Anyone interested in a Career at Sea

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[clanky]

Hi,

I have just rediscovered these forums after a couple of years and I notice quite a few people talking about going to sea.  I have been an engineering officer on merchant ships for the last 18 years (God has it really been that long?)

I trained at Glasgow nautical college with P&O Cruises and am now sailing as chief engineer for a ferry operator.

So if anyone is thinking about a career at sea (either in the engineering department or, God forbid, the deck department) please feel free to ask questions and I (and I am sure others) will do my best to answer them. I am actually at sea at the moment so I only have interwebz every other day so I may not be able to answer straight away, but from what I have seen on the forum I am sure that there are others who can answer questions.

I also can only give any sort of detailed answers for the UK training system as every country differs, but again there may be others who can offer advice on other countries systems.

[McGherkin]

Hi Clanky!

I wish to become a delivery skipper or a more permanant motor yacht skipper, but Nautical College is prohibitively expensive. Are there any other ways to get that kind of job at sea?

[clanky]

I don't think that any of the yacht companies actually train cadets.

Yachts are mostly manned through agencies like http://www.dovaston.com/ (http://www.dovaston.com/), the only way I can think of to get into the yachting industry without paying for the college courses yourself would be to train as a merchant navy deck officer while being sponsored by a shipping company, the Certificate of Competence which you would gain from that could be used on yachts as well.

Info on MN cadetships can be found at www.careersatsea.org (http://www.careersatsea.org)

[McGherkin]

Thanks very much for that! I was looking at doing deck officer in Plymouth University, so I'll try and have a closer look at that option.

Thanks!

[Traddles]

Hi clanky,
How unkind for a pig iron polisher to denigrate the deck department.   You've cut me to the quick, and yet you have a sailing schooner as your picture.

Angus.

[clanky]

Hi clanky,
How unkind for a pig iron polisher to denigrate the deck department.   You've cut me to the quick, and yet you have a sailing Brig as your picture.

Angus.

Fixed that for you!   I know you nautical chaps aren't too clever!  

In all seriousness, as much as I love the banter between deck and engine departments there is no room on a modern ship for the genuine antipathy that I have come across in the past, I always try and instill in the junior officers the idea that they are ship's officers not just engineering officers.

My avatar is the Royalist, because she has youngsters onboard they carry an engineer just to make sure they can always get home if the wind doesn't want to play.  I occasionally go onboard as the relief engineer, I have to say being the engineer of a sailing ship has to be the cushiest job in the world!

HI clanky, I'm sorry your avatar is so small my ancient eyes did not realise she was square rigged. 

[RMS Canada]

I don't live near the ocean, however, the Great Lakes are sort of inland seas.  I am considering on working on the Great Lakes.

[marcstrat]

Hoy,
Yes,on the great lakes,it is verry nice,however even it an inland water it can get realy rough on the waters overthere.
A carreer onboard can make for you a very nice payment each month.
However i also think thats its not realy the money that counts,by most of us sailers or ex-sailers.
Any carreer on a ship is fine to do,now years afther i think,if i could redo it.Well,i would be chiefcook.I love to cook,and i start to get the right silouette,you al know what i mean
Marc

[Minime]

I have always been swinging between nautical architect and merchant navy, but I decided for now I'll go for nautical architect and then later I might get  some certificate. Btw do you guys actually have to pay for nautical college? Here it is free, all you pay for is the equipment  you have to use I think.

[Firestar]

....but not the software....

Didn't say that..

[Capt. Matt]

Hi Clanky!

I wish to become a delivery skipper or a more permanant motor yacht skipper, but Nautical College is prohibitively expensive. Are there any other ways to get that kind of job at sea?

My father's a captain on a yacht he didn't go to nautical college just a either week long course or weekend long course to get his captains licence plus sea time of course.

[Firestar]

My father's a captain on a yacht he didn't go to nautical college just a either week long course or weekend long course to get his captains licence plus sea time of course.

A week or weekend long course got him his license*? Sounds like he went out and bought his license..

[gibby12]

A week or weekend long course got him his license*? Sounds like he went out and bought his license..

  no kidding

[McGherkin]

I have always been swinging between nautical architect and merchant navy, but I decided for now I'll go for nautical architect and then later I might get  some certificate. Btw do you guys actually have to pay for nautical college? Here it is free, all you pay for is the equipment  you have to use I think.

Fee for the MCA Yachtmaster at UKSA just went up to over £7,000.

