Incidents of ABHD of Yacht Crews on Rise – ISWAN Report

Padmesh Prabhune

Incidents of abuse, bullying, harassment and discrimination (ABHD) of crews is rising on board yachts. Mental health difficulties were the most frequently raised issue, accounting for 16.6% of all issues raised, and 19.1% of those were raised by women. Yacht crew who contacted the helpline frequently talked about the impact on their mental health of long working hours, lack of sleep, the impact of alcohol or drugs onboard, or difficulty fitting into the crew culture.

According to the findings of the latest data released by ISWAN Yacht Crew Help service -a free, multilingual, 24x7x365 service, experiences of abuse, bullying, harassment or discrimination (ABHD) are collectively the issue that has the greatest impact on the mental health of yacht crew. British nationals accounted for the highest proportion of callers, at 27.2%, perhaps reflecting the higher awareness of Yacht Crew Help in the UK. Just over 10% of helpline users were South African, whilst 8.2% were Indian nationals.

Over 24.3 % of yacht crew who contacted Yacht Crew Help in 2022 in relation to mental health challenges also raised an experience of some form of abuse on board. Interestingly, complaints relating to ABHD increased by over 81.3% as compared to the earlier year 2021. The overall experience of ABHD accounted for 9.2% of all issues raised, as compared to only 3.0% of issues raised to Seafarer Help, ISWAN’s long-established helpline for all seafarers across the maritime sector and their families.

Moreover amongst women, experiences of abuse accounted for 13.5% as opposed to 5.8% of issues raised by men. In many cases, yacht crew contacted for support to cope with bullying, aggression, and at times assault, frequently by more senior crew members. Amongst women yacht crew, half of all ABHD-related contacts involved sexual abuse or harassment.

While issues relating to mental health challenges and experiences of abuse, bullying, harassment or discrimination were much higher amongst women crew members. The most common reasons for contacting Yacht Crew Help among men were for support seeking employment or for resolving unpaid wages.

Another key trend in the data released by ISWAN suggests higher complaints relating to contractual issues, in particular unpaid wages or unfair dismissal.

Georgia Allen, ISWAN’s project manager for Yacht Crew Help, said: ‘Through our wide-ranging conversations with yacht crew over the past two years, ISWAN has developed unique insights into the difficulties that many crew who work in the yachting industry face.

ISWAN is committed raising awareness about the key issues and trends affecting yacht crew and to working effectively in partnership with the industry to develop potential solutions.

–Marex Media