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Aug. 20, 2008 10:42 a.m. 914Driver HalfDork

I helped my friend Bob skipper a 44 foot center cockpit ketch from Long Island Sound down to Jacksonville, Fla. Kinda fun, kinda boring; until 30 miles off the coast from Hatteras right in the middle of a shipping lane Bffftt! No electricity! Hanging upside down in a bilge looking for a short and hoping not to run over by a Supertanker!

I have some sailing credentials and experiences. I met a guy that I worked with years ago and retired, met him in an airport. He was heading back from a delivery. For being crew, just a heyboy, a four day trip nets you $1500. This is something I would like to follow up on and if necessary gain the required training.

The $64 question:

What training? If you have any knowlege or experience with delivery I would appreciate your input.

Thanks, Dan
Aug. 20, 2008 10:56 a.m. John Brown UltimaDork

I did heyboy work for a marine electronics installer that would do stretch work delivering boats from the Gulf coast to the East coast (we took a few trips to SC and Va but that was as far north as we got)

I loved and hated the work. Cool job, GOBS of money, a little dangerous, the not being able to walk off the job and get a nap thing got to me.

My last trip was a 138 foot shrimper from Charleston to Port Tarpon. It made the trip all the way there only to sink in port.
Aug. 20, 2008 11:10 a.m. slefain Dork

John Brown wrote:

My last trip was a 138 foot shrimper from Charleston to Port Tarpon. It made the trip all the way there only to sink in port.

Did you still get paid though?
Aug. 20, 2008 11:13 a.m. Salanis Dork

My step-brother did quite a few yacht deliveries while living in the USVI. No credentials to his name. I suspect that you just need to be able to prove to the skipper that you know your E36 M3 and can pull your weight.

Only boat I ever helped deliver was my dad's 46'(?) Cat from St. Thomas to Ft. Lauderdale. Damn thing finally sold three years later.

That trip was also a lot of "hours of boredom punctuated by moments of panic". First night out our spinnaker ripped in half, We had a rudder-synchronizer cable snap (rudders were hydraulically actuated, but used cables to keep the alignment), ran aground on a sand bar, had to step the sails during a storm in the middle of the night, and got insulted by a Canadian fashion mogul who we subsequently stole internet from.
Aug. 20, 2008 11:46 a.m. Sonic New Reader

I've done a few, all for my old boss on a Swan 53', MA to St. Thomas.

Unless you are the captain, where you will need USCG licences and whatnot, there isn't much needed in the qay of qualifications aside from sailing experience. Your first trip is likely to be unpaid except for expenses to get some miles under your keel. Once you can say that you've done it and make some connections that will invite you to go again on other trips it will build from there.

Whoever the guy who got $1400 for 4 days is, I want to work on the boat he was on. Typical pay for delivery crew is $100/day plus expenses/flight.

As for the actual experience, it is both fantastic and awful at the same time, depending on the weather, boat, and other crew. If the weather is nice, the boat in good condition, and you get along with the other crew, it is great. I have great memories of sitting on the foredeck on a 2 AM shift with a cup of tea on a gorgeous warm night, 400 miles from anywhere, watching the dolphins swim along with the ship (you see the bioluminescence of where they are and see them as they jump across in front of the bow). I also remember being horribly sick standing in the rain and cold having to hand steer the boat in 25kt aft quartering seas after having basically no sleep, and then having to fix something that breaks.

The last trip I made, last fall, we had to run into Bermuda to shelter from a tropical storm, we came in with 10-15 foot seas. After being in Bermuda for 4 days to ride it out, we left and had nearly no wind all the way to St. T. The total trip I was away from home for nearly 3 weeks.

I'd do it again on the right boat with the right people, but don't expect to get rich from it.
Aug. 20, 2008 12:15 p.m. Dr. Hess UberDork

I consider anything under 300 ft to be a dangerous little play thing. I really prefer the 1000 footers. They ride better, especially in 70' seas. Did 7 years of it.
Aug. 20, 2008 2:14 p.m. JG Pasterjak Production/Art Director

I think you just need to provide paperwork showing you can buy the right sized trailer for your motorcycle.

jg
Aug. 20, 2008 2:15 p.m. JG Pasterjak Production/Art Director

Salanis wrote:

Canadian fashion mogul.

WTF is that? Did he design the hats with the earflaps or something?

jg
Aug. 20, 2008 2:24 p.m. Salanis Dork

JG Pasterjak wrote:

WTF is that? Did he design the hats with the earflaps or something?

jg

Nope. Peter Nygard.

His island villa looks like a Vegas interpretation of Disneyland's Adventure Land. We dinghyed up to it convinced that something so stupidly gaudy had to be a tourist resort, and we were looking for a beech bar to get drunk at. We'd heard online rumors that he throws gaudy sex parties there. Apparently all his neighbors (including Sean Connery) hate the eyesore that place is.

