Best Superyacht Deckhand Courses for 2026

I started in the industry in 2018. I'd left school not really knowing what I wanted to do, and it was hearing about the industry while working at a local harbour that got me looking into it properly. I went straight from school into a deckhand course with Flying Fish.

A lot of people ask why bother with a deckhand course at all when STCW is the certificate you actually need to legally work. STCW gets you compliant, it doesn't get you employable. The deckhand course is what actually prepares you for what the job is day to day, and no compliance certificate teaches that.

The course itself doesn't make you a finished deckhand, nobody walks off it ready for the job. What it gives you is the basics you need before anyone takes you seriously on the dock: driving an outboard tender, handling a jet ski, tying the knots you'll use every day, and the basic cleaning and maintenance that make up most of a green deckhand's early weeks. You're still green when you start dockwalking, but you're not a liability, and that's the point.

I dockwalked for four weeks after the course, picked up a good amount of daywork, and then landed a permanent job that lasted two years. From there I went on to complete an OOW unlimited cadetship with MSC Cruises and Glasgow College, finishing in 2023, then added my Chief Mate 3000 in 2024. Since then I've worked as officer and chief officer on yachts between 50m and 140m, so the deckhand course was very much the first step on a much longer path, not the whole journey.

If you're weighing up providers for a course like this, here's what actually mattered to me:

1. Reviews and word of mouth. Talk to people who've actually done the course, not just what's on the provider's own site.
2. Cost and location together. Factor in accommodation and travel for the course and the dockwalking that follows, not just the course fee.
3. Facilities. What you're actually training on, the tenders, the RIBs, the classroom, matters more than the marketing photos.
4. How the provider feels before you've even paid. How they answer questions and whether they treat you like a person, not a booking.
5. What happens after the course. The best providers keep helping once you've got the certificate. Flying Fish helped me book accommodation for dockwalking and helped me build my CV, and that mattered more afterwards than anything in the classroom.

That's the honest version of how a deckhand course fits into starting out in this industry. It's a first step, not a shortcut, but it's the right first step if you take it seriously.

Max, YachtSync founder. 8 years on yachts and still active in the industry: OOW unlimited (2023) and Chief Mate 3000 (2024), working as officer and chief officer on yachts from 50m to 140m.