Harassment In Yachting: Speaking Truth, Finding Strength
- Yachting International Radio
- Oct 8, 2025
- 6 min read
Updated: Jan 3
The Silence Behind the Smiles
In the glittering world of yachting, silence has long been mistaken for professionalism. Behind the polished service and controlled demeanour, however, sit stories that rarely make it into the light. Not because they are rare, but because the consequences of speaking have often felt heavier than the harm of staying quiet.
Harassment In Yachting is not always loud. Sometimes it arrives as “jokes” that never end, comments that become routine, hands that linger too long, doors opened at the wrong moment, or power that tests whether someone will comply or disappear. It is the kind of harm that thrives in close quarters, in environments built on hierarchy, and in cultures that reward endurance more than truth.
This conversation brings two realities into focus: the experience of the person targeted, and the experience of the person who witnesses and learns, in real time, how quickly a team can train someone to doubt themselves.
What Too Many Still Deny
Halima Ferreira, a private chef and founder of Tailored Taste, speaks with the steadiness of someone who has spent years reclaiming her voice. She does not describe harassment as a vague discomfort. She describes it as a direct abuse of power, delivered in a workplace where escape is not simple and isolation is often built into the job.
“I was the only woman among 200 men in a galley. My first experience with harassment was on that ship. He groped me and told me if I wanted an easier life, I had to do whatever he wanted.”
There is a reason that Harassment In Yachting becomes systemic. Not because everyone participates, but because too many systems quietly absorb it, reframe it, or protect it when it is inconvenient to confront. What happens next often matters as much as what happened first.
Harassment In Yachting and the Absence of Empathy
Ferreira did what crew are told to do. She reported it. She spoke up. She moved through the appropriate channels. Yet the response she received reflects a pattern that crosses industries: procedure without empathy is simply administration.
“There was no real support. They made me the noise.”
That sentence carries the weight of a reality crew understand immediately. When a perpetrator is senior, established, or socially protected, the person reporting is treated as the disruption. Harassment becomes secondary to reputation management. Safety becomes conditional. The vulnerable become negotiable.
Even in workplaces that claim HR structures, reporting pathways, or formal “policies,” the cultural reflex to protect power can override the duty to protect people. For crew on vessels without meaningful support, no welfare officer, no reporting route that leads to action, no captain willing to hold the line, the message becomes brutally simple: survive quietly or leave.
That is how Harassment In Yachting becomes normalised. Not through one event, but through the repeated experience of not being believed, not being protected, and not being worth the inconvenience of accountability.
The Myth of Banter, and the Reality of Boundaries
Few phrases have caused more harm in maritime work than “it’s just banter.”
Banter assumes mutual comfort. Harassment does not.
Harassment In Yachting can be verbal, non-verbal, psychological, or sexual. It can begin as commentary, then harden into coercion. It can include:
sexual comments, jokes, or insinuations framed as humour
staring, gestures, following, or persistent messages
dismissing concerns, speaking over someone, undermining credibility
gaslighting, manipulation, or isolating a person socially
unwanted touching, even when presented as casual or “friendly”
retaliation after someone sets a boundary
A workplace does not become safe because people claim they “didn’t mean it.” Safety is measured by whether boundaries are respected when they are stated, and whether harm is addressed when it occurs.
This matters because many crew carry trauma histories that cannot be seen. What feels “small” to one person can be deeply violating to another. Professional environments are not built on guessing what someone can tolerate. They are built on respect, consent, and restraint.
The Weight of Laughter
Marién Sarriera adds a story that exposes the bystander effect in its most recognisable form. A moment of shock followed by a moment of team reaction that quietly rewrites the truth.
An owner, a door left open, a body displayed without consent. When Sarriera turned to her team in disbelief, they laughed.
“Everyone laughed. That reaction taught me to believe it wasn’t a big deal, even when I knew it was.”
This is the part people underestimate. It is not only the incident that changes someone. It is the lesson that follows: the lesson that no one will back you, no one will risk discomfort for your dignity, and your harm will become a joke if it makes others uncomfortable.
