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This my first blog in a while, but rest assured there will be far more moving forward. A few years ago, I wrote a piece asking How many Superyacht Captains are there? It’s still getting a significant number of views years later. The reason is that no one really knows how many Captains there actually are out there.
So, I thought it was time to crunch the numbers again. Spoiler alert… It’s still super competitive, in fact, more so.
As before, I’ve based this around the Master 3000 GT ticket, as that’s the most relevant. Bringing the Master Unlimited into it muddies the waters a lot.
Firstly, the yachts
The table shows the number of yachts built between 500 GT and 2999 GT over the last five years:
| Year | Yachts Built (500 GT – 2,999 GT) |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 22 |
| 2023 | 22 |
| 2024 | 24 |
| 2025 | 27 |
| 2026 (to date) | 28 |
Data from Superyacht Times
That’s 123 yachts in five years, or roughly 25 a year. Of course, we still have 3 – 4 months left of this year, so there will probably be a few more to come. Last time round we had 139 launched between 2015 and 2020, closer to 28 a year. So, the new build numbers in this size range are steady and nudging back up, but they haven’t exploded.
Let’s crunch some numbers
First, the good news! In our 2025 Captain Salary Survey, 225 Captains on yachts between 50m and 99m responded, and 73% of them were on time-for-time rotation. Back in 2020, that figure was just 58%. That’s approximately a 25% increase, with 15% more Captains now having rotation.
The same caveat as last time applies: those are our clients and our network, who aren’t necessarily a reflection of the industry as a whole. But it’s a decent sample.
73% of 123 yachts is 90 yachts needing two Captains, so 180 jobs. The other 33 yachts need one Captain each. That gives us roughly 213 Captain jobs created in five years, or about 43 a year.
That’s a touch up on the 40 a year I estimated last time, and it’s down to more rotation rather than more yachts. And again, that assumes every single one of those yachts is a desirable place to work. As we all know, a percentage of them will have significant issues of one form or another.
How many Captains of the future are getting their ticket?
This is where it gets interesting / depressing / worrying depending on your viewpoint! Here are the latest MCA oral exam passes for Master 3000 GT. Let’s assume that after passing the exam, they have all dotted the I’s and crossed the t’s and progressed to the point of getting their ticket:
| Year | Passes |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 59 |
| 2021 | 93 |
| 2022 | 59 |
| 2023 | 128 |
| 2024 | 124 |
| 2025 | 134 |
| 2026 (to date) | 61* |
*We requested this data from the MCA in August 2026, and we received the data in September 2026.
At the time of publication, it was unclear what the cutoff date for this data was.
A quick note: last time the MCA gave me financial year figures, and these are calendar year, so it isn’t a perfect like-for-like. Also let’s not forget COVID which impacted people doing modules, taking exams etc. The trend is clear enough though.
In the last blog, I said a “normal” year looked like 80-plus people getting their Master 3000 GT, and that there would be a jump once the COVID backlog cleared. Well, the jump came. Since 2023, we’ve had three years on the bounce of 120-plus.
What does that look like side-by-side?
From 2022 to 2025, for which we have complete figures, there were 445 oral passes. Over the same period, 95 yachts were built in the 500–2999 GT range. At 73% rotation, that’s 69 yachts with two Captains (138 jobs) plus 26 with one, so around 164 Captain jobs.
That’s nearly 3 newly qualified candidates for every Captain job created.
For every fully rotational Captain job, the ratio is 2.7 newly qualified candidates per job. Last time we did this the number was approximately 2.0, meaning there has been a 35% uplift. So, more rotation has cushioned the blow, but it hasn’t come close to keeping pace with the number of new tickets.
Bear in mind that’s only the newly qualified Master 3000 tickets. It doesn’t touch the huge numbers of experienced Captains who’ve held their Master 3000 GT for years and are also going for these roles. And there’s still that spanner in the works: in our 2025 survey, 21% of Captains on 50m to 99m yachts held a Master Unlimited or Marshall Islands Unlimited ticket. That’s down slightly from 23.5% last time, but it still means around one in five of these jobs is going to Captains with a commercial background.
Some further figures which may or may not be of interest…
Since 1st Jan 2026, we have had 88 Captains with a Master 3000 GT or Master Unlimited ticket registered in our database. Another 389 (!!) have updated their CVs this year. We will assume that if a Captain has updated their CV, they are actively looking. That’s 477 active captains on our database this year.
Yotspot currently has 427 Captains actively looking with their Master 3000 GT or Master Unlimited quals.
What can we learn from all of this?
It’s an even more competitive marketplace than when I last wrote this. There are far more Captains than there are jobs, and even with the big move towards rotation, the gap is widening.
For a desirable rotational role, we would typically receive 300 – 400 applications across various platforms.
My advice hasn’t changed; it’s just more important now. The ultra-desirable jobs, on prestigious yachts with rotation, great money, a great programme, and a great owner, aren’t being advertised on job boards. They often aren’t in the public domain. The vast majority are filled through existing relationships.
Upskilling and improving your CV is great, but the number one factor in getting your next job is being well networked. You need strong relationships with influential people in yachting, and those relationships need consistent nurturing over time. You can’t rely on a couple of brokers and a yacht manager you knew five years ago when you were Captain on charter yacht xyz.
Your reputation and your relationships get you the job. Some further thoughts… Always be charming with everyone you deal with shoreside (management, brokerage, etc.) and the more pleasant you are to deal with when recruiting, the more likely you are to get called by that agency when you are looking. Equally, (for us at least,) if your comms is terrible and you are clearly completely disorganised with your recruitment, that reflects on your capability as a Captain.
My background after leaving yachting
My background after leaving yachting and before Quay Crew was high-end recruitment in banking and finance, where I spent a lot of my week coaching candidates on how to perform at their best in interviews. Over the last 5 years, I have given a lot of Captains CV and interview coaching advice. If you’re a Captain with an interview coming up that you want to nail, drop me an email or give me a call. To manage expectations, I have very limited capacity for this, so I will only be able to do this a few times a week, maximum.
Alternatively, if you’re looking for a Captain and want to speak to some experts on the marketplace, email me at tim@quaygroup.com to discuss the in-depth service Quay Crew can offer.
Simon Ladbrooke (12 years as a Captain, Master 3000 GT) & I (self-appointed expert) have placed an awful lot of Captains since 2020, including on many of the most prestigious yachts in the world, the vast majority of which I am very sadly prevented from sharing by various NDAs. What I will say is that we were very well represented at Monaco Yacht Show this year on large yachts.
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