Steve Osborne

It was after studying Economics at university in Scotland that I had my first taste of yachts. I went down to the South of France to visit a friend who was working for a company doing audio-visual and IT for yachts, and I just inadvertently got started doing day-work on a superyacht – it was completely unrelated to what I had been studying or what I had done previously. I found I just enjoyed the lifestyle, and the South of France was a nice place to be – I’d never been anywhere like it before. Before long I was offered a deckhand position on a yacht that went over to the Caribbean for the winter season. That was me – I was sold on it.

I grew up in southern Africa, in Zambia till the age of 10 and then Botswana until I went to Glasgow in Scotland to study for my degree. I didn’t have a background in sailing, or in fact any boating experience at all before going to France. A lot of people who come into yachting do have background boating experience, but I’m a prime example that you don’t need any of that – the yacht industry and yachting is a passion you can pick up along the way.

Almost 20 years after that first taste day-working on yachts, and I am now captain of a 60 metre CMN-built motor yacht called Slipstream. I started on this yacht in 2012 as the chief officer under Captain Phil Stevens when I was in the latter stages of completing my own captain’s qualifications. Once I got my Master’s ticket I went into rotation with Phil. It’s a busy life on Slipstream as we are an extremely popular charter yacht, particularly with families who have children, so the rotation allows me to keep a balance between work and family.

I’ve seen a lot of changes over the years in the industry, with perhaps the biggest being regulatory changes – I spend a lot more of my time doing paperwork these days! But there’s also a lot of delegation I can do and I think I’m quite a good team manager. I’ve got a lot of very good people around me, which makes my job a lot easier.

I think crew is the other area I’ve seen evolve over time, and there are a lot more people coming in who have no relevant experience but who want to crew because they’ve heard stories or seen certain TV shows. Indeed, even my 11-year-old daughter recently said to me that she had been watching a well-known reality TV show, and she started asking me about the tips that the crew get after charters! There are a lot of people coming into the superyacht industry with a perception that it’s all just about money, and it can be harder to find the hard-work ethic (because working on a yacht is hard work in reality!) and harder to find people who can live together and all get on in the melting pot of crew quarters. It’s something I think we’ve managed to do pretty well on Slipstream over the past few years.

I think that crew longevity is something that really appeals to charter guests, as repeat guests see the same faces when they come back the following year. They instantly feel comfortable and everything just sort of picks up from when they were on board before. Our record currently is 17 repeat visits!

I have had some very inspirational captains along the way who have instilled in me some very good ways of operating – I’ve learnt a lot of good things and I’ve put them into practice. We’re a very close-knit group on Slipstream, very established, and although people do come and go everyone gets along, which is great. There is rank and hierarchy on board but everyone respects each other so it doesn’t have to be enforced. It’s a very happy time, and we hope it’s reflected with the feedback we’ve had from recent charters, which has been very good.

For me personally, I’m so glad I took that trip to France all those years ago. I’ve been fortunate to travel to some amazing places which otherwise I’d have had to pay a fortune to go to myself! We’ve just come back from cruising in Norway which was probably one of my career highlights, being able to go down all the fjords and just the remoteness of it all – you feel very vulnerable. The chance to be able to do that and appreciate all that really highlights one of the fundamental aspects of yachting – that it’s not just about earning the money, it’s the satisfaction of being able to travel to these places, and it’s the satisfaction of creating the ultimate experience for guests, for families and for their children. I enjoy seeing the results of that and seeing people go away really, really happy and saying it was their best holiday ever.