Toxic Leadership In Yachting: When Poor Leadership Breaks Crew Confidence
- Yachting International Radio
- Jul 2
- 5 min read
Some crew only understand the full weight of a difficult boat after they have left it.
While they are onboard, they keep moving. They do the job, take the criticism, work longer, communicate more, and try to stay ahead of the next problem. Yachting is demanding by nature, so it can be easy to dismiss the pressure as part of the role.
But pressure and poor leadership are not the same thing.
For Keagan Blanckensee, a Bosun with more than 10 years in superyachting, including experience on 100 metre plus vessels, that distinction became clear after stepping into a healthier leadership environment. It was only then that he recognised how much a previous boat had affected his confidence, communication, and decision-making.
That realisation sits at the centre of a wider conversation the industry needs to have.
Because toxic leadership in yachting does not only affect morale. It affects performance, retention, mental wellbeing, and the way capable crew begin to see themselves.
Toxic Leadership In Yachting Is Not High Standards
Yachting needs high standards. No serious crew member would argue otherwise.
The work is operational, physical, guest-facing, safety-conscious, and often unforgiving. On deck, especially, crew are expected to stay alert, communicate clearly, think ahead, and perform under pressure. There are tenders to manage, lines to handle, guests to protect, schedules to meet, and a chain of command that must function when decisions matter.
But strong standards should make crew sharper.
They should not make them smaller.
Toxic leadership begins when pressure becomes intimidation, when feedback becomes constant criticism, and when crew are left feeling as though nothing they do is ever enough. It is not the existence of correction that causes the damage. Good crew expect to be corrected. It is the absence of balance, clarity, respect, and recognition.
Keagan’s experience speaks directly to that. Coming from elite sport before yachting, he already understood discipline, resilience, and high performance. He knew what it meant to work in pressured environments where preparation and teamwork mattered. What he later saw onboard was that performance is not created by simply pushing people harder.
Performance is built through trust.
The Damage Crew Carry With Them
One of the most important points in Keagan’s story is that the damage did not fully show itself until he had moved on.
After leaving a difficult leadership environment, he found himself over-communicating, second-guessing decisions, and trying too hard to prove himself in a new role. The skills were still there. The experience was still there. But the confidence had been knocked.
That is what poor leadership can do.
It can leave capable people questioning judgement they used to trust. It can turn clear communication into anxious over-explaining. It can make crew hesitant in areas where they are fully competent, not because they lack ability, but because they have become used to being criticised rather than developed.
That matters in yachting because confidence is not cosmetic. It is operational.
A bosun who trusts their judgement can lead more clearly. A deckhand who feels safe enough to ask questions can learn faster. A team that communicates without fear can move with greater cohesion. When confidence is damaged, the impact does not stay private. It filters into how people work, how they speak, how they make decisions, and how they respond under pressure.
A yacht cannot build a strong team on fear and call it leadership.
Feedback Should Develop People, Not Diminish Them
Feedback is essential onboard, but the way it is delivered matters.
There is a difference between constructive feedback and criticism that lands as blame. Constructive feedback gives crew something to work with. It identifies the issue, explains the expectation, and creates a path forward. It can still be direct. It can still be firm. But it has a purpose beyond making someone feel at fault.
Poor feedback does something else. It builds up, arrives too late, lands too heavily, and often ignores everything that has been done well.
That is where leaders lose people.
Keagan speaks about the importance of regular communication, clear expectations, and leaders who are willing to listen as well as instruct. In a strong deck department, the relationship between captain, chief officer, bosun, and crew needs clarity. Everyone should understand where responsibility sits, how decisions are made, and what is expected before pressure peaks.
Good leadership prevents confusion before it becomes failure.
It also makes room for feedback to move both ways. A senior crew member who asks for feedback is not weakening their authority. They are showing enough self-awareness to improve. In an industry where hierarchy can be rigid, that kind of openness can completely change the tone of a department.
Leadership is not just giving orders.
It is creating the conditions for people to do their best work.
Why Respect Is Still The Foundation
When Keagan speaks about empowering crew, he brings it back to respect.
Not performative respect. Not the kind used in job descriptions or leadership courses. Real respect, shown in the way people are spoken to, trusted, listened to, and included in the work of the team.
Respect does not remove hierarchy. Yachts need structure. Captains, officers, bosuns, and deck crew all have different responsibilities, and those lines matter. But hierarchy without respect becomes control. With respect, it becomes structure.
Crew are more likely to stay in demanding environments when they feel they are part of something that has purpose. Keagan saw this while helping lead a deck team through two brutal seasons on a new-build programme. The work was hard, but people stayed because they felt involved, valued, and part of a team that was learning together.
That is a leadership lesson the industry should not ignore.
Crew dinners and drinks are not enough to build loyalty. Perks do not compensate for poor communication. A team does not become strong because someone says the word “family” often enough.
People stay where they feel heard.
They stay where their contribution matters.
They stay where leadership challenges them without stripping away their confidence.
When Crew Need To Pay Attention
For crew dealing with poor leadership, the answer is not always simple.
Sometimes a difficult relationship can be improved through a clear, professional conversation. Sometimes expectations need to be clarified. Sometimes communication has broken down and can be rebuilt. Approaching that conversation calmly, without turning it into a personal attack, can make a difference.
But there is also a line.
If a role is leaving you constantly anxious, afraid to make decisions, unable to trust your own judgement, or feeling as though no amount of effort is enough, it is worth paying attention. That may not be a reflection of your ability. It may be a reflection of the culture around you.
Yachting often asks crew to be resilient, but resilience should not become a cover for damaging leadership. The industry needs crew who can handle pressure, but it also needs leaders who understand the responsibility that comes with authority.
Good leadership can still demand excellence.
It can still hold people accountable.
It can still push crew to grow.
But it should leave people more capable, not less confident.
Keagan’s experience is a reminder that leadership leaves a mark. The question is whether that mark makes crew stronger, clearer, and more prepared for the next step in their career, or whether it follows them onto the next boat as damage they now have to undo.
That is the difference yachting needs to pay attention to.
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