JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
It all sounds like an interesting job, but that sort of thing in particular is just asking for some pointed questions from MAIB, HSE and quite possibly the coroner.
Sunsail yacht skipper salary?
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It all sounds like an interesting job, but that sort of thing in particular is just asking for some pointed questions from MAIB, HSE and quite possibly the coroner.
vyv_cox
Well-Known Member
I can only agree, but try telling it to active 18 year olds. As a trainee dinghy instructor at Emsworth he said that jumping from the rescue boat to dinghies was crucial, as the punters ran themselves onto the mud and had to be towed off. Many hired, fully qualified instructors packed the job in because they were unable to do it.
One Sunday night we were talking to him on the phone when he was Port Solent based, been there less than a year, aged 17. Somebody passed a message to him, telling him to take a RIB to Cowes to collect a charter boat that had been abandoned there due to weather. It was blowing F9 at the time. He was the only person available so off he went. No problem reported, despite the lazy and dangerous practice of towing a dinghy behind him(!).
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
It sounds as if he had a blast, and also as if someone needs to have a very serious word with Sunsail before they kill someone.
vyv_cox
Well-Known Member
We are talking 20 years ago and no doubt things have changed.
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
I hope so!
Bajansailor
Well-Known Member
Te reassure Jumblie, things have definitely changed since then.
I had a very pleasant summer job 25 years ago skippering a small (40', 20 tonnes displacement) tug in the Solent - it was working with a dredger off Langstone Harbour.
It was a 90 hour week (but good pay), no safety equipment on the tug, the tug then wouldn't have passed any MCA inspection today, I had no qualifications (apart from YM Offshore theory) and I was running it singlehanded.
I somehow managed not to kill anyone or sink it, and I had a blast.
I often ran aground unintentionally (we didn't have any charts either, and plotters were not invented then) but would usually just put the throttle down and plough through the mud - no worries if the odd lump of rock was encountered, as it was up against 12 mm steel shell plating.
And I think it was a good addition to put on my CV (altho' I didn't mention the going aground incidents).
Nowadays the same tug is required to be fully coded and have two crew who both need to have the proper qualifications.
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Melody
Well-Known Member
Spending a few years working for Sunsail is a good thing to have on your CV if you want to enter the yachting industry. You'll get a huge range of experience in that time, which is recognised by other potential employers who want experienced staff.
laika
Well-Known Member
Let me repeat dunedin's question and augment it with "...and if not why not?". Are they paid in the country in which they work rather than the UK? Is there some seafarer's exclusion applicable? And if so, do all the seafarer's tax breaks apply (not, of course, that you'd reach taxable earnings on that but if you'd be doing something more lucrative in the winter you might...)
Kelpie
Well-Known Member
Are Sunsail right at the bottom end pay-wise? Presumably the more high end outfits offer something that appeals to people other than <20yr old gap yah kids?
vyv_cox
Well-Known Member
I spoke to a Sailing Holidays flotilla leader recently. He was a long way past 20 y.o. but was pretty scathing about his salary. There was some comment about £1.50 per hour.
[3889]
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To put the pay in perspective, it is higher than a PhD studentship which is a lot harder work, normally in a less appealing environment. The economics of yachting in general are bizarre: why do some people pay to deliver boats and others get paid for the same task?
Searush
Well-Known Member
Sunsail are not stupid, they will employ people on contracts with their local branch using local terms & conditions. Why would they want UK minimum wages & employment/ H&S laws to apply in the Med? For UK staff it may be harder, tho even then, maybe they can use a French or Belgian offices to avoid UK laws.
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
A PhD studentship stipend is currently £13,726 p.a. (outside London) which is £263.96 per week.
mjcoon
Well-Known Member
I'm sure I only got a fraction of that over the 4 years of my PhD studentship. But then it was in the 1960s...
Mike.
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
It's about three times what I got in the 80s, I think. Kids today, eh?
lustyd
Well-Known Member
There are bankers in the city earning similar per hour, and managers, MDs and CxOs. The difference being that the higher ups don't count their hours! I've always highlighted to the younger members of my profession that a pay rise is only really a pay rise if you're not expected to work twice the hours. I've managed to keep mostly 9-5:30 with a lot of home working thrown in so my per hour is very good, but colleagues at the same level in the same job are getting less than half per hour on the same salary...
Woodlouse
Well-Known Member
Working out your hourly wage is very disappointing when you work at sea. I don't think I've ever bettered the equivalent of about £4.50 an hour for a long term job.
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
My contract, in common with many professional ones, explicitly says that I have no set hours of work. This does not imply that they don't expect me to work very much, alas.
RobbieW
Well-Known Member
Most skippers, certainly in the UK, are contractors so the ability to earn is mostly to do with how good your contacts are
laika
Well-Known Member
Hmm...where are you getting your info from? Just spoke to a mate of mine who worked as a flotilla skipper in Greece and Turkey. Says he was paid in the UK in pounds apart from €100 a month. When I asked him how he thought they got round minimum wage he suggested "the same way they got round visas in Turkey when I was there: by ignoring them!". He is a bit of a cynic though...
