[WATCH] Dream job? Shipyard manager urges Maltese to enter superyacht industry

Multi-million superyacht, the Baraka, in Malta for three months for engineering, painting, mechanical upgrades, underwater works and Class five-year survey. She is expected to be ready to go by next month.

Photo by Ray Attard
Photo by Ray Attard
Photo by Ray Attard
Photo by Ray Attard
The superyacht Baraka
The superyacht Baraka
Dream job? Shipyard manager urges Maltese to enter super yacht industry • Video by Ray Attard

Pierre Balzan, managing director of the Melita Marine Group, has encouraged more Maltese people to enter the superyacht industry.

“An increasing number of Maltese people are working as yachtsmen, crewmembers, deckhands, and cooks aboard superyachts,” Balzan said. “We want to send more Maltese people out there. Some of them might eventually become captains and bring their own superyachts to Malta too.”

He was speaking aboard the Baraka, a 58-metre long superyacht that is currently carrying out a refit at the Melita Shipyard in the Grand Harbour on its floating dock facility.

It will remain in Malta for three months for engineering, painting, mechanical upgrades, underwater works and Class five-year survey. She is expected to be ready to go by May.

The ship’s captain, Fernando Silvano, refused to disclose to journalists who the ship’s owner was, saying that it was “classified information”.

Baraka employs 10 crew members, including Camille Pizzuto, a Maltese 20-year-old who will be starting her working life as a stewardess on board the Baraka.

“My main goal is to travel the world and gain experience by trying out different cuisines and meeting new people,” Pizzuto told MaltaToday while cooking eggplant slices. “It’s a stressful job but it’s pretty easy once you get into routine.

“I definitely encourage more Maltese people to take such opportunities up. It’s amazing. You get to travel and meet loads of new people. It’s a fantastic opportunity.”

Fernando Silvano, was more cautious.

“People living on land often think that life on sea is a paradise,” he said. “It is a nice life, but you really have to enjoy it to stick it out. Man was made to live on land, and not sea.”

He praised Malta’s yacht industry for “showing a massive growth in the last seven years”.

“We researched Mediterranean shipyards and found that, taking both prices and quality, into account, Malta’s shipyards were the most competitive,” Silvano said. “This is the third yacht I have brought to the Melita Marine Group in Malta since 2008, and I have always had excellent experiences.

“The capacity to accommodate superyachts and the skilled workforce put Malta in a much better position to land these high-end jobs and the country has become a stiff challenge to its competition in the Mediterranean.”

The particular floating dock started operating in May 2014, and Balzan said that it has employed 100 skilled workers, most of whom are Maltese, and invested thousands of euro in training these workers further in Germany.

Since its launch, it has always been full and has bookings running up till 2016. 

The largest superyacht docked so far was the 75-metre Plan B.  Other yachts included the 67-metre Garcon, the 70-metre Martha Ann and the 45-metre Kriss. The yard is also awaiting a 100-metre yacht in the next months.

Balzan also pointed out that superyachts have a massive impact on the Maltese economy, running into millions of euros in sales, both for the works carried out in the dock, but also for the indirect ripple effect. He said that crews on such yachts are known to be good spenders and spend tenfold on hotels, restaurants, excursions, taxis, spas and groceries when compared to the weighted average tourist.

There are around 5,000 superyachts in the world with a thousand of these in the Mediterranean.