Want to work on a super yacht?

According to Wellington's Dominion Post it might not be the life you expect

It sounds really great, and with the boom in luxury yacht-building, there are more opportunities than you might imagine.   But, if you are female, you should be size 10, 12, 14 or whatever is svelte in your country.  And there are other hitches, too.

For a start, it is a Boys' Club.  Marusha Issen, who has worked on 50 super yachts over two years (boy, she must have built up some air points!) relates that she saw a lot of bullying, including sexual assaults on female workers.  And a big hint is that when applying for a job, a girl is encouraged to submit a picture of herself, preferably in a bikini. 

Marusha, formerly a hairdresser, quit her job to fly to France to enlist on a super yacht as a cleaner.  But, according to the agency, she had to go on a diet before applying. When she expressed disbelief, she was simply advised to go to a uniform shop and see if the clothes fitted her.  And none of them did.

Persistent by nature, Marusha kept on trying, landing job after job in her hunt for her dream, only to come across the same depressing comments.  One captain informed her that she "should quit the industry because captains liked women with a shape that they could enjoy looking at."

Another Kiwi dreamer was Helen O'Connor, who was ticked off by the chief steward of the ship.  "Oh, don't let those hips get any wider," he said; "...we know what happens with girls who get stuck in the pantry and get fat, we're not having fat girls on this boat."

She was also told to go out and buy a tan, as she didn't look "summery" enough

There are men who agree.  Auckland-born Jack Greene confirms that if female crew "put on weight or anything, they were fired on the spot."

On all ships the captain is god, in complete control at sea, and throughout history there have been skippers who have abused this power -- and it might even be more so on luxury yachts.  Greene confirmed this, saying that the super yacht industry is a game with no rules, despite the International Maritime Labour Convention, which stipulates that there should be a complaints process in workers' contracts.  Dodging this is yet another advantage of offshore flagging.

A third Kiwi woman, Emma Burtt, has a few positive comments about working on luxury yachts, though she admits the life is a mixed bag, and a girl has to keep her wits about her.

"People who work in the yachting industry, you always see photos of them in cool places all around the world but you don't see them scrubbing toilets and working long hours.

"You don't really understand that side until you do it."

Emma worked as a stewardess first, and graduated to deck hand, a much more highly regarded role -- a yacht can sail without stewards, but not without a deck crew.  And she was lucky with the owner of her first super yacht, a Saudi prince.   A liberated fellow, he allowed the women crew members to eat with him at dinner ... and would take them on weekend trips to London, with three thousand pounds in pocket money, to go shopping as they liked.

He was also eccentric.  Emma remembers him paying one of the crew members five thousand euro to dive off the boat dressed as a salmon.

And the tips were good for those who were not invisibly cleaning toilets -- up to three thousand euro.

And unusual and interesting way of paying off one's student loan.