Yachtmaster Instructor, a new career?

[Fascadale]

I'm beginning to think about life after teaching, which may happen in a year or so. Early retirement schemes are in the air because the very special service of which I am part is being "downsized" or perhaps done away with. There may be a "package" headed my way.

At my age, very late 50's, I'm not attracted to a life of total leisure and I think I would need/want to augment my occupational pension.

Amongst the options I'm just beginning to think about is combining a bit of teaching with a bit of boating and becoming a Yachtmaster Instructor.

I suppose after that one either looks for employment with an established provider or sets out on one's own, buying a suitable boat and the rest.

I'd be interested in hearing of others' experience of this. Is there a partial living to be made? Am I too old to be employed, do the providers only want beautiful young people? What do you think? Daft plan or not?

( I've done the miles, got the YM Offshore, and should have the commercial endorsement by the end of the winter.)

 

[[70521]]

Sounds a great idea, have you talked to your local sailing schools to see if you can do a few trips with them/work as a subcontractor?

 

[marklucas]

Go for it - as long as you're not hoping to earn lots of money!

You may find it easiest to find a school you're comfortable with and become a Cruising Instructor - this requires a commercial endorsement and then an assessment by the principal of the school as to your skills (teaching style, crew management as well as sailing ability). This will mean you can instruct on and award up to Day Skipper.

There is quite a big jump to YM Instructor, which involves a five day assessment by the RYA, during which you will be put through the mill as well as shown great training exercises. I would humbly suggest some experience as a Cruising Instructor will be very useful preparation for YMI if you want to go that far. Talk with the principal of whichever school you land up with - they will be a YMI - hence the reason for the RYA assessment, as once you are a YMI you can set up your own school.

Whatever path you take, good luck and enjoy. Instructing has taught me many things about how people think and how to remain 3 or 4 steps ahead of them, as well as many simple tips and enjoying other peoples' company (most of the time!).

 

[MARGETTS]

Get hold of the RYA cruising instructor handbook. It tells you everything including the costs.

Getting a recognised school to give you a cruising instructor ticket is mandatory before applying for the YMI course.

Some schools run this as part of their course program and would expect you to pay to get it. Some would assess you free and maybe offer paid work.

Cruising instructors can teach comp crew and day skipper. YMI can teach both plus coastal plus shore based. A YMI would be slightly better paid.

Starting your own school involves a lot of paperwork and getting your boat not only coded but then thoroughly scrutineered by the RYA. Having said that it is straightforward if you follow the guidelines they send you. Would you wish to do the marketing and admin involved.?

As a retirement job you may only wish to do cruising instructor. Which would probably be on a contract basis where you could choose when you wanted to be available.
However they all require a lot of hours. Even when not sailing the crew will expect to be able to glean as much knowledge from you as possible. You will effectively be on duty from when you wake to when you goto bed.

The RYA circulate a list of instructors looking / available for work to the schools and you could get placed on it.

The YMI course is very interesting.

Hope this helps.

 

[Koeketiene]

I'd be interested in hearing of others' experience of this. Is there a partial living to be made? Am I too old to be employed, do the providers only want beautiful young people? What do you think? Daft plan or not?

The current economic climate being what it is... lean pickings.
At the moment more people seem to pack up sailing than there are new people coming to the sport.

Used to get the occasional freelance teaching job thrown my way, now haven't done anything for yonks.

 

[lw395]

I know several people instructing as a semi-retirement job.
One seems to be turning work away, most of the others would like more work.

I suspect it depends whether the clients find you an easy person to learn with.
Maybe as a teacher you will be OK as you should know a bit about instructing and learning, which is as important as knowing about boats and sailing.

 

[Sybarite]

I met a guy in his 70's (looked younger) who had a Pogo 10m50 at his disposal to act as a demonstrator for potential customers.

Perhaps an avenue to explore. Probably no income, but frees up the capital in a boat.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

There is a slight demand for freelance cruising instructors. On a similar vein to Sybarite, once your face is known and you are considered a safe pair of hands other work pops up in the sailing scene. I think that messing about in boats is far more satisfying than teaching, especially as you don't need to augment your pension.

