You are clearing coffee cups when you hear a sentence that would move a share price. Later that week a stranger in a marina bar buys you a drink and asks, lightly, who you are working for. Both moments are tests. Most crew never even notice the second one.
Discretion is the core competence
Everything else in this course is a skill. Discretion is the job. A butler who lays a flawless table and repeats what they heard at it is worthless, and unemployable — the industry is small and word travels faster than any yacht.
The standard is simple and absolute:
- What you see and hear on board stays on board. Permanently. Including after you leave the job
- This covers the obvious (business, money, family, health, relationships, arguments) and the apparently harmless (who was aboard, where you went, what they ate, how they were)
- "It was already in the papers" is not a licence to confirm it. Confirmation is itself a leak
- It applies to your family and your closest friends, to crew on other boats, and to the person you are dating
The NDA
Most yachts and households require a non-disclosure agreement. Understand what you are signing:
- It is a legally binding contract, and breaches are pursued
- It typically survives the end of your employment indefinitely
- It usually covers the principal, their family, guests, business, the vessel's movements and any images
- Read it before you sign it. If you do not understand a clause, ask — and if it seems to require you to conceal something illegal or unsafe, get advice, because an NDA cannot lawfully do that
Social media and the press
The rule is not "be careful". The rule is never.
- No photographs of the principal, guests, interiors, documents, or the guest list
- No posts that identify the vessel, the itinerary, or who is aboard — including a sunset with a recognisable coastline and a location tag
- No check-ins, no tags, no stories. Metadata alone can place a boat
- Never speak to a journalist. Not off the record, not "just background". Refer any approach to the Captain immediately
- Assume nothing is private. A group chat, a private account, a message to one friend — all of it has ended careers
- Report approaches. Someone in a bar asking friendly questions about your boat is a professional risk, not a new friend
Data, too
Discretion now includes information hygiene: guest data lives in the yacht's systems, not on your personal phone; the guest book is not exported; screenshots are not taken; and the crew mess is not a place where guest names are discussed.
Onboard Notes
If you are ever unsure whether something can be said, the answer is no. And if you have already said it, tell the Captain — a disclosed mistake can be managed, a hidden one cannot.