Yachting as a Career ?

[Stylishboss]

Hi my name is Francois and I'm 27 years of age, I'm an extrovert that loves to meet new people and see new places. I'm a qualified Air conditioning and Refrigeration Mechanic and also do Electrical but I have a desire to see the world so I thought of doing a RYA Yachtmaster Offshore Course and working in the industry. Firstly I would like to hear from people in the industry on how there experiance is on doing it as a career, what different lines can you work in for example charter or delivering yacht, what the pros & cons are and just some good advice?
Thanks for helping!!

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and welcome aboard!
I hope someone can help you with your questions. I'm just a sailor with a cruising boat that I work on once in a while so can't help much.
regards,

[osirissail]

You need to look into the commercial crew websites such as Find a Crew™
and others that list people wanting to get paid for working on a boat.
- - You can expect to start out at "subsistence/survival" wages and how fast you work your way up the pay scale is dependent upon your acquired skills and people to people skills. If you wander around the docks where private mega-yachts are you will see clean-cut, good looking, smartly dressed young people working the mega-yacht. Same with jobs on cruise ships in the tourist trade. What you will not see is middle-aged and older people in these jobs.

[maxingout]

A friend of mine started out as a deck hand on a megayacht, and worked up to being engineer on megayachts.

He makes a very good living as chief engineer, but to be an engineer he had to take commercial courses and very challenging examinations that he has had to take more than once in order pass and progress to the next level. Qualifications are everything when you work on megayachts. Depending on where you want to work, you may have to get qualified in multiple different countries. It can be done, but it's a lot of work.

[osirissail]

"It can be done, but it's a lot of work" And that is the key to success and enjoying life. Do the work to get the skills and you will move up to more rewarding - both financially and personally - jobs. With advancement comes "perks" and privileges - chances to see the world and visit places you had only dreamed of before - and somebody else is paying you to do that.

[Vasco]

If you want to see the world yachting is not the way. Rather, join the merchant navy but stay away from container vessels (not enough time in port) and tankers (tanker ports are miles from nowhere).

[David M]

Originally Posted by Vasco

If you want to see the world yachting is not the way. Rather, join the merchant navy but stay away from container vessels (not enough time in port) and tankers (tanker ports are miles from nowhere).

The same goes for the oil patch.

Ocean tugs might be an option, but in general, shipping ports are not in glamorous places unless you get work on a cruise liner. Cruise liners generally pay poor and hire pretty much foreign crews.

Some of the busiest times for a merchant ship are when they are in port because they are handling cargo or doing maintenance. Sometimes there are slow times while in port though. So you cant always walk off the job when they hit the dock...unlike getting liberty on a naval vessel where a percentage of the crew can walk off the ship because they are not needed aboard.

[Stylishboss]

I was thinking more in the line of being the skipper of yachts or catamarans that are chartered out to people for sailing holidays. Then as soon as my finances allows it to buy my own Catamaran and charter it out!! ??

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by Stylishboss

I was thinking more in the line of being the skipper of yachts or catamarans that are chartered out to people for sailing holidays. Then as soon as my finances allows it to buy my own Catamaran and charter it out!! ??

On crewed charters the crew is usually a couple which run the boat (either their own or for owners). You are now in the service industry, very demanding if you wish to succeed and you need to be qualified. On charter boats where the services of a skipper is required due to inexperience of charterers the skippers are mostly locals. It will be difficult to get a work permit to do this.

A good cruising friend of mine ran a private not for charter motor yacht with his wife as the cook,wait person,bed-maker etc. His wife told me he once said to her " I feel like a servant." To which she replied, "well what do you think you are?" And the owners they worked for were very nice people.

[captainKJ]

I spent 11 years as a chef on private and charter yachts,,, been to over 1/2 the world to the nicest ports on other peoples money,,, i loved every minute of it,,

elitecrewintl.com
crewnetwork.com
crewunlimited.com

the-triton.com


several links for you
ken
ChefKen.com

[Stylishboss]

Vasco, thanks for your input!

Originally Posted by Vasco

You are now in the service industry, very demanding if you wish to succeed and you need to be qualified.

-I'm planning on doing a "RYA Yachtmaster Offshore Course" so qualifications shouldn't be a problem.

I think what your friend said about being a servant must be true because thats basically the job description but I think it just depends with what mentality you are doing it!

[Stylishboss]

captailKJ, appreciate the point of view of somebody thats in the industry!

That is exactly what I have in mind and I'm really excited!!!
Thanks for the links!

[captainKJ]

when you work in the ESTATE you are the servant,,, when you work on the YACHT you are the pet,,,,, this is mostly true

email me at chefken@chefken.com and I can help some more

put something in the subject line so I know it is not spam

ken

[captainKJ]

Originally Posted by osirissail

You need to look into the commercial crew websites such as Find a Crew™
and others that list people wanting to get paid for working on a boat.
- - You can expect to start out at "subsistence/survival" wages and how fast you work your way up the pay scale is dependent upon your acquired skills and people to people skills. If you wander around the docks where private mega-yachts are you will see clean-cut, good looking, smartly dressed young people working the mega-yacht. Same with jobs on cruise ships in the tourist trade. What you will not see is middle-aged and older people in these jobs.

THIS IS NOT TRUE,, most of the people that I know in the yachting industry are over 35. Most of the captain I have worked for are over 50. As mentioned I spent 11 years in the industry,,, plan on going back to it in 5 years as a captain with an unlimited license,,, by then i will be 50 years old,,,, never to old,,,, there is a boat for everyone,,, all boats and owners are different,,, most of the young people are the deckhands and stews,,,,lots of boats have captain/chef or captain/stew teams for couples,,, you can always run a 120 foot boat instead of a 200 foot boat. i know one captain that is 73 years old running a 98 foot boat for the last 18 plus years,, DO NOT LET YOUR AGE stop you,,,, ther are more boats that need captains then you can imagine.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by osirissail

...
- - You can expect to start out at "subsistence/survival" wages...... What you will not see is middle-aged and older people in these jobs.

Orissail….. “I think you know not from whence you speak”….

http://www.luxyachts.com/crew/Salaryguidelines.pdf

Crew Salary Guidlines

It has been a great professional career with unlimited opportunities to advance to any executive level within a corporation if you have the right work ethic, education and abilities.

These hard working billionaires prefer to surround themselves with strong talented people they can trust and depend on... (not subservient lackeys)