Hugo Ortega, an American, had a well-paying job as an engineer and a long-term girlfriend.
But he wasn’t happy, he said.
“I didn’t like the job that I had. I didn’t like the degree that I had just finished doing,” he said. “I was starting to feel kind of weighed down by a lot of the stuff that I had in my life.”
So, he said, he left it all — his job, his relationship, even his country — to backpack around the world.
Eight months into his journey, Ortega said a chance encounter with a South African yacht deckhand in a Myanmar hostel changed his life.
“I was looking at, you know, working in a bar or … backpacking some more, or teaching English in China,” he said. “None of that was as sexy as his job.”
The two traveled together for three months, he said.
“I met more and more of his friends that were also yachties,” he said. “Even though I had no boating experience, [I knew] I could do this.”
Ortega on board the St. David yacht while filming the reality television show “Below Deck.”
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Ortega has now worked in the yachting industry for more than a decade, first as a deckhand and today as a superyacht captain, he said. The job also led to a stint on Bravo’s reality TV series “Below Deck” which offers a glimpse into life aboard luxury yachts.
Common misperceptions
People who are interested in working on yachts don’t need to be expert mariners or have boating experience, Ortega said.
“The main thing is being really willing to learn,” he said, along with having “a customer service or hospitality type of personality.”
Nearly every worker on a yacht works with guests, he said, so being friendly and agreeable are critical traits. “Some people just don’t have that in them,” he said.
Ortega started out in the yachting industry making $36,000 a year, plus tips, as a deckhand, he said. As a captain, he makes $10,000 per month, plus tips.
Source: Hugo Ortega
Ortega said being open-minded and humble are key too.
“If you’re not someone that is willing to learn, or kind of start from the bottom, or feel stupid again, then that’s going to be hard,” he said.
He also cautioned that, contrary to popular belief, jobs that stray from the classic “9 to 5” aren’t easy.
“There’s a lot of crew, but there’s not a lot of good crew,” he said.
He also said that while physical appearances matter in the industry, things are changing. Young, good-looking people find jobs faster, he said, but crews are becoming more diverse with time.
“Sometimes people get this idea from looking at the magazines and the brochures that, oh, everyone’s this one mold,” he said. “It’s continuing to change.”
Ortega opened up about another difficulty of the job: being away from family, especially on holiday, birthdays and special occasions.
“I’ve got family in the States, I’ve got a best friend in Singapore, I’ve got a brother that lives in Australia, and I’ve got a lot of extended family in the Caribbean,” he said.
Ortega said he’s often torn between spending his free time with loved ones and the places he likes.
“My heart lies in Asia and in Europe,” he said.
Entering the industry
Ortega is now focused on mentoring the next batch of yachties through his
“Superyacht Sunday School,” a course and coaching program he operates with his girlfriend.
“It’s basically like a brain dump of everything I wish I knew when I started,” he said.
Ortega now helps others who want to enter the yachting industry, sharing “everything I wish I knew when I started.”
Source: Hugo Ortega
Since starting the program in 2022, Ortega said that more than 90% of his students found jobs in the yachting industry. However, only 60% are still employed because some people have changed their minds about yacht life, he said.
The monthly salary for entry-level crew ranges from $3,000 to $4,500, depending on the size and location of the yacht, Ortega said. However, starting salaries can be higher for chefs and experienced crew.
That amount does not include tips, he said. In the summer, people can earn double, or even triple, their regular pay, he said.
As an engineer, Ortega made over $100,000 annually, which was twice the amount he made his first year at sea, when he worked as a deckhand. But, he said, his expenses were far lower on the boat.
“I wasn’t paying for a car, I wasn’t paying for a house, I was already traveling for work,” he said. “I was pretty much saving everything I was making.”
There can also be tax benefits to life at sea, he said.
“It feels like you’re making a lot more money than the numbers show. And the numbers are already good, especially at the higher positions,” he said.
Currently, Ortega earns $10,000 per month, not including tips, which can double that amount, he said. He said captains of 90-meter yachts can make up to $30,000 monthly.
But Ortega cautioned against entering the yachting industry strictly for the money.
“If you’re on the fence and thinking about it, just realize that it’s not all going to be rainbows,” he said.
Some people spend 200 days a year on the water, he said.
But for people who feel stuck in their lives, who don’t like what they are doing, he said: “Definitely get out of it.”
“Life is pretty short,” he said. “I want to see as much as I can.”
— Disclaimer: Bravo and CNBC are both owned by Comcast through its NBCUniversal subsidiary. Comcast is spinning off the majority of its NBCUniversal cable network portfolio, including CNBC, into a new company named Versant.
