Doctor / Private Physician
Yacht doctors are fully registered physicians who live aboard the largest private yachts, usually 80m and above, or travel with an owner's family. Most of the job is preventive care, crew health and preparing for emergencies that rarely happen. When one does happen, you may be days from a hospital. Judgement and acute skills matter more than anything else on your CV.
The jobWhat fills the day
You are the medical lead on board. That means the owner's and guests' health, primary care for a crew of 30 to 80, and the ship's hospital. You keep the medical stores to flag state scale, run the controlled drugs register, maintain defibrillators and oxygen, and plan medevac routes for every passage with the captain. You work alongside a telemedicine provider and keep health records for every crew member. Travel medicine, vaccinations, dive medicine and mental health support all land on your desk.
With the owner aboard you are on call around the clock. You go ashore on excursions, stand by during diving and heli flights, and see family members privately with complete discretion. Some doctors fly with the family between the yacht, the jet and the villa. Between trips the pace drops: crew clinics, restocking, medical drills, refresher training for officers who hold Proficiency in Medical Care, and your own CPD. Below 80m a yacht nurse is far more common. Explorer yachts heading to Antarctica, Raja Ampat or the South Pacific are where doctors are most often hired.
Owners and family offices hire doctors with at least five years post-qualification experience, usually in emergency medicine, general practice, anaesthetics or military medicine. Full registration with the GMC or an equivalent licensing body is essential, and you will be asked for current ALS and ATLS. Expedition or wilderness medicine qualifications help a great deal. Languages, calm manners and an ability to keep quiet matter as much as clinical skill. Expect NDAs, background checks and hiring through medical staffing firms or directly through the owner's office.
There is no ladder above you on board, so progression means moving to bigger or more remote programmes, securing a better rotation, or becoming the family's personal physician across all their assets. Some doctors move into fleet medical advisory work for management companies, or teach STCW medical courses ashore. Keep your licence alive. Rotation makes revalidation and hospital shifts easier, and many yacht doctors keep a part-time clinical post at home to stay sharp and employable.
Skills captains look for
- Emergency and acute care
- Remote and expedition medicine
- General practice and primary care
- Medevac planning
- Discretion with UHNW families
- Crew medical training
- Dive and travel medicine
A day aboardOwner trip, 110m explorer yacht, Raja Ampat, Indonesia
Check on a guest's child who had a temperature overnight. Review observations with the nanny and update the parents privately.
Crew clinic in the hospital: a deckhand's coral cut, a stew with a sore throat and a follow-up on an engineer's blood pressure.
Dive briefing with the instructor and chief officer. Confirm the nearest recompression chamber, oxygen kits and evacuation times for today's sites.
Go out on the chase boat with the guest dive group and stay on the surface with the trauma bag.
Lunch in the crew mess and an hour off in your cabin.
Monthly stock check and controlled drugs register. Order resupply through the agent ahead of the Sorong call.
Run a casualty drill with the deck team, practising stretcher recovery from the beach club to the hospital.
Dinner, then stay sober and close to the radio while the guests have drinks on the sundeck.
Final round with the guest child, write up notes and hand the night pager to yourself.
Pay by yacht sizeMonthly, before tips. Estimates. Bars share one scale.
Most roles are rotational with paid leave, flights and medical insurance included. Check that the employer covers your professional indemnity, because this can cost thousands a year if you buy it yourself. See the Spa, Wellness & Childcare salary guide for figures from live adverts.
Tickets and visas
Must have
- Full medical registration (GMC or equivalent)
- STCW Basic Safety Training
- ENG1 medical certificate
- Advanced Life Support (ALS)
- ATLS or equivalent trauma course
Gets you hired
- Diploma in Expedition or Wilderness Medicine
- Diving and hyperbaric medicine course
- PHTLS
- Paediatric life support (APLS or EPLS)
- Professional indemnity cover for worldwide practice
Visas
- Schengen visa if non-EU
- US C1/D crew visa
- B1/B2 for travel with the family
Where it leadsA typical career path
Questions crew ask
Do I need yachting experience to get hired?
No, but you need STCW Basic Safety and an ENG1 before you join, and remote or military medicine counts heavily. Owners care most about clinical depth and discretion. A season of expedition or offshore medicine makes up for having no yacht history.
What is the difference between a yacht doctor and a yacht nurse?
A doctor can diagnose, prescribe and manage serious cases on their own, which matters when you are days from a hospital. Nurses are more common on yachts of 60 to 90m, while doctors usually appear on 100m+ yachts, explorer programmes or with families who have specific health needs.
Can I keep my medical licence while working at sea?
Yes, but it takes planning. Most yacht doctors use their rotation time to do hospital or GP shifts and keep up CPD for revalidation. Let your licence lapse and you lose your job and your way back ashore.
How long are rotations?
Two months on and two off, or three and three, is common. Some families hire a doctor only for owner trips of several weeks, which pays well but gives less job security.