Just an idea

[Shipnate]

Hi, I have an idea to get a 16 year old like me out sailing and on my way for a steady career of charter captain, or Scuba instructor. Please tell me what you think!

I'm a home schooled guy, that just finished my sophomore year in high school. I don't have any experience sailing, but i am a fast learner and a hard worker. I'm pretty free this summer and i'm ahead in school enough to take off a while. Anyway, I was thinking if there was a opportunity for me to work and learn with a live-aboard family or couple. Kind of like a "Foreign Student-exchange" thing. If there is anyone on this forum that would like to have me on your boat please pm me If not Tell me why this is a bad idea? I'm really not sure what to think about it.

Also,has anyone ever thought of this before? and is there any way i could help teenagers exactly like me that need experience for future careers?


Thank you,
Nathan

[Noname]

Originally Posted by Shipnate

Hi, I have an idea to get a 16 year old like me out sailing and on my way for a steady career of charter captain, or Scuba instructor. Please tell me what you think!

I'm a home schooled guy, that just finished my sophomore year in high school. I don't have any experience sailing, but i am a fast learner and a hard worker. I'm pretty free this summer and i'm ahead in school enough to take off a while. Anyway, I was thinking if there was a opportunity for me to work and learn with a live-aboard family or couple. Kind of like a "Foreign Student-exchange" thing. If there is anyone on this forum that would like to have me on your boat please pm me If not Tell me why this is a bad idea? I'm really not sure what to think about it.

Also,has anyone ever thought of this before? and is there any way i could help teenagers exactly like me that need experience for future careers?
Thank you,
Nathan

Gee, that's a complex question! Welcome aboard!

[Shipnate]

haha I know, but this is the only place I found to try and get some answers

[Jetexas]

Is there a Sea Scout Explorer Troop near you? That might be a good place to get started.

[Eleven]

First, you are a vulnerable young man. Take Care.
Second, Delivery skippers will want you to have some idea of sailing so that he can sleep while you do all the watches and work. Get a desk navigation course, preferably one-on-one and ask a lot of questions. You will have to stand night watches, you'll need to understand all the lights and signals.
Third, get a job in the nearest sailing club, as a bar man, boat washer, sand sweeper what-ever. You might get some free rides and learn a bit first hand.
Fourth, get your local charts and study them, and the tide tables, until you can do all the theory of planning a passage. Then set the start time back by three hours and do it all again with the new tides.

If you are still interested in sailing then go back to one and repeat until you see a Delivery Skipper here looking for competent crew. Then the learning curve will get really steep.
My nephew did a few years on a luxury yacht in the med. Being a competent chef is a big draw for the average skipper.

[Shipnate]

wow! Thank you, that is very good advice

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Shipnate

(...) on my way for a steady career of charter captain (...)

(...) I don't have any experience sailing, (...)

Nathan,

I think yours is a good idea. Maybe scuba instructor is a good starter as at times scuba instructors get to work on bigger sailing boats in the charter area - there you could earn some bucks teaching diving and probably also build contacts with charter skippers who would help you get some sailing experience. Then you could talk with them and see what training and certification is best for becoming a charter captain.

You can get your early scuba diving grades in any good local diving center, maybe all the way up to the instructor grade. It will take some time, mind you.

Remember to talk this over with whoever legally takes care of you - BEFOREHAND. I bet your family will agree and support as building the scuba instructor dream will not interfere with your school (much as you may have to give up on parties, socializing and other such time eaters, for a time).

Cheers,
b.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by Shipnate

Hi, I have an idea to get a 16 year old like me out sailing and on my way for a steady career of charter captain, or Scuba instructor. Please tell me what you think!

I'm a home schooled guy, that just finished my sophomore year in high school. I don't have any experience sailing, but i am a fast learner and a hard worker. I'm pretty free this summer and i'm ahead in school enough to take off a while. Anyway, I was thinking if there was a opportunity for me to work and learn with a live-aboard family or couple. Kind of like a "Foreign Student-exchange" thing. If there is anyone on this forum that would like to have me on your boat please pm me If not Tell me why this is a bad idea? I'm really not sure what to think about it.

Also,has anyone ever thought of this before? and is there any way i could help teenagers exactly like me that need experience for future careers?

Thank you,
Nathan

Where are you located Nate? If there are any marinas near you maybe you can pester them until they hire you as a dock boy. Then meet skippers, understand the jobs inand around the dock, bum rides sailing and eventually get some sailing certe and maybe start down the path as instructor. As a scuba diver you may pick up some money diving and cleaning hulls.

This was a tried and true method for getting into flying. Become a ramp kid, pump gas, be useful, show initiative and energy and bum as many airplane rides as possible. I got all kinds of free flying lessons as a kid this way.

