All roles/Shoreside/Yacht Crew Manager
Shoreside
Yacht Crew Manager
A Yacht Crew Manager runs the people side of a managed fleet from the office. You recruit, contract, pay and keep compliant the crew on every yacht, so captains can run their boats and owners stay legal under MLC 2006.
- Department
- Shoreside
- Reports to
- Yacht Manager or Fleet Manager
- Yacht size
- Shore based, managing crew on 30m to 150m+ yachts
- Contract
- Permanent, shore based
- Starting pay
- €45,000 a year
What the job is
You work for a management company, a family office or a large private fleet, looking after the crew on anything from five to forty yachts. Captains still choose their own people, but you make it happen properly. You brief recruitment agencies, check references and certificates, issue Seafarer Employment Agreements and make sure every contract matches the flag state and MLC 2006. When a chief stewardess resigns mid season, your phone is the one that rings.
Much of the work is administration done well. You keep a live record of every crew member's STCW certificates, ENG1 medicals, flag endorsements and visa expiry dates, and chase renewals before they lapse. You process monthly payroll through an employment company, handle social security and pension questions, and run leave and rotation planning. You also arrange flights, joining letters and crew agency paperwork so a new deckhand arrives in Antibes or Fort Lauderdale with everything in order.
The other half is people. You deal with grievances, disciplinary hearings, medical repatriations and the odd crew member stuck in an airport without the right visa. You advise captains on salary benchmarks, leave policies and crew handbooks, and you keep the owner's budget in mind. Most good crew managers have worked on board, often as a chief stewardess, purser or officer, because captains trust someone who knows how a yacht actually runs.
What makes a good one
- MLC 2006 and flag state employment rules
- Calm handling of crew disputes
- Accurate payroll and record keeping
- Recruitment and interviewing
- Clear writing to captains and owners
A day in the life
- 08:30Check overnight emails from yachts in the Caribbean and Asia. A 60m captain in St Barths needs a replacement second engineer within ten days.
- 09:15Brief two crew agencies on the engineer role with salary, rotation and ticket requirements. Ask for shortlists by tomorrow.
- 10:00Run the weekly certificate report. Three ENG1 medicals and one PDSD expire next month, so you email the crew and their heads of department.
- 11:30Call a captain about a deckhand who failed a random drug and alcohol test. Talk through the company policy and arrange the paperwork for a fair disciplinary process.
- 13:00Lunch at the desk while you check this month's payroll file from the employment company against crew lists, joining dates and overtime notes.
- 14:30Draft Seafarer Employment Agreements for two new stewardesses joining a 45m charter yacht in Palma, checking the flag state's requirements.
- 15:30Book flights and send joining letters and visa support letters for a South African chef joining in Genoa.
- 16:30Video call with an owner's family office to agree a 5% crew pay review across three yachts, with benchmarking figures you prepared last week.
- 18:00Log the day's changes in the crew database and hand over anything urgent to the on call phone for the evening.
Pay by country
Annual gross salary for a permanent shore based role, paid in local currency and taxed locally. Bands cover crew managers to senior crew managers at established management companies. No charter tips. Bonuses are sometimes paid on fleet size or performance.
- France and Monaco
- €48,000 – 75,000
- Spain
- €38,000 – 55,000
- Italy
- €38,000 – 55,000
- United Kingdom
- £38,000 – 60,000
- USA (Florida)
- US$65,000 – 95,000
- Caribbean
- US$50,000 – 75,000
- UAE
- AED 240,000 – 360,000
- Australia
- A$85,000 – 115,000
- New Zealand
- NZ$75,000 – 100,000
Required
- Right to work in the office country
- Previous yacht crew or crew management experience
- Working knowledge of MLC 2006
- Fluent written English
Recommended
- CIPD Level 5 in People Management
- ISM Code / DPA training course
- STCW Basic Safety Training
- Payroll or HR qualification
- Second European language
Visas
- Right to work where the office is (EU, UK, US or other)
- Schengen visa for travel to yachts if not an EU citizen
- US B1/B2 for visits to yachts in the United States
Where it leads
Yacht Crew Manager jobs open now
Questions crew ask
Do I need to have worked on yachts to become a crew manager?
It is not legally required, but most employers strongly prefer it. Captains respond better to someone who understands rotations, charter seasons and life on board, and HR people without yacht time usually start as a Crew Coordinator.
Will I earn more than I did on board?
Often not at first. Your gross salary may look higher, but you now pay rent, food and local income tax, so many senior crew take a real cut in their first shore job.
Is the job really nine to five?
Mostly office hours, but yachts work across time zones and emergencies do not wait. Expect an on call phone rota and the occasional evening call about a medical evacuation or a missed flight.