Nick Paul

“My yachting days began quite late – my family all live in a village in eastern Germany – none of them speak English and it’s very rural. The usual story you hear is that people in this industry started young and had family and friends doing the same thing – I am the total opposite – I was an absolute stranger to it. When I finished high school I worked for Pepsi for a couple of years in Germany, then, when I was 19 or 20, my best mate suggested going backpacking for a little bit. He came home after four weeks and I stayed. The rest is history!  

I drove around doing the typical stuff with no money, then I went to Thailand and got into diving. They were looking for German-speaking scuba instructors, so I did a diving course and then after a year of that I went over to Cairns and worked as a diving instructor on the Great Barrier Reef for four years on a liveaboard. That got me into boats.

From coast to covid to coast

Eventually, I ended up on the east coast in the Whitsundays, got work there as a deckhand and slowly worked my way up. In 2019 when covid hit, I did a trip back to Europe for my Grandad’s birthday and figured I couldn’t really return to Australia. My girlfriend is a chef and so we ended up in the Caribbean working on boats as a couple. We did a memorable trip across the Atlantic on a sailing boat, from Guadeloupe to Mallorca. It took 14 days and it was just beautiful out there. You realise how small you are as a human – the ocean is truly incredible. Out there, there is nothing – no phone, no internet, no social media. It’s just nature and the wind blowing you. When we arrived in Mallorca I started working in the superyacht industry on much bigger boats. 

When we finally went back to Australia, they didn’t recognise my European qualifications, so I did my Master 4 and then randomly in Sydney I ran into someone who was running a commercial charter business. He handed me the keys for his 32m superyacht – it was a new adventure for him and he liked my work ethos. I mentioned my girlfriend who was looking for work as a chef – so it was a win win for all of us. We started down in Sydney for summers and then we’d go to the Whitsundays – I did that for two years and then he bought another, bigger yacht – Masteka. This one is an internationally flagged vessel and I am doing a course right now so that we can sail to Tahiti next year. 

Landing the perfect career 

I love my job – in fact, I would say it’s the perfect job. If someone were to have told me where I was going to end up, I wouldn’t have believed them – and it all happened pretty quickly too. It’s hard to explain the industry to family and friends, obviously dealing with millionaires and billionaires all the time after backpacking is crazy. 

Everyone is always talking about Below Deck – I’ve watched it and it’s a bit over the top. The millionaires I have dealt with are very down-to-earth – my experience is that when they come on board to charter they just want to have a good time. I haven’t had any snobby people – usually they are very relaxed and invite us to have dinner with them.

Destinations to remember 

The Whitsundays are phenomenal – I rate them higher than the Caribbean. They are very remote yet you’re very close to land – there are all these famous spots, but you can always find peace. It’s whale season there right now, it’s just beautiful. There’s great hiking in the Whitsundays too – we take charter guests hiking, snorkelling, kayaking and diving – the guests usually want us to be with them so we get to enjoy it too. Even the chef and the stewardesses, we all get to take a break and do the fun stuff. 

I still want to go to the Pacific Islands and either the Arctic or Antarctica – the Poles are definitely on my bucket list.