A former deckhand who spent years working on a £100 million superyacht has described chaotic scenes aboard the vessel, from high-end parties and hard-drug use to capricious billionaire behavior that left guests and crew stranded at sea.
Tim Schulz, who said he worked as one of eight deckhands on the 100-metre yacht for about four years, recounted incidents including an owner abandoning guests and crew in the Mediterranean after losing his temper, a helicopter delivery of 15 kilograms of cherries to satisfy charter guests, and a crew member quitting after being accused of using the owner’s rare coffee beans.
Schulz, who was in his late 20s when some of the incidents occurred and is now in his mid-40s, said the boat frequently sailed the Mediterranean and also visited Australia, the Pacific and the Caribbean. The vessel could sleep about a dozen guests, carried a high-value art collection that reportedly included a painting worth roughly £20 million, and employed a full complement of crew to manage all aspects of life aboard.
Crew duties, he said, included routine maintenance such as polishing and cleaning in confined two-person bunks, standing overnight watches, and preparing the vessel for guests who expected near-immediate compliance with unusual requests. Schulz said the starting pay for a deckhand was roughly £3,000 a month, plus bonuses and all expenses covered, but that the work involved long blocks of service with sometimes only one day off.
A dramatic episode in Schulz’s account occurred in 2008 while he was ferrying the owner and a group of celebrities between Corsica and Sardinia. Schulz said the owner’s snorkel mask filled with water, prompting an immediate and violent reaction. "He abandoned his guests — and the three crew hands leading the trip — in the middle of the Mediterranean," Schulz recalled. Crew members took refuge on a rock until the on-board team calmed the owner, retrieved the tender and brought the guests back to the yacht about an hour later, he said.
Other stories highlight the unpredictability of charters. Schulz described a charter party that insisted children be provided with fresh cherries while at sea; with no local supply, he said the only option was to have the minimum 15-kilogram order flown by helicopter and lowered to the yacht. On another occasion, he said, a guest group consumed magic mushrooms and insisted on stargazing with the lights off, disrupting crew schedules.
The owner’s personal mood swings, Schulz said, produced quieter indignities and open confrontations. He told of a steward who brewed the owner’s pricey civet coffee, then made a separate drink for herself with crew beans; the steward was later accused of stealing the expensive beans and left the yacht after two years of service. Schulz also recounted a fall in St. Tropez that escalated into a public scene when the owner blamed his then-partner and ordered guests off the yacht mid-night out.
Security concerns were not purely theatrical. Schulz said the presence of valuable art and electronics heightened anxieties about piracy during voyages near the Horn of Africa. He said the crew briefed guests on hiding below deck should pirates attempt to board, an instruction that produced tension when some guests appeared more worried about laptops than other people on board.
Schulz contrasted the reality of life at sea with television portrayals such as the Bravo franchise Below Deck, which he said exaggerates romantic entanglements among crew and sensationalizes some onboard behavior. The show, which began casting in 2012 and has spawned several spin-offs, draws millions of viewers per episode, he noted, but he said his team operated under an informal rule against fraternization to keep operations running smoothly.
Despite the difficulties, Schulz emphasized the unique experiences the job provided. He recalled travelling upriver in West Papua to meet a tribe that had been visited only a few times, witnessing a two-hour welcoming ritual and helping to photograph and purchase traditional carvings. "Being a yachtie adds and takes away from your life. But getting to experience that? On balance, it gives so much more," he said.
His accounts underline contrasts of the superyacht world: substantial pay and travel opportunities matched by unpredictable employers, taxing labor and occasionally dangerous assignments. The episodes Schulz described — from helicoptered fruit to accusations over coffee beans — illustrate how crew members navigate the competing demands of luxury service, safety and personal dignity aboard some of the world’s most expensive private vessels.