What did you do before yachting, and how did your yachting career first begin?
Prior to my first season in Yachts, I studied Hospitality Management in Melbourne, Australia and worked in numerous restaurants, bars and some fun special events such as the Melbourne Cup horseracing carnival and F1 Grand Prix’s.
What has been your favourite boat you’ve worked on, and why?
My current crew will hate me for saying this as I love my current job and crew immensely, but I previously worked on a private 80m yacht based between the Med and the Middle East. It was enjoyable because the adventures and travel locations were totally new to me, with a big shift in cultures and languages, and we were sailing to areas that are off the usual beaten track. This created some unforgettable memories with lifelong friends, and I hope all my future yachts can give me the same pleasure.
What are the best and worst parts about working onboard?
Best part: Meeting crew from different nationalities and backgrounds and creating a fun work environment to achieve as much as possible as a team, regardless of the departments onboard.
Worst part: Sacrificing time at home to work in another part of the world. I have missed many weddings and special moments with my family and friends lives that we will never recreate.
How do you keep sane on charter?
By knowing that the hard work offered by the Captain and crew will improve the holidays of the guests and ensure that, when we get free time, we can relax with a sense of accomplishment!
What are your best strategies for spoiling charter guests?
Opening my ears to guest conversations to understand what the guests want to do with their time onboard, then surprising them with the organisation already completed when they ask to do it – usually watersports, tours ashore or favourite menu items. I also find that keeping children busy and entertained will allow the guests a better, more relaxed experience.
What’s the coolest thing you have done for guests?
I once dressed up as Santa Claus after a very long party for some Charter guests’ children. They only spoke Russian and I spoke none, so my repetitive “Ho,Ho Ho! “ was the only thing we could all understand! They were impressed though, but I am not exactly sure why!
What is your signature cocktail?
Pina Colada with all fresh ingredients.
What is your favourite yachting destination?
The Seychelles Islands and Aldabra. It is amazing underwater and just as epic above the water, a “Galapagos of the Indian Ocean”. We swam with sharks, dolphins, turtles, and whales, and walked with Giant Tortoises on a uninhabited coral atoll.
If you owned a superyacht, what would you do differently?
Never be based in one location for more than a month before continuing to see more and cruising as far and as wide as possible.
What is your on-board pet hate?
My on-board pet hate would either be crew leaving personal belongings in the guest area or a lack of information about the future trips.
What career achievement are you most proud of?
To be “Stew of the Month” for Islander magazine!
Best housekeeping tip/hack?
My Housekeeping tip would have to be using Scotchguard protection on furniture prior to the guests arrival – will always save time later!
Tell us about your funniest embarrassing moment on board
My funniest embarrassing moment on yachts could nearly have been a serious accident! I once carried a brand new washing machine over a passerelle with 3 other crew, and the passerelle broke in half! We all fell into the gap between the port wall and the swim platform. Miraculously no serious injuries to any of us, just a drowned washing machine!
What’s your favourite adventure in Mallorca?
Walking the Old town in Palma and bar hopping for cocktails and tapas.
If you could give your 20yr old self one piece of advice, what would it be?
Home will always be there, start your travelling adventures now!
What’s your plan for the future?
Continue in yachts for as long as possible, maybe set up the Interior of a large New Build, and then settle down in Melbourne to be my own Boss!
From Ship to Shore
Each month I interview somebody who has made the transition from life at sea to living on land. This month I talked with Nick Stael von Holstein, who is a Sales Manager for Medical Support Offshore.
How long did you work in yachting?
4 years on and off at different times.
Can you tell me about your yachting career – highlights, low points?
My first ever yachting experience was sailing a 42ft catamaran from San Francisco to Hawaii. This was 1989 and the days when you could rock up to a yacht with backpack ready and ask ‘do you need delivery crew?’. 24 hrs later I was sailing under the Golden Gate bridge with no idea what I was getting into. I was fresh out of University with no real clear picture of what I wanted to do in life, but not stressed about it, so travel and backpacking was the start of the journey of discovery.