It's worst at night:

Note the purple illuminated smoke in the 10' tall urns.
Aug. 20, 2008 2:27 p.m. 914Driver HalfDork

JG Pasterjak wrote:

I think you just need to provide paperwork showing you can buy the right sized trailer for your motorcycle.

jg

Geez! You can cure cancer, be the greatest Statesman the world has ever known or be the first person to walk on the Sun and no one remembers your name.

Berkeley up ONE project and they never forget....
Aug. 20, 2008 3:23 p.m. Tommy Suddard

Technically, that can be counted as two: your trailer, and your motorcycle.
Aug. 20, 2008 3:24 p.m. Dr. Hess UberDork

The Berkeley Up was in not taking the cutting torch or sawsall to the thing and fixin' it. The failure was "I Quit." Still not too late to do it right. Nudge-nudge.

This thread reminds me of a guy I met once in Galveston. He used to hire out as crew on yachts. I asked him where he went and it was around the gulf, Bahamas, etc. And "I went half way to Europe once." Half way? Well, they got to the middle of the Atlantic and the GPS broke. I asked if they had a sextant and they did, but no one knew how to use it, including the "Captain." Amateurs. They turned around and headed back, looking for jets and heading the same way the jets were flying.
Aug. 20, 2008 4:08 p.m. ClemSparks UltraDork

I'm sure I'm not the only landlubber that wasn't sure what a sextant was when reading Hess's post but imagined it might have something to do with a good way to pass the time while waiting for someone to sail out with a new GPS...

Clem
Aug. 20, 2008 4:10 p.m. Salanis Dork

Sextant
Aug. 20, 2008 4:45 p.m. grtechguy SuperDork

sign me up..... I like boats. and stupid money
Aug. 20, 2008 4:46 p.m. jrw1621 Reader

As always, this board is an amazing group. I knew that others here sailed but I did not realize the voyage experience.

For transport opportunities, check out www.sailinganarchy.com , specifically the crew pool forum.

I too can be found on that board under the same user name.

As for advise... If you are doing it for money, be sure to understand who is carrying the insurance.
Aug. 20, 2008 5:38 p.m. MikeSVO New Reader

Dr. Hess wrote:

I consider anything under 300 ft to be a dangerous little play thing. I really prefer the 1000 footers. They ride better, especially in 70' seas. Did 7 years of it.

My Dad did a bunch of years on ships like that about the time I was born, working for Getty or Exxon, can't remember. He's got several licenses that use the phrase, "...of unlimited horsepower", or something like that, which I always though was cool.

I had to do some A/V work on a luxury yacht on a few occasions. That was a Lazzara 106', and to the owner, it was indeed a 'plaything'. When the call came in for that job, I heard my supervisor take down the address, and ask what the name of the marina was. I had to laugh at myself, since I knew the address. It wasn't at a marina - it was docked behind the guys house (this was in Naples).

I got to see the engine room too, which was VERY cool! It had a pair of 16-cylinder twin-turbo Detroit Diesels.
Aug. 20, 2008 6:47 p.m. cwh Dork

Coolest engine room I ever saw was on the Disco Volante. This boat was used in the Bond Flick Goldfinger. In the movie, the boat separated, front half took off on hydrofoils. I always thought that was "Movie Magic" until I saw it in Miamarina back in the 80's. It was for real, had a control station like a 747, and a huge single Mercedes diesel with a turbo the size of a peach basket. It was looking pretty ratty, which was a shame, the hydrofoils were all covered in moss and barnacles. It sank at the dock later and was scrapped. A shame.
Aug. 21, 2008 2:03 a.m. jpod999 Reader

Sextant...what a load of hooey. Just bring a back up GPS. ;)

I would love to crew on a yacht. "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi would be endlessly looping in my head.
Aug. 21, 2008 5:58 a.m. 914Driver HalfDork

I can't use a tape measure, but I CAN use a sextant.
Aug. 21, 2008 6:06 a.m. John Brown UltimaDork

slefain wrote: Did you still get paid though?

Yes, we were off the dock when it went down.
Aug. 21, 2008 8:21 a.m. Dr. Hess UberDork

914Driver wrote:

I can't use a tape measure, but I CAN use a sextant.

I have a couple of little toy decoration ones. Then I have a Davis. Oh yeah, and a Plath.
Aug. 21, 2008 10:29 a.m. Salanis Dork

jpod999 wrote:

I would love to crew on a yacht. "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi would be endlessly looping in my head.

On our trip we got so bored, we named the horse with no name. Poor thing had been through the desert so long it deserved one by now. We dubbed him, "Ralph".
Aug. 21, 2008 10:48 a.m. Tim Baxter Online Editor

I thought it was wildfire.... you know, she went calling, but he was running around in the desert somewhere.
Aug. 21, 2008 10:55 a.m. John Brown UltimaDork

I thought Heywood named that horse Fred...

http://www.cuttingedgesandcarving.com/fred_song.htm

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