By now you’ve probably seen that the yachting industry is quite similar to Cape Town’s social clique. It’s all about who you know. As a newbie yachtie, you need to get in front of the right people to stand a chance of landing any kind of yacht work – you need to network.
Networking from Cape Town
It is the norm for entry-level yacht crew from South Africa to struggle to be hired. This is partly due to more private yachts departing from ports overseas, and very few locally. Captains like to interview their potential crew face to face, and sometimes even allow for a probation period on board their yacht. So when a position opens up, Captains typically want replacement crew readily available – within a day or two – making this quite difficult if you’re in South Africa as you still need to get Visas, flights etc etc
The idea is that, once you qualify and meet the basic requirements, the best recommendation is that you fly over to your particular port preference and network from there – so you are immediately available and can meet Captains in person.
If this is not an option, here are a few things you can do that might help.
Yacht Crew Networking – Online
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Yacht Crew Agencies – Reach out to, and register with local yacht crew agencies.
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Social Media – Find and join social media pages from the yachting industry – such as our Get Onboard Facebook page.
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Other Pages to join include:
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Yacht Crew CV – Post your yachting CV here
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Girls on Deck: Connection Female Deck & Engineering Superyacht Crew
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Yacht Crew Houses – find the crew accommodations and hostels yachties use when they stay in ports all around the world, and join those social media pages/groups too.
Yacht Crew Networking – In Person
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Get On Board Partner Academy Alumni – If you’ve studied through our partner academy in Hout Bay or Durban, we provide direct networking opportunities through past yachties, Captains and engineers that just might get you in front of the right person. Everyone you meet on the course is also networking exposure.
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Chat to Local Yachties – Have a chat with a couple of local yachties (like us!).
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Pubs & Restaurants – Find out where the yachties hang out and go there.
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Yachting Events – Events held in Cape Town often bring a multitude of exhibitors and visitors. These events are prime locations to do some business networking. Some of the events you could check-out are:
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Clipper Round the World
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Boat Shows
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Superyacht related events
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How Get Onboard can help:
Please note that Get Onboard is not a direct Crew Placement Agency – we do not handle placements for students who completed the yachting courses, however, we are often contacted by Captains and Senior Crew overseas and asked to provide some options on new recruits. We then provide CVs of a few of our top candidates, to assist our students who made an excellent impression during their training with our partner academy.
We discuss some more in-depth ways of networking in our Yacht Crew eBook, and you can also book a consultation with us directly if you have more pertinent questions.