Fast Track to Yachtmaster Offshore (Sail)

[David_Old_Jersey]

I think the plan is reasonable.

A lot of suck it and see in it, but IMO nothing wrong with that - give it a go and see what happens.

[RabidRabbit]

I get ya, I only wish I had my **** together and had discovered sailing/cruiseing/boats at 25, I spent years being 100% into german cars and just recently figured out that 7mph was safer than 100. Most of the cruisers I meet out and about are all quite old. I'm glad I could start early. Not alot of the under 40 crowd around cruisin. Good luck with it. Grab a cheap mono and go.

[SPARK]

Do your day skipper course. Then do a delivery. Then you will have the miles and time to do your yacht masters exam. Study on your delivery. You will generally have a very experienced captain on the delivery. You do not have to do the theory written exams. This is not compulsory. If you qualify in miles and time, you can just do the practical exam. They will test your theory on the practicle exam.

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by Tyrone777

Hello, Eventually acquiring our USCG 6-Pack license and work up to our goal as a charter capt. & cook for a major charter co. in the USVI & BVI's.

Don't bother withthe 6-pack if you are sereious about off shore. You can usually upgrade to masters 50 or 100ton for a very small delta. Make sure you can document the days required before you apply.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by SPARK

Do your day skipper course. Then do a delivery. Then you will have the miles and time to do your yacht masters exam. Study on your delivery. You will generally have a very experienced captain on the delivery. You do not have to do the theory written exams. This is not compulsory. If you qualify in miles and time, you can just do the practical exam. They will test your theory on the practicle exam.

Tyrone i d have to say ignore a lot of the advice here. ( YM exams contain quite a bit different theory then the theory completion cert ) as part of your fasttrack there is usually a week YM exam prep on the water teaching you the things you'll get asked ( blind nav, mob under sail, docking etc)

If you want to get into professional yachting. Then the best best is to do exactly as you are proposing. Ie the zero to hero YM, it has it's critics, but it was designed to get you on the professional ladder. Also you will do the STCW95 stuff as part of this as you simply will not get any position on commercially run leisure yachts over 24 m without it. Also usually you do the requisite radio course as well. I would suggest looking to do the full GOC radio course.

Furthermore also consider doing some diving courses preferably upto instructor level but at least get a open water cert. Other useful Certs are RYA powerboat instructor or dinghy sailing instructor tickets.

When you get your YM have it commercially endorsed.

You will not get a near a charter fleet these days without a commercial YM. ( there is little money in it too unfortunately )

Of course with just these basic tickets you will need to add more sea miles . Deliveries are a way to do this but it will cost you until you get a job as skipper. Seek out as much command experience as you can find. This is the key.

Ps I would fully reccomend you do all the Certs and exams that you fasttrack YM sets out its good practice. Most fasttrack YM courses take about 18 weeks full on 7 day sailing and courses work etc. they are quite expensive 18-20k certainly in the UK, hopefully cheaper in SA.

As I said you need to aim at a sector of the industry. If its super yachts. Then follow that path, of it's small boat stuff then seek that out , but you'll need to decide. A chat with a reputable super yacht crew agency will put you right in regards that industry.

Of your partner wishes to seek steward work or chef work , then she will need to look at hospitality industry courses. Hotel experience is also valuable. ( at junior management level)

Can I ask why SA. You can do a fasttrack YM in Florida.

Dave

[bewitched]

RYA Yachtmaster fastrack - good idea

Picking up experience on delivery - i don't see the merit. Most deliveries are with reduced sail, on autopilot, going in a straight line and using the engine often. You're not going to learn or get to practice many skills.

I realise you need to build up the miles to get the required experience for the YM, but useful skills, IMHO, are gained inshore with a small (under 35ft) boat. Sailing on and of docks, mooring buoys, pilotage around islands etc.

It may be called the Yachtmaster Offshore, but most of the practical stuff is coastal.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by bewitched

RYA Yachtmaster fastrack - good idea

Picking up experience on delivery - i don't see the merit. Most deliveries are with reduced sail, on autopilot, going in a straight line and using the engine often. You're not going to learn or get to practice many skills.

I realise you need to build up the miles to get the required experience for the YM, but useful skills, IMHO, are gained inshore with a small (under 35ft) boat. Sailing on and of docks, mooring buoys, pilotage around islands etc.

It may be called the Yachtmaster Offshore, but most of the practical stuff is coastal.

I think most people don't relies that a fasttrack YM includes the sea miles as part of the course. The company will ensure you get the necessary sea miles with command eerience.

Dave

[bewitched]

Some of the sea miles....usually the skippered ones... but not many do the 2,500nm prerequisite to YM.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by bewitched

Some of the sea miles....usually the skippered ones... but not many do the 2,500nm prerequisite to YM.

