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This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nathan Marx, a deckhand for a superyacht. It has been edited for length and clarity.
From 2020 to the end of 2023, I was a quality controller at an engineering company that made mining machinery in South Africa, I managed 132 employees and earned 3,000 euros, around $3,333 a month.
My future was pretty secure at the company, but I lacked that sense of adventure and felt like there was more to life than working away every day and not seeing the world as I would like.
I knew some friends who had entered the yachting industry since leaving school, and it looked very intriguing and adventurous.
My previous job had long hours and was hard work, which made me comfortable stepping into the yachting industry.
When I started working on deckhand certification courses in January this year, I was told about these massive yachting hubs where it’d be easier to find work opportunities because they were saturated with boats.
One of those was Antibes, France. I moved there in May this year and traveled the entire coastline of the south of France, dock walking daily, exploring the vessels, and putting myself out there to catch the right opportunity.
I started documenting my job search on TikTok on the day I left for France. I was very nervous that I didn’t have a job yet, and I wanted to stand out and get a step ahead in my job search. I love expressing myself through video creation, so the two went hand in hand.
I met this girl who works on this vessel docked in Monaco for the season. She saw my videos, and we got to know each other. I was the first person she contacted when they needed a deckhand. So it’s all about getting in front of the right people’s eyes.
My role on the yacht is to ensure the boat’s exterior is pristine. Everything regarding the exterior, from the hull to the deck, to any furniture outside, is my responsibility to ensure that it is presentable for guests. I also help with basic watchkeeping when the yacht is out at sea.
Now, three months in, I’m at the bottom of the food chain and I’m earning 1,000 euros less every month than I did back in South Africa. But this career has room for growth and will keep me above the ceiling that I reached in South Africa in my management job.
One thing I realized working on yachts is that you live in the same space as your coworkers. If something bothers you about a person and you keep quiet, it builds within you and just sours the relationship on board. You have to foster a relationship with them that is a lot more fruitful than a normal employee would.
I think I also value that because not only am I getting to travel or experience all these crazy things that normal people in a 9-to-5 usually won’t, but I’m also meeting people and creating connections with them that’ll last a lifetime instead. That real connection with people also gives me satisfaction.
Having a life outside this industry might be challenging because anything can happen at the last minute. You might have time to spare one moment, but you’re expecting guests the next, and you’re suddenly back to work for a week. So whatever you have planned just needs to fall on the back burner.
But the maritime industry here sets out work-life balance very well, and I think that’s also one of the things that drew me to the yachting industry because my previous job did not value my personal life. So, after the hard work, I get a lot of off time, and I have time to go and experience things and step off.
One of my favorite places I visited was Corsica, France, a beautiful little town on a hill with an absurd history. We also had the privilege of hiking up into the old city, an amazing experience I don’t think I would’ve had otherwise if I wasn’t into the yachting industry.
I once spoke to a person who’s been in the industry for around nine years. He told me about chartering Will Smith and all these big A-list star names, which sounded so enticing. I haven’t had any of those or any experiences like that, but the individuals we meet on this boat are very high-net-worth because renting the vessel I work on costs about 78,000 euros a week.
We once had a client with 3.2 million Instagram followers on board and had a normal conversation with her. It was humbling to me because you always think these people will be different or special in some way, but at the end of the day, they’re just normal people. She never mentioned anything about her success once. It was so normal that I was surprised.
It’s very motivating to be surrounded by individuals like that because they make you feel that their success is possible for you, too.
The superyacht industry is unlike other luxury sectors. The places people visit are so unique that not everyone gets to see them. The cost involved is also quite exorbitant, with some yachts going for 500,000 euros a week. So, the client has a level of expectation of luxury they want to receive, and you have to live up to very high standards that no other luxury industry has.
My career can progress from here in many ways, and I’m trying to explore all those avenues. But the yachting industry is a tight-knit community that’s made me very happy over the past few months, so I’ll stay for as long as possible.
Do you have a story to share about working around high-net-worth individuals? Email this reporter at [email protected].
