First Engineer

The job is hands-on. You own the planned maintenance system and decide what gets done this week: generator services, separator overhauls, watermaker membranes, HVAC chillers, stabiliser seals. You allocate jobs to the second and third engineers, check their work and sign it off. You keep the oil record book, bunkering paperwork and running hours accurate, because the Chief and the flag state auditor will both read them. Breakdowns land on you first, and you are expected to have a plan before you phone the Chief.

With guests aboard the engine room goes quiet in the wrong way. Noisy jobs stop, the plan shrinks to essentials and the work becomes watchkeeping, tender support and fixing whatever a guest has broken in a cabin. You will often run a watch rotation at anchor overnight. In the yard or over winter in Antibes or Palma, you become a site manager: chasing contractors, isolating systems, writing permits to work and keeping the crew safe around hot work and enclosed spaces.

Captains and Chiefs hire First Engineers who already hold the ticket for the next job up, or are close to it. The usual profile is an MCA Y2 or Y1, or a Second Engineer Unlimited certificate on 3000gt+ yachts, with two or three seasons as Second Engineer on a yacht of similar size. Big diesel experience matters: MTU, Caterpillar or MAN engines, plus power management, sewage plants and high voltage on the largest yachts. Merchant navy engineers move across at this level often, and do well if they adapt to the standard of finish yachts expect.

Most people do two to four years as First before stepping up. Some move to Chief on a 45-60m yacht, where they run a smaller plant alone with one assistant. Others wait for the Chief's job on their own boat, which is the smoother route if the owner and captain rate you. Use the time to cover the Chief's leave properly, sit in on budget meetings and get your remaining sea time and orals done.