Latest news with #SandyYawn
Business Insider
02-07-2025
- General
- Business Insider
I'm a 'Below Deck' star and superyacht captain. Here's how I built my career in a male-dominated industry.
This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Sandy Yawn, a superyacht captain and star of 'Below Deck Mediterranean.' The following has been edited for length and clarity. When I started my yachting career more than 30 years ago, I'd never seen a woman captain. Women worked on ships, but they were few and far between in the world of yachts, and I'd never seen one at the helm. I fell into yachting, or maybe the job found me. When I started working maintenance on boats, I had no idea yachting could be a career. Decades later, I'm a superyacht captain. I want to create opportunities for other women to get into this industry. For a long time, I didn't have any female role models I first became a yachtie after getting sober in 1989 and working the 12-step program. I just needed a job. I knew nothing about yachting as a profession. I answered a classified ad for a job maintaining boats in Fort Lauderdale. The owner of one of the boats I worked on offered me a full-time position as a crew member. When I started working on boats, I didn't have any female role models. Instead, the people I admired were the ones working on themselves in recovery on my 12-step program. My first real role model within the industry was a male captain. He taught me about maritime finance and how to drive a boat, and eventually, he paid for me to go to sea school, where I began working toward my maritime license. He took a chance on me, and I was hungry to learn. I wanted to change my life, and I did whatever it took to succeed. I started out as a deck crew member and worked my way up. In many ways, my biggest motivator was my hunger. As a woman, you absolutely have to work harder Many years later, I finally met a woman in the industry who inspired me. By then, I was already a captain, but she was running a much bigger vessel. I remember watching her take the boat out of the marina at the Monaco Boat Show. I felt so proud to see a woman at the helm of a 240-foot boat. I thought to myself, "One day, I want to do the job she has." She later told me that when she pulled into Antibes, in the south of France, all the men on the docks were watching her. They were waiting to see if she'd crash and fail. I've experienced that same judgment. Facing that kind of resistance only made me want to work even harder. Becoming a captain was difficult, but I knew I could do it. I had to log a lot of sea time, and the test wasn't easy. I hadn't been to school in years, and I'd been kicked out of 11th grade. But I found the process fascinating. I was learning, and I loved it. Below Deck was a great opportunity Initially, when I was approached about Below Deck, I'd already been a captain for more than 20 years. I wasn't going to do the show because I thought it would ruin my career. All my friends advised me not to do it, worried that we were professionals and the show would highlight the salacious stuff. But I thought it was a good opportunity, and told myself I could always walk away if I wanted. It was the best thing because we've shown the world the career opportunities in yachting and that women can lead in them. Below Deck has been the best. The global exposure and the chance to show women that there are real careers in this industry have been so important. After all, I never knew it existed. For women trying to forge a career in any male-dominated field, my advice is to take all the classes you can and learn every skill available to you. You can walk into the space with all that knowledge and continue to learn. Teaching younger yachties With some young people, it's all about the experience and not putting in the time to learn. When I find someone who is interested in learning and shows initiative, I invest in them. I make it clear I'm willing to teach them. A lot of captains don't allow the crew on the bridge, but I usually bring one person up to be a watch officer. This is when you can teach them things while working, like an apprenticeship program. However, I won't let people on the bridge if I'm navigating, as I need to be focused. My advice for other women wanting to become captains is to start off on small boats. That's where the real problem-solving happens. On big boats, the engineers solve the problems, but on smaller vessels, you do everything yourself. In my case, I read manuals on every piece of equipment because I didn't want to rely on calling out a technician to come save me. It teaches you to be self-reliant and practical.
