Steering the clear course
Recruitment, retention, rising costs, a maze of regulations, cyber attacks and geo-political troubles. These are some of the topics yacht managers are tackling today
Words: Claire Griffiths
Whether the industry can navigate through these murky waters and survive is a real and relevant question.
So where are the answers?
ONBOARD Magazine headed for the hotspots to gauge the yacht managers’ thirst to put up a fight to save the day.
PEOPLE POWER
Guy Waddilove is founder and director of 8 Yachts Ltd, a company that is proudly small and single-mindedly focused on the yacht management for just eight owners. Says Waddilove, “One of the main challenges we experience with crew recruitment is the sheer volume of applications hitting our inboxes. It is quite common to receive hundreds of CVs for a single role. With yachts operating to very different standards, identifying candidates with the right experience can make direct comparisons difficult.”
Strong emphasis is placed on reference checking directly with former employers to get crucially accurate background information on crew. He reckons crew retention stems from hiring the right captains who will create a positive onboard environment. Waddilove adds, “We also promote onboard training and professional development, offer end-of-season bonuses and often advertise couple positions where appropriate, as this can help with retention.”
“We try to be completely transparent during the recruitment process about both the positives and the challenges of a role so that crew arrive with realistic expectations. We also conduct exit interviews to understand why crew leave and to identify areas where improvements can be made. Regular salary reviews are another important part of ensuring crew feel valued and fairly rewarded.” He summarises with just four words; collaboration, communication, transparency and support.
Ishika Walia, is Yacht and Crew Manager at Ocean Drive. She says recruitment and turnover are now structural issues: demand keeps rising, especially in the Mediterranean, while the experienced talent pool is not. Time to fill key roles is stretching, and she sees more candidates who look good on paper but lack consistent sea time, onboard maturity, or the soft skills that make a programme run smoothly. Burnout is the other pressure point. Good crews are leaving in their early 30s, and when they go, you lose capability and culture in one hit.
In her view, retention is not just about a good salary: it’s about good leadership, standards, and how professionally people are treated onboard and ashore. Explains Walia, “Owners who respect crew as professionals retain them.” The industry is also waking up to this; through the Superyacht Alliance, Walia is involved in The Bridge Between, a group focused on closing the gap between onshore and offshore HR management and Raising the Bar, which focuses on crew recruitment and welfare.
“At Ocean Drive, we run retention like an operational system: structured, repeatable and measurable. We track churn by department and season, treat exit interviews as a KPI, and strengthen programmes with proper onboarding, clear progression and regular check-ins that cover wellbeing, not just performance. We set expectations early on rotation, protected leave and conflict escalation, so issues surface early, before you lose a strong crew member quietly. And as a smaller company, we stay close to our people: crew are known, supported and treated as individuals, not headcount.”
Mental health is finally being discussed openly, and Ocean Drive take it seriously in practice; rest is prioritised, fatigue managed, and the company runs mid-season pulse checks so issues are addressed early. “The aim is simple,” says Walia, “stable teams, fewer crises, and a healthier rhythm onboard.’
PrivatSea is part of the Latsis Group, founded by the late John S. Latsis in Greece in the 1940s. Then, the business was involved in commercial shipping and real estate. Now, PrivatSea manages some of the world’s most famous mega yachts.
Crew recruitment, retention and wellbeing are the biggest issues these days, agrees Angeliki Tsilmigra: beyond technical qualifications, owners and guests increasingly expect exceptional service standards, strong teamwork and emotional intelligence from crew members. At the same time, crew are seeking healthier work environments, clearer career progression, and better work-life balance. And where the twain meet is the headache. There’s no magic formula, PrivatSea also focus on finding the balance to get the right dynamic onboard to improve retention and performance.
Not just other yachts, but also offshore sectors, commercial shipping are putting the squeeze on the crew market, which is more pressured than it’s been for over a decade says Glen Campbell of TWW based in Southampton, UK: “The post-pandemic surge in charter demand created a sudden, acute need for experienced officers and senior crew. The pipeline simply wasn’t there, and we still haven’t fully recovered.” Retention is where it really hurts, he says. Talented crew are leaving the industry completely in their early-to-mid thirties; burned out, disillusioned or to seek a clearer more stable career path. “As an industry, that’s a loss we can’t afford,”says Campbell. It has led TWW to heavily invest in crew welfare programmes and a proper mental health support function whose sole focus is acting as an impartial, safe ‘human interface’ for all crew in the fleet.
