Bottled Up: Alcoholism in Yachting

Excessive drinking seems to be a byproduct of crew life. Is there any escaping it?

Most people, when pushed, will acknowledge that the yachting industry has a drinking problem. Fort Lauderdale has been called “Fort Liquordale” for a reason, but far from a funny one-liner, excessive drinking affects crew work performance and personal and vessel safety. 

“This is a very high-stress, high-pressure working environment, and alcohol and drugs are a problem in the industry,” said Erica Lay, director of EL CREW CO. “Drugs are never acceptable on board, but alcohol, as a legal drug, is a trickier one to navigate!” 

During her 17 years in crew placement, she has been tasked many times with replacing crew due to drinking. “I’ve also been contacted by crew looking for work because the drinking culture on board their current yacht is too much, or someone senior is drinking on duty, and they feel unsafe,” she said. 

“We’re a bit like a pressure cooker because we live together, play together, eat together, work together 24/7,” said Capt. Kelly Gordon. “I don’t want to demonize drinking, but we have a very clear problem in this industry.” That problem can also manifest in other ways, like mental health.

“It was almost like a well-known industry secret thing that you just don’t talk about,” said Chief Stewardess Laura Kilbey. “There’s definitely a stigma if you don’t drink. It’s a question that gets asked in the interview — and it’s not because people want the answer to be, ‘No, I don’t drink anything.’ The implication is if you don’t drink, you’re boring.” Kilbey shared that she grew tired of feeling unwell, and her mental health suffered, so she decided to quit drinking.

One former crewmember Sarah, who asked to be anonymous, has a complicated history with alcohol. During her time as crew, she found drinking embedded in the culture.

“I got quite a shock over the last few years at how alcohol was such a normal thing and such an automatic response. Whether you get a job, you drink. Whether you lose a job, oh, you’re going to drink. If you get a day off, you use that day off to drink. There was always a reason for it,” she said. 

Sobriety is also a challenge in an industry that only seems to encourage drinking. Most crew events offer free drinks, and after the event, chances are the crew will end up at the bar. 

“How can we blame the crew for excessive drinking when we are providing them with free drinks?” Sarah said. 

Peer Pressure

Capt. Gordon runs a dry boat. Like most captains, she has dealt with inebriated captains and crew during her career. While attempting to take over a vessel, the captain she was working with turned up drunk on two consecutive mornings. It was not the first time he had been drunk on duty, and the remaining crew had been forced to pick up the slack and ensure the captain didn’t ground the vessel. She also witnessed another crewmember drunk on charter and then fired them after she caught them stealing a bottle of alcohol.

“I don’t have a problem with drinking,” Gordon said. “What I have a problem with is the abuse of it and when it starts affecting your job and the day-to-day. And I have an even greater problem with it when the senior crew pressure the junior crew to drink.”

That peer pressure is a big deal, especially if you’re new and trying to find your place on board. Gordon said she’s seen it time and again: “You’re young, you’re the junior crew, and you don’t want to go, but what are you supposed to say when you’re new to the industry, and your captain and everybody else is saying, ‘Come on, let’s go!’?” 

Gordon herself has also been pressured by other captains to drink. “I was a junior captain, and a senior captain was harassing me. We were out, and he just wouldn’t let up. He was relentless.”

You can likely ask any crewmember or former crewmember, and chances are they have a tale of something that went wrong due to alcohol. Sarah recalls one moment at a boat show when her entire interior team was so hungover — or still drunk — that she was forced to send them below to remain out of sight.

“That was one of the days that alcohol really let me down,” Sarah said. “Then, I found my quality of time off was always hindered by either utilizing half of that time to drink or utilizing half of that time to be hungover and recover from drinking.” She’s been battling for sobriety for three years now, and she loves the feeling that comes from being sober. 

Kilbey shared that her very first captain was an alcoholic, and he would have cases of cheap liquor delivered to the boat each week. “It was an open secret,” she said. “I didn’t know what was normal. I was 20 and naïve.” 

Guidance from the Top

Being new and young might be just the place to start, however. “Young crew are easily influenced, and guiding them is our role,” said Sharon Rose, head of recruitment at Bluewater. “Someone who is in the industry for partying and drinking won’t last very long.” However, the consequences may take some time to catch up to you.

Could early intervention and education make a difference? Some think so. Casey Pooley, director of Diamond Crew Solutions in South Africa, has witnessed bad drinking behavior from her students and has sent them packing because of it. She believes that educating new crew on the industry and sharing honestly the pitfalls and the positives prepares them to face these situations. Making sure they have the right skills and offering them resources can help, too, including therapy, or “… systemic therapists formerly from the industry, a peer-based support system, or even just something as simple as financial forward planning and base level insight into the industry, they stand a much higher chance of staying in a more positive and driven mind frame and not turning to alcohol to either break down communication barriers, build emotional ones, or cure boredom.” 

“I remember being on a yacht as a junior crewmember that became a dry boat as a result of crew abusing the policies on board,” said Don Mckee of YOA Crew. “I would say it’s a leadership and culture question in many cases. If the HODs are setting good examples, the juniors tend to follow and vice versa.”

Diane Leander of The Crew Network agrees. “We personally believe that a clear policy on board might be helpful, especially with young crew.” 

Dry Boats

Is the solution simply to have all boats be dry? 