USA Today
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Captain Sandy shares the travel moment that changed her life, why boating is an escape
Captain Sandy Yawn is best known for leading crews on Bravo's "Below Deck Mediterranean," but her maritime career began with a visit to The Bahamas. Yawn, who has traveled the world as a superyacht captain, initially started out by answering an ad in the newspaper for a job washing boats in 1990. 'I washed the boat so well the owner offered me a full-time job,' she told USA TODAY. Her first trip on the vessel took her to the Caribbean island country. As she crossed The Bahamas Banks, she could see the ocean floor through crystal clear water. 'It was beautiful and I thought, Oh my gosh, I'm getting paid for this,' she said. 'What a great job.' Yawn, who also recently became an ambassador for marine marketplace Boatmart, spoke to USA TODAY about her first visit to the Mediterranean, her perfect day on vacation and why boating can be good therapy. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Is there a travel experience that's most memorable or stands out to you when you look back? My first time to the Mediterranean was to Spain, and when I went to Spain for the first time, it was in Palma, Mallorca (in 2000). I had never been and I was like, 'Oh my gosh.' Little did I know that an island would have such large mountains. … And it was history, oh my goodness: The age of the buildings, the landscape, the architects, the artists. And then from there, we went to Barcelona, which was epic. And I remember we arrived at 6 a.m., and the nightclubs were still going. I thought, "This is a cool city." … And I went to the (Dalí Theatre-Museum) in Figueres, Spain, which was incredible. We (went to Gaudí's Park Güell). So, for me, walking through the history of Spain and the artists was epic. And from there, I was based in Barcelona (working on a motor yacht), and then we would drive to Andorra … And we would ski in the Pyrenees. So, we adventured. And I would always drive the crew three hours, three-and-a-half hours. If it was raining in Barcelona, I'm like, "Let's go ski," because we spent winters there. What is your preferred way to travel on your own time? Boats. I don't like flying. The older I get, the less I like to fly, especially everything that you're reading lately. … Boat is my transport of choice, because you can always find a place to anchor if the weather is bad, and you can't do that in the sky. You start hitting turbulence, where are you going? … A boat, you could go around the corner and just drop your hook. Train – I wish we had a train system in the U.S. like they do in Europe, because my first train ride in Europe was – wow. I was like, 'This is cool.' We were in Civitavecchia, which is a marina outside of Rome. We were going to go see a concert, and we all booked the first-class seats, and we just had the best time riding the train. I even called my sister one day; I went, 'Let's buy a train car to hook on the back of Amtrak.' … If you Google train cars for sale, you'll find one. … So I thought, "Oh, let's do that." And she goes, 'You know there are more train crashes than there are planes?' And I go, 'Great, you just ruined that for me.' When you do have to fly, do you prefer an aisle or window seat? I'm an aisle seat. Now, on the long-haul flights, I like to try to get that one solo seat if you have it, because I'm always on my own. But no matter what, I want to be on an aisle because if there is an emergency, I don't want to be tripping over someone to get to the door. When you're on vacation, is there anything that you splurge on? I love boating, so I like to charter a boat when I go on vacation. And I also love to do the spas. I love going out boating for the cocktail cruising hour. I don't want to do it in the sun, you know? I'm past that age. So, spa, boating, cocktail cruise, sundown, home, great dinner with your friends – and that's a perfect day for me. Are there any travel must-haves for you? I love games. So when we travel, if it's just (my wife) Leah and I we play cards. I love to gamble. I don't have a gambling problem, but we play games. From the time we're on the plane, we're playing something. (I bring) a book to read, and that's it. When I go somewhere, the destination for me is the entertainment. Getting to the destination is what I want to occupy me if I'm not sleeping. So, playing a game, reading a book or watching a great series. Do you have any travel pet peeves? Security, right? So, getting to the plane, TSA – sometimes those people need to chill out. I get it: Look at everything, check the luggage, but don't be rude. The pet peeve for me is when they speak to people rudely. For someone who is curious about going on a boating holiday, where would you recommend they start? You can charter small boats. There are boat clubs. You can buy a boat off of They sell personal watercraft, they sell kayaks, they sell big boats, whatever fits your budget. Go boating, because when you touch the water, it is incredible. When you're floating on top of it, it changes everything. You could have the most angry people in the world; you get them on a boat, they just transform. … Water transforms people and their personalities, and I think boating is good therapy.
