towards the Pacific Ocean. Its remote islands are more often than not as stunning as you imagine them. In many places the people are still about as traditional as they have been since James Cook’s time. And speaking of Cook and Bligh, when you are in Fiji, it is not hard to imagine how they saw these places. When you witness a man throwing a wooden spear in the water to catch his […]

training crew yachts article islander magazine

The rules are very black and white and grey on Pocket Superyachts

One of the reasons why Invisible Crew is specialised and passionate about the Pocket Superyacht niche is its personal nature. The confined space of a yacht smaller than 100ft dictates that the contact between crew and owner is more amicable and less formal than on larger yachts. One would think that such interpersonal dynamics make the job easier but it’s quite the opposite. Over the years I have witnessed how these dynamics result in blurred lines. The lines can’t be any more blurred than when alcohol comes into play. Sometimes playing hard is actually working hard. Without a fault, any owner I have worked for has invited me to join his family or guests when they went out for dinner and the occasional party that follows. I’m not complaining when I say that I have been forced to join in with the excesses numerous times. I would almost say it is part of the job. However, what’s also part of the job, is getting up in the morning before everyone else. One owner I worked for took us (a crew of 4) on a bender one evening. The next morning, as a logical result, we weren’t as fresh as usual. […]

Warning the industry for my seatbelt alarm!

Now I for one am not a fan of red tape and regulations, what I do like, however, is structure. I dare to say that structure is the one thing our industry is lacking. It starts with education and the legal requirements. Compared to industries such as aviation, the level of required training is extremely low. Anybody who claims to have sailed 2500nm can enrol in a yachtmaster course and two weeks later is entitled to captain a yacht up to 200 Tons. TWO HUNDRED TONS!!! That’s a big boat! Of course common sense applied by owners, management companies and insurers makes it a little harder for a fresh YM to take command of such a titan, but still, the thought… These qualifications are definitely valuable and necessary but by far not enough to prep someone to master a yacht as a professional. Then there’s the competition between the different schools, mostly franchises of the same company. But how is it even possible that they have different prices? How is it allowed that there are two franchises of the same company in the same street? Even McDonalds doesn’t allow that, and if they did, they would provide the exact same prices […]