While the definition of a dry boat can vary, it could prove a valid solution. As Gordon explains, a dry boat means to her that you are not drinking during the day, on charter, or on a boss trip.

Another captain who preferred to remain anonymous also runs what is technically a dry boat. To him, it’s more a matter of working too hard and keeping his eyes on his goals to have time to drink. His crew don’t drink on board — one has been sober for more than a year, and another for almost that — and the crew usually make time for healthy pursuits during downtime. 

“Every single one of the boats I worked on was dry, and I enjoyed it because we were very healthy and very focused on our goals,” he said. Drinking is expensive, and costs add up quickly. His current crew are too busy working hard and building solid financial lives to waste their time and money.

However, he doesn’t judge others who have different attitudes. He can understand why some people drink as he’s witnessed major addiction and understands exactly how challenging the yachting job can be — maybe you’re bored, lonely, or isolated. “The only way for them to express [themselves] is by alcohol,” he said.

However, even with his dry boat experience, he still won’t call his current program dry. “I will never have a dry boat, because I want people to feel at home and be able to, if they need to have a drink, they can have a drink, but all in moderation.”

Sarah feels that dry boats are the solution. “I personally think every boat should be a dry boat,” she said. “It makes no sense to me that boats allow alcohol versus an extremely expensive asset, a luxury asset. You’ve got all the risks involved — fire, sinking, accidents, confined spaces. The last thing you need are crew not compos mentis or not aware, or not sharp or hungover, in that environment specifically.”

Capt. Gordon agrees. “We’ve heard the stories of crewmembers stumbling back from the bar only to be found floating face down the next morning between the dock and the boat.” Also, an inebriated crewmember complicates procedures on board. If a fire or incident requires crew response, the team is one person down to help and may even require rescue. 

“Safety culture is such an important thing. Why is alcohol not part of the safety culture?” Sarah said.

While eliminating alcohol altogether could be a challenge, most crew agencies said they’d had no issue placing crew on dry boats. “We have worked in the past with some dry yachts, and it has never been a problem finding crew. As long as the package offered was a good one, most people [didn’t care about] not being allowed to drink on board,” said Leander. “Occasionally, someone will refuse to be considered because of this, but they were certainly a minority.”

“We have quite a few dry boats these days and there are a large number of crew who are more than happy with this,” Rose said. “Serious crew don’t worry about the yacht being dry. They are here to work and not party.”

“Ultimately, this is an industry where safety, respect, and hard work are paramount and should be at the forefront of everything we do,” Pooley said. “If placements become difficult because crew are unwilling to sign onto a dry boat, then in my humble opinion, they should reconsider their career goals and aspirations.” 

Accountability

There doesn’t seem to be much accountability for excessive drinking. Once let go, it’s likely the crew move on to the next boat, to become someone else’s issue, and the problem persists. “It’s a lack of duty of care,” Kilbey said. 

Most crew agents shared that they have had to replace crew for drinking. “Unfortunately, it happens more often than it should,” said Lauren Cotton of Cotton Crews. As one agent who preferred to remain anonymous said, “We’ve fired captains, crewmembers, and entire crews over alcohol or drug abuse.”

“It’s a small industry, and I don’t think there are really any formal repercussions,” Gordon said, outside of a serious accident. But if the crew are let go for no more than drinking too much, they move on.

“I will say that your reputation travels with you,” Gordon said. Perhaps that’s one way to weed out problem people. If crew can’t find work because their reputation precedes them, or if they can’t get up on time on the job, how long will they last in yachting?

Mckee believes the issue is bound to persist unless the industry is willing to make changes. “This will more than likely continue unless more stringent measures to police this tendency are put in place on board and by management,” he says. 

Finding the Balance

The question might be whether it’s possible to strike a balance on board.

“It’s hard to find a good balance because there is always that one crewmember who takes it too far,” Cotton said. “If it was ever possible to put less pressure on happy hours and drinking and more pressure on fitness and fun outside. Maybe it would help to shift the drinking culture.” 

How do we do that? Alcohol is legal. Maybe it’s as simple as changing perspectives. As Sarah* shared, “The benefit is that alcohol-free lifestyles are trending now.” The younger crew joining the industry don’t think drinking is “cool.” “They think drinking is poisonous. And I’m finding a lot of these youngsters coming over now are sober or don’t drink. And I really think that is the way to go.” 

There are people working to create healthier avenues to release stress, like Kilbey, who created the Sober Crew Social Club after her experiences in the industry. “I started this space primarily for some accountability for me because I really don’t want to drink again.”

Putting herself out there, as she explained, gave her an added layer of accountability — and she was astounded by the response. She wants to offer captains and heads of departments alternative, healthier options for crew activities and plans to launch global events for crew interested in being sober. 

“Like attracts like,” Gordon said. “Partiers are not going to want to become a part of my program. I have attracted crewmembers who don’t really drink.” 

Perhaps that’s the key — finding your people. “I have so many more like-minded people around me,” Sarah said. “You are who you hang around with — you definitely are more susceptible to drinking if you’re hanging around with heavy drinkers.”

Until other policies or policing happen, it’s up to the individual. So be more intentional in your behavior, find people who embody the lifestyle you want, and if you need help, ask. Perhaps next time you want a little crew bonding, you take to the beach instead of the bar.

Topics: