X.25 wrote:
I am looking for a career change, and all I want to do is sailing.
I have no experience whatsoever, and I would really need some
experienced input.
Few questions related to this:
1. It is my understanding that the RYA schools are the best choice.
Could someone be able to recommend a good RYA approved school
(course), outside of the UK (preferrably Greece, Spain, Turkey, etc.).
2. What would be the best approach, in order to gain experience?
Should I start with a day-skipper course, and then try to find
experience through "Crew Seeker" (or something similar), or should I
go for a longer course and then go for the experience?
3. I did search a bit on the web, but the information is very
confusing (and sparse). Could someone recommend a website which would
be suitable for someone like me?
4. It would be really nice to find out more about the problems you
have experienced when you were starting (or even the problems you are
encountering now 
.
Any help is much appreciated.
Thanks.
First, have you ever been sailing? Sailing as a career is a mugs game unless
you have been involved from year 1 and have a taste for it.
I suppose there could be land jobs such as working for a broker or in a
chandlers, but even then you will need a lot of experience.
As for jobs afloat you will be living on a yacht. Even for quite big yachts
you will be living with complete strangers in conditions of some intimacy, in
accommodation of such size, layout and facilities that it would be condemned
as unfit for human habitation by any housing inspector.
If you think that sailing is all about billowing white sails, sparkling seas,
azure blue skies, and with a buxom bikini clad blonde on the foredeck sipping
an iced voddie, forget it (although to be truthful J has never been
particularly hot on the foredeck bikini clad blondes, and there is no 'fridge
so the voddie would be luke warm).
What it is about is sitting in the cockpit, cold, wet, a bit seasick and
frightened, with a crew down below who are in slightly worse condition.
You're not quite certain were you are, or where you're going, you're having a
bit of a chat with Him up there (and whatever your beliefs, or lack of them,
at some time when sailing you will be having a chat with Him) saying that the
conditions down here are not at all nice and you're not really enjoying
yourself and it would be really, really good if He could a bit of time to do
just a little about improving things down here.
It is about being at anchor at 03.00, in you nice warm pit, when you're woken
by a change of conditions, perhaps the sound of the wind, or the slapping of
waves against the hull, and you take a turn round deck when its ****ing cats
and dogs and blowing a hooley just to make sure all is safe (and if it isn't,
you have to do samething about it).
It is about managing a boat so that if something goes wrong or you run out of
milk you can't just park it on the hardshoulder and call the AA or pop round
to the 24/7. It's not about being berthed in a 1000 boat marina and the crew
getting ****ed in a smokey bar.
What it is about is conducting a yacht safely, in the conditions I've recorded
above, with a bit of intricate pilotage, to a snug anchorage
(cove/creek/mudflats/river/loch/fjord/coral atoll - select as appropriate)
safely using your knowledge, skills and experience (and of those three, a
course will only give a minor contribution to the first), reading the weather
and sea patterns. It is about having a happy, contented, well fed crew round
the saloon table, watching the wildlife around the anchorage, at night
sitting in the cockpit and seeing the milky way above, clear through an
unpolluted atmosphere, and thinking how fortunate you are.
If you're prepared for all this, join a sailing club. Get your face known,
take an interest in boats, perhaps get involved with a bit of club
maintenance, offer to do a bit of maintenance on members' boats (after all
fitting-out season will be soon). With a bit of luck you will be invited to
go sailing. A good club should have a weekend at the start of the season for
'newbies' (my own does). Do the RYA courses (evening classes, you
will also meet other yotties) on competent crew and day skipper. They have
their limitations, but they do give some basic knowledge. Enjoy sailing,
maybe take a sabbatical year off, but don't expect to make a career
change of it.
www.yacht-judicious.co.uk