Divorcing a yacht captain: what you need to know

Palma is one of the Mediterranean’s major superyacht hubs, and many families on Mallorca have one parent who spends much of the year at sea. When that marriage ends, the usual questions get harder to answer. What does the captain actually earn? Where is the money? And which country’s court decides?

One thing first: unless the captain owns the yacht, the yacht isn’t part of the divorce. What matters is the pay. 

The pay doesn’t look like a normal salary

A captain’s salary is often paid by a crew management or payroll company, sometimes based offshore, rather than by the yacht’s owner. It may be paid in euros, dollars or sterling, into accounts in more than one country. Many captains work on rotation, with set periods on board and at home.

Then there are the benefits. Accommodation, food, flights, medical cover and training are often paid for. While the captain is on board, their day-to-day living costs can be close to nothing. That matters in a divorce. The English court looks at what each person actually has available to them, not just the figure on a payslip.

Bonuses, tips and charter income

On a charter yacht, guests usually leave a tip at the end of a trip, shared among the crew. The captain often handles how it’s shared out and takes a share. Tips can be substantial, are often paid in cash, and rarely appear on a payslip. On top of that there may be end-of-season bonuses, owner bonuses or payments for staying with a boat.

An English court looks at all the resources available to each spouse, whatever they’re called. Calling tips a gift doesn’t take them out of the picture.

Income can also swing from one year to the next. A busy charter season and a quiet one can look very different. Rather than picking the best or worst year, the court will usually look at the pattern over several years to understand what’s realistic.

Disclosure: getting the full picture

In English financial proceedings, both spouses must give full and frank disclosure of their finances. For a captain, that means contracts, payslips from the management company, bank statements for every account in every currency, and an honest account of tips and bonuses.

With cash, several currencies and accounts in different countries, gaps appear easily. If you’re the spouse at home, you may know more than you think: when money came home, how much, and what was spent. Keep whatever records you have.

Where disclosure is incomplete, the English court can draw conclusions about what is being held back. There are also ways to get information from third parties, although these are harder to use against companies based abroad.

Some crew members also have an unusual tax position, which affects what is really available. That’s a question for a tax specialist, and one worth asking early.

One of you at sea, the other on Mallorca with the children

A captain may have no settled home on land. A career at sea can mean long periods away from family life. Often, the other spouse has taken primary responsibility for the children, their schooling and the home, sometimes at the expense of their own career. In England, those contributions are recognised as equally valuable to the contribution of income. In other countries, they may not be.

So where does the divorce happen?

For international families, deciding where proceedings should take place can be as important as the financial arguments themselves. Taking advice before either spouse starts proceedings may materially affect the options available. 

Often, more than one country is possible. The Spanish courts can usually hear a divorce because the family lives in Spain. The English court may also be able to, for example if either spouse is still domiciled or resident in England. Where both are possible, the choice matters, because England and Spain take very different approaches to dividing money and to maintenance. The same couple can end up with very different outcomes depending on where the case is heard.

Children are usually dealt with separately. Arrangements for children are normally decided by the courts of the country where they live, so for children living on Mallorca, that will usually be Spain. You could end up with the finances decided in England and the children’s arrangements decided in Spain. 

Then there’s enforcement. An order is only useful if it can be enforced. When pay comes from an offshore employer into a foreign account and the person earning it is on a boat that moves between countries, monthly payments can be hard to collect. So the order needs to be designed with that in mind. That might mean a lump sum, security against assets, or other terms that don’t depend on the other person’s goodwill. There are international arrangements for recovering maintenance across borders, but they take time.

Where we fit

AFP Bloom advises on English family law. Where Spanish law, maritime law or tax advice is needed, we work alongside trusted specialists in each area, so the advice fits together and nothing falls between the gaps.

If you’re on Mallorca and any of this sounds familiar, AFP Bloom Palma can meet you on the island.