Superyacht Guide Crew

Superyacht Crew Recruitment and Finding Work

A professional recruitment process should connect a qualified candidate with a genuine onboard vacancy without turning access to employment into a fee-paying product. For ships within MLC scope, recruitment and placement is specifically regulated.

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MLC recruitment and placement principles

MLC Regulation 1.4 provides for an efficient, adequate and accountable recruitment and placement system. Private services operating in a ratifying Member's territory are subject to licensing, certification or another form of national regulation.

Shipowners using services based where the Convention does not apply are required, for ships within the relevant MLC framework, to ensure those services conform to the Convention's recruitment and placement requirements. This means the conformity check can remain relevant even when the recruitment service is located outside a State where the Convention applies.

Recruitment fees

The MLC prohibits recruitment or placement fees, or charges for providing employment, from being borne directly or indirectly by the seafarer. The rule includes limited exceptions for the cost of a national statutory medical certificate, national seafarer's book and passport or similar personal travel document.

Visa costs are expressly excluded from those seafarer-paid exceptions and are to be borne by the shipowner. Candidates should treat a demand for payment simply to secure a job or placement as inconsistent with the MLC model where that framework applies.

Check the vacancy before sending documents

A recruitment service operating under the MLC framework is expected to verify that recruited seafarers are qualified and hold the documents needed for the job. It must also make arrangements for seafarers to examine their employment agreements and receive a copy.

Candidates should likewise verify the role, yacht, employer or management company, joining arrangements and certificate requirements before supplying sensitive documents. The purpose is to match documented competence to a real vacancy rather than to collect generic candidate data without a clear employment path.

Qualifications still matter at recruitment

A recruiter cannot substitute for the maritime administration that issues or recognises a certificate. Candidates should determine which training, medical and competency documents are required for the intended role before treating a placement as ready to proceed.

For UK large-yacht routes, the MCA publishes specific requirements for ratings, deck officers and engineering personnel. Other flag States may recognise different certificates or require endorsements.

Crew Qualifications and Certification Crew Roles and Departments

Superyacht Guide recruitment routes

Candidates who want to make their details available through Superyacht Guide can use the existing Crew CV submission route. Captains, managers and employers looking for crew can continue to use the separate Request Crew surface.

Those existing functions remain separate from this editorial guide and will not be replaced by the Crew cluster. The new guide provides context and safer recruitment principles while preserving the established application and request workflows.

Submit a Crew CV Request Crew For Captains

Primary sources

The regulatory references below are official primary sources used for this guide.