Does anyone have any advice or any experience aboard private yachts? Where do I go about finding a job on one. I hold a 3rd mate unlimited with toar endorsement.
[QUOTE=New-mate;26908]Does anyone have any advice or any experience aboard private yachts? Where do I go about finding a job on one. I hold a 3rd mate unlimited with toar endorsement.[/QUOTE]
Try being a waiter at the Cheese Cake Factory for a few months just to get an idea. Don’t forget the fancy Captain’s hat.
Years ago, I was talking to a yacht crewing agency in Fort Lauderdale. I was living there at the time and sailing on an ATB as an engineer. We were trying to work something out to where I would work on some yachts on my time off, but it never happened. I don’t immediately discount these guys abilities or seamanship. Yeah, like in any business, there are folks who shouldn’t be in positions of responsibilities. If I were serious about a yacht job, I would look for some agencies in South Florida or other places where there are a lot of large yachts.
One thing that was made clear to me from the get go was that there was quite a bit of tact needed from the crew to work for the owners, and that is something that a lot of commercial maritime professionals are not particularly well suited for.
And, again, like anything else, different yachts have different demands from the owners.
Go to Antigua during race week with your seabag ready to go, you’ll find a gig.
This has been covered ump-teen times - If you search around a bit, you’ll find a lot of long threads . .
New-Mate,
Welcome to the forum. This is one site I follow closely:
http://www.luxyachts.com/
They seem to have more job leads than others. There are a couple members on here who have background in yachts and can better advise.
One is Conspearasea. There was a recent post by another yacht captain wanting to switch to commercial boats but I can’t remember who it was.
I been told it helps to attend the boat shows and as R8KMA said, the racing events.
Captcruz, thats the captain. He has over 20+ years on yachts. Send him a PM.
i spent over 11 years in private yachting, it is a little slow for some positions but if you contact me at chefken@chefken.com i can give you several contact that will be able to help you out, just put something in the subject line concerning yacht employment as i get lots of spam, crew changing on the 17 so i will not be able to get back to you till then
[QUOTE=Mr 100-ton;26973]i spent over 11 years in private yachting, it is a little slow for some positions but if you contact me at chefken@chefken.com i can give you several contact that will be able to help you out, just put something in the subject line concerning yacht employment as i get lots of spam, crew changing on the 17 so i will not be able to get back to you till then[/QUOTE]
Mr. 100,
Just some friendly advice to tone down your spam. When you type in your email address on a forum, write it out like this: chefken at chefken dot com. That way the forum spider crawly bots are less likely to grab your email address and put you on their spam list.
Fran
oh yeah, "spider crawly bots ". I got those in Halifax NS in '93 from a cutie going to Dolhousie University. had to take anti-biotics for a couple weeks…
(blog chuckles amusingly)
[quote=richard8000milesaway;27037]oh yeah, "spider crawly bots ". I got those in Halifax NS in '93 from a cutie going to Dolhousie University. had to take anti-biotics for a couple weeks…
(blog chuckles amusingly)[/quote]
Don’t you mean “Delousing” University?
I have been a yacht captain for over 10 years. My best advice is to walk the docks in Ft. Lauderdale over the winter, and Newport in the summer. Be energetic and willing to do whatever is asked of you. If you are a hard worker, easy to get along with, and eager to learn, you won’t have any trouble. Most yachts will require you to have STCW certification, and pass a background check. It also helps to be clean shaven and appropriately dressed (first impressions are everything). If you have specific questions sen me a pm.