Dark side of life on a superyacht
It’s the dream of countless young Britons: to see the world working on the boats of the rich. But the reality can be slave conditions and even mysterious deaths for which no one is held responsible
MIXING with A-listers, receiving four-figure tips and following the sun from the Caribbean to the Med. All the while aboard one of the most luxurious superyachts money can buy. If there’s a better place to work, it would be a struggle to name it.
Some of these boats boast spas, cinema rooms and 24-hour fine dining. Take, for example, Russian tycoon and Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich’s 533ft superyacht eclipse, valued at more than £1billion. She is equipped with a submarine, space for three helicopters and a pool that transforms into a dancefloor.
And with orders for these vast multi-million pound floating palaces (superyachts are defined as being longer than 79ft) at a record level, there are more opportunities than ever for adventurous youngsters from Britain to work on board these super-vessels.
There are currently around 37,000 crew members employed on the 6,821 superyachts in the world. Of these, more than half — around 19,000 — are British. But beneath all the opulence exists a darker world. One characterised by exploitation, negligence and even death.
For example, while billionaire bosses and their guests enjoy sumptuous suites, staff are predominantly housed in cramped, windowless, shared cabins in the bottom of the boat. Working hours are nothing less than punishing, with 20-hour days the norm.
Over the past few years, at least three young Britons have died working on board. And when accidents do happen, the deaths are often treated as little more than an inconvenience, according to some grieving families.
Under maritime law, what happens onboard is governed by the laws of the country where the ship is registered. These tend to be small tax havens, known as Flags of Convenience (FOC) states, such as Panama or Bermuda, which have very lax employment protection laws.
If there is any suspected criminality on board, once you have sailed 12 miles away from the shoreline, you are no longer protected by the police force of the nearest country to you. Instead, it is the responsibility of the FOC nation the ship flies the flag of.
This is something Will Black’s family profess to knowing all about. The 28-year old from Ripley, Surrey, was just six weeks into a new job as bosun (officer in charge of crew and equipment) of the £15 million Burrasca in September 2010 when he went missing.
His body has never been found, but it is believed he died after a boat he was piloting collided with another boat in a Monaco harbour.
His family say they received a phone call from the German captain to say he was missing, but to their disbelief, they say the Burrasca sailed away before they arrived two days later.
WIll’S mother Judith, 62, a pharmaceutical conference organiser, says: ‘We phoned to say we would be arriving in the morning and the captain said they had already left.
‘He said don’t worry as they had thrown some flowers in the water for Will and given his belongings to the police.
‘It was like he didn’t exist to them, they just didn’t care. Where was the respect for his life?’
Judith, along with husband Robin, a 67-year-old music executive and Will’s sister Rosanna, 37, says they were left without help or support and still do not know the name of who owned the boat — other than it was a Russian billionaire — as there is no legal requirement for owners to declare themselves.
So far, representatives for the boat have failed to respond to what Judith says happened.
‘We received the call to say he was missing after failing to show for work. We flew to Monaco but it was the boat show and was incredibly busy. We don’t speak French and didn’t know where to stay.
‘One of Will’s friends whom he had worked with in the past came to find us. He translated for us and helped us speak to the police and coastguard.’
THe police told them a submarine was required to search for Will’s body. With help from a management yachting company in Monaco, they learned Will’s contract did not include insurance, they say, which meant they would have to foot the bill of £5,000 a day for the search.
Fortunately, the organisers of a Monaco boat show kindly stepped in and paid for two days of submarine use.
‘I don’t blame the captain. He had his orders to leave. Blame is not going to bring Will back,’ Judith adds.
‘Will really was a one-off, he loved the boating life. He worked his way up from deckhand to bosun. We were so proud of him.’
Jacob Nichol, 24, from Cornwall, is another young British man who died while working on a superyacht. He suffered severe brain injuries after falling from the £90 million superyacht Kibo, owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut, while cleaning a harness as it was docked in a Majorcan port in 2015.
After ten days in a coma in a hospital in Palma, Jacob was repatriated to Shropshire, where he needed constant care before his death last summer. last September, an inquest at Birmingham Coroner’s Court recorded a verdict of accidental death.
His family said: ‘Our beautiful Jacob has sadly passed away. A young, bright, intelligent, kind soul has left us after an excruciating two years.’
For those in the ‘service’ industry on board, life can be punishing.
Beauty therapist Jayne Robertson, 35, from Dundee, started working on superyachts in 2013.
For two years, she worked onboard a 174ft boat owned by two U.S. billionaires, whom she is not allowed to name after signing a non-disclosure agreement — a common requirement of crew.
‘There were 16 of us on board,’ says Jayne. ‘One woman spent all day in a windowless laundry room with 12 washing machines.
‘It’s hard work often involving 16-hour days. In my role, it wasn’t unusual to be woken at 2am by someone asking for a massage in their room. I felt uncomfortable — but you can’t say no.
‘I have never been assaulted, but men have said things that made me feel vulnerable, like how attractive they found me. ’
There’s no denying a money trumps-all attitude pervades on board these floating palaces — the pay-off being huge tips for staff.
