Privacy & cookie policy.

Quay Crew Ltd and Quay Group International Ltd are responsible for your personal data. Together we trade as Quay Group and Quay Crew, and in this policy “we”, “us” and “our” mean both companies.

Both companies are registered in England and Wales, with the registered office 39 The Metro Centre, Tolpits Lane, Watford, WD18 9SB. For anything to do with your data, contact Tim Clarke at tim@quaygroup.com.

We are a specialist recruitment business placing crew on superyachts and staff in private households, family offices and yacht management. We are joint controllers of the personal data in this policy, which means we decide together how and why it is used. We follow UK data protection law (the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations) and the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003.

How the two companies share responsibility. The two companies have a written arrangement setting out who does what. Both use the same systems and follow this policy. Quay Group International Ltd deals with questions, complaints and requests to use your rights, and with any data breach, for both companies. You can contact either company, or use your rights against either of them, through tim@quaygroup.com.

• Candidates: anyone looking for work through us, including yacht crew at every level, captains, and private household, family office and land-based maritime staff, as well as people we approach about a role. See Sections 3 to 6.
• Referees: anyone who gives us a reference about a candidate. See Section 6.
• Clients: yacht owners and their representatives, captains, management companies, family offices and households, and the staff who work with us on their behalf. See Section 7.
• Website visitors and enquirers: anyone who visits our website, signs up for updates or contacts us. See Section 8.

Sections 9 onwards apply to everyone.

Most of this comes from you. Some comes from your referees, our clients, job boards where you’ve posted your CV, other industry contacts who recommend you, and public sources such as professional profiles or news. If we get your details from someone else, we’ll tell you when we first contact you, usually within one month.

You don’t have to give us your details, but we can’t find you work without them.

We use your information to find you work, put you forward for roles you’ve agreed to, and check you have the right to work and the qualifications a role needs. We also use it to keep in touch about future roles, offer interview coaching, manage placements, and produce anonymised insight such as salary surveys, which never identifies you.

We never send your CV to a client without your agreement. We’ll always tell you about the role and the client first.

Health. Most yachting roles need a valid seafarer medical certificate (such as an ENG1), so we record whether you hold one and when it expires, as maritime and employment law require. We don’t ask for wider medical details unless a role needs them. If you tell us about a disability or health need so we can support you through the recruitment process, we’ll use it only for that.

Criminal record checks. Some roles, particularly in private households and family offices, need a criminal record check. We only arrange one with your agreement, and we keep only the outcome, not the full record.

Other sensitive information. We don’t ask about your ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or similar characteristics, so please leave them off your CV unless you want clients to see them.

We handle this information under the conditions set out in the Data Protection Act 2018, such as employment obligations or your explicit consent.

If you give us a reference about a candidate, we keep your name, contact details and what you tell us with the candidate’s file, for as long as we keep that file. We may record reference calls (see Section 15). Please don’t give us anyone else’s personal data unless we ask for it.

What we hold. Your name, role and contact details, the organisation or vessel you represent, the roles you ask us to fill, notes of our conversations, your feedback on candidates, and our agreement and invoicing records.

Why we use it. To fill your roles, keep you updated about candidates, invoice for our services and run our business relationship, because it is in our legitimate interests and to perform our agreement with you.

Discretion. We won’t name you, your vessel or your organisation in a public advert unless you agree, and we only share role details with candidates being considered for that role.

Website use. When you visit our website we collect your IP address, approximate location, browser and device type, the site you came from, and the pages you view. We use this to improve the website, based on our legitimate interests and, for non-essential cookies, your consent (see Section 14).

Enquiries. If you contact us, we use what you send to answer and follow up, based on our legitimate interests.

Marketing. We may send job alerts, market updates and news about our services where the law allows, either because you opted in or because you are an existing contact and the messages relate to similar services. Every email has an unsubscribe link.

We never sell your personal data. We only share it with:

• our team across the Quay Group businesses
• clients we put candidates forward to, only for roles the candidate has agreed to, through a private link that expires after 30 days (if you’d rather we didn’t share your photo, just tell us)
• candidates, who see the details of roles they are being considered for
• referees and previous employers, when we ask for a reference
• criminal record check providers, where you have agreed to a check
• trusted providers who run our systems, such as cloud hosting, our recruitment database, email, phone and messaging, and transcription and AI services; they may only use your data on our instructions and may not use it to train AI
• our insurers, accountants, lawyers and other advisers, where needed
• courts, regulators, the police or other authorities, where the law requires it or to protect someone’s vital interests

If our business, or part of it, is ever sold or restructured, your data may pass to the new owner, who must use it in line with this policy.

Your data is stored in the UK. Some of our providers process data in other countries, including the United States, using the safeguards UK law requires, such as the UK-US Data Bridge or approved contracts. Many of our clients and candidates are based abroad, so when we put a candidate forward for a role overseas their details go outside the UK, limited to what that role requires.

We may keep data for longer where the law requires it or it is needed for a legal claim.

We protect your data with measures including restricted access, password protection, multi-factor authentication, encryption where appropriate, carefully chosen providers and staff training. If a breach is likely to put your rights at risk, we’ll tell you and the Information Commissioner’s Office as the law requires. No internet transmission is completely secure, and we will never ask for your passwords.

You can ask us to:

• give you a copy of your data
• correct anything that is wrong or incomplete
• delete it
• limit how we use it
• move it to you or another organisation
• object to how we use it, including for marketing
• stop sharing it with clients
• withdraw any consent you’ve given (this won’t affect anything we did before)

Email tim@quaygroup.com and we’ll reply within one month. There’s usually no charge, though we may need to confirm your identity. If a legal exception applies, such as records we must keep by law, we’ll explain why.

Questions or complaints. Email us and we’ll acknowledge it within 30 days. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

A cookie is a small file a website stores in your browser. We only use non-essential cookies if you agree through our cookie banner, and you can change your choice at any time.

You can also block or delete cookies in Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge, though some parts of our website may then stop working.

We may record job brief calls with clients, reference calls with clients and other referees, and interviews or coaching sessions with candidates, so we have an accurate note. We’ll always tell you first.

We use secure transcription and AI tools to write up calls, job briefs, adverts, CVs and candidate profiles. A person always checks the work, and no decision about you is made by software alone.

Our website links to other sites, such as job boards and social media, and we’re not responsible for their privacy practices. We may update this policy from time to time and will publish the latest version here with the date it changed. Please let us know if any of your details change.