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Hanging with P-Diddy and swimming with turtles - all in a day's work on board a superyacht
Chris Hollis – former Flying Fish student and Yachtmaster Instructor has spent the last few years working in the superyacht industry. I asked him what life on board is really like.
Chris spent years working on yachts before deciding to work on superyachts
Chris explained: “I have been working on a 157 foot Christensen, MY Lady Joy. I am the bosun on board, which means I run the decks and supervise two deckhands. I answer to the first mate and captain.
157 foot of luxury: M.Y Lady Joy
"We have three stewardesses, a chief engineer and two chefs. For the last six months we were in a shipyard in Florida. When I joined this boat in November we were ironing out new boat problems. Then we went to the Caribbean for seven weeks, for charters and trips with the owner.
"We cruised the Dominican Republic, St Barts, St Martin, and then we went back to Florida for some more work - and a two week trip to the Bahamas with the boss and her family. This trip was amazing: lots of sea life, large turtles and crystal clear water. We chilled at the Exumas, beautiful Bahamian islands.
Hanging out with P-Diddy on board
"We cruised back to Florida so the boat was ready to join the "dock express" - a massive ship that transports superyachts around the world. The crew had this time off, a nice little unexpected two weeks. I went to the UK, then Holland, and met the boat again in Genoa, Italy. We even snuck in a couple days skiing in Cervinia on the Italian and Swiss border!
"That signalled the end of the good times though. We have been flat out since we got back on board in the Med. We did the Cannes Film Festival and we are now on charter in Greece and Turkey.
Snowboarding in Cervinia
"We are cruising the whole Med this year, with France, Italy and Croatia still to come. This means no days off and 24 hour watches the whole time. We are all knackered as hell, but the bank balance will look OK with no spending and a few tips - fingers crossed!
"Working with nice people who you genuinely like is awesome. I find my self setting up the boat at 4am, helping the crew wash up at lunch and dinner, going water skiing and jet skiing with guests. There are all night gangway and anchor watches but when we get time off we all make an effort to go and have a great time.”