That trip was a baptism of fire! 4 crew: the owner/captain who ended up being clueless; two delivery crew, one a Brit and one a Swede (both fortunately very knowledgeable and sailing around the world by any means possible); and me the scuba instructor and cook. Plus we had a young 1yr old black Labrador and a cat with us. The cat was seasick all 24 days and the dog just wanted to jump in the ocean and swim. Almost everything that could go wrong and break, did. We ended up hand-steering and sextant-navigating 2,000 nm due to numerous mechanical failures, namely autopilot and the 2 back up systems busted, 80% of batteries drained due to some kind of electrical fault, sails ripped in a squall and on and on. When we got to Hawaii, I ended up staying there almost a year living in Waikiki Beach. It was a journey I will never forget. The low point was when we had to start rationing food for the last 5 days. It should have taken 17 days to get there – when it eventually took 24 days and we starting to suspect our sextant navigation was amiss, the next stop would have been Japan and another 3,000nm. So the high point was seeing the big island of Hawaii appear slowly on the 23rd day!
Later on, I spent a couple years in San Diego skippering a couple of local 25m yachts, and then a couple of seasons in the Caribbean as a Mate on a 35m motoryacht called Mardi Gras. It was exactly like that onboard, with Texan owners who loved to party. I got on great with the owners but the Captain was a nightmare, an old sea salt with 40 years at sea and not willing to share any of his knowledge or teach a thing or two. I eventually jumped ship in St Martin.
How did you know it was time for you to make the move to land?
I did not plan it all. Having spent a decade in the Caribbean working as dive wand water sports instructor, I thought a return to Europe for a season was in order. Palma was the destination. After my first 6 months summer in Mallorca and working as a freelance bareboat skipper, I took a winter job with a yacht Medical Kit, training & telemedicine company and I have remained in this field ever since. Suddenly, I had transitioned from my nomadic lifestyle to renting an apartment long term and then eventually buying one. Its turns out I was quite ready to make the transition without knowing it and have not looked back.
What was the most difficult thing about the transition?
Certain real life realities came to ground at the time – rent and then mortgage, being legal by living in a place more than 6 months, taxes, no more expenses-free lifestyle, less spontaneous travel to stunning locations on the hoof – what’s all that about! Not easy transitions to begin with, but in the end it’s part of ‘real’ life and starting of a new chapter and not a big deal once I got my head around it.
What was the best thing about it?
Having a foundation and home for the first time in my life after 15 years of being a globe-trotting nomad. Mallorca is now my home for 13 years and I’m here to stay. I love it here, along with my wonderful Mallorcan wife. We live the ‘buena vida’ on this magical isle.
What do you miss most about yachting?
I do of course miss the care-free and living-by-the-seat-of-your-pants days and the amazing long journeys and adventures but I do that in different ways now.
What do you do now?
I now work with Medical Support OffShore, a fantastic company to work with providing medial support for the yachts. We have a special focus on sailing yachts but we support any kind of yacht, giant or small, motor or sail. It’s not how big the yacht is, it’s what you do with it that counts.
Do you have any advice for fellow yachties about going land-based?
Seize the moment, have faith, believe in yourself, trust your gut and love whatever you do. After that, everything else will fall into place like it was meant to be. If you can live life to its fullest while you’re on the yachting journey, do the same when you head ashore.
May Events
1st May – Estrellencs Cheese and Wine Fair; Ses Salines May Fair; and Sineu May Fair
7th May – Campanet May Fair
8th May – Campos May Fair and Felantix May Fair
7th – 9th May – Es Firó – Soller Festival of the Moors and the Christians – A weekend of events culminating on Monday, when rowdy battle scenes are re-enacted on the beach in the afternoon and in the town square in the evening. Not for the feint-hearted, this is one of Mallorca’s most popular and dramatic festivals. More info: www.esfiro.cat/en
13th – 15th May – Capdepera’s Medieval Market Head to the northeast for one of the island’s best fairs. Many dress in medieval costumes, and there are many artisan stalls, local foods and traditional music and street entertainers.
28th – 29th May – Binissalem Stone Craft Fair
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