Pilates Instructor

You teach Pilates on board, usually one to one or in small groups, to the owner, their family and charter guests. Large yachts often carry a reformer, a tower or a Cadillac in the gym or spa, plus mat space on deck. Sessions are booked around the guest programme, so you might teach at sunrise on the sundeck, again after lunch in the gym and once more before dinner for someone with a bad back.

Few yachts carry a Pilates instructor who only teaches. Most expect you to help in the spa or interior when guests do not need you. That can mean laundry, cabin turndowns, setting up treatments or serving drinks at a beach club lunch. If you also hold a massage, yoga or personal training qualification you become far more useful, and far easier to hire. Owners with a long cruising programme value one person who can cover several roles.

You also look after the equipment. Salt air corrodes springs and carriage wheels, so you clean, check and log everything and order spares before the yacht leaves port. You keep notes on each guest, including injuries, preferences and progress, and you adapt sessions to a moving deck. Discretion matters. You spend close, quiet time with very private people and you must keep what you hear to yourself.