Diesel or Electrical, Value as Crew

[ingrid75]

As everyone else is saying, either diesel or electrical skill will be welcome aboard cruising yachts. I would add however, that refrigeration repair skill are always in demand among the cruising fleet. (And water maker skill Set)

[roland stockham]

Hate to sound a negative note but please bear in mind that in a 5 day course all you are going to get is the basics, how to top up the batteries and test the charging system or how to do a routine oil change and weekly service on an engine. All very useful skills but probably nothing the skipper can't already do. My last crew was a time served mechanic, Wow what a difference...
I have also had crew do several hundred dolors worth of damage because they THOUGHT they new about electronics (left the battery terminals loose and fried the alternator. He was a 'qualified marine electrician.
So think of these course as useful but primarily do them because you want to not to get a crew place

[Hobiehobie]

The 5 Day course at Annapolis did go way beyond general maintenance as we also did theory and hands on for valve timing, valve clearance adjustments, heat exchanger disassembly and cleaning, injector extraction and spray analysis, gearbox removal, engine alignment, etc etc, but most useful was lots and lots of hands on diagnostics experience on a range of engine types.

Alumni are certainly not qualified mechanics but they can certainly talk to one knowledgable, recognize a good one, and do some fairly major repairs and diagnostics when in the middle of nowhere.