Entirely green, landlocked, idiot; thinking of doing yachtmaster zero to hero

[jlavery]

Come on man don't take the shine off it for him. If it was paid he'd have to compete for it with people with experience. its a valuable step to get the miles logged. Hopefully they are providing free food, but its fine if its not more than that

Getting ahead of myself!

 

[WannabePirate]

Hopefully this is a paid position?

So it is not! All travel and expenses paid however.

I’ve had offers of paid delivery work from freelance instructors on the course, and a few other opportunities present themselves…

But I have the budget to aim for lots of experience/miles in interesting places, as long as I’m getting food/expenses paid for.

So it’s my aim to spend a year or so gaining the right kind of experience before approaching companies for paid work knowing my own worth!

PS: anyone need any crew for passages? Willing to work for food and a plane ticket!

 

[Adios]

I’ve had offers of paid delivery work from freelance instructors on the course, and a few other opportunities present themselves…

That's interesting. No shortage of work in the field then by the sound of it. Did you find out what sort of routes and vessels it was?

 

[WannabePirate]

That's interesting. No shortage of work in the field then by the sound of it. Did you find out what sort of routes and vessels it was?

It was UK based deliveries of 30-50foot I got offered for the most part by instructors.

Most other opportunities were flotilla or charter skippering/first mating. Out of the 9 students on my course…one works in a marina in Greece, another is first mate on a charter yacht in Bermuda, another skipper in Italy…then 5 are flotilla skippers/training to be IYT flotilla instructors…and then there’s me

 

[jlavery]

It was UK based deliveries of 30-50foot I got offered for the most part by instructors.

Most other opportunities were flotilla or charter skippering/first mating. Out of the 9 students on my course…one works in a marina in Greece, another is first mate on a charter yacht in Bermuda, another skipper in Italy…then 5 are flotilla skippers/training to be IYT flotilla instructors…and then there’s me

Slight Fred Drift: my impression is that there's quite a lot of work available. I get regular email requests (I'm a Cruising Instructor) - one school said a lot of older commercial YMs and instructors just stopped and didn't come back after the COVID lockdowns.

 

[Adios]

It was UK based deliveries of 30-50foot I got offered for the most part by instructors.

Most other opportunities were flotilla or charter skippering/first mating. Out of the 9 students on my course…one works in a marina in Greece, another is first mate on a charter yacht in Bermuda, another skipper in Italy…then 5 are flotilla skippers/training to be IYT flotilla instructors…and then there’s me

What course exactly did you do to open up so many work opportunities? Can't see it in the thread.

 

[DownWest]

Reading the early posts I was reminded of Des Sleightholm having a young guy come to him and ask for advice. Dead end job, but loved boats. With a girl who wanted marriage, but he was not convinced he cared enough for her.
Maybe he should go off and get work on a charter yacht.
Des gave him his nice boat knife and said, go for it...
Sometime later, he got a nice note thanking him for the advice. Guy was now a charter skipper in the carib.

So, bonne chance to wannabepirayt....

I used to look after a big yacht, in terms of winter maintainance and crew. Our skipper was thinking about getting his own boat and parted company. We paid him a decent salary, tax free, but he liked the idea of his own show. He recommended a replacement that I liked, only 23, but we had to send him to UK to get a YM to satisfy the insurance Co. He passed, apart from tides, as his experience was Med. His gf was good at accounting, having learned it off an owner on a transat..
The first voyage with the new skipper was a transat.

 

[WannabePirate]

What course exactly did you do to open up so many work opportunities? Can't see it in the thread.

I did the “yachtmaster professional course” at UKSA. A 16 week course taking me from zero experience to yachtmaster offshore. With STCW and the rest of it like PPR and radar courses etc.

It’s a course with a good reputation it appears, and having done it, I think I can see why.

For example, in order to get a reference from the school we had to sit a 4 hour oral examination similar to MCA exams covering all kinds of boat management. If you don’t do well, no references etc.

I’ve showed some commercial skippers I’ve met some of the course content and all have been gobsmacked.

 

[Adios]

I did the “yachtmaster professional course” at UKSA. A 16 week course taking me from zero experience to yachtmaster offshore. With STCW and the rest of it like PPR and radar courses etc.

It’s a course with a good reputation it appears, and having done it, I think I can see why.

For example, in order to get a reference from the school we had to sit a 4 hour oral examination similar to MCA exams covering all kinds of boat management. If you don’t do well, no references etc.

I’ve showed some commercial skippers I’ve met some of the course content and all have been gobsmacked.

Compared to a degree at £27K and a career in McDonalds (if chosen badly) it seems a relatively decent price to quickly jump into a field with lots of work available. I wouldn't be at all surprised if one of my kids does boats in some form for a job in a few years. I'll certainly encourage it if he doesn't have any other burning ambition.

