Delivery skippers receive good income to drive a boat from point A to point B. It is paid by the mile, paid by the time involved, or paid as agreed. While each delivery skipper arrives at a different fee you can basically expect several hundred dollars a day minimum plus expenses. Expenses would be an airline ticket, motel, hotel, rental car, and meals. Expenses would also have to do with fueling of the boat or possibly having to repair something about the boat to make her ready for her journey.
You might work for a private party, an insurance company, a bank repo, or a boat broker as examples of income sources which are typical of this industry.
Heres the gist of it all
Your employed by a boat owner who gets seasick. This ''skipper'' looks you up in the boat magazine classifieds and contracts you to take his boat, for example, from Seattle Washington to San Francisco California. Its a 45 foot Chris Craft (cabin cruiser). Your schedule is open and you agree to do this for him. (You find your schedule is open to him when you drop off a boat in say Portland Oregon for an insurance company client.) so then the chris craft owner flys you from Portland up to Seattle to pick up his boat.
The owner informs you that the boat must be in San Francisco in 5 days because he wants to fly his wife down for her birthday and spend the weekend out on the bay. You now negotiate because the weather promises to be bad for several days, rough at sea, and you feel the boat could be in harms way. You feel theres no way you can promise a 5 day delviery and tell him it could as much as 10 days. Now the owner says he just has to have the boat there within five days and sweetens the pot for you to do so by throwing in an all expense paid weekend for you in San Francisco upon your safe arrival. You agree though you know its risky. You take the boat away from the dock in Seattle, point her towards the open ocean and off you go. The weather cooperates with you well enough and you manage to get the boat tied to the appointed dock in San Francisco a day early. (You came in ahead of schedule by a day because you decided to push it and not sleep at all the last 24 hours of the trip. Why? Because that storm you were aware of earlier is now coming in fast and if you stop and delay you will not make it on time.)
The owner meets you there in San Francisco on day five and hands you a check for $4,500 which covers your agreed charge, expenses, and fuel. He hands you another check for $1,000 to take in San Francisco for the weekend as promised and is very pleased with you. He promises, as the two of you part company, to recommend you to all of his yachting buddies back up in Seattle. (Potential work in the future.)
You must train for these positions. Typically you are self employed. You need to pass Coast Guard exams and you need sea time. You should be capable of operating a power boat of most any size at all and also sail boats. You need to be familiar with the different boats, different drive trains or sail set ups and how to operate these craft in all manner of conditions at sea. You should also be reasonably competent about basic boat repairs and safety issues. Survival awareness, that you ended up in the water, should be high on your list also. You should be prepared for busy times with good people as well as long solitary hours at sea. Just you, the sea, and the whales.
There should also be people that you have set up to be stand by crew for you. You need people you can trust and who are, in your opinion, responsible and seaworthy enough under your supervision. You would pay meal expenses for these people and you would pay them a daily wage as agreed.......maybe $50 a day or more. (Their expenses would be included in your overall charge when you take on a job.)
Crew such as this is brought in by you when your aware you will want a particular boat underway at all times and your going to need to operate it in shifts so you can get some sleep.
Typically you would hire one, maybe two people for this assignment.
Your boyfriend or girlfriend do not count!!
We are after competent experienced rookies who have proved themselves worthy.
One trip the owner of the boat may come with you for the heck of it. Or possibly an entire family. They may hire you for your skills to take a very fine boat to sea, do some fishing perhaps, and return them after several days back to where you started - safely. Just because someone owns a boat does not make them salted seaworthy skippers. The fact is, many of these yacht owners have limited experience or are totally incompetent at the helm.........particularly so if a storm kicks up and it gets good and rough.
You could be hired to skipper from one point to another with the family on board. Possibly the people prove to be very difficult to live with and work for - but you persevere and get the job done as agreed.
Suppose you typically move a boat from California down to Mexico but suddenly find yourself contracted to take a 120 foot sailboat from Anchorage Alaska down through the panama canal, and up to Miami Florida or on to New York. The family decides to come with you for the ride but your the skipper and your also the cook they decide. They pay you very well. You accept. Once out to sea the husband and wife are fighting like cats and dogs and the teenage kids are playing music so loud, in your ear, you can not think straight. It happens. Some skippers will get off, quit, at the very next port of call. Others will stay on and hate every minute of it.
