Med work

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Artie

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SWMBO and I were out for dinner last evening and we were catching up on the progress of the son of our friends who fancies a change from running a lodging house (including cooking) in some French ski resort. He seems to think there are jobs on charter boats in the Med. Does anyone know anything about this please? Who runs such an agency, what boating qualifications would he need etc?

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I know a fair bit about this.

The centre (in the med) for large crewed boats of the type that need crew is Antibes, southern France. He should decide (or maybe doesn't care) whether he wants to go on a motor yacht, or a sailing yacht, There's probably more competition for sailing places, but (especially with classic boats ) there's more sandpapering to be done cos varnishing and revarnishing is a major part of the job. But over 70% of large crewed private boats are motor yachts, and washing/cleaning the thing is the main grind.

Lots of contacts and some good sites on the internet too. Freedom Yachting is quite well known, as "the Office" and other agencies, all in antibes.

Plus points are that he's worked in ski resorts where it's work work work every day - whereas on a boat there'll be some (or lots) of empty days and weeks. In some eyes (including mine) it's actually good that he hasn't got loads of experience on boats - cos lots of the so-called experience breeds arrogance and bad habits rather than skill and expertise.

Your chappie needs no qualifications at all to join as crew, to start, just willingness and a smile. It will be fairly important that he looks "attractive" whatever that means - cos nobody with a nice boat wants ugly crew. At the very least, this means less stubble and clean clothes, rather than the grungy student-look and smelly sneakers. Note that on every single boat he steps aboard, he takes his shoes off (and leaves them off) at the quayside, without ever being asked.

Not sure how much he wants to make of his cooking skills - if he's on as the only cook then it's often food prep food prep food prep all the way - on charter boats, for example, most guests don't buzz off for hours of skiing - they have a large breakfast and then a large lunch and then a large dinner with drinks and snacks in between and the cook has to organise the lot. On a bigger boat there'll be more than one cook, on a smaller boat just one person will sort all the food from buying budgeting and serving. If there's just one cook, on a smaller boat with 4 or fewer crew, then the cook will probably be a girl. Cos the captain will probably be a boy, and it balances things up, sort of.

Sorry, I'm blithering. the point is that there are all sorts of different sized boats some going far and wide, some not doing charter at all. The life partly depends on the size of the boat - larger crews being somewhat more disciplined and even when crew get over 25+ barring catering staff from coming up on deck for at least part of the day - the laundry girls on big superyachts can end up ironing uniforms and bedsheets for 12 hours a day.

The norm is for crew to be paid tax-free, to a non-french bank account, and they sort it out (or not) from there.

"Crewing up" for the med happens in late April, May and June, ready for the summer season. If he wants to work through the winter (altho some go skiing again in November) then he'll need to find a boat (or another boat) that does the "milk run" across the Atlantic in late Nov/early dec to the caribbean for the carib winter charter season, and then returns the following may/june to start again. Crew leave and join all the time, no notice period or anything.

Lots of bars and pubs in Antibes are also good places to find crew.

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You do need certain qualifications to work on super yachts regadless of the possition you are going for. At the very least you need your STCW95. This is made up of first aid, fire fighting, sea survival and PSSR (personal safety social responabilities). You can get these at training centres in Antibes or here. If you do go to Antibes be warned it is very pricey although there are a few crew houses near the marina. I got back 2 weeks ago and most people are getting ready for the caribbean so there is a bit of day work about. The two main bars are the Blue Lady and Le gaffe both British owned and full of people to steer you in the right direction.

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Thank you for the very informative replies. I will pass on the info.
Any further advice will be very welcome.

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