A new welfare hub for superyacht crew is to be established in Antibes, France, through the funding and collaboration of maritime charities, which Nautilus is supporting.
For the establishment of the French hub, maritime grant funder The Seafarers' Charity has awarded funding for a partnership welfare project between The Mission to Seafarers and UK Sailing Academy (UKSA). This funding stems from new priorities established by the Changing Tack on Yacht Crew Welfare Working Group which was set up in response to rising concerns about mental health issues facing crew. The working group was formed in 2023 by The Seafarers' Charity in partnership with UKSA, Nautilus International and the International Seafarers' Welfare and Assistance Network (ISWAN).
The Seafarers' Charity funding will specifically support the recruitment of a Mission to Seafarers' chaplain with skills in mental health awareness and suicide prevention, and a UKSA welfare and career development manager who will support careers and promote and deliver mental health awareness and wellbeing training for yacht crew.
These roles will work closely with ISWAN's Yacht Crew Help – a 24/7 multilingual helpline. ISWAN will also receive funding from The Seafarers' Charity for a new project manager role that will take forward the development of resources and information to support crew welfare as identified by the Changing Tack working group.
In a webinar hosted by The Seafarers' Charity on 20 March 2024, industry leaders, including Nautilus International head of organising Martyn Gray, addressed the concerning rise in mental health issues among yacht crew and discussed potential solutions.
In response to the funding support, CEO at UKSA, Ben Willows said: 'At UKSA, we see the increase of issues crew are facing every day, the demand on support from our welfare team continues to dramatically increase, and the type of issues facing our students is changing.'
Regional director for Europe at the Mission to Seafarers Steve Morgan said: 'This exciting collaboration will allow The Mission to Seafarers to provide vital support to an underrepresented group of seafarers: superyacht crew. This initiative ensures that we can meet the needs of superyacht crew as well as those working on other vessels.'
- for further information email Georgia Allen, ISWAN, at: allen@iswan.org.uk
- in the first instance, Nautilus members should contact their organiser with concerns about any issues onboard, or email yachts@nautilusint.org. In emergencies outside UK office hours you can contact the Nautilus 24/7 service
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Visit the Nautilus yacht hub and find out more about our professional yacht services: how we can help superyacht crew members with sea service verification, as well as non-payment of wages, repatriation, termination, bullying, harassment, criminalisation, and other issues.
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