How to write a deckhand CV that gets you daywork

Captains and mates don't read CVs — they scan them. If yours doesn't answer three questions in ten seconds, it goes in the pile.

The three questions

• Can you legally work? Nationality, visas (B1/B2, Schengen) and your ENG1 must be visible near the top.
• Are you safe on deck? STCW Basic Safety Training is the minimum ticket. List it with the exact year.
• Will guests and crew like you? A short, specific profile beats a page of adjectives.

Five mistakes that get CVs binned

1. No photo, or a nightclub photo. Use a clean head-and-shoulders shot in a polo.
2. Vessel names without sizes. "M/Y Lady A (52m)" tells a mate exactly what deck programme you've handled.
3. Listing duties instead of results — "washed down" vs "delivered exterior wash-downs to charter standard on 14 back-to-back charters".
4. Burying your certs at the bottom of page two.
5. Two pages when one will do — see what actually belongs in a yacht CV. Junior deckhands should almost always be one page.

The fastest fix

Upload your current CV and our AI rewrites it into the exact structure captains expect — vessels, sea time, certs and visas in the right order, on one clean page.