How to get a yacht job with no experience

A practical reference for landing a first superyacht job when you have never crewed: which department to aim at, which certificates to hold before you travel, and how daywork turns into a season.

Looking for work right now? Browse live maritime jobs →

What “green crew” means

In yachting, green crew means someone who holds the entry certificates but has no superyacht sea time yet. It does not mean “no skills”. Hospitality, trades, watersports, sailing, and ordinary teamwork all count. What it does mean is that you have not yet worked a season on a yacht, so the boat that hires you is taking a chance on your attitude and your paperwork rather than on a logbook.

The two usual entry roles are junior deckhand (also called green deckhand) on deck, and junior steward or stewardess in the interior. Galley work is a third door, but it is a trade door: boats hire cooks who can already cook, not people hoping to learn from zero. Engineering is not an entry department. It sits behind formal tickets and is paid accordingly.

You are not expected to know every line on a 50-metre yacht. You are expected to arrive with the certificates in date, a CV a chief officer can read in a minute, and the willingness to do unglamorous work. Wash-downs, varnishing, guest laundry, provisioning runs, and night turns in port are the job.

Deck, interior, or galley

Pick a department before you write the CV. Boats hire for a gap, not for “happy to do anything” with no preference. You can still be flexible once you are there. Green crew are often asked to cross between deck and interior on smaller boats. The CV should still say which role you are asking for.

Deck

Deckhands look after the exterior: cleaning, teak, tenders, lines, water toys, and watchkeeping once you have the experience for it. The ladder runs junior deckhand, deckhand, lead deckhand, bosun, then mate or officer and, much later, captain. A useful background is anything practical: trades, sailing, diving, or simply being happy outside in bad weather. Uniform is work clothes, not service dress.

Interior

Stewardesses (the word is used for the role regardless of gender on many boats, though “steward” is also used) run housekeeping, service, laundry, cabins, and the guest experience. The ladder runs junior stew, stew, second stew, chief stew, and on larger yachts a purser. Hospitality experience transfers more directly here than it does to deck. Presentation matters because you are in front of guests.

Galley

The chef cooks for crew every day and for guests when owners or charterers are aboard. This is not where green crew usually start unless they already have professional kitchen experience. If that is you, read the chef section of yacht crew salaries and look at live chef roles rather than applying as a junior deckhand.

The path, step by step

Crew agents and training schools describe the same sequence. The order matters. Doing step 4 before step 1 is why a lot of people spend a month in a marina and go home without a job.

1. Get the certificates first. STCW Basic Safety Training and an ENG1 medical are what agencies filter on. Book them before you book the flight.
2. Write a one-page yachting CV with a clear head-and-shoulders photo. Use the free yacht CV template and throw away the two-page shore CV.
3. Go to a crew hub in season. Being physically there during hiring is the factor crew agents describe as the one you cannot fake from home. See daywork, day rates and seasons for when the Mediterranean and Caribbean seasons actually run.
4. Register with crew agencies and keep the profile current. Names that come up constantly for yacht crew are Yotspot, bluewater, and YPI Crew. Registration is not a job offer. It puts you in a database a captain already uses.
5. Dockwalk, and take daywork. Walk the quay with printed CVs in the morning, ask for the bosun or chief officer, and do not step aboard until you are invited. A paid day is worth more than another afternoon of applications.
6. Turn daywork into the first junior role as boats crew up. The person who already did three good days on that boat is ahead of the stranger with the same certificates.

Certificates before you travel

STCW Basic Safety Training is the safety course. It is usually taught as a five-day week covering personal survival, fire fighting, elementary first aid, and personal safety, often with security awareness added. Published prices sit roughly in the £850–£1,300 / €1,000–€1,500 band; bluewater has listed the basic course around €1,295. Confirm the current price with the school. The fire and survival parts are refreshed about every five years under the STCW rules. Details are in the STCW guide and on the IMO STCW pages.

The ENG1 is the UK seafarer medical and the certificate yacht crew are asked for even on many non-UK flags, because it is the document agencies already know how to read. It is issued only by an MCA-approved doctor, it is valid for up to two years for adults, and a GP letter is not a substitute. Budget, what is tested, and what a restriction means are covered in the ENG1 guide.

Do these at home if that is cheaper and the dates work. Approved ENG1 doctors also practice in France, Spain, the US, South Africa and elsewhere, so you are not forced to fly to the UK. Training schools cluster in the same hubs you will job-hunt in, including Antibes, Palma, Fort Lauderdale, and UK schools such as UKSA and Flying Fish.

The yachting CV

A yacht CV is one page. Photo, top right, plain background, you in a polo or a smart shirt, not a beach photo and not a crop from a night out. Certificates and their expiry dates sit above the job history. The profile is two or three lines saying which role you want and the one thing you are actually good at. Experience can be shore work. Label it honestly. “Waiter, 2 years” is more useful to a chief stew than a paragraph of adjectives.

