Was curious to see if anyone’s been to “Sea School” in Jax? Did most of my upgrading at MPT and MITAGS and was curious to see how Sea School compares to those two. I’m not an MMP member so MITAGS was on the expensive side. How are the the hotels near by? Walking distance? What’s the atmosphere like? Thanks
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I guess they are getting hired because the OSV companies can’t find any local useful non-lazy deckhands?
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They are getting hired because they are available, desperate, filling out online applications, and will work cheap. It doesn’t matter if they are know nothing OSs or know nothing ABs; they are all bad. Some companies do not know the well deserved poor reputation of Jacksonville area deckhands.
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Well I’m looking into STCW OICNW courses so the lazy deckhand thing is obsolete but thanks.
I took VPDSD at the sea school in Charleston. One day death by PowerPoint class. It was the one cert I overlooked for sailing and I got lucky with a class being held the week I found out about it.
The instructor was meh, but what really upset me was they didn’t give us the certificate that day after we passed the test. I had to wait for it in the mail.
The class was on a Saturday and I had already scheduled an appointment with the rec for Monday. I had to cancel with the rec and wait two weeks for it come in. It really pissed me off. This was in 2015 so maybe they have changed.
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MPT is my go to school. It’s well established, comprehensive, and well organized, except for signing in the first day of class (That’s a mess).
MPT offers most courses every week. I don’t know of any school with such great scheduling options. While I wouldn’t say that all the courses are great, they are better than at most schools.
MPT has hotel discounts, and for the young and really frugal “crew houses.” The Park Place Suites is nice. It’s easy to walk to class or take the shuttle van. No need for a rental car
Fort Lauderdale has lots of good flight connections at relatively good prices. Plenty of good food. It’s a pleasant place to stay for a week or two, especially in the winter.
The community colleges in Louisiana are among the least expensive courses that are offered frequently. However, all expenses considered, it’s not any cheaper than MPT.
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About 2016 I did a class at Sea School Alabama & it was the same thing with the certificate by mail. I was told they had a bogus certificate scandal like so many other schools & only having 1 person/position in the whole franchise handing out certificates was the corrective action taken to prevent future fraud. They should tell the students before they pay & sign up for classes if that’s still the s.o.p.
Yes always had a good experience at MPT. Just wanted to see what else was out there. The frequency of class schedule is the biggest plus and I think I stayed at the Hyatt place last time. Newley renovated and shuttle to MPT. It was nice.
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I did a few classes at Quality Maritime in JAX. Sea school and quality maritime got bought out recently by new investors (an ex-navy guy and some finance guy, I believe). They have a new location which I’m not familiar with.
I can’t speak to how good the classes are, but they absorbed quality maritime which had some pretty good instructors.
As far as JAX in general, everything is cheaper than Fort Lauderdale. I had a 3 week class there but was able to get a cheap (still fairly nice) Airbnb and rental car, about 1/3 less than Fort Lauderdale. Jacksonville Beach is pretty nice, I would go down there for a walk after classes. Also lots of bars and restaurants in that area.
Others have talked about MPT. They’re fine, the biggest benefit is that they have a lot of classes so it’s easier to schedule. Having spent so many weeks in Fort Lauderdale, the drivers down there do not value human life, so if you’re a pedestrian watch out. It’s also ridiculously expensive to stay.
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So I’ve been told that there is a longstanding criminal diversion program in Jacksonville where non-violent young offenders (and 1st offenders) have to put proof of 3 job applications in monthly, have a list of suggested companies and jobs matched to skill sets (and lack thereof, which explains things) and are bused to job fairs for application farming.
Whether this is true or not, I’ve heard it more than once, but never from the 2% of J’ville deckhands who are good at the job.
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I’ve seen experienced ABs from Jax with minimal skills.
Maybe too many of these guys have “worked” at MSC. They are lazy and have bad attitudes.
If you have one guy from Jax, you can live with it. If you have two Jax guys, you’ve got a problem.
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