Crew Coordinator
A crew coordinator sits in a management office and keeps the people side of a fleet moving. You book flights, chase expiring certificates, issue contracts, sort visas and make sure the right crew reach the right yacht on the right day. The job suits organised former crew who want a life ashore and understand what a captain needs from the office.
The jobWhat fills the day
The work is crew administration and logistics. You hold the crew list for each yacht you look after, track every STCW, ENG1 and CoC expiry date, and flag renewals before they become a problem at a flag state inspection. You draft Seafarer Employment Agreements to MLC 2006 standards, arrange joining and leaving travel, book hotels for rotation changeovers and help with visa applications such as the B1/B2 for crew heading to Fort Lauderdale. Captains and heads of department email you when something is missing, and they want an answer the same day.
The pace follows the season. In April and May, as yachts leave Antibes and Palma for the summer, you might be moving forty crew in a fortnight. In November, the Caribbean crossing brings another wave of flights, Schengen exits and US visa queries. Larger fleets add rotational crew, so you build rotation calendars and handle swaps when someone falls ill. A management company running fifteen yachts needs a coordinator who can keep several captains informed at once without dropping a detail.
Most hiring offices want someone who has worked on board. A former stewardess, purser or deckhand already knows what a crew mess looks like, why an ENG1 matters and how irritating a late flight confirmation is when a yacht is leaving at dawn. Office experience counts too: travel agency, HR or shipping administration. Spreadsheets, crew management software such as Deep Blue or IDEA Yacht, a second European language and calm phone manner are what interviewers test.
After three to five years, coordinators usually step up to crew manager, taking responsibility for recruitment decisions, payroll oversight and crew welfare across a fleet. Others move sideways into crew employment and payroll, compliance or yacht operations. A few join a crew agency as a recruitment consultant, where pay leans on commission. The common thread is trust: captains who rely on you will ask for you by name, and that reputation follows you around the Riviera.
Skills employers look for
- Crew travel and logistics
- Certificate expiry tracking
- MLC 2006 contracts
- Visa and immigration paperwork
- Crew management software
- Clear written communication
- Multitasking across yachts
A working dayMonday in a management company office, Antibes, early May
Coffee and inbox. Overnight emails from a captain in Palma asking where his new deckhand's flight details are.
Book the deckhand on a Nice to Palma flight and send the itinerary, joining instructions and agent contact to crew and captain.
Run the weekly certificate report. Two ENG1s and one GMDSS expire within sixty days, so you email each crew member and their head of department.
Draft three Seafarer Employment Agreements for a 55m motor yacht's summer crew and send them to the crew manager for sign-off.
Lunch on the port with a colleague from the charter team.
Call with a rotational chief engineer to agree his changeover date and book the relief engineer's travel from the UK.
Help a South African stewardess with her Schengen visa paperwork and write a supporting letter on company letterhead.
Update crew lists and the crew management system so flag and insurance records match who is actually on board.
Quick check of the shared phone rota. You are on call this weekend for travel emergencies.
Pay by experienceAnnual salary. Estimates. Bars share one scale.
This is taxed office salary, so take-home is well below a tax-free crew wage of the same headline figure. Some firms add a yearly bonus or pay extra for weekend on-call duty. Holiday follows local law, typically five weeks in France and Monaco. See the Yacht & Crew Management salary guide for figures from live adverts.
Qualifications
Must have
Gets you hired
- STCW Basic Safety Training, for credibility with crew
- MLC 2006 awareness course
- GUEST or other yacht interior experience
- Advanced Excel or crew management software training
- French, Spanish or Italian to a working level
Where it leadsA typical career path
Yacht & Crew Management jobsOpen now on SuperyachtRoles.com
Questions crew ask
Do I need to have worked on yachts?
It isn't always a formal requirement, but most offices strongly prefer it. Former crew understand certificates, rotations and life on board without being taught. If you come from travel or HR instead, expect to show you have learned the industry quickly.
Will I earn more than I did on board?
Usually not at first. A coordinator's salary is taxed and often lower than a senior stewardess's tax-free wage. What you get in return is a settled home, regular hours and a route into management.
Where are most crew coordinator jobs?
Antibes, Monaco and Palma hold the bulk of management companies, with more in Fort Lauderdale, the UK south coast and the Netherlands. Living locally and having the right to work there matters, because these are office contracts.
How is this different from a crew recruitment consultant?
A coordinator handles crew who are already employed: travel, paperwork, contracts and compliance. A recruitment consultant at an agency finds and places new crew and is often paid partly on commission. The skills overlap, and people move between the two.