January 3, 2012
More stories on how some yachties got their start:
During my first week, a pressurized crew head discharge line burst below decks in a storage area and cleanup was my responsibility. It was bad -- I mean real bad -- but I rationalized this was my baptism into the "exclusive" arena of luxury yacht employment. If I could survive this, it must only get better. Oddly enough, I'm still in it, approaching the 10-year mark. Every day on the water is a good day. Some days are better.
I was bartending at Frenchman’s Reef talking to someone from Ziedel's Nautical Apparel. We got on the subject of these yachts that pull into the St. Thomas harbor and the next thing I realize I am flying to Antigua for an interview as a steward. Looking back, that was the day that prolonged my liver. (I am still in the yachting industry, though, so it is not necessarily saved.)
The owner of a boat on a neighboring dock asked if I could take him out on his boat.
I was hired at 19 by a Long Island family to run their 44-foot, double-ender Reimers sailing yacht. He sent a small plane to pick me up for the interview and a storm cancelled the flight so I drove three hours in miserable weather to have the interview. He hired me for that reason alone.
I was managing a night club and one customer was always in and out. So I asked where he'd been. "Delivered a yacht to Cozumel,” he said. I told him if he ever needed help, I'd be available. I got a call a month later to help bring the yacht back from Mexico, and the rest is history.
I was called in to a professor’s office in college after a test one day. He said, "Robert, is there anything else you would rather do with your life?" I quit school and started at a boat rental on Ft. Lauderdale beach. From there I realized how much I loved boats and went to Smallwood's where they told me about a mate's job on a 92 footer. It has been one incredible journey ever since.
My dad put my butt to work.
I got the job because I was available immediately.
I started out baiting hooks on the Flamingo when it ran out of West Marina on the northwest side of the 17th Street bridge. I thought I was in heaven. I now operate a 140-foot private yacht. I still think I am in heaven. It hasn't always been a smooth ride but I wouldn't trade it for anything.
I was hired because of my computer background.
I had never done anything like this before: To walk into a small yacht club, walk up to strangers and say that I'd like to get into yachting. For them to then bring me onto their sailing yacht, saying this is port, that’s starboard, take your shoes off, and then to introduce me the next day to a captain in Club de Mar who then gives me a job, straight away. I had never worked on a yacht. I am still amazed.
I was living in Naples and a friend had met the captain on a 100-foot yacht who was looking for a deckhand. I had no experience but loved the idea. I interviewed with him and he hired me the next day.
I wanted to fill the mate's position. When I went for the interview, the captain had already hired a mate, and now needed an engineer. So in 15 minutes I became an engineer.
I was behind the bridge console, troubleshooting a control problem with the bow thruster, when the owner said his captain just gave notice and asked me if I would like to be his captain. That was the winter of 1986 and I've had a command ever since.
Warming up in the broker’s office while working on a broken mast, the broker received a call looking for a captain to take a boat south.
I met some yachties in Florida and they told me all about yachting as a career. I went to Lauderdale and did my STCW and put myself on the crew Web sites. It was only about three days before a captain called and asked me how soon I could be in Italy. Great day.
Got a call from someone I hadn't heard from in over 17 years. He was captain on a private motoryacht and needed a cook/mate.
I was one year out of the Navy and working as a manager of a beverage canning company in Miami. I had my license about a week and went for an interview that a childhood friend’s father put me up for as captain of an 82-foot Burger. I walked out with a new career.
I was in class at MPT and sat next to a captain who needed a first mate.
I was hungry, and found out these yachts paid you to work on them. I picked the furthest yacht from the road and asked for a job. I got a dayworker job at $10 a day. I was lucky; they fed me lunch. I stayed with that yacht three years.
My parents met a captain/purser team in Hawaii while on a honeymoon. We had no idea the industry existed. They were so happy I could travel and be paid/fed at the same time.
I had just retired from motorcycle racing. When family and friends asked "what are you going to do?”, I replied, "I'm going to go work on boats." I knew nothing of superyachts, but a friend’s relatives ran a 90 footer. I talked to them, they sent me to Ft.Lauderdale in October, I talked to the agencies, and I was a deckhand/second engineer. Six months later I was a sole engineer, and kept going.
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