[marcstrat]

Hoy,
About 15 years ago,the belgian goverment decided to start with a yachtsman(yachtskipper)licence.Before that time there was no need of a licence.However when you were 16 years,an adult most be with you on the yacht.
Approx 1990 the system with a licence came in.I also have one,just because a was on the proffesional way(inlandvessel).It was at that time in some kind of going from one system to the other.
So now when a vessel(yacht),is longer than 12 meters,you should have a licence.Also when a vessel is shorter than 12 meters,but faster than 20km/h.
What i did not like on the system at that time was,when you had a speedboat for waterskiing on a canal,you also needed to do the whole cursus for yachtsman,this included also possitioning at sea on a map,using a bretonneplotter.Just a crazy idea,when you never get of the canal.Most of the time these cursus were given by private schools(teachers),so you could understand its a expensive thing to do,and still is.
However,i think that system has changed over the years,now there is a difference,also the price is more up now.
And  a couple years ago,wanted to rent a sailboat 12 a 14 meters,and the company asked just a refference of you,that they can contact to ask,if you're capable to steer(sail) a yacht.Some company's dont go anymore only for the licence.The reason is simple,if you study good,you are able to get a licence,however the time of practice is to short to steer a vessel the proper way.This came up when some people rented a vessel,but were not even  capable of steering the vessel out of the box.Some yachts came in again with some damage,even when the guy showed a licence.
Regards
Marc                  

[Capt. Matt]

A week or weekend long course got him his license*? Sounds like he went out and bought his license..

You would know how? It may have been several weekends or a week I don't know for sure. You need to write the test and have an adequate amount of sea time signed off by a licensed captain and you get your license. Thats the way it is here anyways he got it though Sea School...that was the place that gave him his test.

[Minime]

I was wondering if the sea time is the same here as everywhere else, here you have to have a amount of time on fishing vessels and another amount of time on cargovessels, is it like that in other places?

[JOHN LYLE]

I've been at sea for 36 years  Anybody with any sense will choose a career on dry land. Normal people do not go to sea for a living. What normal person will confine themselves to an area the size of a ship for months at a time, and  thousands of miles from home and family?  It is like being in jail except there is a chance of being drowned (or incinerated if you work on a gas carrier). I'm still douing this because I am too old and too stupid to be doing anything else and I have a Master Mariners.

[Minime]

well not many others feel like that. I for one am really happy my dad is away 2 months and home for 2 months. In my opinion it gives better quality time to be home all the time for 2 months than being home from 5 or 6 everyday. And when I was younger he always had interesting story's to tell from the journey. And the excitement till he comes home, those things were great when I was younger. Of coarse you will miss your parents when they are gone, but the time they are home makes up for it. Many of my friends both with and without father who sail, have said that it is better.

[Firestar]

So Anfinn, did you start designing ships yet? When do you start doing that in your school?

[Minime]

where I am now is just a normal college, dedicated to technology though, sorta of a preparation school for a higher education. This takes 3 years and I'm only in the first.

[clanky]

I've been at sea for 36 years  Anybody with any sense will choose a career on dry land. Normal people do not go to sea for a living. What normal person will confine themselves to an area the size of a ship for months at a time, and  thousands of miles from home and family?  It is like being in jail except there is a chance of being drowned (or incinerated if you work on a gas carrier). I'm still douing this because I am too old and too stupid to be doing anything else and I have a Master Mariners.

I know quite a few people who feel the same way.  For me the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.  I have children and have seen more of them growing up than most of those who I know working 9 to 5.

I generally enjoy my job and working 4 weeks on and 4 weeks off means that I have 6 months per year where I am getting paid to do absolutely nothing.

That said a career at sea is not for everyone, the glamorous idea of a ships officer soon wears off when it is time to clean out the sewage tank! Or do a scavenge inspection on the main engines (luckily I have people to do this for me now, but it was not always so!)

[sadsid (†2016)]

Hi All
My first trip to sea was at 6and a half years old slept in my fathers bunk bottom drawer in his berth
the ship a coal burning trawler called wyre british went to iceland for 3 weeks.
After that went every school summer holidays till 15 years old.
then started my own career in fishing in that time tryed shore jobs
Making telivision tube's    back to sea
Taxi driving    back to sea
Dustbin Driver    you guessed it back to sea
Once the sea is in you'r blood its hard to let go and even now if I had the chance my bag would be
packed and off like a ROCKET BACK TO SEA 
                                                                                          Eric 

[JOHN LYLE]

Most of my sea going career ahs been long trips of 4 to 6 months away. It is only in the last 5 years I have started to do 3 on 3 off. Most places we either can't go ashore because it is too dangerous like Nigeria, they won't let us go ashore like the USA and Saudi Arabia or we are so far from town that it is too expensive. Recreational facilities on ships is almost nonexistent and social life died when they took the bars away. The paperwork is getting worse as office staff try to justify their esistence and we get more and more regulations put in place like anti pollution, security, safety. When doing some jobs it sometimes took me 1 hour to do the safety paperwork before I started the job which took 5 minutes to complete. Pleasure boats in North America release 15 times the size of the EXXON Valdez oil spill into the water each year but still ships are heavier regulated. It is getting to be a royal pain in the neck to go to sea these days. My ship averages 15 inspections, surveys, vettings a year and all of the inspectors have to find something so that they look like they are doing their jobs. In some countries we have to declare EVERYTHING to customs. I once watched an Indian customs officer start to count out a box of 1565 nuts and bolts to make sure the quantity was correct, he gave up after 30 minutes, but if he had found us to be either 1 short or 1 extra we would have been "fined". Those ate the joys of going to sea these days    

[Minime]

why don't you just bribe them with a couple of cigarette boxes? Doesn't that often work?