Recruitment-wise, TWW has built relationships with maritime academies to offer crew development and prospects. It has also partnered with third-party suppliers to offer services including criminal background checks, psychometric profiling and leadership training.
Compensation transparency matters enormously too. Crew want to understand the full picture: base salary, tax implications, insurance and pension contributions, where applicable. So TWW aims to ensure employment packages are clear and genuinely competitive.
Lydia Moss works at yacht management company, Divergent Yachting, also based in Southampton. She says sometimes crew focus too much on ‘numbers’ (salary, leave days, size of vessel), rather than crew culture, owner generosity, training packages, itinerary and longevity potential. There’s also a greater demand for training and rotation, both positive developments; “We have just offered the crew on one of the vessels in our fleet 3:1 rotation as minimum. We would love to see this adopted on other yachts we manage.”
Staff at the Fraser Yachts Management team agree retention is a problem, citing owner expectations, complex yacht programmes leading to crew burnout and fatigue. This is often compounded by an ‘expectations vs. reality’ gap, particularly among junior crew members. When faced with the reality of shipyard periods or the rigorous discipline required during a busy season, maintaining high morale requires a very intentional management approach. Fraser manages these challenges by focusing on grounded recruitment and transparent communication from the very first interaction.
By facilitating weekly meetings for newcomers and participating in initiatives like the ‘Next Generation in Yachting’ Forum, The Crew Network helps candidates understand the full spectrum of career pathways before they commit to a specific programme. The company offers access training and signposts external wellbeing resources, such as ISWAN.
“While there are always new people entering the industry, keeping skilled professionals is becoming more difficult as the global fleet continues to grow,” says Shelley Dowie, Head of Yacht Management at Edmiston. Rotation, training, leadership, a positive working environment and support are the answers for longevity, operating more effectively, and delivering the level of service owners expect.
CYBER WOES
Aside from the human element, keeping invisible cyber attacks away, is another.
8 Yachts outsources the cyber safety of its managed vessels but others are hooked on getting to grips with this new threat; like Walia at Ocean Drive. “A superyacht today is a floating data centre,” she says. “VSAT, satellite comms, integrated bridge systems, smart home automation, guest devices, crew devices, contractors during refits; all are connected in ways that create an enormous attack surface.”
Ocean Drive builds resilience across three layers: people, process and technology. The company treats cyber hygiene like safety training. Every crew member gets induction training, which is refreshed mid-season, because fatigue and routine are when mistakes happen. “We focus on the practical,” says Walia, “spotting phishing, handling attachments, verifying payment requests, and what to do if something feels off. There are also clear access rules and approvals, especially around refits where vendor access and invoices multiply. “We have a strict verification procedure for any bank detail change, invoice re-issue, or urgent payment requests. Client privacy is equally critical: we handle sensitive UHNW data, travel patterns, guest lists, preferences and personal devices onboard.
A breach is not just technical, it is a trust catastrophe, so we apply least privilege access and defined data handling practices for crew, agents and third parties.” As far as technology resistance, its approach is multi-layered: “Network segmentation is non-negotiable. Guest Wi-Fi is isolated from crew systems, and both are isolated from operational and navigational networks.
We enforce MFA where possible, use password managers, restrict admin rights, and manage software updates with a documented patch cadence.”
“We also use third party penetration testing and vulnerability assessments, and maintain offline backups and a restoration plan, so ransomware does not become an existential crisis. We also keep an incident response playbook onboard. If something happens, the steps are immediate and practical: isolate, preserve evidence, notify the right stakeholders, and restore safely, sounds simple, but how many yachts are doing this?”
AT TWW cyber protection is also built around segregation and layering. Operational Technology (OT) systems, such as navigation, engineering and bridge, must be physically and logically separated from IT systems used for guest connectivity and crew communications. “These should not share the same network,” says Campbell. “That sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many vessels we encounter where this boundary has been blurred.” New vessels brought under management get a cybersecurity audit by a specialised maritime cyber firm and in-house security officers, not a generalist IT company. Says Campbell, “The maritime environment has unique vulnerabilities; legacy SCADA systems, AIS spoofing risks, GNSS interference. You need people who understand these specifically.”