I went the other way, as a "beautiful young" thing I was heading for burn out, alcoholism and poverty. Prior to the instruction I sailed as a first mate, occasional delivery skipper and bum, which was fantastic, the instructing was far more intense; I am not such a disciplined person though.

 

[ProDave]

At my age, very late 50's, I'm not attracted to a life of total leisure and I think I would need/want to augment my occupational pension.

Whyever not?

I'm not quite 50 yet, and am desperately trying to find a way to give up being a wage slave and have more time to enjoy myself and do the things I want to do.

If someone handed me a nice early retirement package I would bite their hands off, and providing the pension gave enough to live on, would not seek another days work.

I can understand wanting a hobby, but not a job with all the restrictions on your time that brings.

 

[Victoria Sponge]

I did my DS with Allabroad in Gibraltar. The instructor was the lovely Trevor who was a retired teacher with the patience of a saint. He lived in the UK and used to fly out and spend weeks on end instructing. He really enjoyed the lifestyle.

 

[Seajet]

When I took voluntary redundancy the company where offering 'retraining', so as I already had the night school part I elected to do YM Offshore, with the idea that instructor ( yes I know YMI is a big step again ) might be a fun / fallback option.

I'd already done a lot of dinghy and some cruiser instruction.

When I did the YMO course though, in December, the instructors ( Solent School of Yachting ) were absolute top people, responsible for 4 lives, boat, and doing the cooking in the evening, all for what I strongly suspected was very low pay, I quickly changed my mind about this as a career option !

I'm with ProDave on this, if offered the chance of full time leisure, grab it; one never knows when one may be hit by ill health, truck, meteorite...

 

[BlueSkyNick]

I found myself in a similar position and did a Cruising Instructor Certificate with OnDeck. The week before this I realised I needed a regular income to keep a roof over our head (well SWMBO said I had to) and was lucky enough to secure the one I now have. As a result, I have had no time to deliver any training. If OnDeck (also Sunsail) like you on the course, they will invite you to work for them on simple stuff like Start Yachting and Competent Crew courses.

I think the issues are
- depending on your area, there are lots of other people in the game
- the income is insufficient for a decent quality of living on its own
- you have to be associated with an RYA Recognised Training Centre for certificates to be awarded. The upside is they do all the marketing, and may or may not provide the boat, the downside is they take some of the money!

 

[alant]

I'm beginning to think about life after teaching, which may happen in a year or so. Early retirement schemes are in the air because the very special service of which I am part is being "downsized" or perhaps done away with. There may be a "package" headed my way.

At my age, very late 50's, I'm not attracted to a life of total leisure and I think I would need/want to augment my occupational pension.

Amongst the options I'm just beginning to think about is combining a bit of teaching with a bit of boating and becoming a Yachtmaster Instructor.

I suppose after that one either looks for employment with an established provider or sets out on one's own, buying a suitable boat and the rest.

I'd be interested in hearing of others' experience of this. Is there a partial living to be made? Am I too old to be employed, do the providers only want beautiful young people? What do you think? Daft plan or not?

( I've done the miles, got the YM Offshore, and should have the commercial endorsement by the end of the winter.)

As a stand alone 'career', forget it, the money is not particularly good.
Age, has nothing to do with your instructing ability, or how client schools see you, if you are good, they will give you work (should any be around).

Sailing as a leisure activity & sailing as 'work', are worlds apart. You are totally responsible for the safety of at least 5 people on a yacht, 24/7, which while it may sound like fun, is extremely demanding. If anything goes belly-up, litigation can be todays new sport, with you as the hare. Even if covered by so-called insurance, this support can vanish as quickly as summer snow, with many instructors in sailing & other similar activities, finding this a risk too far & are getting out. You will be away from home for long periods, sometimes going from a weeks course directly onto a weekend course onto another weeks course & so on, so your family might suffer.

However, its better than sitting at home, deciding if today is the day you mow the lawn!

 

[Seajet]

One important thing I forgot to mention in my post above re the instructors' lot when I did my course was that they effectively worked a 7 day week, 1 course ending on the Saturday morning, the next coming along on Sunday evening

This would probably not be the case for the OP's more casual idea of employment, especially in the current financial climate; but I can imagine scenarios such as regular instructor ill / too expensive where it might apply...

