Yacht Delivery Captain

You are hired to take a yacht from A to B. That might be Palma to Antibes before the season, Fort Lauderdale to St Maarten for winter charter, or a new build from the yard to its first berth. There are no guests. Your job is to plan the passage, pick or brief the crew, check the boat is fit to go, and bring it in safely, on schedule and without damage.

Most of the work happens before you leave the dock. You read the weather routing, check fuel range and bunkering stops, inspect safety gear, test steering, bilge pumps and nav electronics, and sort port clearances and crew paperwork. Many yachts you deliver are unfamiliar, sometimes poorly maintained, so you need the judgement to find faults early and the confidence to delay departure or refuse a boat that is not seaworthy.

At sea you run a small crew on a watch system, often three or four people. You stand watches yourself, navigate, handle radio traffic and make the calls on weather and diversions. When you arrive you clear in, hand over with a written report on defects and fuel used, and fly out. Work is irregular. Spring and autumn repositioning is busy, and good captains build steady work through managers and brokers.