Making it as a Black Woman in the Superyacht Industry

Every April, flocks of Australians migrate to the South of France with a dream: To get a job on a Superyacht for the European Summer season or longer: to be living-expense free, earn the mighty Euro and be paid to travel. The most accessible jobs on a yacht involve work that historically has been regarded as servile: Stewardesses (‘Stews’) take care of the interior: making beds, cleaning toilets, polishing furniture and serving meals. Deckhands (Deckies) work the exterior: scrubbing decks, varnishing, painting, and doing repairs and maintenance. Both respond to the whimsical desires of “their owner” or guest.

I recently became of those hopeful Australians. I am writing from Antibes, a little village between Nice and Marseille, that is the mecca of the yachting world. I am hunting for a job as a Stewardess. But there is something different about me. As a black woman in her thirties, I am not your typical Aussie ‘yachtie’. But my appearance does allow me to observe this world, with a reputation for being sexist, ageist and racist, from a unique perspective.

Walking the docks and circuiting the agents here, it is easy to observe that 98% of all the other job seekers are white South Africans, Australians and Kiwis. Statistics on the racial demographics of this industry are not easily available. But on the ground, it is easy to observe that the same majority applies in terms of those employed on these floating luxury playgrounds.

In the superyacht industry, what you look like can hold more weight than competence, especially for entry positions of ‘stews’ and ‘deckies’. “This world is disturbingly image-minded,” says an olive skinned deckhand from New Zealand.

Evidence of this selection tactic is the fact that, a headshot must be placed in the top right hand corner of your CV. Yes… in the rest of the work world, it borders on illegal to put your personal details on your resume. But here, it is required. Your crew CV must have a recent photo, your date of birth and nationality. You may also be requested to note your weight, height, dress size, marital status, if you have tattoos and are a smoker. Why are these details needed of someone who is going to be doing your laundry and taking stains out of your carpets?

It comes down to who is doing the hiring. A Superyacht is a luxury boat over 30m, costing anywhere from 50 to 500 million and beyond to be built and millions annually to run. They are predominantly owned by obscenely wealthy European, American or Arab men, of an average age of 63. The theories on their hiring policies include that: being served by white western crew is a sign of status or they just enjoy being surrounded by pretty white women.

This has been allowed to become par for the course in the recruitment process, because, unlike other industries, yacht employment is poorly regulated. “Practically speaking,” says a major yacht recruitment agency’s website, “due to the international nature of the industry, you do not have the same level of protection against discrimination as in shore-based employment.”

Tessa, a mixed race Stewardess, recalls an incident where she had already been hired by the Captain of a boat. However, on her first day, she overheard the owner critiquing the Captain for his choice, saying “She’s too dark.” An early red flag for her, she left of her own accord.

In yachting, we have mostly white men and women scrubbing showers, cleaning toilets with a toothbrush and waxing decks. They are the first pick for jobs that would have been regulated to black or coloured slaves in eras recently gone by.

Have we come full circle or gotten terribly lost?

With all the advances in work place equality, has the Superyacht industry missed the lesson that, what you look like has no impact on your ability to do a task?

I haven’t personally experienced blatant racism here. But after weeks of applying for over a hundred jobs, through agents, job sites and ‘dockwalking’ (approaching boats in port), I have yet to secure an offer of employment. However, I have had similar challenges in applying for office jobs in Australia. Discrimination is rife in many industries and you can never really know to what extent not being picked comes down to the colour of your skin. In any case, I remain hopeful that being an ethnic minority in an industry will not truly roadblock a path lined with passion, aptitude and persistence.

In just being here, I hope that I am a part of a wave of change for yachting. After all, employers can only choose more exotic ethnicities, if they are there in the line up. “If high profile yachts start putting non-Western crew in visible positions, then the industry can be ahead of the change that will inevitably come,” suggests Jo Morgan in her article, ‘Monty Python and the Rise of the Multicultural Yacht Crew’.[1]

Being a descendant of black slaves who cooked and cleaned under white “owners”, I can’t help but think that karma might have devised the Superyacht industry as an ironic response to slavery. By turning the tables and making white man do black man’s work, perhaps there is healing and learning, that will allow greater compassion and understanding in regards to how we treat each other.

#expat #discrimination #womenofcolour