Jenny Matthews

Jenny Matthews has never been one for sitting idle. Born and raised in New Zealand where, she says, most of the population has a little salt in their veins, Matthews got to know the oceans when she took up rowing aged 12. “My parents would probably say I was a very independent and very driven child,” she says. “When I got involved in rowing it pretty much encompassed my entire childhood – it didn’t leave much space for anything else!”

It wasn’t until she turned 18 and was considering studying Commerce at university, however, that the idea of superyachting was seeded in her head, thanks entirely to her neighbours. “I noticed they had a really nice house,” she smiles, “so I knocked on the door and asked them what they did for a living! He told me he was a superyacht captain and his wife was a chief stewardess and I had no idea what they were talking about. But I was so interested, and we spent the whole afternoon talking. He told me the ups and downs, and by the end of the afternoon my mind was made up. I wasn’t going to uni, I was going to become a superyacht captain.”

Her neighbour had made it very clear that it would be a challenge for her – traditionally, women followed the interior career path rather than working on deck. “I went in knowing it would probably be a lot more challenging for me to climb the ladder,” Jenny admits, “but he really steered me in the right direction. I did my STCW certificate and became a divemaster to try and make myself more employable. Then I went to the South of France, but unfortunately didn’t find any work. It’s still pretty challenging these days,” she adds, “but nobody wanted to hire women on deck back then.”

Instead, she found a job in the interior of a yacht and then asked the captain to show her the ropes on deck, so to speak. “He was incredible,” she beams. “And it’s quite funny, because I met up with him about 10 years later with me as a first officer and he was so glad I’d followed that path – he was determined to help get me into the right department. He also said it was just as well, as I was a terrible stewardess!”

Once she was on track to her goal and working on deck, Matthews says she rarely thought about being a female in that role – it wasn’t until she got her Officer of the Watch ticket that it hit her. “I had so many people congratulating me,” she says, “but I also kept hearing that there were less than 10 women with that qualification. I was 28 and I just had this realisation that I had never worked with another female on deck or in the engineering department, and I’d only ever heard of one female captain. So I reached out on social media via the Girls On Deck Facebook group, and that’s when the surprise happened – we had women from all over the world saying, I’m a captain, I’m a first officer, I’m working my way up! It was really incredible and quite moving for a lot of us, to know that we weren’t alone.”

Matthews was inspired not only by the stories of these other women, but by their passion for what they were doing. “I basically didn’t sleep for three weeks – I Googled how to build a website,” she says. “I thought, this is huge because we’re going to change something in the future.” She of the Sea was born – a platform and community for female deck crew and engineers to share knowledge, inspire the next generation and remove barriers.

One of the first people to reach out was another female first officer, Natasha Ambrose, and the two immediately connected – Ambrose herself had not only overcome the challenges of a deck career, she had also overcome cancer. This resilience and strength in her personal life have reflected onto her career.  Ambrose has become central to the organic development of She of the Sea, and also to its follow-on, called Legasea.

“For Legasea, we realised that while the conversation of gender is extremely important, there are so many other areas that require our attention, not just because they’re important, but because when we do focus on these the whole industry benefits,” Matthews says. “We evolved the gender conversation and focused on what it would look like to leave the industry better than we found it. All of Legasea’s programmes are about the talent pipeline. It’s about how we attract talent and how we cultivate it, how we match them with the support that they need to release their full potential. How do we connect the shore and the seafaring sides of our industry to get that knowledge flowing? And how do we leave something behind us when it’s time to finally swallow the anchor?

“A really big part is the Legasea Mentoring Program,” she adds. “In our first intake in 2021, we had 80 participants and in our most recent intake in the 2022 programme, we had over 200 applicants. From that we vetted them down and we ended up being able to bring in 160 mentors and mentees representing a huge cross-section of the entire industry.

From her ongoing studies that are taking her ever closer to her goal of becoming a superyacht captain to her work promoting DEI in the industry, Matthews embodies everything positive that the superyacht industry offers. “What I love about She of the Sea and Legasea and this broader conversation of diversity, equity, inclusion, is that it won’t be a scary thought for the people that are coming in now,” she enthuses. “And I feel so honoured and blessed and driven to be part of that conversation, whether it’s about orientation, gender, race, ethnicity, or socio-economic background.

“We are working towards an industry where those aren’t scary thoughts for our young people to have,” she concludes, “and where those aren’t barriers that we have to waste energy on overcoming when we could be focusing on having incredible careers, creating incredible experiences for the owners, and evolving as an industry.”

Jenny Matthews was one of three recipients of a Bowsprit award at the 2023 edition of The Honours, organised by The Superyacht Life Foundation and the Monaco Yacht Show, which seeks to recognise the exceptional and inspiring people of the superyacht industry who are inspiring change in the industry and beyond.