Meet the Crew
Dardanella's impressive Captain and crew are a hand selected team of the industries finest. The extensive experience of the crew and their genuine enthusiasm and embodiment of the adventure lifestyle gives an exceptionally welcoming and authentic environment for even the most intrepid of journeys.
PIOT RACHALEWSKI
Captain
Born in Poland and raised in Cape Town, South Africa. Piot grew up around the ocean and started sailing competitively at a young age. He has been committed professionally to yachting for the past 15 years, over this period he has worked on a wide variety of yachts, ranging from small composite race boats to large Super Yachts and wooden classics. Yachting has taken Piot around the world a few times, through the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Caribbean, Pacific, North Sea, Indonesia and SE Asia. Piot's unparalleled character create's an atmosphere rarely found in Super Yachting and will lead you on adventures you couldn't have imagined in your wildest dreams.
GILLES HERANT
Relief Captain
Born in France to Franco-Dutch parents, Gilles was brought up around yachts in Greece
and has spent much of the last 50 years messing around with boats. After studying boat
building in the UK, he started skippering a gaff-rigged schooner in the 1980s before
going shore-based to raise his family. Running a shipyard in the eastern Mediterranean,
he eventually turned his career towards superyachts and has been an engineer for
over 15 years. Gilles is a dedicated world traveller with a passion for the outdoors and
remote destinations; he has been with Dardanella for the past 8 years and is also the
vessel’s relief captain.
MOLLYAN MARICHAL-TAYLOR
Chief Stewardess
Molly is a British-Canarian who has been a hospitality professional for over 10 years.
She has a love for the sea and enjoys surfing in spare time. In 2021, whilst travelling
in Thailand, she completed her SSI advanced diving and is due to complete her dive
masters next year. Molly is also a passionate mixologist and particularly enjoys working
closely with her chef colleagues to effectively pair her beverages with their creations.
ROBERTO BACONES
Chief Mate
Born and raised between Barcelona and Mallorca, while studying Engineering, Roberto has lived always close to the water. Diving, surfing and kitesurfing, he has travelled around the world enjoying the adventure of learning new sports and exploring the world. After becoming a Dive Master in South East Asia, he began his career in the yachting industry to live both of his passions: sailing and diving.
Always ready to learn and have fun, Roberto looks for action everywhere he goes. Passionate about living on the sea while meeting new cultures and people, he has spent the last 5 years on Superyachts around the globe.
JUAN CARLOS
Chef
After a break in his homeland of Mexico, Juan Carlo (aka JC) is back on-board Dardanella, bringing along with him an extensive experience on board Superyachts and exclusive restaurants in Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, the South Pacific and the USA. JC is a happy and caring Mexican chef with a lifelong passion for food and with a very wide culinary background, perfectly at ease with an exceptionally large variety of world cuisines. JC puts the highest level of care, love and attention to detail in all the dishes he creates, and rarely fails to impress.
AYUMI ANZAI
Wellbeing
Ayumi is an international private Wellbeing Director who join's us onboard to offer the highest standard of wellness practices. Her extensive travels and trainings have enabled her to offer a broad range of experiences tailored to integrate and expand wellbeing knowledge and practices. Whether it's a simple daily program of yoga and massage or a fully lead wellbeing retreat Ayumi can enhance any itinerary. Through yoga, Pilates, massage and handcrafted workshops Ayumi thrives on making positive, personally tailored practises to optimise progress for people of any level, capability and interest.
cHRISTOFFER HANSEN
Engineer
Christoffer was born and raised in Copenhagen, Denmark, and has lived on the sea since the age of 12, when his parents opted to move the whole family on board a 55 feet sailing yacht. A few years later, Christoffer combined his love of the sea with a passion for engineering, and became an engineer on board support vessels in the North Sea. After seven years in this harsh and unforgiving environment, Chris recently converted to yachting in order to fulfill his interests in world travel under more gentle climates. Naturally, Chris enjoys all sorts of water sports and is a keen fisherman.
EMILIA STRZALINSKA
Stewardess
Emilia was born and raised in Poland. She has always had a love for the water. Growing
up, she swam competitively. After graduating, she went to work in the Canary Islands,
where she fell in love with travelling and boats. She spent seven years living on the
Spanish and Greek Islands. During this time, she worked as a fitness instructor, a
holiday representative in a travel agency, and in a diving centre. She can’t imagine her
life without sports and travelling. She loves to cycle, dive, and explore new places. Her
favourite place to be is by the sea.
BRAD MOMMSEN
Deckhand
Brad was born in Zimbabwe and made his way to the South African coastline when
he was 7 years old. The ocean has been his passion ever since. He competed as a
professional surfer from the age of 16, became a diver and skipper before choosing
a career in super yachts in 2014 where he spent a number of years traveling around
the globe, from Fiji in the South Pacific through the Indian, Mediterranean, over the
Atlantic and back again. His passion for riding waves and being in nature is what gives
him his crows feet.