Category: Pocket Superyacht Blog

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 […]

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.

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 […]