Sailing security: How to stay safe when crusing around the world

We at Trilogy take a lot of pride in our services and hope this will help educate our future stews whilst looking to further their dreams in the yachting industry. We advise that all stews take extra precautions when seeking job opportunities. The yachting industry can be very rewarding, but with high expectations, some unscrupulous individuals may use the opportunity to take advantage of the crew looking for work, especially if they are new to the industry. While this is not a common place occurrence, it does happen, but armed with the right information you can hopefully avoid any bad experiences.

We approached our strategic partners Nautilus for advice and this is what they had to say,   

To protect crew our advice to members is to seek employment through formal channels – such as well-known recruitment agencies, with positive reviews. We advise them to avoid taking up positions from Facebooks sites or similar and avoid responding to unsolicited messages received on social platforms. We are aware that at least one online site allows crew and vessels to put up posts for seeking work / recruiting staff, but their involvement ends there – there is no vetting or seemingly any after-support and the onus is on the crew member to do due diligence checks – therefore we would advise crew to be wary for gaining work in such ways.

We would also not recommend that anyone sails alone with just a Captain, but if they must then they need to ensure they are completely confident with the situation – such as having received and verified references from former crew, and having meet the captain before the date of departure etc. Obviously, we do not recommend that anyone takes up a position onboard a vessel without a contract of employment either, detailing their terms and conditions and this should also confirm (or be available in a separate vessel handbook) the complaints and grievance policies. You are well within your rights to ask before accepting a job if you are able to review the contract, it is MLC to make it available for crew to read before signing.

This also applies to daywork, especially if you are living onboard and working for longer than a day or 2. There should be an agreement that outlines the terms for your daywork.

If any crew on a vessel (or on shore) are attacked or feel threatened of an attack they should report the incident to the local authorities, as this is a criminal matter. As well as reporting to the local authorities, there is also the option of reporting the incident to Interpol, if the nature of the incidents is an international crime. 

Most yachts have a management company with a designated Person Ashore, this person can also assist you if you have experienced attack/abuse or any other form of misconduct. And should be your first contact as they will assist with local authorities.

If there are any crew out there who wish to speak about their experiences, then we can recommend Yacht Crew Help, which is operated by ISWAN and has trained professionals online 24 hours a day.  https://www.yachtcrewhelp.org/

There is another organisation called Safer Waves which provides support for seafarers who have experienced abuse/ harassment or discrimination onboard. https://saferwaves.org/

Another helpful resource to offer to crew is https://womenoffshore.org/ which has a programme dedicated to sexual assault violence eradication.”

We encourage all crew to become a Nautilus member as soon as they enter the industry, they offer a multitude of services that you will hopefully not need, but if you do, you will be very grateful you have them at your back. One of the great things they offer to members is reviewing contracts to ensure they are in line with Maritime Law.

We hope that this advice will help individuals entering and already in the superyacht industry be more vigilant to ensure their yachting experience is safe and memorable. Stay safe and have a great Med season.