The people behind the yacht: A conversation on wellness

Welcome to Yacht Charter Market, the weekly newsletter dedicated to the world of yacht charter.

In today’s newsletter:

• Top story: The people behind the yacht: A conversation on wellness

• Wellness spotlight: Brew on Wheels: from yachting to coffee

• Charter Updates: Camper & Nicholsons’ Guillemot for charter in the Caribbean | The festive season onboard Life Saga | The Bahamas onboard Aurelia

• Superyacht Spotlight: That’s a wrap on the Monaco Yacht Show 🛥️🇲🇨

TOP STORY

The people behind the yacht: A conversation on wellness

For years, wellness onboard superyachts was as simple as a gym, a massage room, and perhaps a sauna or expansive beach club. Recently, the elements which define wellness are broadening, looking not only at physical well-being, but also at nutritional, mental and emotional well-being - for both guests and crew. What does that mean for the yachting industry at large and how can the yachting industry ensure that all involved parties are cared for? 

During the Monaco Yacht Show, The International Yachting Company (IYC) hosted a panel, together with SuperYacht Times, bringing together five experts from across the industry to discuss how wellness is changing both onboard and ashore, and how we can continue to cater to the well-being of those working in the industry. 

Joining us were Captain of the 80m Oceanco Batello, Luc Osstyn, MER Longevity founder and Chief Stewardess on a 100m+ superyacht, Angelika Paprotny, IYC Charter Consultant, Heather Hatcher, Owner’s Representative of the 44m Tecnomar This Is It, Karolos Konstandinidis, and Founder and Principal Designer at Carla Guilhem Design, Carla Guilhem. 

Wellness as a feeling

Although the experts represent various corners of the industry, they shared a consensus, noting that the future of wellness will need to look beyond guest amenities and think about crew well-being, including sleep, nutrition, workload, design and, perhaps most importantly, the culture onboard.

For Luc, wellness begins with something surprisingly intangible. “Wellness is a feeling,” he said. “It’s not really a thing you do; it’s a feeling you have.” 

Creating that feeling on a yacht requires an understanding of everything: From physical and mental health to diet and sleep. It also requires operational awareness. A captain deciding when to raise the anchor, for example, is simultaneously considering noise and vibration, which can severely impact the quality of sleep for anyone below deck. 

With 18 years of working onboard superyachts, Angelika shares this sentiment. “We talk a lot about the physical aspects for the crew: gym access and space to work out on deck. That’s very important but we also need to spend more time focusing on their mental wellbeing and nervous systems.”

Karolos further emphasised Luc and Angelika’s points, adding that crew welfare begins with their work environment: Where crew live, how they sleep, the hours they work and whether sufficient recovery time exists between charters. “For us, that do mainly charters, it’s important not to put them one after the other,” he shares, “crew need time to rest, maybe call their family and have time to get re-energised before welcoming the next guests.

To ensure the crew feels good in their skin, Angelika points to hosting regular one-to-one conversations with the team. “It can be difficult to admit you’re struggling, which makes it extra important to regularly check in with your crew,” she said. “They need to feel that they are heard.”

Luc similarly advocates an open-door approach. “It starts with creating space,” he said, describing the importance of giving crew access to trusted colleagues, senior figures and people beyond the yacht itself. For captains and department heads carrying responsibility for others, that wider support network becomes especially significant.

Space for crew 

Physical space matters too. Carla argued that wellness should be considered from the earliest stages of a yacht project, rather than inserted afterwards. Noise, vibration, air and water filtration, mattresses, circulation and circadian lighting can quietly influence how somebody feels without announcing themselves as ‘wellness features’.

“The most important thing is that most of these items are invisible to the clients,” Carla explained. “They do not realise what it is, but they feel that something is special.”

Crucially, those principles apply as much to crew quarters as guest staterooms. Designing spaces where crew can sleep properly and decompress is not simply an employment benefit; it affects the operation of the entire yacht.

The future of onboard wellness

Looking ahead, technology is likely to play a greater role. Angelika envisages dedicated crew recovery rooms incorporating cold therapy, massage, circulation treatments and other longevity technologies, alongside wearables that can offer greater insight into sleep and recovery.

Yet perhaps the most consequential future development is less glamorous. Luc wants the industry to think more seriously about the ratio between a yacht’s volume and the number of crew required to operate it properly.

“When you’ve got a big yacht and not enough crew, there are massive impacts on the crew wellness and the guest experience,” he said. Fewer crew means longer hours; longer hours mean fatigue – and, as he put it, eventually “the wellness goes out the door”.

For Hatcher, who has spent nearly two decades in the industry, that relationship of a healthy crew and well-run charter yacht is becoming increasingly more visible from the charter side.

“Without them we don’t have charter boats, we don’t have good programmes,” she said, noting the growing importance of rotation. “As a charter broker, I’m always happy when there’s a crew on rotation because I know that I’m going to get a refreshed crew, I’m not going to have an exhausted crew.”

That may prove the most important shift of all. Because the future of wellness at sea will not simply be about creating healthier charter guests. It will be about creating healthier yachts – and recognising that this begins with the people who live and work aboard them.

Wellness Spotlight

Brew on Wheels: From yachting to coffee

For Rafail, Brew on Wheels began with a surprisingly simple observation: For an industry built around exceptional experiences, good coffee was be remarkably difficult to find.

Having worked in yacht management since 2018, Rafail knew the rhythm of the Mediterranean yachting circuit well. While attending the Cannes Yachting Festival with a client two years ago, a search for specialty coffee highlighted a gap. “I couldn’t understand how it’s possible that an area like the South of France, where it lives off events the likes of Monaco Yacht Show, Cannes Yachting Festival and Monaco Grand Prix, there is no good coffee to be found,” he recalls.

which are then delivered to superyachts dockside on a recurring basis. The beans’ origins range from Ethiopia and Colombia to Brazil, Costa Rica, India and Papua New Guinea. The single-origin ensures the beans are full of one unedited flavour, as well as that their origins and ethics are easier to trace, facilitating wellness to everyone involved int he supplier chain, form farmer to consumer.

Yet Rafail sees the product as only one element of the business. At events, drinks can be created specifically for a partner or occasion, while branded barista activations allow Brew on Wheels to operate independently right out of its vintage truck.

transient world of yachting: community. At Port Vauban, customers have already begun discussing run clubs, yoga sessions and meet-ups around the truck.

“Coffee is a community,” he says. “It brings people together.” And for Brew on Wheels, that is every bit as important as what is in the cup.

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