The COVID-19 pandemic that occurred at the beginning of 2020 affected every part of human life, and in addition to restrictions in everyday life, the global economy also required a coping strategy. The fundamental goal of this research is a better understanding of the yachting industry as a branch of nautical tourism, with a presentation of the specifics of work from the perspective of crew members and their experience of the impact of the pandemic on additional working conditions. Mixed methodology used in this research combines the qualitative method of interviews and the quantitative method of secondary processing of data from official statistical sources: Statista, Croatian Bureau of Statistics and World Economic Forum. Thematic analysis was applied to 20 semi-structured interviews conducted in the spring of 2022 with skippers and ship stewardesses who worked in the yachting industry during the key period of the pandemic. The results indicate recognition of the uniqueness of the Croatian coast for tourism. Thus, all participants mentioned natural features, the majority also mentioned the tourist offer, followed by infrastructure and favorable laws. In respect of the general determinants of work in the yachting industry, according to the participants, a quality crew possesses exceptional social skills, discipline, endurance and a professional work approach. The participants prefer freelance work to being bound by a contract, while one participant is undecided due to strongly expressed positive and negative features of the possibility of business engagement, such as protecting workers from uncertainty, independent planning of schedules and earnings and different degrees of responsibility towards the yacht or charter agency. As a rule, the participants cited the salary as an advantage of work, followed by acquaintances and new experiences, travel and opportunities for advancement, while they consider absence from home and intense exhaustion, general lack of systematization of work in the industry or relationships with other crew members as challenges. All participants strive for career advancement. As many as 17 of them do not consider women discriminated against in the industry, although several participants mention less interest in women's progress, due to which difficulties in achieving family life have been noticed. Only a fifth of the participants do not consider an alternative career on land. Regarding the initial pandemic period, a quarter of the participants did not express concern about their employment. Furthermore, they perceived the regulations to be less rigorous compared to other tourist destinations, although the regulations are sometimes unclear and in rare cases disregarded. As many as 18 participants believe that the vaccine contributed to the realization of the 2021 tourist season, although only four of them justify making vaccination a condition for employment, while the majority deeply believe in the right to make one's own choice. According to the participants' impression, the recovery of the yachting industry was significantly successfully already realized in 2021, which is in accordance with the statistical data on the ports' income, i.e., the number of vessels on permanent berth and in transit. This does not apply to global tourism trends nor the cruise ship segment of Croatian nautical tourism.