Meet Malin
MalinPernheim.
Founder · 7 years in yachting
A personal story from an unexpected beginning in Florida to years aboard private superyachts, and the perspective behind Yacht Pathway.
It started with a question.
01
Florida · The Bahamas
2006
A glimpse of an industry I knew almost nothing about ✦
My introduction to yachting came almost by chance.
I was visiting my friend Tina in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when I first really noticed the yachts around us and started meeting some of the people who worked on them. Around 17th Street, we would run into yacht crew in bars and restaurants, and little by little I got my first glimpse into an industry I knew almost nothing about.
Back in Sweden in 2006, my friend Tereza had been there too. I still remember the two of us sitting in her car in Gothenburg in February, looking out at the snow and the cold, and asking each other:
“What are we doing here?”
That question was enough. We took our last paychecks, sorted out our B1/B2 visas and booked tickets to Florida.
Three days after arriving, I was aboard a 30-metre yacht on my way to the Bahamas, just me and the captain, with very little idea of how the industry actually worked.
How that happened is a story for another day. But that first trip opened the door to a completely different life.
Fisher Island · A new-build chapter
Soon after, Tereza and I found work aboard a newly built yacht based at Fisher Island, just off Miami Beach. We were being driven around in a Lincoln by the yacht's private driver while provisioning for a brand-new yacht. It was certainly a long way from that snowy car park in Gothenburg.
Later, I was offered a position aboard an explorer yacht, which took me on an adventure through the Caribbean and gave me experiences I would never have imagined when I first arrived in Florida.
02
Palma de Mallorca
2010
A shared chapter began.
From life apart to looking for yacht work together.
But through all of it, there was someone back in Sweden I couldn't quite stop thinking about. I was in love with Rickard, and eventually I decided to go home and see where that might lead.
I trained as cabin crew, started flying professionally, and Rickard and I became a couple.
Then, in 2010, I convinced him to come with me to Palma de Mallorca. We completed our STCW training and started looking for yacht work together.
Everyone told us that finding a couple position would be difficult. I had yachting experience; Rickard had none.
“Don’t worry about what other people say. This isn’t their life. It’s ours.”
We ended up with two offers and deliberately chose the smaller option, a 30-metre yacht.
We worked aboard that yacht together for three years, I as sole stewardess and Rickard as deckhand. On a yacht that size, you see the whole operation and learn to do a little bit of everything.
03
A new yacht taking shape
2013
When the yacht was sold in 2013, that chapter came to an end. But someone who had spent time aboard knew us well and had come to trust us as crew.
He was building a brand-new 55-metre yacht at the Amels shipyard in Vlissingen and wanted us to join the new yacht together.
So we did, and our life in yachting continued side by side.
04
The perspective behind Yacht Pathway
Lived onboard.Understood from ashore.
Eventually, we reached a crossroads: should we stay in yachting, or step ashore and build the family we both wanted?
We chose family.
Ten years later, we have three children.
But stepping ashore never meant leaving yachting completely behind. The friendships and connections stayed. And as my own chapter onboard was coming to an end, my sister Lisa was beginning her own career in yachting, one that would continue for almost nine years.
Years later, my professional life brought me back to travel from another direction. I became a qualified travel consultant, with international IATA training as part of my professional education.
Today, those different chapters come together in Yacht Pathway: the seven years I spent living and working aboard yachts, my experience in aviation and travel, and the more recent industry perspective Lisa brings from her own years at sea.
Because finding your way into yachting takes more than information. It takes context, preparation and an understanding of what life in the industry can actually look like.
There isn't one way in. There is your pathway. ✦