My maritime career started when I left school at age sixteen and went commercial fishing.
I gained my first captains license at eighteen and started my first captain’s role fishing for lobster and tuna in New Zealand and Pacific Islands.
Gaining my Master 500 ton and Dive instructor by 21. Now going grey at 42, I currently hold a Master Yachts 3000 ton and Y2 Chief Engineer qualifications.
Class 1 problem solver, Amateur degree in emotional intelligence with honors in dry humor.
Winner of annual laser disco basketball tournament.
Runner up quarterly flip cup challenge, 2nd place in Skyfall table tennis tournament- (results still being debated)
How did I get started on yachts?
I was given a bar napkin in New Zealand with instructions: Fort Lauderdale. Florida. USA SE 17th Street. Superyachts- go dock walking. So, I decided to try something new at age 23 (2003) and got on a plane to Florida. I started yachting career as a sole engineer on a 123ft yacht in Miami and over 7 years and several vessels I progressed to MCA Y2 Chief Engineer. I have worked on several large high-profile charter yachts under some of the industry’s best captains. I slowly started losing my interest In engineering, primarily the solitaire was really starting to bore me and I was starting to develop grumpy engineer syndrome so went back to my captains licenses and experience to develop my management and interpersonal capabilities.
I changed from chief engineer to Med based Charter Captain in 2011. Two years running charters in Croatia and Montenegro and Italy/ Greece and Turkey. Then five years running the busy charter yacht Rebel. In the USA Bahamas and Caribbean, several Alaska charters seasons. We excelled in abnormal cruising and exceptional experiences for our clients. I also have a great passion for fishing and scuba diving, and we have offered unique dive charters for number of our HNW clients. I have done brokers presentations and promotional events for the industry highlighting charter locations. Over the years I have become good friends with some of the industry’s top charter brokers.
The past 18 months I have served as Captain on Skyfall a busy 58 charter yacht, multi repeat clients in that time. I have an excellent crew that I am very proud of. It is great to see their own personal developments and skill building. I have had the lowest crew turn over in our previous fleet and had excellent retention of number of my crew over the past 7 years. Any experience onboard can only be as good as the vessels entire crew and is influenced by their ability to function as a team. The captain is only one piece of the puzzle. I am extremely lucky to have worked with some amazingly talented and dynamic crew members over the years and that has made my role so much easier and rewarding.
