Crew Romance: How To Handle Onboard Relationships

Superyachts are not just floating palaces. They can be floating pressure cookers, especially with young, adventurous people in close quarters, working long hours. The question for an owner is how to manage crew relationships sensibly and lawfully.

Crewmembers retain rights to privacy and family life, particularly where employment arrangements involve living on board for extended periods. Blanket bans on consensual relationships can be difficult to justify and may create enforcement problems. More importantly, they rarely work in practice. And hidden relationships are potentially more dangerous than disclosed ones. The focus should be on regulation. If you don’t have a proper written policy governing this entirely predictable behaviour, you could find yourself on the wrong end of an employment claim – or even a PR catastrophe.