Roxane Ducruet

Roxane Ducruet, by any measure, has a fun job. As Managing Director of the Monaco division of UK-based Superyacht Tenders & Toys – a young,  vibrant company founded in 2011 – her day-to-day role sees her talking with captains, crews, shipyards, owner representatives, owners and more about having fun. It’s a job that she carved out for herself through hard work, and it’s a job that also exposes her to the wide range of interesting people the superyacht industry attracts and the exceptional things they do within it.

She was born in Monaco and, in her words, was born to the water with plenty of opportunities to get out on dayboats owned by family friends and to indulge in water sports whenever possible. “It’s something I’ve been doing since childhood and my teenage years,” she enthuses. It’s little wonder that it led her to working in the marine industry. She initially worked for another company selling tenders and water toys, but in 2018 she decided to push the boat out, so to speak, and change things up. “I resigned from that job, and then contacted Josh Richardson – co-founder and CEO of Superyacht Tenders & Toys (SYTT). I told him I’d studied the market, presented a business plan for the South of France region, and told him I believed they should have an office there. I didn’t know him or his partner, SYTT co-founder Claire Richardson.”

It was a bold move, and Roxane met with Josh two weeks later after he said her proposal looked interesting. “I was sitting in an office with him and Mark Peak (now head of operations at SYTT), and I said ‘ok, are you ready?’. And they were looking at me like I was crazy! But we talked some more, and I started with them as a salesperson based in Monaco, then I became the representative there for SYTT, and finally we decided to set up a proper company in Monaco, of which I am now managing director.

“Hard work pays off in this industry,” she continues. “I’ve been working three years here and I haven’t taken any holiday, and rarely take days off! But I’m really, really happy and it’s a great company – and I really thank Josh and Claire for putting their trust in me and giving me this opportunity. We talk on a daily basis for every project we have and everything that’s going on in the company, and whenever there’s a decision to be made Josh says it’s about my gut feeling and what I think should be done or not, although I always clear important decisions with them.”

The company supplies water toys and tenders for purchase or rental, and also manufactures and supplies inflatables through its brand Superyacht Inflatables. Further, it recently set up another division that supplies deck equipment and custom fabrications. SYTT also project-manages the build of a lot of tenders and it has developed its own brand of tenders and shadow vessels. It all means there’s plenty to keep Roxane busy. “I really like the technical product parts,” she enthuses, “and things like the limo tenders are very sexy.”

Alongside the toys aspect, it also means she meets a wide gamut of people. “We deal a lot with captains and chief officers or first officers, but we also deal directly with some yacht owners or management companies, shipyards, project managers and owner’s representatives, and we also try to advise the crew and work with them for what will fit on board or find solutions for storage,” she says.

“First they want to know what the coolest toy is, and also the yacht owners’ kids are really involved nowadays in the orders. So it’s a very exciting moment for clients and for us, and sometimes if they are not sure on what they want we will organise a test with one or two of my crew and one of the trainers we’ve got down here in Monaco – plus myself, of course! – and we go and just have a good time on the water.”

But beyond the toys, the fun, and the rewarding career that the industry has given her in return for her hard work and dedication, she is also exposed to the more fundamental aspects of what makes superyachting so magical, both from hearing about the experiences of her clients and in seeing what crews and owners are quietly doing to make a real difference in the world.

“I’m always fascinated by the crew and the owners who are travelling, and they tell us the experiences they’ve had everywhere they went – there are some fascinating places where they go and they see amazing things,” she says. “I like that the guests and yacht owners like to explore the world – if you said to me right now that you would like me to go to Antarctica on this explorer yacht, I would do anything to do that! In fact, I would love to do just one ocean crossing – I know it’s not easy and quite tough but I would love to do it. So always hearing these stories and hearing what they’ve seen, it’s quite cool.

“And some of them are collecting data for science,” she continues, “so this is also getting better. Moreover, a lot of crew are also involved with the eco side and helping to reduce the amount of waste they create, and we often see crew also getting involved in marine wildlife, for example releasing turtles who have got caught in fishing nets, so I really like this side. It’s not,” she concludes, “just about having a yacht and a lot of expenses and not doing anything – we see more and more people in yachting, both owners and crews, getting involved in the challenges facing our planet and making a real difference.”