Jayne says she was once taken to a casino in Monaco and given £2,800 to play with.
emma Bamford, 39, from Whitchurch, Hampshire, who spent six months working on a 85ft superyacht moored off the Italian coast was no stranger to the extreme demands of guests.
During her time as a deckhand, she says 20-hour shifts were the norm.
‘There would be up to ten guests onboard who had paid £21,000 to charter the boat, which was owned by a wealthy Italian, for a week. On top of this, they had to pay extra for everything else — fuel, food and drink. This could come to more than £60,000.
‘They were spending a lot and expected a lot in return.’
emma, who has written a book about her experience called Casting Off, adds: ‘I remember some guests wanting ice-cream milkshakes for their daughter’s breakfast. It was about 1am and we didn’t have any so I had to go ashore and knock on restaurant doors trying to find some — no was not an answer you gave.
‘You had to be ready to serve whenever and whatever they wanted, waiting discreetly in the background as they would drink into the early hours.’
Quite apart from substandard working conditions, some superyachts are used by their owners to indulge in sex parties with prostitutes, according to crew. A former crewman, 40, from london,
who wants to remain anonymous, experienced this first hand.
In 2007, while working as a steward on a superyacht for a Spanish billionaire, he says: ‘We’d arrive at a port and there would be prostitutes waiting. All the female crew were picked for their attractiveness and often felt they were sexually harassed.
‘If this were happening in Britain, it would not be tolerated. It’s like modern-day slavery.’
The main problem concerning crew protection is that superyachts are registered in FOC states — and what happens on board falls within the registered country’s jurisdiction.
For example, the Burrasca, where Will Black was working, was registered to St Vincent and the Grenadines.
The superyachts are often operating in international waters, and run by management companies on behalf of often unidentifiable owners. The International Transport Workers’ Federation says FOC arrangements mean ship-owners can circumnavigate the labour laws of Britain.
‘We believe there should be a genuine link between the real owner of a vessel and the flag the vessel flies. FOC registries make it more difficult to hold ship-owners to account,’ a spokesman said.
This ambiguity means there are regular instances of staff wages not being paid or of them being suddenly dismissed and left stranded overseas.
Will Black’s sister Rosanna, an events organiser, says many of these FOC states are reluctant to investigate wrongdoing for fear of superyacht owners registering elsewhere, losing them millions in registration and annual inspection fees. Will’s family want this changed so there is just one body governing what happens onboard.
Fiona Hanlon, 50, is another mother whose world was torn apart following the death of her son, Michael, 22, who worked as a water sports manager as part of a crew of 18 on the £65million 203ft Faith superyacht, owned by the Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll.
Like the Blacks, she feels there has been a lack of care and is fighting to improve crew rights.
Michael, who had worked on Faith for just three weeks, died in April 2013 after arriving in the French port of Antibes from the Caribbean. Michael had returned to the vessel after a night out. His mother claims he had done two shifts back to back, then gone to local bars to celebrate sailing across the Atlantic.
Faith had been locked up for the night, and Fiona says Michael climbed up the boat to reach an emergency access door in the roof. The yacht’s owner, however, says no such access existed and denied he had been working excessive hours.
An inquest found he fell from the top deck, hit his head on the quay and drowned. His body was recovered the next day.
Fiona, a former teacher, says: ‘Michael had grown up sailing near our home in Windermere in the Lake District. This job was his dream come true. I loved hearing about how he had been swimming with dolphins or going on night dives, it was magical for him.’
Michael would text his mother each day with updates, including, she says, how tired he was becoming.
THe last time they spoke was when he told her he was going to meet some friends in Antibes but when she failed to hear from him the next day, she became worried.
She then received a call saying he was missing. ‘I felt like his disappearance was an inconvenience to the stewardess who called me.’
The next day, she received the devastating news Michael’s body had been found under the yacht.
‘All I could do was lie on the floor and cry,’ she recalls
At the inquest in 2015, it was ruled Michael had died from drowning and a verdict of accidental death was recorded.
However, so concerned was Cumbrian coroner Philip Sharp by the evidence he heard, he wrote a letter of recommendations to the yacht’s owner and other maritime agencies about potential future procedural changes to ensure crew are not required to work excessive hours and have access to the boat at all times.
Jonathan Dudman, a spokesman for Lawrence Stroll, said Michael’s death had nothing to do with him being overworked — strongly disputing his claim he had worked two night shifts back to back.
He highlighted how French police said Michael had been drinking heavily, and that there was an access code to get in the door, which Michael must have forgotten. In addition, he said they had paid for Michael’s family to go to Antibes after his death, saying: ‘We were very sorry for his mother. It was tragic.
‘There’s an issue that Mrs Hanlon said there was an unofficial emergency entrance on the boat. There was no emergency entrance. It did not exist.
‘This death was an absolute tragedy. It was not the result of the crew being overworked.’
Sydney Sweibel, a lawyer for Mr Stroll, said: ‘Mr Stroll was very sympathetic to the family and did the best he could.’
Meanwhile, the owners of the boats Will and Jacob worked on have not have responded to requests as to what happened.
For now, their families have joined forces to work on improving rights for crew. As Rosanna says: ‘These boats are a law unto themselves.
‘If someone dies, they can just raise the anchor and leave. This is unacceptable.’