The booming Pocket Superyacht niche and their crew.

It’s mid-January and I am flooded with work. We haven’t had time to celebrate the day we came up with the name and idea of Invisible Crew, now 8 years ago!

My diary shows all the follow up points for Imagine Heaven. This is the 65ft Yapluka catamaran that is retro-fitting a tender lift platform and bow-thrusters amongst other items.

There is also the upcoming commissioning of the brand new CNB76 AENEA.

It’s the time of the year to secure the crew contracts for my returning seasonal clients.

We signed a new full management contract in December with a 23m Sensation Yacht. We’ve never signed a client in the middle of the winter before so that’s a great sign.

Behind the scenes we are working on a game changing system to offer more hands-on support to our crew. This system will arm Invisible Crew members with an incredible wealth of knowledge and in turn further enhance our services to our clients. Hopefully I can write more about it in the next issue.

Then the Yachting world article titled -“What is behind the surge in new 60ft plus yacht designs and can you sail one safely without pro crew?”- landed on my desk.

This is a nice summary of how well the Pocket Superyacht niche is doing.

I shared it on the Invisible Crew Facebook page. www.facebook.com/invisiblecrewyachting. It confirms what we, at Invisible Crew, predicted 8 years ago. We were at the cradle of a market that is now exploding. CNB has designed a nice 66 footer and, on drawings and specs alone, have already sold 8.

The next question in the article is whether they will all need crew. In this size range there is generally quite a balanced pro and con’s list on the question of hiring crew.

At Invisible Crew we have been working and thinking hard for the last couple of years to make hiring crew a no brainer.

Traditionally nobody saw the need for management services for these smaller craft. They are not presented with the complexity and paperwork of superyachts. That’s true. However the complexity lies elsewhere…

Once an owner hires crew, the crew becomes a vital point in their yachting experience. This makes for a very tricky situation. They have invested hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Euros and are now at risk to let the quality of the experience depend on one or two individuals. On how the personalities of those individuals match theirs in the long run. On the amount of knowledge those individuals have gathered before taking on the job. On the discipline those individuals apply to the job.

By offering support to both owners and crew, we align expectations and improve communication. We make sure the crews have the tools to do the best job possible by providing knowledge and by educating owners on things like realistic schedules and budgets.

The Pocket Superyacht niche is a breeding ground for future Superyacht crew. So even in the most positive scenarios, crew rarely stay longer than 3 years on one yacht. At that point our clients know that Invisible Crew, as managers, know their yacht, their specific needs and expectations. As a constant, reliable factor we make their yachting experience one of uncompromised fun, as it should be!