For Owners, Captains & Management
Hire a Chief Engineer for Your Yacht
Looking for a chief engineer? Y-ticket level, vessel familiarity and hands-on record are all verified with previous captains before a candidate reaches you.
A chief engineer holds overall responsibility for a yacht’s machinery, power, water and technical systems. They manage the engineering department, plan maintenance and shipyard work, control the technical budget, and answer to the captain for the vessel staying operational.
What a chief engineer does on board
- Main and auxiliary machinery operation and maintenance
- Planned maintenance systems and spares management
- Yard periods, surveys and class compliance
- Managing engineering budget and contractors
What separates a good chief engineer from a qualified one
Ask what they did about a fault they could not diagnose, and how they handle a shipyard quoting for work the boat does not need. A good chief engineer saves their own salary several times over in avoided downtime and challenged invoices. A weak one is discovered during a charter, which is the worst possible time.
Certification and experience
Every chief engineer we put forward has current certification checked before you see them, and references taken directly with previous captains or owners rather than read off a page.
- MCA Y1
- MCA Y2
- MCA Y3
- MCA Y4
- STCW
- ENG1
Typical experience sought: 6+ years · Reports to Yacht Captain · Manages Second Engineer, ETO
The mistake we see most often
Judging the hire on ticket level alone. Tonnage certification says what they can legally cover, not whether they know your particular systems. An engineer who has lived with the same make of generators for a decade is worth more than a higher ticket meeting them for the first time.
How we find the right chief engineer for your boat
- Understand the yacht. Programme, crew structure and owner style, and how the chief engineer will work with your yacht captain.
- Search and screen. A small number of genuine candidates, each spoken to individually, with MCA Y1 and MCA Y2 confirmed before you see them.
- Reference in person. Direct conversations with previous yacht captains and captains, not a form sent by email.
- Introduce and follow through. Introductions, then contact once they are aboard — the first eight weeks are when a placement either settles or does not.
Frequently asked
Hiring a chief engineer: common questions
What Y-ticket does my chief engineer need?
It follows tonnage and engine power. Y4 covers smaller yachts, rising through Y3 and Y2 to Y1 for the largest vessels. The certificate sets the legal minimum; familiarity with your specific machinery decides whether they are actually the right hire.
Why does system familiarity matter so much?
Two yachts of identical size can run entirely different propulsion, power management and automation. An engineer who knows your builder and your systems will diagnose faults in hours rather than days.
What should a chief engineer be responsible for?
Main and auxiliary machinery, the planned maintenance system, spares and stores, class and flag surveys, yard periods, and the engineering budget. On larger yachts they also manage a second engineer and ETO.
How do you assess a chief engineer during recruitment?
Through technical conversation about the systems on your yacht, and reference calls with previous captains focused on how they handled failures, yard periods and contractors under time pressure.
Is rotation normal for chief engineers?
Increasingly yes, above roughly 50m. Engineering is the department where fatigue carries the highest operational risk, so owners running heavy schedules often accept the cost of rotation here first.
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