has sailing compromised your career prospects - or maybe enhanced them?

dylanwinter

dylanwinter

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I was filming at an event on Monday where a number of adventurers gave 400 second talks about what whey had been doing

They were all high energy people - capable of focussing on the task ahead

but I am not sure that they would be able to pin down proper jobs involving five or more days and 40 or more hours a week

I think that my love of sailing has meant that I have turned down the occasional five day/40 plus hours a week job because I knew that it would mean much less time on the boat.

I do know that when I was racing Eboats and Sonatas I would turn up for work on Mondays completely crackered

and I would sometimes drop into a a bit of a reverie rather than thinking about the problems of farmers


Burnham and Mersea week were nailed firmly into the holiday bookings and I would tell the boss to go whistle if they wanted to move stuff around a bit.

Of course for some people, maybe the networking from sailing has been beneficial - and maybe you learn to be a team player

- although some helmsmen I have known got a little bit shouty while racing and if they carried on that way at work then I am sure that the staff would be unhappy.

any thoughts chaps?

Dylan
 
No, it hasn't.

Even an engine failure in IoM & the need to find a local crew & sail back which required a few extra days leave at short notice was not an issue. If I had been due t run a course I would have needed to fly home & return later to collect the boat. I worked in order to feed & house the family & fund the boat (in that order). Work was important as it was the only way I could pay for everything else. It would be stupid to neglect work unless I had another source of income - and I never did.
 
Compromised No. Thought the requirment to work has compromised my sailing.

Enhanced yes. Bit off luck realy. I was young unemployed and at a loose end. Spent a Season Sailing as a Bosun with the OYC. It was a great expierience paid nothing but unemployment benefit got me out the house of the couch and kept me out of trouble. I've never been a team player but I did have to play well with others to sail the boat.

A few months later went for an interview and was asked what have you been up to for the last year? Turns out he was a keen sailor we spent more time talking about boats than the job at hand and I was hired.

My first job after getting maried andmoving to Canada was on the dock for part time minimum wage maintaining boats for a Sailing School and Charter company. I was also an CYA Sailing Instructor, Charter skipper, Tour Boat Booze Cruise Operator, Fishing Guide, Encyclopedia Salesman, Moving Truck Swamper and assistant Piano Mover.
I never did manage to convince my wife anything to do with boats was actualy work though.

I made the choice to settle down, pay a morgage, raise kids, and get a dog all of which have compromised my sailing.
A small cheep 24ft sailboat with no interior but good sails and an outboard. Two sheets of plywood, camping mats sleeping bags and camp stove.

Priceless.
 
Uricanejack said:
Compromised No. Thought the requirment to work has compromised my sailing.

Enhanced yes. Bit off luck realy. I was young unemployed and at a loose end. Spent a Season Sailing as a Bosun with the OYC. It was a great expierience paid nothing but unemployment benefit got me out the house of the couch and kept me out of trouble. I've never been a team player but I did have to play well with others to sail the boat.

A few months later went for an interview and was asked what have you been up to for the last year? Turns out he was a keen sailor we spent more time talking about boats than the job at hand and I was hired.

My first job after getting maried andmoving to Canada was on the dock for part time minimum wage maintaining boats for a Sailing School and Charter company. I was also an CYA Sailing Instructor, Charter skipper, Tour Boat Booze Cruise Operator, Fishing Guide, Encyclopedia Salesman, Moving Truck Swamper and assistant Piano Mover.
I never did manage to convince my wife anything to do with boats was actualy work though.

I made the choice to settle down, pay a morgage, raise kids, and get a dog all of which have compromised my sailing.
A small cheep 24ft sailboat with no interior but good sails and an outboard. Two sheets of plywood, camping mats sleeping bags and camp stove.

Priceless.
Click to expand...

excellent response

D
 
Well I took the leap and went self employed 10 years ago.

I would not, by choice ever go back to a "proper" job again.

Being self employed, finally gives me the flexibility to make time for pursuits like sailing. Last year most of my sailing was done on weekdays.

In my last proper job, we had an annual review, where your performance was discussed, and you were then awarded your annual pay rise and bonus.

One year, I tried suggesting that instead of giving me a bonus (which I didn't really need, and the tax man was having 40% of it anyway) that instead they gave me some extra days holiday to take as I please instead.

That got a firm no, and I had to settle for giving 40% of my bonus to the tax man again.

It's stinking, inflexible, stick in the mud attitudes like that, that make me never ever ever want to work for somebody else again unless I become really really desperate.
 
Day skipper was the best management training I have ever had.

Time spent away from work helps with think things through. Even getting out of the office for a few hours of sanding / varnishing helps to gain perspective from time to time.

Planning, organising, testing, reviewing = all good business practice. Management is 50% organisiation and 50% people skills. To my mind so is sailing.

On the other hand, the money taken out of the business to fund the refit might have a better ROI. But there is a price to sanity so perhaps not? Oh and its helped my project management no end.
 
Has it compromised the career-you bet!

We took the decision that the money we put in the bank would probably be there tomorrow(!), but the days of our lives were gone forever. So we went cruising.
That gave us time to think and new perspectives on old ways. We now have a new internet based business. No longer have the big expense account but boy do we have fun!
 
Enhanced by far and sailing has not compromised anything. I sailed after college, turned professional and bobbed about the oceans: 5 years professional, 3 full time but voluntary. I was young and it developed ways of looking at the world, people in particular, that have stood me in good stead. My crews ranged right across the social spectrum from the bottom to the top, the unemployable to aristocracy, all puked into the scuppers under my command.

When I decided that I had enough of being a paid lackey I moved to where the work was in Aberdeen and entered the oil industry. I found that what I considered to be cruising at work was interpreted as hard work by my bosses, organisation as problem solving. I honestly thought for a long time I was going to be found out, surrounded by shiny, confident people, later I realised that there are a lot of lazy people in industry, mentally and physically.

I have been able to make moves comfortably that others thought were risks and as such I have progressed well and now earn a very good salary such that after my next project I may go sailing again full time.
 
Gerry said:
Has it compromised the career-you bet!

We took the decision that the money we put in the bank would probably be there tomorrow(!), but the days of our lives were gone forever. So we went cruising.
That gave us time to think and new perspectives on old ways. We now have a new internet based business. No longer have the big expense account but boy do we have fun!
Click to expand...

The only Internet businesses that are not a contradiction in terms are Amazon and almost anything you can think of in the pornography industries. still +1 for the first bit ;)
 
has sailing compromised your career prospects - or maybe enhanced them?

At the age of 9 I helmed a a She 26 (IIRC) on a delivery trip, just the owner and me.
11 years later when I went for a job interview he was the main man on the panel, I am still with that company 28 years later.
Mind you his replacement did disipline me for taking unpaid leave to compete in the J24 worlds in the states, so swings both ways.
 
I liked your motivation for cruising and thought it well stated. Tongue in cheek, I ribbed your revised career in Internet business, as several of my pals claim similar things which equate to making it up as they go along. Needless to say, however, these entrepreneurs do not own yachts.
 
Having a job (I hesitate to use the word "career".) hasn't been nearly as deleterious to my sailing as getting married and having a kid. Though sailing hasn't hurt my job, it hasn't helped it either. I have many coworkers who sail, but none of them have been able to provide coattails to pull me up through the ranks. For such purposes, golf would have been a much more useful hobby.
 
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