Yes they do. You can't do a fasttrack YM without covering the sea miles as part of it. Otherwise it's not a fast track course.

The UKSA is one of the leading exponents. Their course is 13 weeks. A lot of that is mile building

Dave

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

I think most people don't relies that a fasttrack YM includes the sea miles as part of the course. The company will ensure you get the necessary sea miles with command eerience.

Dave

You are (as always!) no doubt better informed than moi (albeit that not always that hard ).

I would only add that if the YM "in command" seamiles include an instructor onboard (even when they are doing nothing / simply assessing) it will be a different learning experiance than if it is "you" alone on the boat with whom the buck stops (With crew and without). and that applies both when things are going well as well as when not (or are simply heading that way ).

No substitute for "buck stops here" experiance.

[Tia Bu]

All right: here's a completely different take, based on my reading of Tyrone's posts above. I'm not sure you would necessarily like working as a professional crew member. It takes a special personality. People who own and charter megayachts are very different than the average person. Painting with a very broad brush here (I know there are exceptions), they have more fragile egos and are often much more difficult and unpleasant than the average Joe. The average person, even the average very rich person, doesn't need to show off in a megayacht to have fun.

If you think you'd like to do this kind of work, maybe you should try to get work as deck hands or stewards and see how you like it before you invest time and money into training and travel, etc..

If, as you state, you really just want to get a new start and island hop in the Caribbean, why not buy your own boat and just do that? If you can scrape up any money at all, boats are incredibly cheap these days. If you don't have much experience, you can start off cruising the Bahamas and U.S. East Coast, moving with the seasons. Then you could work up to cruising the Caribbean as you build skills and experience. This approach would allow you to build the necessary sea time for the licenses you aspire to. Studying for the tests would be more meaningful to you after you've put in some time at sea. And you might run in to plenty of other career opportunities along the way. The sea coasts and islands are full of successful, settled people who showed up on a cruising boat, found their niche, and built a life in a new spot.

For what it's worth... I worked on megayachts as a professional crew when I was younger. I LOVE sailing and cruising. But I wouldn't want to work on a megayacht again. Maybe captaining smaller charter boats with more emotionally secure charter guests would be fun :-).

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

You are (as always!) no doubt better informed than moi (albeit that not always that hard ).

I would only add that if the YM "in command" seamiles include an instructor onboard (even when they are doing nothing / simply assessing) it will be a different learning experiance than if it is "you" alone on the boat with whom the buck stops (With crew and without). and that applies both when things are going well as well as when not (or are simply heading that way ).

No substitute for "buck stops here" experiance.

That of course is the criticism of fast track YM courses. Arguably the YM course was never designed to be fast tracked. You were supposed to go off and sail and gain experience. However the industry has responded with these courses. ( mainly as the result of te MCA manning requirements for large yachts ). To date the RYA has allowed te process to continue.

Dave

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Tia Bu

All right: here's a completely different take, based on my reading of Tyrone's posts above. I'm not sure you would necessarily like working as a professional crew member. It takes a special personality. People who own and charter megayachts are very different than the average person. Painting with a very broad brush here (I know there are exceptions), they have more fragile egos and are often much more difficult and unpleasant than the average Joe. The average person, even the average very rich person, doesn't need to show off in a megayacht to have fun.

If you think you'd like to do this kind of work, maybe you should try to get work as deck hands or stewards and see how you like it before you invest time and money into training and travel, etc..

:-).

I don't know when you crewed on super yachts. Today most super yachts man to MCA requirements for large leisure vessels. That means the entry requirement for deckhand is YM and of course STCW95. This is the big change in the last 20 years. Previous to that most super yachts crews right up to captain were uncertified. Today that almost all gone.

Furthermore in my experience the owner has little involvement in hiring crew. This is the captains responsibility ( along with the chief Stewart ) increasingly they enter a crew supply contract with a crewing agency. The crewing agency undertakes to ensure a full crew is always available( with relief staff etc). Of course this applies to relatively large vessels. One to two man crews are often owner hired, though in most cases it's still the skipper that does the hiring.

The OP is correct in the need to acquire the basic credentials.

Dave

[BriaF]

You will never be poor your life will be rich in memories

Get as Mutch time afloat any way you can do it.

Try looking in England Spain or the Canaries for a
transatlantic trip back to the Carabean.
That is when you have enough experience to know
What your taking on.
You will have many of your sea time requirements met.
Then you can start to look at your Options.

Yatchmaster
100 ton - M aster class 5
STCW95. ($2000 $2500) in AUS

GOOD LUCK

[goboatingnow]

Actually Ocean crossings while they generate miles in my view do not impart the knowledge that lots of smaller coastal trips do, i.e. dealing with night approaches, lights and buoys, tides, course to steer etc. in my opinion lots of 150-300 miles overnights is more useful.


Dave