There are crew agencies, there are apps, and there are Facebook groups with forty thousand members. All of them are worth using. But the honest truth of the superyacht industry in spring is that a very large number of first jobs are still found by walking along a quay and asking.
Antibes in late March is the place. Port Vauban is the biggest yacht harbour in Europe, the crew houses are ten minutes' walk from the boats, and the whole town is set up for exactly this. Palma is the other one, a touch later in the season and, some say, a touch friendlier.
Before you go
You need the STCW basic safety course (five days, roughly £800–£1,000 in the UK) and an ENG1 medical from an approved doctor. Without those, nobody can legally put you on a boat, and every conversation ends politely at "come back when you've got them." A Powerboat Level 2 helps deckhands; a short interior course helps stewards and stewardesses; neither is a hard requirement for your first day-work.
Book a crew house for a fortnight, not a week. The Crew Grapevine, the Glamorgan and a handful of others are institutions — you'll be sharing a bunk room with people doing exactly what you're doing, and the tips traded over breakfast are worth more than any guide, including this one.
The day
Up at six. Ironed polo, chino shorts or trousers, deck shoes, no sunglasses on your head. Twenty printed CVs in a plastic sleeve: one page, photo top right, certificates listed, no waffle. On the quay by seven, because that's when the crew are washing down and the captain or first mate is on deck with a coffee.
You are not asking for a job. You're asking whether they need any day-work. Day-work is a hundred to a hundred and fifty euros for a day of polishing stainless, and it's the actual interview: turn up on time, work without being told twice, and be the sort of person they'd happily spend four months at sea with. Boats hire from their day-workers first.
The first mate isn't reading your CV. He's watching whether you coil the hose properly.
What a good week looks like
- Days 1–2: a lot of "no, sorry" and a couple of "leave a CV." Register with two or three agencies in person the same afternoon — Bluewater and YPI have offices in town and they'll want to see you.
- Days 3–5: your first day-work. Do it brilliantly. Ask the crew who else is looking; they know.
- Days 6–10: repeat day-work on the same boat or a referral to another. Now you have a yacht reference, and that changes every conversation.
- Days 10–14: if nothing's landed, a delivery trip or a freelance charter week is the fast route to sea time. Say yes.
The money and the reality
A first deckhand or stew job pays from about €2,800 a month, live aboard, all found, with charter tips on top that can double it in a good summer. The reality is sixteen-hour days during charter, a cabin shared with a stranger, and no say over where you go. Most people who stick it past one season stay for five.