Wages and Benefits

Hi there,

Until you get some fresh responses, you might find an interesting and/or relative reading in these posts:
http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/yacht-captains/16018-going-rate-captain-one-year-contract.html
and:
http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/general-yachting-discussion/20208-130-westport-potential-crew.html

Cheers,

Wages

Good question CDonjr and KKreicker1!!!

I captained a 108' Sunseeker Predator for about 3 years on the East Coast, and I was paid the standard $1000 per ft. per year. I did have medical insurance and also a 401K through the owner's company that was matched dollar for dollar up to 6%. My phone was re-imbursed as an expense every month, but no crew vehicle was provided. If I had to use mine for ships business, I would just keep track of mileage and also submit it in an expense report.

As far as Holidays were concerned, I was granted 1 month Holiday per year, and if the owner was traveling for an extended period of time, then we would use some of that downtime as additional vacation, after all ship's business was completed. I had a daily checklist of things to be completed to stay on top of the cosmetic and mechanical maintenance so we would never be laid up in port for too long with chasing problems or cleaning.

Hope this helps!

I do. IF the vessel see's a very high amount of usage, the crew then is working non-stop during any and every downtime to catch up on deferred maintanence. The crew should make more.

Charter is a bit different because the extra work and hours are typically made up for with a lot of tips.

Outside help is always necessary, but the amount depends on how much usage, what the crew is capable of doing, and basically scheduling constraints.

"Do you have Health Ins"

Some times.

"Do you have a Retirement plan"

Some times. But less often than health insurance.

"Paid Vacation"

Yes. Always.

"Holidays"

Some times. But in most cases those are the days the owners, guests or charterers want to use the boat. I try to find make up days for crew if we miss holidays when I can. Depends on the boats schedule.

"Crew vehicle - do you expect this as standard"

Yes in some form.

"Cell Phone"

Boat phone for sure.

Wages

Cdonjr, I just PM'd you some more info.

"Approximately how many weeks per year did you travel?"

I guess you'd have to define travel? Days underway, days away from the boats home port, days away form my/the crews home base?

"Do you think the wage should be impacted by how much usage the vessel gets?"

Yes.

"was it a charter vessel or private?"

In my case I've run both strictly private and private/charter boats.

"How many crew did you manage?"

3 - 4 And then all the subs and yard crew during yard periods.

"Did you use outside help to perform repair work that fell outside the general maintenance checklist?"

Yes. There is not a large boat out there that doesn't at some time or another I'd say.
And in some cases if we are up against a time crunch we would bring in day help to turn the boat around or get it in shape for an up coming trip.

Mythical Beast

If you go to yacht crew and brokerage web sites, you will find that the $1000per foot rate is a myth. But then again, never let a yacht broker or crew agency negotiate your terms. They will only tell the owner/buyer what they want to hear. For instance:

http://www.camperandnicholsons.com/resources/documents/crew-salary-guide.pdf

You will need to interpolate or your vessel size and convert euros to dollars.

For a 120' yacht, the captain salary is $109,868.52

And, I've turned down $150k a year plus benefits (food, health insurance, 2 weeks paid vacation) to run a very busy 100' with several owners. I manage/maintain/run one of the owners 55' yacht that stays in South Florida.

I've also turned down several others over the past 2 years paying $1200 per ft. + + + that were lightly used yachts. Simply for the fact that I do just as well managing many and don't want to be here for a few months, there for a few months, over there a few months.....Then again, who knows, 5-10 years down the road I may change my mind......

You get exactly what you pay for when it comes to crew and sometimes, not even that much........Although sometimes fit/itinerary is a lot more of a consideration for a Captain than pay.

I don't know any sportfish captains which have a "standard" job- everyone has a different job description and a different way in which they are employed. I am full time but do not have a boat phone or company vehicle. I travel 6 months a year, but am home the other 6. I don't charter- but some do. I've got health insurance, some don't. I could make more money elsewhere, but the real challenge is to find a owner who you get along with. Some like to change jobs every couple years- I find that silly in the sportfish world- find a owner you get along with and stay put. I've been on the Donzi since '05.

There are owners like you out there, but I have seen/heard more (especially in the recent economy) that only want minimal service on their multi million dollar yacht. It never means less work because much of the work on a yacht is all or none, but it means the owner wants to pay less.

I always appreciate knowing there are owners out there that are willing to provide good atmospheres to their crew, knowing that it will come back 100-fold.

free lunch?

I understand it's the boat owners responsibility to pay for the food of the crew while at sea, however, if the boat is in it's home port & the Captain is going home every night & sleeping in his own bed with his family & reports to the boat every day, is it still the owners responsibility to buy breakfast, lunch & dinner for the Captain & day laborer? The daily expenses are getting high & was just wondering if this was customary & expected or not?

New to the yachting world. Thanks for the feedback.

lifesadream, welcome.

I think that this is a very "fine line" to walk down. While I am in total agreeance that food, expenses are covered by the owner while the boat is in transit / charter, but when the Capt and Crew get to go home every night, and stay in his / her bed, I think that you have to look at two things: 1) Are you trying to build a program that is based upon trust and integrity with your crew? What I mean by this is that do you have long term goals for your Captain and Crew that you want to keep them around for a long time. I've worked for an owner that I would still be working for if he hadn't sold the boat due to shifting business interests overseas, and he would provide us meals and expenses while we were at the dock as much as we wanted. We never took advantage of it because we loved working for him, and I would still submit the necessary expense report at the end of the month. He also would provide all the necessary food / gear to us if we were in a "crunch" time mode to get done with a detail or an oil change done before heading out for a trip / charter. I reasoned with the crew, that we could eat on the boat in the comfort of the salon / aft deck without losing any time by having to drive someplace to get lunch / dinner, etc.

On the flip side, I worked for an owner that only had the "bottom line" mentality, and put a limit on to how much we could stock the boat for a month long trip down range. While we got creative with what we bought, it turned out that we were fine due to some planning, and by no means were we eating Steak and Lobster every night, but modest meals to keep us healthy and able to work everyday. It just depends on how long you want to keep you crew, and keep them happy. Happy Crew = Happy Boat = Happy Owner.

2 Building on that trust and integrity principle. You as the owner are trusting your Captain and Crew to manage / maintain a very important investment that has been made with hard earn money. I personally witnessed a Yacht that we tied up next to in Ft. Lauderdale that the crew had so much anger towards the owner that they refused to maintain it to Yacht Standards (No washing, no oil changes, bottom cleaning, zincs, etc) It was blatantly done. I asked the Captain what the deal was and he said. "The owner only cares about himself, and hasn't taken care of us in more than enough ways" I asked what he meant. "Late paychecks, no time off, not paying expense reports, not allowing us to schedule normal yard periods, and making us pay for our own stores for trips underway" While I was in agreeance that it was a "raw deal" for the crew and Yacht, I would never deliberately just let a Yacht fall to shambles under my command as Captain. That's just the way I was raised, but some people don't think like I do.