Martin Lex is the pen name of the 7S1L safety desk: SOLAS, lifesaving and firefighting gear, muster drills, emergency signals and safe work on board. Portrait is illustrative.
Yachting sells itself with the destinations. The yacht crew employment agreement, the SEA, decides everything else: whether the deckhand coiling lines in the rain at 23:00 gets paid on the first of the month, who buys the flight home after a season gone wrong, and what happens when a knee gives out in the engine room of a boat three flags from home.
On a commercially registered yacht flying a flag that has ratified MLC 2006, the yacht crew SEA is required by law and has mandatory content. On a private yacht it is often just a contract. Knowing which of the two you are about to sign is worth more than any salary number quoted on the dock in Antibes.
The first question is not the salary
Ask what the yacht is: commercially registered or private, and under which flag. A commercially operated yacht under a flag that has ratified MLC 2006 owes you what every seafarer gets: a written SEA you may review before signing, wages paid at least monthly with a statement, paid leave accruing at a minimum of 2.5 days per month, repatriation at the owner's cost, and medical coverage the way MLC Standard A4.2 describes.
The line is drawn by the convention itself: MLC 2006 applies to ships ordinarily engaged in commercial activity, and a charter yacht earning money is exactly that. At 500 GT and above on international voyages the yacht must also carry a Maritime Labour Certificate that port inspectors can demand. Below 500 GT the convention still applies in full; only the certificate is not mandatory. A private pleasure yacht that never trades commercially sits outside this framework.
The registries you will meet most often in yachting are the Cayman Islands, Malta, and the Marshall Islands. All three run dedicated yacht codes and have ratified MLC 2006. They are also open registries, and how an open registry enforces crew rights is a fair question before you join: the background is in our guide to flags of convenience and seafarer contracts.
On a privately registered yacht much of that framework does not apply automatically. Then the contract in your hand is nearly all the protection you have, which makes its wording more important, not less.
Who signs your yacht crew SEA: owner company or management company
Most yachts are not owned by a person on paper. They are owned by a company created to own the boat, often registered in the same offshore jurisdiction as the flag. Your SEA might name that owning company, a management company in Fort Lauderdale or Monaco, or a crew employment entity you have never heard of. MLC Standard A2.1 requires the parties to the agreement to be identified, and the convention keeps the shipowner responsible for your rights no matter how the payroll is routed.
So ask, in plain words: who is my legal employer, where is that company registered, and who do I write to when the wages stop. A management company that runs twenty boats and pays through a payroll provider is normal. An employer nobody can name is not.
Six clauses that sort the good boats from the bad
Read the whole agreement before you travel to the boat. The patterns that should stop you are the same ones we list in seafarer employment agreement red flags, and six clauses do most of the sorting:
- The employer, named. A yacht, a management company, an owning entity: someone identifiable signs as your employer, with an address. MLC Standard A2.1 requires the parties identified, and you keep a signed original.
- The wage, as a number, with a payment date. Not "competitive". Not "discussed at the dock".
- Leave and rotation, written. Verbal rotation promises evaporate mid-season.
- Repatriation, at whose cost, from where. Standard A2.5 puts the flight on the shipowner. A clause deducting it from your last month is the classic move on the boats you want to avoid.
- Medical cover, on board and ashore. Who pays the hospital in a foreign port, and are your wages covered while you are off sick.
- Notice, both directions. At least 7 days under MLC Standard A2.1 on covered vessels, and watch penalty clauses that only ever point at you.
Rotation or extension: get the pattern on paper
Yachting runs on two clocks. Some programs offer genuine rotation: time on, time off, wages continuing, a second crew mirroring yours. Many more offer a season with a vague promise that "we will sort leave out after the charters". A rotation that exists only in the interview is an extension waiting to happen, and by August the stew who was promised July off is still polishing glasses in the crew mess.
Get the pattern in writing: trip length, leave dates or the formula that produces them, and what happens to your return flight if the schedule changes. What counts as a normal contract length at sea, and when a temporary extension should worry you, is covered in how many months a seafarer contract should run.
Probation belongs in the same reading. Trial periods are common and legitimate, but the clause must state how long probation runs, what notice applies inside it, and whether repatriation is covered if you are let go in week two. A trial the captain can extend indefinitely is not a trial. It is a way to keep your notice at 48 hours forever.
Free crew appSeafarer Contract CheckCheck your contract clause by clause against MLC 2006 and flag state regulations. The check is free. On iPhone, Android or in the browser.
