COMMENT
Happy Life After
Michael Howorth notices that large houses ashore are virtually indistinguishable from five-star hotels or indeed large yachts and the good news is they need good crew too
I
received a telephone call the other day from a nicely spoken young lady. She said she was from a recruitment agency and on hearing that, my heart fell. Had she not heard, I asked, that I was no longer a superyacht Captain and was no longer hiring crew and was not as such client potential? “No,” she said, “it’s not that!”
This time my heart leapt a little. Maybe she was going to offer me one last command job as Captain of the latest Oceanco working for that nice bald-headed chap from a Brazilian forest who keeps sending retired Star Trek officers into space! No, it wasn’t that either, she patiently explained.
It turns out she was in the market to hire crew and wondered if I knew of any. At this point I asked who she worked for, and she said Polo & Tweed. “That does not sound very yachtie,” I said. She agreed, explaining that her company specialises in recruiting and placing luxury domestic service staff in villas, mansions and estates around the world. Based in London, they are, she said, “at the heart of the elite service culture.”
the clients don’t get off. And even if they do switch from the Caribbean villa to their New York town house they generally took their staff with them in their private jet,” she added with what I thought might be a smirk.
There is a strong demand for butlers and while that might conjure up images of Carter in Downton Abbey, the fact is that butlers need not be English or elderly or even male. Get ready for it chief stews, butlers can be female! An experienced butler with 8+ years experience can expect a salary £78,000 upwards.
“If they do switch from the Caribbean villa to their New York town house they generally took their staff with them in their private jet”
Her problem is, she explained, that she simply just can’t get enough good staff to cover the work they had on offer. In short, the super-rich can’t get the help they’re used to. “The demand for staff has increased by 400 per cent, she explained but we’ve seen 50 per cent less applications from candidates for each of our jobs. As a result, many of her country house clients are being left “stranded.” The result is the company are trying to lure yacht crews to come ashore.
It was, I suggested, a first-world problem and she agreed but it was a problem she could solve if she could tempt superyacht crew to swallow the anchor, step ashore and sign up for domestic servitude. “It’s just like being on a charter yacht she said only
Another area where domestic staff shortages are ripe for superyacht crew infiltration is that of security and work involved in maintaining large country retreats. Large houses are virtually indistinguishable from five-star hotels or indeed large yachts. The amenities they have include indoor/outdoor pools, cinemas, gyms, wine cellars, Olympic size equestrian paddocks, laundry blocks with dry cleaning machines, offices and multiple out houses. Rather than reading the manuals themselves, families employ people who have. Their housekeepers earn around £85,000 a year and the security guy gets £130,000.
Another reason why good superyacht crew are in such demand as staff ashore is because domestic life does not end at 5pm. Dinner parties often go on late; someone has to stay up and clear dishes, and that can no longer be the same person who set the table. In the past people used to expect servants to work 12-24 hours a day, but now cleaners, housekeepers and nannies demand to work in shifts two weeks on, two weeks off, or 7am-3pm, 3pm-11pm daily with breaks, that means there are more jobs ashore now than ever before.
All this leads up to the revelation that there is such a thing as life after superyachts where you still receive a decent wage.
ONBOARD | SPRING 2022 | 7
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