In many professional industries, an entry-level employee gets a foot in the door, works hard and moves up.

Paralleling that to yachting would mean getting a job as a deckhand or stew, working hard to become mate, chief stew, or an officer, and eventually becoming a captain.

But that’s not always the way it works. So we gathered veteran, mid-career and young captains to answer the often-asked question of how to become a megayacht captain.

As always, individual comments are not attributed to any one person in particular so as to encourage frank and open discussion. The attending captains are identified in a photograph on page A26.

“One thing I learned 15 years ago: If you want a 150-footer, stay on a 150-footer,” one captain said. “Most of the guys running big boats today were deckhands with me.”

So working on a big boat, going down to obtain that first captain’s position, and then moving back up doesn’t work?

“There’s definitely a hurdle there,” another said. “I was a mate on a 180-footer and went down. I think it’s hard to get back up.”

“It’s more of an inheritance then?” someone asked.

“It’s not as much an inheritance as it is you know what’s going on.”

“And you’ve got to be patient,” said another. “The trap people get into is a Feadship comes along and they jump.”

An exception noted to being patient for the captain’s position is when the owner moves up and takes the captain with him, but that spurred a whole separate discussion on insurance companies and qualified skippers.

“I support what the MCA is doing with time required in one position to get to the next,” one captain said. “Today, there aren’t enough experienced captains around, but in 10 years, there will be.”

Getting started on a large yacht is easy in some ways – there are more entry-level positions available – but harder in others because of the requirements and training required.

In the “old days,” one captain who had been a sailor all his life said he walked the docks in Palma, dreaming of big white boats. Asking around, he couldn’t get a job because he had no experience on them.

Then he broke up a fight one night in a bar where a big-boat mate happened to be. The next day he was hired as a deckhand on a large yacht and stayed. He runs yachts over 150 feet today.

“All the guys on big boats started out on big boats,” he noted.

While moving up is hard, moving down isn’t always easy, either.

“I tried to go from big to smaller because I wanted to stay home,” said a captain with a home and family in South Florida. “Everyone told me I was overqualified.”

“Does that translate to ‘too much money’?” a captain asked.

“It never got that far,” he said.

Family can sometimes drive the desire to work on smaller yachts, but not always to stay home.

“I always thought my dream job was to work on a big boat,” one captain said. “Then I met my wife and that wasn’t my goal anymore. We work together for a family with a family.

“I hear all the time from captains on bigger boats that they’re constantly having crew problems,” he said. “No amount of money is worth that.”

“But you can get beyond that,” another captain said. “I worked my way up working for anyone that no one else wanted to work for because I saw it as a way to advance my career. And it worked. I work now for the best family in yachting.”

“That step from 80 feet to 130 is huge, in terms of management, budget, regulations,” one captain said. “It’s complicated.”

“And there’s a huge increase in responsibility,” another said.

So what hurdles have you seen in a career focused on taking command of a large yacht?

“I have had to fight to keep up with regulations,” one captain said. “I spent five years taking every one of my vacations in school.”

“One hurdle I’ve noticed is the age factor,” another said. “It’s a problem coming on a larger yacht as an engineer or mate with a captain who is younger than I am.”

“If you want to be the captain of a big boat, you have to be crew on a big boat,” a captain reiterated. “If you don’t know how to take an order, you’ll never know how to give one.”

“Not necessarily,” disagreed a captain who started his career in command. “Management skills are transferable from different industries. I had no problem coming in as a captain. But I did learn that I can’t tell someone to do something I can’t do myself. I learned real fast how to varnish.”

Technical and management skills are the hardest to teach, the veteran captains agreed.

“If someone asked me how to be a good captain, I’d tell them to go to mechanics school for four years, get some clinical psychology training for about four years, and take a navigation course for a week,” one captain said.

The group laughed in agreement.

So what mistakes did you make that younger crew could learn from?

“I regret not going to the merchant marine academy,” one captain said.

“You graduate from Kings Point and you can write your ticket,” said another.

The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY, is one of five federal service academies. At the end of four years, students sit for their license as third engineer or a third mate.

“I didn’t start in yachting until I was 28,” one captain said. “If I had known this was what I wanted to do, I would have gone to the academy.”

“That’s a lot to ask of an 18 year old,” another said. “I think if you are serious to try it as a career, go to the yachting centers, get your basic safety training and then day work, meet people, try it out for a year. If you like it, then go to the academy.”

What other advice would you offer someone considering a yachting career?

“My advice is to always do the right thing,” one said. “That way, you’ll always land on your feet.”

If you are a hired yacht captain and are near Bar Harbor, Maine, on Aug. 2 or Ft. Lauderdale in early September, contact Editor Lucy Chabot Reed at lucy@the-triton.com for an invitation to our monthly Bridge luncheon. Space is limited to eight.

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