“Client privacy is handled with equal seriousness as is staff training, because the most sophisticated firewall in the world won’t protect you if a crew member clicks a phishing link.” Lydia Moss at Divergent adds, “We are all learning these ever-increasing threats and investing in additional security training and support.”
At Fraser cyber risk is embedded directly into the vessel’s Safety Management System in line with current IMO requirements. It treats cyber risk with the same rigour as physical safety. The company also works on a layered defence strategy with strict segmentation between crew, bridge, guest, etc. systems. There’s tightly controlled remote access, multi-factor authentication, patch management and the secure configuration of both hardware and software to eliminate easy points of entry. Cyber-awareness training and drills also form part of the defence strategy.
CYBER HYPE
Major cyber attacks tend to be rare says Dowie, but attempted attacks are increasingly common.
“The most common threats tend to be similar to those seen in other industries,” says Dowie. “Phishing emails targeting crew or shore-based teams remain one of the biggest risks, often attempting to obtain login credentials or financial information. We also occasionally see attempts to exploit poorly secured onboard networks or compromised email accounts used for invoice fraud. Given the high-value transactions often involved in yacht operations, these attacks can be particularly targeted.”
Harold Van Exem, Executive Vice President & Director of Yacht Services at Fraser Yachts agrees phishing is most prevalent, along with malware introduced via removable media and the exploitation of weak or poorly monitored remote access points.
“Attempted intrusions are now a constant reality; automated scanning and broad phishing campaigns have become part of the ‘background noise’ of maintaining an internet-connected vessel’, explains Van Exem. “The reality we face in 2026 is that yachts are no longer niche, secondary targets – they are recognised as high-value digital environments that require enterprise-grade vigilance.”
“Each week there seems to be a new horror story reckons Moss: every document opened and invoice received requires additional care and consideration; bank details need to be verbally checked before payment, weak passwords are a thing of the past.” She recommends every yacht has a password management app, with a 20 character password and 2FA. “It’s a small update that can stop a huge problem.”
There’s a significant reputational stigma attached to disclosure, so many incidents can go unreported or are handled quietly.
But specialist cybersecurity advisors keep TWW updated with information from anonymised incidents occurring across the industry on a near-monthly basis, ranging from minor intrusions to serious compromises.“Business Email Compromise (BEC) is a growing variant of phishing, where attackers intercept or spoof supplier communications to redirect payments,” says Campbell, “but it’s ransomware that keeps me up at night. A successful ransomware attack on a vessel’s systems, locking out navigation or engine management at a critical moment, could be catastrophic. We know it’s prevalent in commercial shipping and we’d be naive to think it can’t happen here.”
GPS and AIS spoofing are increasingly common in certain regions. Particularly in the Eastern Mediterranean and parts of the Middle East. Guest network exploitation is another area of concern and the owner’s own devices: tablets, phones, laptops, etc., represent a high-value target if their connectivity to vessel systems isn’t tightly controlled.
Walia believes the biggest threats are still the simplest, because people are the easiest entry point. Phishing or credential theft often starts on a personal phone then spreads through weak passwords or shared networks. “We also see fake recruitment emails and spoofed websites targeting crew to harvest personal data, so verifying the sender, domain and URL is essential.” But, everyone agrees, navigation related attacks like GPS spoofing and AIS manipulation are also the stuff of nightmares.
YOURS, TRANSPARENTLY
As running costs for yacht owners rocket from every side, yacht managers are cinching their belts are tight as possible, to help keep the boats afloat and make every euro spent deliver certain value to the owner. The cost conversation is one of the most important and most fraught in the industry believes Campbell at TWW. “Owners are sophisticated. They understand that running a superyacht is expensive. What they cannot tolerate, and what erodes trust faster than anything, is a lack of transparency.” TWW’s financial reporting has real-time transparency so that every owner has access to a live dashboard that tracks expenditure against budget across every category; fuel, crew payroll and benefits, provisioning, maintenance, port fees, insurance, refit reserves. “Nothing is batched,” says Campbell, “and it’s delivered monthly. It’s live, and it’s granular.”
