redundancy dosh

D

dwarwick

Active Member
Joined
18 Dec 2002
Messages
55
Location
manchester
Visit site
A sailing friend in his early forties has decided to invest his redundancy dosh in a full time 3 month course to qualify as a cruising skipper.
The next step is to earn loads working as a paid skipper delivering yachts from far and wide. Anyone out there know how this can be done and whether there is sufficient work to make a liiving?
I've suggested he buys a white van and start a courier business!

comments will be forwarded
 
From what i hear he'd be doing well to get delivery jobs straight off the back of a so called "zero to hero" course. There are a lot of people doing this now so competition is huge and the more experienced skippers will get most of the jobs. More likely he could get ocean deliveries as crew with a more experienced skipper.
 
Getting a qualification used to be a passport to a job. Now, everyone has a piece of paper, from degrees to diplomas so it is more of a first step. The people making money are the ones taking it off people like your friend, sailing schools, colleges etc.. Think about it: a sailing school employs maybe half a dozen skippers, teachers, or whatever you call them. They process up to that many pupils per boat per week, or up to three hundred per boat per year. Even if only 1% are looking for a job, that's too many.
As someone (I think it was Uffa Fox) said, "The only way to make a small fortune in yachting is to start with a large one."
 
I agree with your comments as I did sometihng similar for a year, but had plenty of sailing experience beforehand.

It worked fine as first mate etc being able to sail everywhere at virtually no cost but with little real income. By the end of the year I'd done enough be offered plenty more trips and had to decide whether to take on skippering work which would require a lot more commitment but would be reasonably paid.

I was a little bit tempted to keep going but my finances were based solidly around a year's sabbatical before getting back to earning proper money, and having a comfortable life again.

Lot's of money - no. Delivery skippers tended to kip down with friends/girlfriends or in houses with mortgages paid off. You do get paid a few thousand per trip but have to pay some crew expenses, provide food, fuel etc etc. but as you can't spend money during the trip you've a load of cash to have fun with for a few weeks before the next trip, assuming you have to pay for nothing on land whilst your away.

It seemed to be a great life if you like to spend most of your time on the water. If your friend fancies it then he should go for it but must allow for plenty of mostly unpaid time before his reputation gets good enough for him to get skippering jobs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top