A life together at sea

Victoria Chalaya and Rico Stoll have always been boat people. But if you’d told them a decade ago that they were going to become YouTube sensations with over half a million subscribers to their yachting channels they probably wouldn’t have believed you.  And if you’d told them they were going to build their very own explorer yacht? Well – they would have laughed you out of the room. And yet here they are – YouTube sensations with an explorer yacht currently in build. 

It all started with Rico’s idea to live on a boat. “A friend of mine had done it when he was younger and I thought it sounded like a good idea,” he explains. “Why not buy a boat and live on it in Marina del Rey?”  Wife Victoria was keen, but suggested they charter first to figure out what they liked. “I used to spend three months every summer with my grandma in Crimea on the Black Sea,” she says, “so I was open to Rico’s idea, but I wanted to try a few different boats to figure out what we liked.”

The pair began to charter almost every weekend, often inviting friends to join them. Certifications followed, including for multihulls and catamarans and Victoria even became a certified naturalist. “Initially we wanted to buy a small boat for day charters, because there’s amazing whale watching in LA. But as we started looking, we began considering adding a little cabin so that we could maybe go to Santa Catalina for the weekend and spend the night.” Eventually they landed on a 47 foot boat they could live on and they ended up staying on it for eight years. “After that, I didn’t want to live in a house ever again,” says Victoria. 

As the couple immersed themselves further and further into the yachting world, it became clear to Victoria that there was a gap in the market. “It felt like the yachting world was polarised – there were proper, salty sailors who were female, but then there was nothing really there for female recreational boaters to follow and learn from and enjoy.” She started a blog and then the couple began to do walk-throughs on boats, videoing themselves along the way. “PR companies that were led by women got really excited when they saw another woman in the industry so we got on board a lot of great boats.”

A couple of broadcasts on Facebook Live proved there was an audience for their work and soon enough it made sense to start a YouTube channel. A video of an eco-friendly yacht which went viral quickly proved that it could be monetised – and the couple started to get really excited about the channel’s potential. Then Covid hit. It could have spelt the end, but luckily, it only opened more doors. “We started reaching out to local brokers and shooting walk throughs on empty boats that they had listed. We lived on the boat and had a dinghy so we could just cruise out. They just had to open up, turn the lights on and leave. It was perfect timing,” says Victoria. 

Fast forward to today and their channels now have over half a million subscribers with their most popular videos getting millions of views apiece. And it’s down to YouTube that the couple now find themselves in the unlikely position of being halfway through a build of their very own explorer yacht in Turkey, something they could never have anticipated. “We’d done a video of a Bering yacht and it went viral, so the shipyard invited us to come and film their new model,” says Victoria. “We met the owner and we just clicked immediately – his passion was incredible.” 

The rest, as they say, is history and after months of talking, they settled on an explorer yacht, far more of a leap from their former boat than they ever dreamt of.  “It was a huge undertaking for our finances which we hadn’t planned for,” says Victoria, “but we have made it work.”

The pair have found the build process fun but exhausting. “We have decision fatigue at this point,” says Rico. “We have been on so many boats for YouTube that we toss curveballs all over the place. We are very opinionated.” Curveballs aside, the boat is now just six months away from getting into the water and the couple are sharing what they’ve learnt on their second YouTube channel, NautiGuys. “I would say my biggest piece of advice for first-time buyers is to prepare way in advance,” says Victoria. “If you have older kids, I think it would be cool to make a boat build a family project – it would be a very connecting family experience,” adds Rico. 

The plan – when the yacht is finished – is to charter it around the Bahamas and the Caribbean. Rico and Victoria, who both have a captain’s licence, will form part of the crew, with additional help from a chef and an engineer/deckhand. They have a clear vision about the kind of charter boat they want to be. “The industry has really changed in the last six years,” explains Victoria.“ The older, salty guys are getting out of the business and a new generation is coming in. Most of the young money doesn’t want white glove service. They want to eat family style. And they are way more inclusive of the crew. We want that casual feel and vibe – amazing food, service and destinations but really the feeling is that you went on vacation with your friends.”

The NautiGuys channel will transition to cover their new life on board as well as some of their charter trips, so long as the guests agree to it. “People want to see behind the scenes of the yachting world, but they only have Below Deck which is so scripted. I don’t think people are necessarily attracted by the drama of shows like that – they just want to see what the yachting lifestyle is like,” says Victoria.” It’s so hidden. I would have totally got into the industry in my 20s if I had known more about it, so I think it would be very interesting to show the world.” And given that she already has 500,000 people hooked – she’s probably onto something.