Our story
Built by crew, for crew.
CVs tell stories. Registries verify careers. Yachtworkers Council exists because a great career deserves more than a folder of PDFs, we built a registry that verifies once and is trusted everywhere.
Why we exist
A CV is a claim. A career should be verified.
For decades, yacht crew have carried their careers in scattered PDFs and a CV that asks employers to take their word for it. Tickets expire unnoticed, sea time goes unproven, and good crew lose roles to whoever can document themselves first. We thought the industry deserved better, so we built a registry that verifies instead of asking you to claim.
The problem: a CV is just a claim
- Careers live in unverified PDFs across email, WhatsApp and Dropbox
- A CV asks employers to take your word for your record
- Sea service is hard to prove and slow to compile
- Expired tickets surface at the worst possible moment
- Good crew lose roles to whoever documents themselves first
Our answer: a registry that verifies
- One verified profile, checked once and trusted everywhere
- Documents verified by Crewdentials, not just uploaded
- Digital Sea Service: audit-ready hours and time at sea
- Renewal alerts so nothing lapses unnoticed
- A standard the whole industry can rely on
Where it started
Built in the Med.
Yachtworkers Council began on the docks of the French Riviera, in the seasonal churn between Antibes, Palma and the Caribbean. The people who built it had crewed those boats, deck, interior and engineering, and had felt the same frustration from both sides of the passerelle: a career that was real, but impossible to prove quickly.
We watched brilliant crew miss out on roles not because they lacked the tickets, but because they couldn't put a verified record in front of a captain fast enough. And we watched captains and managers gamble on CVs they had no practical way to check. The CV had become a story everyone politely agreed to believe. We wanted to replace the story with a record.
So we built YWC as a registry, not a job site with a database bolted on. Verification first. Privacy by default. Owned by the crew member, trusted by the industry. We started in the Med because that's where the season starts, but a verified career travels, and today crew on the registry sail worldwide. [placeholder: confirm founding details and original team]
What we stand for
Five principles we build by.
Every product decision at YWC is measured against these, they are why the registry works the way it does, and why crew, employers and agencies trust what it says.
Verify, don't claim
A record only counts if it's checked. We verify documents and sea service rather than taking anyone's word.
Crew first
The crew member owns their profile and decides who sees it. We build for the person, not the recruiter funnel.
Privacy by default
Your documents are private until you choose to share. Visibility is a setting you control, not a default we assume.
Raise the standard
We want verified careers to become the industry norm, safer hiring and fairer opportunities for everyone aboard.
Open & interoperable
A registry is only useful if it connects. We partner and integrate so your verified record travels with you.
The verification stack behind a trusted application
Built with the industry leaders crew already trust.
Your docs are already verified, so employers trust your application. Jobs is powered by the same verification stack as the rest of the registry.
Document verification
OCR-scans and multi-level credential verification for every ticket on the registry, checks employers trust at a glance.
How verification works
Digital Sea Service
Sea time and STCW rest hours in one auditable record, with audit-ready PDFs generated in seconds.
About Digital Sea Service
Background Verification
Advanced background checks for safer hiring, available as an add-on at checkout. anjin.info
About background checksThe people
A team that's stood the watch.
We're a small crew of former yacht professionals, engineers and verification specialists. [placeholder: confirm names, roles and headshots before launch.]
Our journey
Milestones so far.
From a docks-side idea to a registry used worldwide. [placeholder: confirm dates and milestone details.]
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[placeholder: year]
The idea on the dock
Founded in the Med by former crew tired of careers that couldn't be proven. The first concept of a verified registry takes shape.
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[placeholder: year]
Crewdentials verification goes live
Document storage with OCR and multi-level credential verification ships, the first "verified" badge replaces the unverified PDF.
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[placeholder: year]
Digital Sea Service launches
In partnership with DSS, sea time and STCW rest hours become an auditable, shareable record.
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[placeholder: year]
Background Verification with Anjin
Optional advanced background checks arrive for safer hiring across the industry.
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Today
12,400+ verified crew, 60+ countries
A growing registry of verified careers, raising the standard for crew, employers and agencies worldwide. [placeholder: confirm live counts.]