MEET The DEFIANCE Crew
Simon
Growing up in New Zealand, a passion for sailing was instilled in Simon from a young age. For the past two decades, Simon has been presented with a few wonderful opportunities that took him away from his home country, and into the Northern Hemisphere’s Superyacht industry. As the first mate, he was involved in both the J Class Rainbow and Hoek Schooner Athos builds at Holland Jachtbouw in the Netherlands. In 2013 he joined the Wally-130, Angels Share as first mate, which was in the beginning stages of a refit at the Hinckley yard in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. This where he met his now wife Hadley, who was the Crew Chef onboard.
Hadley
As a native of Rhode Island, Hadley also grew up attending sailing camps, and spent summers cruising around New England on her grandparents Rhodes 41 sailboat. Along with her love for the water, Hadley had an interest in cooking at a young age, which turned into a passion in later years. After graduating from college in Boston, Massachusetts, she moved back to Rhode Island and began her first job as a crew chef on the yacht Simon joined soon after.
In 2014, Hadley and Simon bought their own 38 ft. sailboat and departed Rhode Island for New Zealand. Enjoying sailing on their own, they decided to look for jobs on smaller vessels where they would take on the positions of Captain/Engineer and Chef/Stew/Mate. Although they enjoyed living on their monohull sailboat, they fell in love with working on high-performance catamarans after they were hired to run Gunboat 66, Outnumbered. They spent the following seven years as rotational and delivery crew on a handful of Gunboats, including Coco de Mer 66, Arethusa 60, Condor 68, Dash 68, and Extreme H20 66. Upon completing their trip to New Zealand in 2020, they returned to Rhode Island and joined the crew on Defiance
Both Simon and Hadley have extensive knowledge of cruising grounds up and down the U.S., Caribbean Islands, Pacific, and Mediterranean East Coast. They enjoy water sports such as diving, wakeboarding, and kite surfing. Between Simons's experience with high-performance sailing systems, and Hadley holding positions as Chef and Stewardess's various yachts, they not only make sailing enjoyable for guests but are a fantastic team inside, providing a high standard of service. While Simon shows off his skills behind the bar, Hadley produces various culinary offerings using fresh and selectively sourced local ingredients.