 

[claymore]

As a stand alone 'career', forget it, the money is not particularly good.
Age, has nothing to do with your instructing ability, or how client schools see you, if you are good, they will give you work (should any be around).

Sailing as a leisure activity & sailing as 'work', are worlds apart. You are totally responsible for the safety of at least 5 people on a yacht, 24/7, which while it may sound like fun, is extremely demanding. If anything goes belly-up, litigation can be todays new sport, with you as the hare. Even if covered by so-called insurance, this support can vanish as quickly as summer snow, with many instructors in sailing & other similar activities, finding this a risk too far & are getting out. You will be away from home for long periods, sometimes going from a weeks course directly onto a weekend course onto another weeks course & so on, so your family might suffer.

However, its better than sitting at home, deciding if today is the day you mow the

lawn!

Agreed. Keep it in the locker as an option. All local authorities will be potting specialised services as they come to view them as unaffordable. The need won't actually go away so there is a fairly good chance of part time consultative work - which in the longer term often works out as no less expensive but there you go.
Negotiate the very best package you can including returning to work on a part time basis for a few months and see how you feel once you are not working.
Your perspectives will change and it is very difficult to apply your current values and aspirations to what,at present is an unknown quantity.

 

[Seajet]

In my earlier post I said 'if offered full time leisure, grab it'.

However this assumes one is the type to keep busy, with projects of some kind.

When I was a photographer for BAe one of the routine jobs was photographing retirement parties.

I noticed a definite pattern, when the person retiring was asked by the manager " so Eric, what are you going to do with yourself ? "

Those who said something like 'Ive got an extension to build / car / boat /aircraft to restore / or similar did very well.

The ones who said 'I'm going to take it easy and put my feet up',- very often great people who'd worked hard all their lives - were quite often dead before I could get the prints to them ( a matter of weeks in those days ).

I am not exagerating !

My dad retired at 63 and is now -touchwood- a very fit 88, but he has only ever taken about an afternoons' rest, always busy building conservatories, fixing peoples' engines etc.

 

[PhillM]

Seems to me that instructing is a very time consuming job. Will have you away from home for weeks on end. Not great for family life. Dare I say it that a lot of the instructors I have met are divorced or in-between relationships and seem to be looking for a lifestyle.

How about retraining in a boat assoiciated job? There seem to be a large number of semi-retired people around the marina doing seasonal jobs - everything from helping the brokers cover the sales office to repairing anti-fouling.

Or how about retraining as a boat surveyer? Seems to me that once you have the qualification its the sort of job you can pick and choose how long you want to work. The money seems reasonable (£500 for a couple of days work) and the overheards are low. I guess insurance will not be too cheap but it should not be prohibitive.

 

[Fascadale]

Thank you all for the thoughtful and thought provoking replies.

I think I would agree that YM instructing is unlikely to provide an attractive full income and that it might be difficult to secure full time employment.

However it does sound as if it maybe possible to get some part time work to supplement the pension.

I do appreciate the suggestion of making the most of what leisure time one has but I'm not very good at doing "nothing": I like a plan or a project and trying to create a new part time career might fill the bill.

Claymore's point about seeking some consultancy or contract work is interesting but I think I may have done my bit when it comes to young people with very special needs and with local authorities that increasingly seem to have similar needs.. I think I need a "lifestyle change".

The responsibility question is challenging as is the growth in litigation. I spent an earlier part of my career as an outdoor education teacher, skiing, canoeing and wilderness type stuff. That really was a lesson in responsibility.

One "business model" I am considering is getting myself qualified then going into partnership with a friend/former colleague and the two of us buying a boat and creating a business together. We would take it in turn to run courses so the work would not be full time. Half the risk, half the workload and half the income.(Some hope!)

The threat to my job is not yet immediate but I would expect to be in "package land" by the end of next year so I have plenty of time to plan and prepare.

 

[Fascadale]

Or how about retraining as a boat surveyer? Seems to me that once you have the qualification its the sort of job you can pick and choose how long you want to work. The money seems reasonable (£500 for a couple of days work) and the overheards are low. I guess insurance will not be too cheap but it should not be prohibitive.

That's a very interesting thought. I'll look into it but my "skillset" ( what a horrid word) is more "person centred" than "technical"

 

[capnsensible]

Fab job. Pants pay. Love it.