We are you and me… 

It is part of our ethos as a publication to not jump on the bandwagon when our industry is shaken up by incidents and tragedies. When the Bayesian sank last year it was all over mainstream news and as the editor of a yachting and lifestyle publication I felt the pressure to publish something online. But The Islander Magazine isn’t about investigative journalism, it’s about the Mallorca expat and yachting community. Yacht crew safety and background checks for the crews involved are important topics, as these individuals are not anonymous to us. They are part of our network, sometimes via connections, sometimes directly. Yacht crew safety and background checks are, therefore, not just procedural but personal to us. 

If I write in this magazine that they are you and me, I’m being accurate. 

None of us on our team knew the young Paige Bell, who was murdered on a yacht in the Bahamas after the engineer assaulted her. But from the intense reactions we received through our social media and other channels, it is apparent that she was one of us. We know lots of young women with a profile similar to her. My own 19-year-old niece is making her first steps into this industry. All genders and ages would obviously benefit from easy access to criminal background checks. Effective yacht crew safety requires these background checks for everyone’s security. 

It’s often said that young females are particularly vulnerable. It’s more accurate to point out that the vast majority of offenders are men. 

Paige Bell’s story has been covered extensively but you can trust that there are many cases of violence and harassment that have gone under the radar. Yacht crew safety and background checks can help bring these issues to the forefront.

The Crew Life section of this issue is dedicated to Paige Bell and which actions have to be taken to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again. 

We have to use the means that we have available to make background checks easier to perform for recruiters, captains, pursers, and chief stews. By doing so we continue to make the world a safer place.

Despite this horrendous story, I would still like to use this platform to point out that, statistically, the world is continuously becoming a safer place and that most people are good people. 

Let’s look after each other.