Your first week in Antibes as green crew

Antibes is where most green crew start, because it is where the Med fleet berths, provisions and hires. It is also expensive, crowded in season, and full of people with the same two certificates as you. The difference between a good first week and a bad one is mostly preparation and routine. This is the routine.

One thing this guide does not do: tell you what work you are allowed to do on your passport. Right to work depends on nationality, passport and current immigration status in combinations that change with the law. A visitor visa does not permit daywork in the Schengen area. State your status plainly on your CV, and ask a crew agent or an immigration adviser for the actual determination before you take work. Getting this wrong risks a ban, not a lost day.

Before you land

Have these done before the flight, because every day in Antibes costs money:

• STCW Basic Safety Training and an ENG1 medical. Without both nobody can legally employ you. If a course is booked but not finished, list it as booked with the date; do not list it as held.
• One department certificate. Powerboat Level 2 for deck, Food Safety Level 2 for interior. Then stop buying courses. Working crew consistently say the extra courses were unnecessary for a first job and the money was better spent on runway.
• A compliant photo. Head and shoulders, smiling, ironed white polo, marina or plain background, natural light, taken by someone else. In one captains' survey nearly all wanted a photo and a noticeable share reject without a good one. Do this before you land; the marina is full of people who will take it for you, but you want the CV finished on day one.
• A finished CV, as a PDF and printed. Ten to twenty copies on slightly heavier paper, each in a clear plastic sleeve, in a folder. A creased CV does not reach a captain's desk. The green crew guide covers the CV itself; the photo guide covers the picture.
• A WhatsApp number that will not change. Captains ask for CVs over WhatsApp constantly. Keep one number for the whole search.
• Runway. Budget for weeks, not days. Underestimating this is one of the most-cited green-crew mistakes.

The CV that gets daywork

A green CV is one page. It proves three things: you are legally employable and physically here, you have a real work ethic shown through land jobs described at a professional standard, and you are someone a crew would share a cabin with.

• Location and availability, at the top. "Antibes, available immediately." Never claim to be in Antibes before you arrive; write "relocating to Antibes, [month]" until you land. Captains specifically call out the lie, and it is easy to avoid.
• The personal block. Date of birth, nationality and passports, visa status stated as a fact, smoker, visible tattoos, ENG1 status, languages.
• Land jobs written as standards, not duties. The bar job is the evidence of work ethic. "Solo drinks service and cocktail preparation for a 60-cover venue, including stock control" beats "bar work". "Sanding, varnishing, painting and finish carpentry" beats "carpenter's labourer".
• No empty yachting section. Delete it until you have daywork to put in it. Then add daywork as one aggregated entry with days, boats and tasks, and update it after every stint.
• Specific interests. Crew live together; captains use this line to judge fit. Diving, watersports, yoga, video, languages are also saleable on board.

If your CV is a land CV, upload it and it is rebuilt in this format before you print: photo placed, personal block filled, certificates with dates, land jobs rewritten as standards, one page.

Where to stay: crew houses

A crew house is a shared house or hostel full of people doing exactly what you are doing. It is cheaper than a hotel and, more importantly, it is the network. Daywork gets passed around a crew house kitchen every evening: someone's boat needs three more hands tomorrow, someone is leaving a job, someone knows the bosun on the 60m at the end of the quay. Be the person who is easy to recommend: tidy, early, sober on a work night, and useful.

Get into the crew-house WhatsApp groups on day one. Most daywork moves through them before it reaches any agency.

The three channels

Treat dockwalking as one channel of three, not the whole strategy. Some working crew report diminishing returns as boats run fuller and hiring moves online; training schools and industry press still endorse it as proof of initiative. Do all three.

1. Crew agencies

Register online with every agency in town before you arrive, then go in and meet them. Treat the meeting as a formal interview: dressed as for a dockwalk, CV in hand, clear about what you want. Be honest about it; saying yes to everything wastes their placements. Check in about once a week at most; they are managing hundreds of candidates. A legitimate agency never charges you money. Tell them the moment you get daywork or a job.

2. The job groups

Facebook and WhatsApp crew groups carry a large share of daywork and junior jobs. Post a short introduction with your photo, department, certificates, location and availability, not your whole CV; keep the CV for a direct message. Reply fast; daywork posted at 07:00 is filled by 07:20.

3. Dockwalking

Timing and etiquette matter more than nerve:

• Be on the docks by 07:00 to 08:15. Boats start work at 08:00. Avoid the tea break around 09:00 to 10:00 and lunch from 12:00 to 13:00. Late afternoon, around 16:00 to 17:00, is good for asking about tomorrow's daywork.
• Never approach a boat with guests aboard, during docking or bunkering, or straight after a long passage.
• Ask for the head of department. Chief Stew, Mate, Bosun or Engineer, not a peer in your own department. Some boats prefer a sealed envelope marked "Captain" handed to whoever is on the passerelle.
• Say the four things. Who you are, what you are looking for, that you are available for daywork and permanent work, and could they keep the CV on file if there is nothing now.
• Dress as for a speed interview. White polo, navy or neutral shorts or chinos, deck shoes, tidy hair, minimal make-up.
• Carry work clothes, water and spare CVs. Dockwalking often turns into daywork on the spot.

The daily routine

• 06:30 Up, dressed for the dock, CVs in the folder, work clothes in the bag.
• 07:00 to 08:15 Dockwalk. Port Vauban and the IYCA quay. Note which boats said "come back".
• 08:30 Check the job groups and crew-house chat. Reply to anything posted.
• Mid-morning Agencies, one visit at a time. Coffee with anyone from the house who has a lead.
• 12:00 to 13:00 Off the docks.
• Afternoon If you got daywork, do it well and ask for a reference before you leave. If not, update the CV with anything new, go back to the boats that said "come back" around 16:00.
• Evening Crew house kitchen. Listen. Sober on a work night.

After every day of daywork

Two things, without fail:

1. Ask the head of department for a reference, with a phone number and email. A named yacht reference is worth more to a green candidate than another certificate.
2. Update the daywork entry on the CV and reprint. "22 days across 8 yachts, 30m to 70m" is a line that grows every week, and it is what converts a green CV into an experienced one.

The application email

When a boat or an agency asks you to send the CV, the email is the cover letter. Address the person properly. Say who you are and which position. Two or three sentences on relevant experience and why this boat. Location and availability. Thank them. Attach the CV as Firstname_Lastname_Deckhand_CV.pdf. No attachment without a message, no mass-produced paragraph, no "I'll take anything". The email is held to the same spelling standard as the CV; in one captains' survey, spelling and grammar were the largest single reason for rejection.

Week-one mistakes

• Claiming to be in Antibes before you arrive. Common, specifically called out, and it burns the boats that shortlisted you.
• Registering with one agency. Register with all of them.
• Being selective while green. Turning down daywork, or the "wrong" department, in week one.
• Buying more courses instead of paying rent.
• Social media that contradicts the CV. Captains check. "Non-smoker" on the CV and a cigarette in the profile photo is the classic catch. Set accounts to private for the search.
• Paying anyone to represent you, or accepting an interview off the vessel in a private location. Walk away.

Next step

Before you print twenty copies, upload the CV you have and it comes back as a one-page green crew CV: photo placed, personal block filled, land jobs rewritten as standards, certificates with dates, clean A4 PDF. Free, no account needed to start.