The cost that gets counted
Recruitment, flights, and the days lost while a position sits empty. That is the number owners usually see, and it is the smallest part of the total.
The cost that does not
Handover that never happened
Someone who leaves at two months takes everything they learned with you. The next person starts from nothing, and the crew who trained the first one train again.
Pressure on everyone else
A short-handed department absorbs the work. On a busy programme that means longer hours for people who were already fully committed, and resentment builds faster than most owners realise.
The second departure
This is the one that actually hurts. Crew turnover is contagious: when someone leaves badly, others start looking. A single bad hire in a five-person interior can trigger two more departures within a season.
Guest experience
New crew are slower and less certain, whatever their CV says. On a charter yacht that shows up directly in the guest experience during the weeks it takes to settle in.
Why bad hires happen
Rarely because someone lacked the certification. Almost always because the fit was wrong — the pace of the programme, the owner's style, or the personalities already on board.
That is difficult to assess from a CV, and impossible to assess if the person putting candidates forward has never worked on a yacht.
What reduces the risk
- Reference calls by phone with previous captains, not written references
- An honest brief, including what has not worked before
- Involving the captain or head of department in the decision
- Fewer candidates, properly assessed, rather than volume
- Follow-up after joining, while problems are still small
More on how that works in practice: how I recruit crew.