What is the the PYA Welfare Group?
The PYA Welfare Group aims to educate, support & guide yacht crew ensuring their well-being is safeguarded. Empowering crew with knowledge to protect their rights, and to steer them in the right direction for legal and professional assistance.
The group is made up of industry professionals who volunteer their time to address the welfare needs of yacht crew. They not registered counsellors, lawyers or financial advisors, and any advice provided is without prejudice or promotion.
Meet the Welfare Group
What the Welfare Group can assist you with?
Should you be experiencing any of these problems on board, contact welfare@pya.org for:
Confidential Support: The PYA Welfare group offers a confidential and safe space for individuals to discuss their concerns and receive support.
Expert Advice: The PYA Welfare Group is composed of industry experts and professionals who can provide advice and guidance on the appropriate steps to take in welfare issues such as bullying and harassment, abuse, safety issues, complaints and mental well-being.
Advocacy: The PYA Welfare Group can advocate on behalf of individuals to help resolve bullying or harassment issues in a timely and effective manner.
Access to Resources: The PYA Welfare Group can connect individuals with the necessary resources and support networks, such as legal or medical assistance.
Promoting Positive Change: By addressing welfare issues within the industry, the PYA Welfare Group works to promote a positive work environment and raise awareness of the importance of treating all personnel with dignity and respect.
Building a Stronger Community: The PYA Welfare Group strives to build a strong and supportive community in the yachting industry, where everyone is treated fairly and with respect.
Introducing the members of the group the members of the Group
Ten years experience as crew on both sail and motor yachts saw Angie’s career rise from deck-stew to galley into the interior and culminating as Purser on a worldwide cruising 85m Superyacht. On becoming land-based, she worked as a GUEST-accredited trainer, passing on her extensive knowledge and experience to others. Finally, the pull of home in Palma brought her back to Mallorca and new and exciting opportunities in the field of training. The first online Purser course was Angie’s brainchild. Her Purser program is fully accredited under IAMI & GUEST, and Angie was instrumental in helping create the learning objectives and outcomes for this as well as serving on the IAMI GUEST Hospitality Workgroup.
Sandra worked on board private, charter and explorer yachts ranging from 35-91m during her ten year yachting career as a purser and chief stewardess. Her yachting career saw her travel to all seven continents, including Antarctica. Sandra is an IAMI GUEST accredited trainer for the Purser Certificate (and was instrumental in helping create the learning objectives and outcomes) and also serves on the IAMI GUEST Hospitality Workgroup. She holds numerous university degrees, diplomas and courses spanning finance, law, tourism management, project management and superyacht management. Sandra also edited a financial magazine with a focus on how to prevent, mitigate and insure enterprise-wide risk. As a certified life coach, Sandra works tirelessly to amplify the yachting industry and community through teaching, coaching, mentoring and supporting crew.
With a background in counselling-psychology and organisational psychology and being an ex-seafarer herself, Karine helps Superyacht Crew elevate their leadership skills through the GUEST IAMI accredited Advanced Leadership Course, master their mental health through online counselling, as well as provides an exclusive yacht crew online membership for like-minded yachting professionals to come together to access a powerful professional network of Crews as well as provide online training resources to aid their professional growth and development.
Dominique entered the yachting industry after completing a Bachelors in Social Science in Organisational Psychology at the University of Cape Town. After a decade of working on some of the most prestigious yachts, she decided to move ashore, where she has since co-founded Virtual Pursers with Bec McKeever. She is a qualified make-up artist, yoga teacher and modern dance instructor, but also enjoys snowboarding, hiking and running, successfully summiting Mount Kilimanjaro and completing the Florence Marathon in 2015. Suffice to say that anything that includes keeping active or learning something new is of interest! Her passions lie with improving standards in the industry, through support, mentorship and advice for current and future yachting crew.
Chandré, better known as Dray Robinson has spent 9 years working on various yachts with experience working in various roles onboard. Starting off working in both deck and interior departments, she finally finished her career as a Chief stewardess of a Charter Motor yacht which at the time was based in the Bahamas. Some of the qualifications that she holds includes, Master of yachts 200 ton Sail, Ship Security Officer and a Diploma in Superyacht Management. Before discovering yachting, she worked as a cocktail waitress, event manager, entertainer, assistant manager and an online English Teacher. Working in a service based industry naturally developed her keen sense to serve as well as activated that never satisfied taste for adventure! Yachting has inspired her to achieve many accomplishments in life & her calling has become to help others navigate their way into this industry - providing the right information to those who seek it.
Samantha set sail into her career in Maritime when she was just 21, working in the Cruise Ship industry before transiting into the Yachting industry in 2016. She was nominated and won the Purser of the year award with ACREW in 2021, due to her dedication to crew welfare & mental health in maritime. Samantha has numerous qualifications including the IAMI GUEST Purser COC, Advanced Leadership, Mental Health First Aider and she has recently qualified as both a Life Coach and a NLP Practitioner. As a Seafarer Clarity and Confidence Coach she focuses on the readiness to change by facilitating crew to implement healthier habits into their lives to ensure that their Mental Health is their highest priority.