Fuel is consistently one of the top costs for any actively used vessel, and TWW works with the captain and engineer onboard to agree correct fuel specifications. The most effective method for reducing fuel cost is forward bunker planning based on itinerary analysis and a robust understanding of fuel pricing structures within various countries and regions. Application of fuel taxes and duties varies markedly between many countries, and this can be used to the owner’s advantage when considering the choice of bunkering port calls and resulting fuel costs.
Campbell adds, “We also operate an optional consolidated procurement model for clients who opt in. By partnering with suppliers, we are able to aggregate purchasing across the fleet for consumables, provisions and standard equipment, we achieve meaningful supplier discounts and, crucially, quality consistency.”
Refit management is where significant additional costs can result through poor planning or misaligned objectives. Says Campbell, “We maintain detailed technical records for every vessel. A living digital asset register that tracks the condition and service history of every major system. This lets us plan refit work proactively rather than reactively. Emergency yard visits are always the most expensive ones.”
Waddilove encourages targeted investment to help deliver long-term savings. “For example,” he says, “we advise clients to upgrade legacy HVAC systems to modern, high-efficiency heat pump technology.” It’s expensive, but the reduction in generator hours, fuel consumption, maintenance costs and shore power usage can be significant over time. “In terms of transparency,” says Waddilove, “our model is deliberately simple. We operate on a management-fee-only basis, with all supplier discounts and commissions passed directly to the client. This not only ensures complete financial transparency, but also removes any potential conflicts of interest, allowing us to act solely in the owner’s best interests at all times.”
Ocean Drive separates OPEX and CAPEX clearly, builds seasonal, tri-mestral budgets with realistic contingencies, and removes surprises through frequent reporting. Adds Walia, “We use the Deep Blue yacht management platform to give owners real time visibility on spend. Each season starts with a detailed forecast, and we reconcile monthly with a variance review: what moved, why and what we are changing next month.” Refits are tightly controlled and benchmarked with multiple quotes. Route optimisation, speed profiles and generator loading are scrutinised to manage fuel consumption because small decisions compound over a season. Where possible, hybrid use, shore power and smarter hotel load management reduce burn and extend equipment life.
“Transparency has become more important than ever,” says Angeliki Tsilmigra at PrivatSea; “We prioritise structured budget planning, detailed reporting and proactive operational management, working closely with crew and suppliers. Technology and digital reporting tools also play an important role in giving owners real-time visibility and better control over their yacht’s operations.”
Fraser operates similar budget management, variance reporting, forecasting and stream line payroll, procurement and expense tracking. It benchmarks crew salaries and operational costs against current market data ensuring competitiveness while avoiding unnecessary inflation. It also operates strategic procurement and when it comes to fuel bunkering operates a fully transparent multi-supplier tender process. If market indicators suggest an impending price increase, clients are advised so they can bunker strategically at the most cost-efficient ports in line with their itinerary.
Regular purchasing is built around scale and established relationships and a global supplier network with pre-agreed discounts and benefit from volume aggregation agreements, such as MARCAS, which strengthen purchasing power across the fleet.
“The earlier operational decisions are made, the greater control owners have over costs,” says Dowie giving advance bunkering planning as an example.
She adds, “The same principle applies to refits and major technical works. Early planning allows us to secure shipyard availability, coordinate contractors efficiently and leverage established supplier relationships.” Crew will always represent one of the largest operational expenses, but they are also one of the most important investments. Retaining good crew is therefore an important part of cost efficiency. Says Dowie, “The focus is on building stable, experienced teams, reducing crew turnover and recruitment costs while ensuring crew wellbeing so they remain engaged and perform at their best.”
ENVIRONMENT RULES
Environmental regulation in shipping is evolving quickly, particularly with the IMO’s decarbonisation targets and emerging net-zero framework. With formal adoption expected in the coming years, owners need to understand how these changes could affect their yachts and plan upgrades strategically rather than reactively.
You can’t proof a yacht against possible future environmental rules, but there are sensible choices that can be made during a new build or refit that put a vessel in the right place ahead of environmental rule changes. “Propulsion would be the obvious starting point and the transition to hybrid power systems using an element of stored power rather than total reliance on internal combustion engines is a logical first step in this process,” says Guy Waddilove. “One new sailing yacht build project that we are currently involved with includes a hybrid propulsion system with the possibility for power regeneration from the propellor when sailing. As project managers we have invested in our training, increasing the depth of knowledge on the rapidly developing battery technologies that are coming onto the market by attending seminars and training sessions.
