Yachting Sweden - A community for Swedes in yachting
Founders: Helena Hammarström & Lisa Emlund 🇸🇪
After working for several years on yachts around the world - they now want to help others find their dream job!
2011 was the year they boarded a luxury yacht for the first time. The following year, they worked on board yachts in the Caribbean, among other places. Now Yachting Sweden wants to give other Scandinavians the chance to travel and, at the same time, earn good money, live without expenses, and make friends for life by working onboard a yacht.
Childhood friends Helena and Lisa decided to travel together after graduation. It turned out to be an excellent decision. During a visit to Malta, they met some people who showed them around a luxury yacht despite being against the rules. This tour awakened The dream of the world's best workplace. "My first sailing experience was on a 50-meter long luxury yacht, in a race with about 50 other luxury yachts in the Caribbean", says Helena, one of Yachting Sweden's founders. "It was a powerful experience! In the evenings, big parties were arranged, and you got to be like a fly on the wall when the world's wealthiest people vacationed on board", she continues. During the years when she worked on the yacht, she blogged about her experience and then received many questions. How do I get a job on a yacht? Do I need training? How did you do it? What salary do you get? Helena saw that there was great interest in the industry among young Swedes and Scandinavians. "Helena presented the idea to me over a coffee, I thought it sounded like the world's best plan and figured we should immediately make it a reality", says Lisa, who makes up the second half of the duo behind Yachting Sweden. After that day, they have worked with Yachting Sweden more or less every day, in addition to medical studies and jobs.
The world's best job?
"I have worked on yachts in Greece, Montenegro, Italy, France and Spain, but have also experienced a Scandinavian trip with a yacht. Then we were in Oslo, Stockholm, Gotland, Fårö, Tallinn, Helsinki, and all the way to St. Petersburg", she continues.
Both Helena and Lisa agree that travel is the absolute best thing about working on a yacht. As a crew member, you get the opportunity to see many exclusive places that the world's richest go to. Places you might never have had the chance to see otherwise. They say that another big advantage is that the job pays well - which you can save because you live without expenses on the yacht. "And of course the friends you get on board. It can quickly become very tight with those you work with, and you make friends for life", Lisa concludes.
Future plans
They plan to represent the Scandinavian crew in the industry.
"We will be a touch base community for Swedes who are already in the industry and of course a choice for those who want to enter the industry", says Lisa.
Their long-term goal is for more Swedes and Scandinavians to work onboard the world's yachts. They see that there is a great deal of ignorance about the industry and how to get into it: "We hope that we are the obvious alternative for those who want to work and travel", says Lisa. Helena and Lisa want to show that yachting exists and guide Scandinavians into an unknown industry. Also, we want to gather all the Swedes who already work in the industry and become a small Swedish community in an industry where there are very few of us. We believe that there is a mutual interest, "Swedes are interested in the industry, and the industry is very interested in getting more Swedes", she concludes.
Helena and Lisa working onboard Charter Yacht Silver Dream
