In 1994, Jennifer Pender-Brookes completed studies in business management and marketing with first class honors and she has steadfastly avoided a real job ever since.
Instead, she has been a sailing, windsurfing and waterski instructor, a compere, an underwater videographer, a lecturer, the  director of an adventure racing company, a small ship's captain, a hopeless bartender, an even worse waitress, a dive instructor, an events coordinator, a fitness instructor, a maritime trainer, a boot camp owner and the brave person who walked around a party cruise with a backpack and a super-soaker water pistol firing shots of a purposely diluted cocktail down the throats of three hundred drunken party-goers.  She also spent seven years working for multimillionaires on multi-million dollar superyachts, circumnavigating the world twice and visiting over sixty countries. Oh, and she writes. In fact, Jennifer has had numerous works published in national newspapers and magazines, her first novel won the prestigious QLD Arts Council's New Writers Scholarship in 2006 and she has been awarded a highly sought after fellowship and residency at Varuna House: Australia's most esteemed writing retreat.
Her latest book is:
A note from the Author
When I started on yachts I planned to do one year and ended up staying for seven. Ever sinc e I left the industry I have been bombarded with questions about it from friends and relatives, relatives friends, and even friends of friends relatives, many of whom are now happily cruising exotic ports of the world and absolutely loving it. However, in helping each of these adventurous souls to realize their dream of crewing a luxury yacht, I was shocked by the vast amount of misinformation out there.
Samuel Johnson once said, 'Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.' But unfortunately, the yachting industry has been plagued by poorly written guidebooks that provide inaccurate and outdated information, training companies that charge  thousands of dollars for completely unnecessary courses and marinas that purport to be superyacht havens when, in reality, they haven't even got the capacity to accommodate a yacht over 100 foot. Then there are the myths about "seeing the world through a porthole window" and so many new crew houses and crew agencies popping up to capitalise on this fast-growing industry that it is near impossible for a novice crewmember to distinguish fact from fiction, let alone figure out exactly what they must do to get a job.
That is precisely why I wrote this guidebook: to provide potential crewmembers with  all the information they need to know to get a job on a luxury yacht, and to dispel many of the myths and misconceptions. I have loaded this guidebook with all the information I wish had been available when I began yachting and I have endeavoured to make it as user-friendly as possible: packed full of handy tips, useful contact details and practical 'how to' steps on everything from applying for visas to becoming a non-resident for tax purposes.
Getting a job on a yacht does not require experience; only initiative and know-how. It does not, for the most part, require lengthy and expensive qualifications; only a few simple certificates. So if you have ever dreamed about travelling the world and enjoying expense-free living while getting paid great money to do it all I can say is 'just do it'. Now is the perfect time. With more jobs available than ever before the opportunities are there for the taking. A world of adventure awaits you. It is entirely up to you to grasp it.
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