My last British winter

[Roe]

Driving to work today, my heart sank as I realised I have another 8 months of dark, rainy, windy misery to look forward to...the leaves are starting to turn and I think that 33 winters will be quite enough to have seen.

So, how do I make this happen?

Me: single, 32, lived aboard a narrowboat for 6 years, single handing, no home mooring. Maintain the boat alone, work as a marine sparky. Sailing experience limited to oppies and lasers many many moons ago.

The plan until this morning was to learn to sail over the next couple of years whilst accumulating money and experience to buy a decent boat and figure out from there...I guess all that has really changed is the time frame. I want to be living aboard, somewhere warm before the clocks go back in 2015 - 14 months time. That means that this boat goes on the market in the spring so this winter is all about getting her ready and pretty for market.

I need to start planning the bit after that now....

Because I lack experience sailing (although I will have a day skippers by the time I move aboard, it is no substitute for experience) I think I may be better buying overseas rather than buying here. I plan to take a marina mooring for a year or so to ease me in to the lifestyle. The question to an extent then becomes where? I need to work and intend to continue fixing and installing electrical systems on boats. I have no languages at the moment and although I desperately want to learn all of them, I always struggled with them at school.

There seems to be a fairly well established route of living in the western med for a couple of years, heading east, falling in love with Greece and Turkey for another 3 and then doing a tradewind transat with WRC. I am not adverse to this as a plan of action but will it work for me needing to work? Is is easy to pick up work either in marinas or on a freelance basis? I have PIL insurance, a BMET ticket etc.

Thanks for your input x

 

[TQA]

Refrigeration Watermakers A/C units generators those are the things I hear warm water cruisers calling for help with.

 

[Tranona]

Very unlikely you will be able to make a good enough living to support yourself fully. You are likely to find properly paid work difficult to get on a regular basis as most Med countries have high unemployment and many cruisers do their own maintenance or "swap" skills with other cruisers.

If you do a search on living costs here you will find that you need a budget of £1000-1500 a month, but this would not allow a permanent marina base in popular areas where you might find work. Year round on board living is possible in the western Med from the point of view of climate, but in the east winters are cold and wet so little happens Nov-April.

Although this sounds negative as there are Brits who do live in the way you are thinking about, but you will probably find that they started out either with savings or enough income to get going or they got a job, for example with a charter company and then drifted into living on board. There is no recognised path to successful living and working in the way you want to - you have to find your own way in.

 

[Roe]

Yeah, I want to learn refridgeration and a/c, I'm no goddess with generators but have revived a couple...water makers I have no experience with yet. Tranona - was thinking that work would more likely come from non-cruising boat owners if that makes sense? Is there seasonal work available perhaps with the charter fleets?

 

[sailaboutvic]

You may be luck to make enough money to support your Liveaboard life but your going to have to have Lady Luck on your side , has Traniona said us Liveaboard mostly do our own epairs and when we do give our time to help other is normally free , the odd bottle but mostly we doing it to help each other out , most winters I am up someone mast or have my head inside someone engine , if you was an eletronic engneer you would have a lot more chance of earning an income has very few I met can putting that stuff apart , canves and sail repair is also another way , again very few have the skill or the equitment to do big job , co skipper makes a bit this way but to be honesty it pin money , what she charge go no where to justify the time she puts into the job , again it more to help others out and keep her self busy thought the winter months .
I would say your best bet is to get in with one of the local builder where you have more of a chance , as trade men in the Med as well known to taking there time in turning up for a job , and someone who is reliable to turn up when he say he will is very much in demand .
Good luck , if you want to do it don't let our comment put you off, if you don't try you will never know .
PS I could had done with you to day thought , 20kg anchor 45 mts of 10 mm chain a windless that now decided to pack up and a bad back to go with it . Job this morning , devising a way to use the halyard to lift up the anchor ,
www.bluewatersailorcroatia.webs.com

 

[vyv_cox]

Is there seasonal work available perhaps with the charter fleets?

There is: I know several people who have found work in the Levkas, Nidri area. There might well be strong competition for jobs so the more skills you have, the better.

