I have been in hospitality since in 1990 – working in fine dining Restaurants and gaining extensive experience as a Waiter, Restaurant Manager and Hostess all through school and university and later worked as Hotel Manager of several upmarket Boutique Hotels and villas in South Africa and USA. I discovered yachting and yachts in 1997, whilst traveling through the USA and was hired on board a yacht in Fort Lauderdale two weeks later – never to look back again!
My passion for service and hospitality led to a 10 year career in the super yacht industry – working my way up from Stewardess, Chief Stewardess, Medical Officer and Purser on private and charter yachts up to 90 meters.
I have done extensive Maritime and Hospitality training, including WSET Level III and numerous Advanced Wine Diplomas, Advanced STCW Medical qualifications, Level II Food Health and Safety, Professional Guesthouse Management Diploma, Professional Barista and Cocktail Training, various accounting programmes, ISPS and ISM training and started a Yacht Training School in my home country, South Africa, early 2008 after leaving the yachting industry.
I am the co-owner of this school, Super Yachting South Africa, one of the first schools in the world to be approved to teach the G.U.E.S.T. Steward/ess Programme (SYSA has recently decided to exit the programme) where I run the Steward/ess and Chief Steward/ess courses and am the Principal of the SYSA Steward/ess programme. I have, up to date, trained almost 2000 Steward/esses and still guide/advise/assist/mentor many of these current and former students on a daily basis.
I write a bi-monthly column about Steward/ess tips and learning material on OnBoardOnline (www.onboardonline.com), as well as published articles on Steward/ess issues/interests for various professional yachting publications.
My Facebook group YACHT STEWARDESS AND STEWARD TIPS was chosen TWICE as “The Most Popular Group to Follow for Yachties” by an internationally acclaimed yachting publication. This useful group has almost 13 000 Steward/esses in the group who ask for advice and guidance and members contribute so passionately and the goal is to support new and experienced Steward/esses from all over the globe. Over the past years, I have been, on several occasions, part of a team of expert judges at the PYA Monaco Boat Show’s Table Setting Competition, as well as spoken on several local and international yachting discussion panels. I am very fortunate to have been part of so many young people’s development and to help them reach their goals and dreams and seeing them succeed is something that makes me tremendously proud and gives me job satisfaction every day.