At anchor stored power is also then used for the hotel systems so, running in silent mode, the use of generators can be minimised reducing fuel burn and emissions.”
Battery technology is developing rapidly with increasing power density becoming available so allowance for flexibility to upgrade batteries is another step to take in the future proofing measures.
Shelley Dowie recommends ensuring the yacht has a clear technical and compliance roadmap and keep a beady eye on efficiency and emerging technologies. This could include hull optimisation, energy management systems, hybrid propulsion and exploring alternative fuels where feasible.
These improvements not only reduce environmental impact but also help align the yacht with where regulation is heading. She adds, “We need to take a long-term view when it comes to design and refits.
For new builds this means incorporating future-ready technologies, while existing yachts can benefit from incremental upgrades that improve efficiency over time. Increasingly, sustainability will influence not only compliance but also charter appeal, resale value and operational flexibility.”
“First, measure your baseline,”says Ishika Walia. It’s a good idea to commission an energy and operations audit so you have real data on fuel burn, generator loading, emissions profile, waste streams and water use. “You cannot improve what you do not quantify,” she says.
Second, build in flexibility now. Prioritise shore power capability, battery storage where feasible, and hybrid solutions if the platform allows, with sensible solar integration where design and safety permit.
Planning upgrades into a refit cycle is faster, cheaper and far less disruptive than retrofitting under regulatory pressure.
She adds, “Third, make compliance a crew standard, backed by documentation. Training only works if it shows up in daily behaviour: waste segregation, plastics reduction, bunkering discipline, sewage and grey water practices and accurate record keeping. Auditors look for evidence, not intentions, and a well-trained crew is the difference between compliance on paper and compliance in practice.”
The regulatory trajectory is clear. Emissions standards will tighten, zero-emission zones will expand, and the reputational cost of perceived environmental disregard will grow. Owners who act now will be far better positioned, both technically and commercially, than those who wait.
So Glenn Campbell agrees that an energy and emissions audit is the first stop on the road map to cleaner living: before you spend a penny on hardware, you need an honest, detailed baseline of your vessel’s existing energy consumption, emissions profile and efficiency by system. Where is the waste? What are the quick wins versus the structural changes? This audit is the foundation for every decision that follows. I’m consistently surprised by how many vessels have never had one.
Hybrid systems are gaining in effectiveness as battery technology becomes safer and more robust. The technology has matured significantly. For vessels in certain use profiles, particularly those doing a lot of anchored time or slow coastal cruising, the payback period is now becoming genuinely compelling believes Campbell.
“When considering the next yacht purchase, explore efficiency through hull forms optimised for reduced fuel consumption, propulsion systems that are less power hungry and optimisable to suit the vessel’s needs in various operating modes. This includes options such as trimaran hull forms, Controllable Pitch Propellers, Azipod style systems and combined diesel-electric systems where electrical power and propulsion power are all achieved via multiple smaller generators only,” advises Campbell.
Diesel-electric arrangements also allow for greater redundancy and a simpler potential for conversion to newer, more efficient power generation systems/platforms as technology advances, and there become clearer winners in the race to find environmentally friendly energy alternatives to diesel.
Lydia Moss suggests electric drives throughout for machinery and motors. She says, “Norway has introduced regulations where you are not allowed to burn fossil fuels in the Fjords. If you are a sail yacht that’s great, you can sail in with no emissions, the trouble then is getting back out with no wind. This is where ESS / BESS will be required without a doubt and we see this being adopted around Europe – so to prepare now is wise.”
Van Exem recommends managers focus on three core pillars: technical adaptability, immediate operational impact, and a proactive data-driven culture. It is less about predicting one specific regulation and more about designing flexibility into both the yacht’s systems and its management culture. Vessels need to be technically prepared for a multi-fuel future. While the industry explores various paths to net-zero, technologies are maturing at different rates. Designing machinery spaces, power management systems and digital platforms to be ‘upgrade-ready’ will allow the yacht to accept future hybrid solutions or battery upgrades as they become viable. While alternative fuels are gaining traction in the new-build sector, for the existing fleet, future-proofing means creating the technical overhead to pivot without requiring a total structural overhaul.