 

[25931]

Two thoughts on working. 1 if you are going to earn money on boats you need to be where there very expensive (mainly mobos) monsters owned by the sort of people who aren´t in the habit of working on each others boats. Ideally you would make contact with an established fellow Brit - perhaps a yacht broker.
2. The building trade is in the doldrums in most of southern Europe - but in areas where there are holiday villas there is likely to be maintenance work during the season.
As far as learning languages is concerned forget your scholastic experience. What you need is vocabulary not grammar - children learn to communicate by repeating the words that they need and you can do the same. I have helped Brits who have been frustrated by the academic approach but have quickly mastered the basics of Portuguese.
Good luck

 

[Bajansailor]

Roe, instead of the 'usual' route where you buy and re-fit a small yacht, sail to the Med (or buy it there), and then live a hand to mouth existence in the sun, here is an option you could consider.
There are a LOT of large (ie over 24 m long) yachts around, and they invariably need professional crew to run them.
The most basic requirement for working on one of these large yachts is an STCW qualification - Warsash Academy does these courses, although they are more geared towards the Merchant Navy rather than yachts.
http://www.warsashacademy.co.uk/cou...asic-safety-training-week/course-details.aspx

Alternatively, the UKSA have a dedicated Superyacht training program - more info here :
http://uksa.org/professional-training/deck/superyacht-crew-training/

If you are happy to start off at the bottom as a steward / deckhand (you often do have to be versatile on these yachts, and wear various caps) and spend 10 hours a day polishing and cleaning, then if you can get a position on one of these yachts the future ahead will look very promising.
And your knowledge of electrics can only stand you in good stead, especially if you can compliment it with some refrigeration / air-conditioning and engine know how.

The pay is good - I think at least US$ 2,000 a month in your pocket, and it is often tax free - and everything is all found on board, so that is beer money.....
You could easily find yourself spending a summer in the Med, and then the following winter in the Caribbean, having an amazing time (while putting in long hours and hard work of course) and getting paid good money to boot.

 

[TQA]

I forgot about this.

Up in Antigua during race week one of the subjects much discussed by the crews on the megayachts was the amount of money they were spending on comms. All of them were running multiple systems so as regardless of where they were a guest could get online and or call home. It seems that they up grade their systems almost continuously.

That would be worth getting into.

 

[lindsay]

There is absolutely nothing standing in the way of realising your dream. You are young, apparently motivated, and have a wealth of practical background. Acquiring sailing experience is a LOT easier than acquiring basic practical knowhow. The longer you sweat over the details, the more likely you will get bogged down. As The Pardeys say "go simple, go small AND GO NOW".

You can live on board in the Med with relatively little sailing experience, ie day skipper level. You just take it easy and learn as you go.

Once you are ready, a way to get the show on the road fast is to buy a modest size sailboat, get to know it by living on board in the uk (the cold will provide even more motivation) get a more experienced mate to accompany you to Dover, then go Calais. Then you get one of several French transportation companies to take the boat by road to the South of France.....and you are there.

You can happily ply around the French islands of Porquerolles and Port Cros, sailing sensibly and prudently, and eventually make friends with the Mistral wind which will provide an exciting and steep learning curve for your sailing abilities.

A year on you are ready to go west to spain, or east to Italy and Greece (and the Meltemi) ......or to return to the UK via the French canals if you have "done it", or fallen in love, or whatever. Or else cross the Atlantic on your boat or someoneelse's

As the well known ancient Greek philosopher, Nike, said: "Just Do It".

Good luck!

 

[Roe]

I have considered crewing on super yachts but I'm not convinced it would suit my mentality...Bluntly, I'm not good at "service," especially when I'm tired...it's been many years since I was a waitress but I still chuckle at how I sometimes behaved! Installing and maintaining comms on them sounds much more up my street and i am far less likely to be expected to remove my excess of earrings in such a line of work. I will also start to make contact with a few brokers, I know one or two having spent a few months working in that field (I only left because the electrics became more and more booked up). On that subject, is there a brokerage that specialises in liveaboard/cruising boats. I'm very struck that many layouts are a poor option for liveaboards, with a zillion beds and no space for tools or spare bedding. I also never see insulation listed in the specifications...something I would think is a big deal for liveaboards not on the equator.

Lindsay, thank you for the encouragement and helpful suggestions, I had not thought of trailering from Calais to the south coast but that is definitely an option. If you don't mind me asking, where are you based and how long did it take for you to make it happen?