Charter season: tips, long days, and the rest hour sheet
Charter pay has three layers: the wage in the SEA, tips, and whatever bonus the program advertises. Only the first one is enforceable as written. Under the MYBA charter agreement, the standard contract of the Mediterranean charter fleet, the charter fee covers crew wages; a gratuity sits outside it and remains the guest's decision. No SEA can promise you a tip. If the program pays a charter bonus or a percentage, that formula belongs in the contract or a written addendum, with a payment date.
Then there are the hours. A back-to-back charter week means guests up at 07:00 and nightcaps at 02:00, and the interior team feels every hour of it. MLC Standard A2.3 sets the floor: at least 10 hours of rest in any 24 hour period and 77 hours in any 7 days, divisible into no more than two blocks, one of them at least 6 hours. Commercial yachts keep rest hour records. Never sign a sheet that records rest you did not have. Ashore, the Professional Yachting Association (PYA) in Antibes has represented professional yacht crew since 1991 and publishes guidance on employment contracts.
The season has its own uniform logic too. Whites and polos on deck while guests are aboard, and the seafarer hoodie that comes up from the crew cabin for the 03:00 anchor watch when the wind swings.
Repatriation and medical cover when the season ends far from home
Repatriation reads like a formality until the boat is laid up in a marina at the quiet end of the Caribbean and your flight home costs four figures. MLC Standard A2.5 puts repatriation on the shipowner. On a covered yacht, a clause deducting the ticket from your last wages is exactly the red flag it looks like. On a private yacht, if the contract does not say the owner pays, nobody pays. Ask before you join, not in the crew mess after the handover.
Medical cover follows the same rule. Ask three questions: who pays the hospital in a foreign port, does the policy cover you ashore and on leave travel, and does it lapse the day the season ends. The difference shows up when a tooth or a knee fails in a country where you hold no insurance.
The night before you fly out, when the sign-on set goes into the bag next to the seaman's book, is too late to start reading clause 14. Read it at home, with time to say no.
No glamour in the fine print
Crew agents and management companies in the yachting hubs know these standards well, and the professional ones put every point in writing without being pushed. Hesitation at any of the six clauses above is information.
One rule from the merchant side applies fully in yachting: MLC Standard A1.4 forbids charging seafarers for job placement. A crew agent in Palma or Antibes who wants a registration fee, a placement fee, or a cut of your first month is breaking the standard, not bending it. The details are in manning agency fees.
And check the paper itself before you sign. The MLC Contract Check reads a yacht SEA clause by clause against MLC 2006 and marks what is missing: free, about a minute, no account, and the contract never leaves your browser. If the yacht flies the Marshall Islands flag and the deal has already gone wrong, the complaint route to that flag state is documented step by step in how to file an MLC complaint on a Marshall Islands flagged ship.
A season is long, the Atlantic is longer, and the moment you find out what your contract is worth is never a calm one.
Source note
Primary sources for this article: the ILO Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (Standards A1.4, A2.1, A2.2, A2.3, A2.4, A2.5 and A4.2), Seafarers Rights International on employment agreements, and the Professional Yachting Association. This article is editorial context for working crew, not legal advice. For a dispute over a specific contract, talk to the ITF, a maritime lawyer, or your flag state.
FAQ
Does the MLC apply to yacht crew?
Yes, on commercially registered yachts flying a flag that has ratified MLC 2006. Yachts of 500 GT and over on international voyages also carry a Maritime Labour Certificate. Private pleasure yachts that never operate commercially sit outside the convention's automatic scope.
What should a yacht crew employment agreement include?
Under MLC Standard A2.1: the identified parties, wages and payment interval, paid leave, repatriation terms, medical cover and notice periods, signed by both sides with an original kept by you. On a private yacht the same list is your checklist, because only the contract delivers it.
The yacht is private. Should I walk away?
Not necessarily. Plenty of private boats treat crew properly. But without the MLC framework applying automatically, insist that the contract itself spells out wages, leave, repatriation, medical cover and notice. On a private yacht the paper does all the work.
Are tips guaranteed in a yacht crew contract?
No. Under standard charter terms such as the MYBA agreement, the charter fee covers crew wages and a gratuity remains the guest's decision. If a program advertises a bonus or a tip percentage, get the formula and the payment date into the SEA or a written addendum.
Who is my legal employer on a yacht?
The party named in your SEA, usually the owning company or a management company. MLC Standard A2.1 requires the parties to be identified, and the convention holds the shipowner responsible for your rights regardless of how payroll is routed.
Does the contract checker handle yacht SEAs?
Yes. It reads any seafarer employment agreement clause by clause against MLC 2006 and the ITF benchmarks and marks what is missing. For yachts under Bermuda registry you can select the flag directly; for other registries run the general check. Free, about a minute.
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