 

[WannabePirate]

Compared to a degree at £27K and a career in McDonalds (if chosen badly) it seems a relatively decent price to quickly jump into a field with lots of work available. I wouldn't be at all surprised if one of my kids does boats in some form for a job in a few years. I'll certainly encourage it if he doesn't have any other burning ambition.

If you were encouraging a child…they have a college which gets 16-18 year olds some kind of qualification as well as up to dayskipper.

They also have fully funded “cadetships” which train 18+ from novice to yachtmaster offshore on the RYA scheme, and officer of the watch 3000GT on the MCA scheme. Met a couple of those lot.

 

[ylop]

Compared to a degree at £27K and a career in McDonalds (if chosen badly) it seems a relatively decent price to quickly jump into a field with lots of work available.

A bit of an artificial comparison. If finding well-paid work was your priority then you wouldn't pick a degree that was likely to end up not fulfilling your expectations (although it should probably be said that anyone with a decent work ethic and a degree who ends up working for McDonalds is probably going to find themselves moving through their management process if they want to).

I think it is a great opportunity but worth considering that its not necessarily the ideal career choice if you fancy settling down, buying a house, having 2.4 children etc. That's not everyone's cup of tea anyway and certainly some people manage to make that work around careers that are not family-friendly but it should probably be part of the overall considerations.

If one of my offspring said they wanted to do it, I'd support it. If one of their friends who's never stepped foot on a boat wanted to do it I'd think they were mad.

 

[Adios]

A bit of an artificial comparison. If finding well-paid work was your priority then you wouldn't pick a degree that was likely to end up not fulfilling your expectations (although it should probably be said that anyone with a decent work ethic and a degree who ends up working for McDonalds is probably going to find themselves moving through their management process if they want to).

I think it is a great opportunity but worth considering that its not necessarily the ideal career choice if you fancy settling down, buying a house, having 2.4 children etc. That's not everyone's cup of tea anyway and certainly some people manage to make that work around careers that are not family-friendly but it should probably be part of the overall considerations.

If one of my offspring said they wanted to do it, I'd support it. If one of their friends who's never stepped foot on a boat wanted to do it I'd think they were mad.

one of my kids I can't get to focus on most things but with boat stuff he absorbs everything like a sponge. If he later wants a job in an office with a boss and a massive mortgage I'd support him in his dumb choice of course.

 

[WannabePirate]

A little update after posting this thread about 18 months ago.

I'm now fully commercially endorsed and start a job as a mate as a sail training charity next month. Very happy.

 

[capnsensible]

A little update after posting this thread about 18 months ago.

I'm now fully commercially endorsed and start a job as a mate as a sail training charity next month. Very happy.

Good one, I hope it all goes well and inspires others!!

 

[Stingo]

A little update after posting this thread about 18 months ago.

I'm now fully commercially endorsed and start a job as a mate as a sail training charity next month. Very happy.

Well done!

Be sure to post lots of photos of the bikini clad trainee's

 

[ridgy]

Good man and well done for following through on your ambitions.
Best wishes for the future.

 

[ylop]

Be sure to post lots of photos of the bikini clad trainee's

Im sure that was meant as some sort of joke, but I’m guessing “sail training charity” = kids / vulnerable groups some I’m struggling to understand the humour. Still WannabePirate must have got it as he liked/laughed - probably not a great impression for his new employer and their safeguarding policies!

 

[mattonthesea]

A little update after posting this thread about 18 months ago.

I'm now fully commercially endorsed and start a job as a mate as a sail training charity next month. Very happy.

Glad to hear you're on the way. Hope you enjoy your new career

 

[WannabePirate]

Im sure that was meant as some sort of joke, but I’m guessing “sail training charity” = kids / vulnerable groups some I’m struggling to understand the humour. Still WannabePirate must have got it as he liked/laughed - probably not a great impression for his new employer and their safeguarding policies!

I took it as a misunderstanding on the posters part. I try to reply with a reaction to all the supportive comments here, and did not want to do the usual like as that would indicate agreement. Hence the laugh. Most of my equivalents are on flotillas in the sun teaching 18-30 year olds, and I mentioned it earlier in the thread. It would be an easy misunderstanding for someone to have.

I take great offence at your assertation of somekind of wrongdoing or safeguarding issue here. Sort yourself out.

 

[ylop]

I take great offence at your assertation of somekind of wrongdoing or safeguarding issue here. Sort yourself out.

If I’ve hit a nerve, then perhaps it will make you pause and think do I want to like this post (whether here or elsewhere) which might just be a useful outcome for you when you have loads of young people around in the new role. To be honest in 2024 the comment probably wasn’t appropriate even for 18-30 holidays.