Fraser also prioritises high-impact, practical emissions reductions that align with the yacht’s actual profile. This involves integrating battery systems for peak shaving and hotel-load optimisation, but perhaps the most significant gain lies in the widespread adoption of shore-power. As marina infrastructure globally catches up with demand, ensuring a yacht is equipped to fully utilise shore-power during its significant time spent alongside is the most straightforward way to reduce the operational footprint today.
Environmental compliance has become the foundation for protecting an asset’s long-term value.
A GATHERING STORM?
The industry feels particularly challenged because of a convergence of pressures. While technical or crew challenges can be managed with enough resources, geopolitical shifts, such as sudden changes in sanctions or insurance ‘Notices of Cancellation’, are external forces that require yacht managers to be exceptionally agile to protect the owner’s asset and freedom of movement. Yacht agents can’t control these factors, but being ‘sure-footed’ in how they react to them is crucial.
Decarbonisation and the evolving requirements regarding a vessel’s entire life cycle will also bring challenges. It is no longer just about reducing carbon impact during operation; now the pre- and post-operational life of the yacht must be considered. “For instance,” says Van Exem, “larger vessels are already required to have a ship recycling plan under the Hong Kong Convention. Should such frameworks extend to the wider fleet, they could introduce significant costs at the end of a vessel’s useful life, potentially creating scenarios where a yacht becomes a negative-value asset.”
Tsilmigra worries about balancing regulatory requirements with the freedom and exclusivity that define yachting: “From environmental standards to international compliance rules, operators must navigate a complex landscape without compromising the personalised experiences and flexibility that owners and guests expect.”
However, these challenges also push the industry toward more sustainable practices, smarter management structures and greater professionalism overall, and that’s good.
But Walia regrets how much regulatory fragmentation interferes with her ‘real’ work: chunks of time are spent navigating compliance (IMO, EU directives, Flag State, Port State controls, insurance issues) instead of running excellent programmes. “If the industry does not lead on environmental responsibility, cyber hygiene and crew welfare, governments will, and the legislation will be blunt,” she says.
Campbell believes the industry needs to embrace regulation and responsibility rather than seeing it as a burden. He says, “The threat isn’t any single regulation or market shock. It’s that we must evolve to operate at an ever-higher standard. Technically, legally and ethically. While parts of the industry cling to the informal, relationship-based model that worked thirty years ago, the gap between best practice and the comfortable use of outdated common practice is where the real risk lies.”
SILVER LINING?
The industry does tend to evolve and adapt. And it’s always been an innovative sector – in design, technology and operational standards.
Walia is also positive about yachting’s professionalism and ability to adapt: chief stews have serious hospitality training, engineers understand data systems as well as machinery and captains can brief an owner with confidence and run a bridge with discipline: department heads have leadership and emotional intelligence skills and AI and technology can also play a useful role. “The future looks better when professionalism, responsibility and care for crew become the standard, not the exception,” she says. Van Exem agrees the industry knows how to adapt to change: While maritime traditions are deep-rooted, the direct relationship between owners and management allows for a more responsive approach to change than one might find in broader commercial sectors.
“We believe the industry is evolving in a very positive direction,” says Tsilmigra at PrivatSea. “We are excited to be part of a new generation of owners and guests who value sustainability, innovation and meaningful experiences.”
Lydia Moss points to the potential of research and development and clear possibilities of nuclear power in yachting and Super Capacitor Graphene Batteries in an ESS to produce the first zero fossil fuel yacht.
“The demand fundamentals are strong,” says Campbell, “we’re in an industry that, when it works well, delivers something genuinely extraordinary; freedom, beauty, privacy and access to parts of the world that no other mode of travel, in the same class, can reach. That fundamental appeal isn’t going anywhere. My job and our job as an industry is to ensure that we’re running it with the professionalism, integrity and foresight that something this remarkable deserves.”
There will be choppy waters in the years ahead but the industry has a history of facing dark clouds, rough seas and 11 strong gales head on and, maybe battered and a bit bruised, it comes out the other side.
