Yacht Crew Trends in 2019

The Yacrew team  |  10th March 2020

YPI Crew, an Antibes-based crew recruitment agency, has recently released its annual yacht industry statistics for yacht crew recruitment, which shows great insight into the state of yachting today.

The report shows that the yacht crew industry continues on its upward trend and that yacht job requests are up by 18% since 2017.

Here are some of the headline facts for 2019:

  • The majority of yacht crew jobs were on yachts of 71 metres plus in length. These roles now represent 42% of total positions on yachts, The second most popular segment was yachts of between 51 and 70 metres, making up a 28% of positions.
  • The demand for crew on vessels between 31 and 50 metres increased by 10% between 2018 and 2019, revealing an interesting yacht crew statistic going forwards. This may reflect the struggle captains and hiring managers are facing to attract good, hardworking crew to smaller yachts.
  • Yachts in the 70-80 meters range are often perceived as more appealing places to work and so Captains on smaller vessels rely heavily on crew agencies’ assistance and networking to source, entice and recruit hard-to-find candidates.
  • 93% of yacht jobs are on motor yachts, with just 7% on sailing yachts.
  • 65% of jobs are on private yachts.
  • Yacht captain jobs made up 4% of YPI CREW’s job requests in 2019, while officer registrations hit another record high. This contrasting yacht industry statistic has raised questions about whether there will be enough captain positions to accommodate all the upcoming future officers. Most of those seeking yacht officer jobs were looking for rotation work.
  • It was a busy year for yacht steward/ess and deckhand job registrations and a great year for recruiting yacht chefs.
  • A record number of yacht engineers found jobs through YPI CREW – this is up by 26% from 2017.
  • There was also a 59% increase in yacht spa therapist job requests in 2019 and a 70% increase in spa therapists/masseuses who found work.

All in all, 2019 was an extremely successful year in yachting and this upward trend is set to continue for 2020 and beyond. There has never been a better time to find work on a yacht.

To search all the latest yacht jobs across a wide range of departments, go to: www.yacrew.com