Carry printed copies in a folder when you dockwalk. Email a PDF that is small enough to open on a phone. The CV template is the layout captains expect. If you have daywork references, ask before you list a phone number.

Where to be, and when

The Mediterranean hiring season builds in late winter and peaks in spring, roughly February through May, for a season that runs about April to September or October. The Caribbean season runs about November to March or April, with hiring in early autumn. Many boats do the Mediterranean in summer and the Caribbean in winter, so the two calendars join up if you are good enough to be kept on.

The ports where that hiring actually happens are small. Antibes and Palma are the main Mediterranean crew hubs. Genoa is part of the same circuit. Fort Lauderdale is the gateway for the United States and the Caribbean. Showing up in a pretty harbour that is not a crew hub, in the wrong month, is an expensive way to learn the map. The seasons guide has the day-rate ranges and a plain-language note on Schengen and US visas. Visa rules change and they are not something to guess from a blog. Read the official guidance for your nationality before you buy the ticket.

Agencies, dockwalking, and daywork

Agencies are the formal route. You make a profile, upload the certificates and the photo, and a placement person calls you when a boat asks for a junior. That call is more likely if you are already in the hub and can join tomorrow. “I can be there in three weeks” loses to the person standing on the dock.

Dockwalking is the informal route, and it is normal, not rude, if you do it properly. Mornings are better than evenings. Ask the deckhand at the passerelle who is the right person to speak to. If they say the bosun is ashore, leave a CV and come back once. Do not wander into the salon. Do not turn up in beachwear. A collared shirt and clean shoes is the standard advice from Dockwalk and the crew agencies, because the person who greets you may be about to put you in front of a guest.

Daywork is the paid trial. Rough published day rates are about €100–€200 a day in Europe (Antibes often quoted around €120–€160) and about $150–$200 a day in Florida. Accommodation is usually not included, so the day rate is not profit until you have paid for a bed. A good day gets you asked back. Three good days is how a lot of junior seasons start. Browse deckhand jobs and stewardess jobs so you can see how boats describe the role, then still go in person. Junior jobs are often filled before they are written up.

How long it takes, and what it costs to try

There is no guaranteed timeline. Industry accounts range from a few days to a couple of months on the ground in peak season. That spread is the honest answer. Your certificates, the month you arrive, how you look on paper, and whether boats are actually crewing up all move it. Anyone selling a fixed “you will have a job in ten days” course is selling the course.

The costs you can plan are the ones with price lists: the STCW course, the ENG1, the flight, and a room in a hub for the period you are willing to look. Daywork does not start on day one for everyone, and it does not cover a hotel by itself in Antibes or Fort Lauderdale. Bring enough that a quiet fortnight does not send you home. We do not publish a single monthly budget, because rent and season change it and a made-up figure would be worse than none.

Common mistakes

• Arriving out of season, or in a port that is not a crew hub.
• Flying out before STCW and the ENG1 are in your bag.
• A two-page CV, no photo, or a photo that does not look like crew.
• Refusing daywork, or refusing to help the other department on a small boat.
• Underestimating how long you may pay for a room before the first paid day.
• Letting a certificate lapse while you are looking. Agencies filter on dates.

Read next

• STCW Basic Training explained
• The ENG1 seafarer medical
• Yacht crew salaries by role, including chef pay
• Daywork, day rates and yacht seasons
• Live maritime and yacht jobs

Further reading: Yotspot, Flying Fish, Dockwalk.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get a yacht job with no experience at all?

Yes, but not with nothing in hand. Green crew means you hold the usual entry certificates, typically STCW Basic Safety Training and an ENG1 medical, and you do not yet have superyacht sea time. Junior deckhand and junior steward or stewardess are the roles that hire at that stage. Captains and agencies generally will not look at a candidate who has not done the certificates yet.

What certificates do I need before I look for a yacht job?

STCW Basic Safety Training and an ENG1 seafarer medical are the near-universal starting pair. A one-page yachting CV with a clear photo comes next. Extra tickets such as a powerboat certificate or a food-hygiene certificate help for some roles, but they do not replace STCW and ENG1.

How long does it take to land a first yacht job?

There is no guaranteed timeline. People working in crew placement describe anything from a few days to a couple of months on the ground in peak season. Season, location, certificates, CV, and how long you can afford to stay all change the outcome. Treat any promise of a fixed number of weeks with caution.

Do I have to be in Antibes or Palma?

You do not have to be in one specific town, but you do need to be in a crew hub during its hiring season. In the Mediterranean that is commonly Antibes or Palma, with Genoa also used. Fort Lauderdale is the usual gateway for the US and Caribbean. Applying only from home, out of season, is the mistake crew agents mention most often.

Is dockwalking the same as daywork?

No. Dockwalking is how you ask yachts in port whether they need help. Daywork is the paid day itself, once a boat takes you on. Many first jobs start as a day or a week of daywork and turn into a season if you are useful and the boat is crewing up.