The laughter is not always cruel. Often it is avoidance disguised as normality. But the outcome is the same. Every time bystanders minimise, the culture tightens its grip. Every time a witness chooses silence, the person harmed learns to distrust themselves.
Harassment In Yachting survives on that training.
What Healing Really Looks Like
Ferreira’s healing did not come from justice. It came from reclamation. From therapy, breathwork, and the long process of naming harm without minimising it.
“Healing wasn’t about fixing myself. It was about remembering who I was before I was silenced.”
That is the shift many people never reach, not because they are weak, but because the industry is skilled at persuading them that what happened “wasn’t that bad,” that they are “too sensitive,” or that they should simply be grateful to be employed.
Healing, as Ferreira describes it, is layered. It involves the mind, the body, and the identity. It involves learning how to come back to yourself after your nervous system has been trained to brace for the next violation.
It also involves one of the hardest skills in close-quarter work: holding the truth, even when everyone around you is trying to smooth it away.
Strength Without Armour
Today, Ferreira sits on a management team dominated by men. Yet she describes leadership not as dominance, but as steadiness. Not as aggression, but as calm authority.
“I lead with empathy and calm authority. Strength isn’t loud, it’s steady.”
This matters because Harassment In Yachting is often reinforced by a specific idea of “strength,” one that demands silence, hardening, and endurance. Ferreira rejects that model. She refuses to harden into someone she does not recognise just to survive spaces that were never designed for safety.
She also speaks to something many women experience in senior roles: the difference between being tolerated and being respected. Respect is built when boundaries are clear, professionalism is enforced, and accountability is consistent, regardless of rank.
The New Definition of Leadership
Real leadership is not hierarchy. It is humanity.
It is noticing what is happening and refusing to normalise it. It is intervening before harm becomes routine. It is listening without demanding a perfect explanation. It is taking reporting seriously, even when it is inconvenient.
Leadership also exists at every level. A junior crew member can be the person who believes someone. A teammate can be the person who refuses to laugh. A department head can be the person who documents properly and escalates without hesitation.
The culture changes the day people stop outsourcing courage.
What Vulnerable Crew Need to Know First
Ferreira’s advice to young and vulnerable crew is simple, practical, and protective:
Trust your intuition.
Document everything.
Find an ally.
“Confidence isn’t arrogance. It’s clarity about who you are and what you deserve.”
Harassment In Yachting thrives when people are isolated and unsure. It loses power when someone documents reality, speaks to a trusted person, and refuses to accept boundary violations as normal.
For someone currently experiencing harassment, the first step is not to debate whether it “counts.” The first step is safety. Step away if you can. Regain breathing and clarity. Record what happened while details are fresh. Note what you saw, what you heard, when it occurred, who was present, and how it made you feel.
Truth deserves a paper trail.
A Call for Collective Courage
Harassment In Yachting is not an individual issue. It is a cultural one.
Change will not come from a single policy document or a poster in a crew mess. It will come from the day the laughter stops. The day silence is no longer mistaken for professionalism. The day crews stand beside one another and say: enough.
“You are safe. You are strong. Each time you speak truth, the world becomes a little braver. Healing is possible. Awareness is power. Together we can build a culture where respect isn’t negotiable, it’s expected.”
Resources & Support
If you or someone you know is experiencing harassment or abuse:
🌐 ISWAN Yacht Crew Help: https://www.iswan.org.uk/yachtcrewhelp/
Confidential 24-hour support for yacht crew worldwide.
For legal information and seafarer rights:
🎧 Maritime Legal
About the Guest
Halima Ferreira is a private chef and founder of Tailored Taste, blending food, wellness, and education to create impact and resilience through awareness.
LinkedIn: Halima Ferreira
Instagram: @tailoredtastehalima
About the Host
Marién Sarriera challenges the culture of silence that pervades the maritime world. Through raw, unfiltered conversations, she reframes what strength looks like in an industry built on appearances.
📩 Share Your Story: info@yachtsmermaids.com
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