[rgscpat]

Many sailing and yacht clubs have crew lists, especially for sailboat racing. If you can listen to and follow orders you should become a popular crew member. Racing only teaches part of sailing -- sail trim and boat maneuvering -- but it is good at that, and getting crew rides might lead to other sailboat rides where you can learn more about more-cruising-focused topics such as navigation, voyage planning, and boat maintenance. Just for fun, go to the noonsite website to learn about getting in and out of foreign countries.

[capngeo]

Welcome to CF Nate!
When you say "career" are you truly looking to make charters etc your life-long vocation? There is an old saying: "the quickest way to have one million dollars in the yachting business is to start out with two million!"

I have been a licensed master and SCUBA instructor for close to 25 years. I've done deliveries, charters, surveys, instructed, managed, even owned a towing and salvage company. Worked a while on commercial tugs and crew boats.... That said, I've maintained (and recently retired from) a "real" job throughout.

Hanging around marinas and clubs is a great SUMMER JOB which will gain you sea-time towards a license. BUT if I were in your shoes, I would continue with a formal education in a marine field like engineering, design, or a maritime academy. An alternative is to join the Navy or Coast Guard (after college) and let them teach you to be a ship-driver.

Nobody gets rich by running someone else's boat; get an education and OWN the boat!

Good Luck!

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by capngeo

Nobody gets rich by running someone else's boat; get an education and OWN the boat!

Well almost nobody. 99% of the boat professionals I know live hand to mouth, don't own a home, have no retirement or medical benefits and most are either bachelors or have a wife that works.

BUT, my cousin married a guy that grew up nuts for boats, dropped out of high school to work on boats, got his license, got very lucky and worked his way up to captain on a large power boat whose owner got richer and richer. The owner kept upgrading, eventually ending up with about a 200' Feadship and the captain came along, eventually helping with the design and engineering and supervising the construction of each new, larger boat. Now he has his own company in S FL, consulting, chartering megayachts, etc and last I heard built a waterfront mansion in Lauderdale.

So, it can happen, but the odds are about like a high school football player becoming a quarterback in the NFL which I'm guessing is along the lines of one in a million. Bottom line, get an education and have a fall back plan but if it's your passion and you're willing to spend years and years working for peanuts with no home of your own and no possessions beyond what you carry in a sea bag, and have the skills and luck then you might work your way up to the big time.

[David M]

Originally Posted by Shipnate

Hi, I have an idea to get a 16 year old like me out sailing and on my way for a steady career of charter captain, or Scuba instructor. Please tell me what you think!

I'm a home schooled guy, that just finished my sophomore year in high school. I don't have any experience sailing, but i am a fast learner and a hard worker. I'm pretty free this summer and i'm ahead in school enough to take off a while. Anyway, I was thinking if there was a opportunity for me to work and learn with a live-aboard family or couple. Kind of like a "Foreign Student-exchange" thing. If there is anyone on this forum that would like to have me on your boat please pm me If not Tell me why this is a bad idea? I'm really not sure what to think about it.

Also,has anyone ever thought of this before? and is there any way i could help teenagers exactly like me that need experience for future careers?

Thank you,
Nathan

Consider a maritime academy. You graduate with a four year bachelor of science degree and graduate with a Third Mate, unlimited tonnage any oceans license. If you still want to do the yachtie stuff you can, but you also have the opportunity to step in to the commercial merchant marine industry where you have the potential to make some really good money. There is not much money running charter yachts because anyone with a 100 ton license can do it. It's more fun and glamorous from the outside looking in. I did some part time work for a while in the SF Bay for a well known charter boat company and the pay was a joke...it was hardly worth my time. The captain and crew really depended on tips and it was all too frequent that we got stiffed.

I graduated from California Maritime Academy many years ago and am glad I did it. I ran a larger offshore supply boat for a while, an acidizer. But now I run a small research boat for a living, a job I am very happy with. I get to go home most evenings.

If you decide to go commercial shipping, do it while you are still young, before you get married, have kids and get a mortgage.

[cwyckham]

Another vote for doing some racing. Where do you live? Is it near a place that has racing?

If so, you can usually figure out with google when the races are (wednesday nights are traditional, but larger centers will have many different race series, often on different nights) and just show up and look keen.

I did exactly that in Victoria. Crew is hard to come by, and everybody wants to help people get into sailing, so many places have a "no crew left ashore" policy and will find a place for you on a boat.

[carstenb]

I agree with all the items about what to do after college (coast guard, navy etc9. But you're only 16 and want to start now - Do check out your local clubs and do volunteer to be crew on anything that floats (club racing etc). Check out the SEa Scouts. Check the internet on some of the crew wanted sites - not all of them are looking for blue water crew - lots of times somebody local is looking for someone to crew on weekend sails (generally because they have gotten divorced or because the wife doesn't like sailing or the kids have grown up and moved away). REad everything and anything you can about sailing - it all helps