Sober at Sea: Alcohol, Yacht Crew and Changing the Drinking Culture with Laura Kilbey

Choosing not to drink in yachting can sometimes attract more questions than drinking itself.From guest drop-offs and charter celebrations to crew nights out, bottles from brokers and the inevitable bar waiting in almost every port, alcohol can feel less like an occasional extra and more like part of the culture itself.In this episode of The Crew Car, Captain James Battey, Founder of the Yacht Workers Council, sits down with Laura Kilbey, Founder of Sober Crew Social Club, for a candid, funny and deeply personal conversation about alcohol, sobriety and life at sea.Laura speaks openly about years spent trying to cut back, moderate and create rules around her drinking before eventually accepting that alcohol was taking more from her life than it was giving back.Remaining in yachting while choosing sobriety presented another challenge. Sober Crew Social Club began as a way for Laura to hold herself accountable and connect with other sober yacht crew, but she quickly discovered there were far more people searching for that community than she had realised.James also shares his experience of almost four years without alcohol and why drinking had stopped being something that added to his life.This is not a conversation arguing that everybody should stop drinking. Laura and James explore why some people can have a perfectly healthy relationship with alcohol while others cannot, why sobriety does not need to become someone’s entire identity and why nobody needs to wait for a dramatic rock bottom before deciding drinking is no longer working for them.They also discuss anxiety, addiction, gambling, replacement coping mechanisms, the particular pressures of working at sea and whether a younger generation of crew is beginning to reshape yachting’s relationship with alcohol.Because sobriety does not have to mean boring, and deciding alcohol is not right for you does not require anybody else’s permission.Laura Kilbey | Sober Crew Social Clubhttps://www.sobercrewsocialclub.co.uk/Captain James Battey | Yacht Workers Councilhttps://yachtworkerscouncil.com/The Crew Car | Yachting International Radio