Many of your customers will be 'well greased'. Of this group, this class of customer, some are great folks to come to know while others will imagine they can treat you worse than a stray dog. They pay well typically. When you encounter a customer who is outright disgusting - or the company they keep on board is outright disgusting - and you just can not stomache this ilk you will likely walk off the job. Doing so may end your contract and along with it any income you anticipated. The decision will be yours when the time comes. Always be sure you have a good ATM card handy for an unexpected emergency flight or rental car home.
Navigation. Your training needs to include navigation. You must be quite competent with it. Savvy. You can not up and pull into a gas station out at sea and get directions. You need to have charts for your travels so you know where the sand bars, rocks, and other potential hazards exist as well. These charts are not cheap. The better ones. Since your spending the money you may as well get the very best, most recent charts available for the waters you travel in or are about to travel in. Be SURE you study them in detail before you take off.
Thinking your just going to jump into a boat, turn the key, and happily drive off into the open ocean would be the dumbest thing you ever did in your entire life.
How do you get this training? Get out on the water. Contact the Coast Guard. Contact your nearest Coast Guard Auxilliary. All this adds up to a fine start. How soon will you be ready? Its up to you.
Men are typically found filling this position but there are also a few ladies who are into it. Age is not so important as that your healthy and competent. An 18 year old kid who grew up around all sorts of boats, learned all the good stuff, and has time at sea would likely be as fine a rookie delivery skipper as anyone else.
If you want to avoid working for the man this is one way you can go. Your going to need to be fearless. One of those people who decides in earnest that when its too tough for the captain its going to be just right for you. Storms can kick up out at sea in a matter of minutes. No matter how close you watch your weather window you will sooner or later be caught in a serious situation out there. You need to be very up for it when it happens.
So too does the boat you agree to move. You need to inspect each and every one before you leave the dock. If you find troubles or even suspect a boat might not be fit then you need to stop and take it up with the owner before you untie it and head out on your journey. Needless to say if your about to take a contract where your moving a boat several thousand miles or even more such boats must be seaworthy. New boat or used boat it makes no difference. You must look each one over. Is it sound of hull? Is it properly equipped with appropriate safety gear and life raft? Is the navigational equipment working? Does it have a radio? And so forth.........
There is this saying of the sea which i believe is quite accurate.
If theres a weak spot in the man or if theres a weak spot in the boat.......She will find it!! Beware the sea.
If you do make the grade......
be sure to always carry first class personal safety equipment like flotation (Co2 plus blow hole) and epirb signaling devices. your life could depend on it down to seconds if your boat goes down.
Be sure to make a point of becoming friendly with a seasoned delivery skipper. Listen to these people well. Follow in their learned ways. Duplicate a copy of their contract if they will let you so that when you take on your jobs your covered and insured as appropriate. Respect these people.
I must tell you that more than one delivery skipper was lost at sea. A wrong decision. Something went sour with the boat. A storm that proved to be too much for boat and/or skipper. Who is to say. Its serious work.
It deserves your most serious attention and efforts. Your income is earned. That some people would view you as a person paid particularly well - you are - and you deserve to be. After all, while people may sit on land by a warm cozy fire saying your job is no big deal - do not be fooled by these 'want to be' skippers. You will NEVER see 99.9 percent of this crowd out at sea doing what you do.
Starting with the boat owners who hire you. These folks will tell you they just do not have the time or they would do it themselves..........you know......big business deal going down and such.
Do not believe it. Not even this crowd tells it like it really is. Only 1 out of 10 is being honest. The fact is they get too seasick to be out there and functional or, simply, they are scared to death to be out there on the sea without you at their side.
(Me i love to find the light weights, take em to sea, eat a candy bar, drink a beer, and eat my cheetos all at the same time and watch these guys start to turn green.......the truth shall out. Them days i was a charter fishing boat ornament)
Your region of operation could be local so to speak, meaning you run up and down the west coast and the pacific or up and down the east coast in the atlantic ocean or you could elect to travel round the world and move boats near and very far. All expenses paid plus a fine income. Not a bad deal. Not a bad life. Lotsa travel.
With all the folks out of work these days, all the folks looking for a job or a career change, i just thought a few of you would be interested in a job such as this. Its food for thought anyway. Your welcome to write me about it and maybe i can help you somehow but i am retired and well removed from this work now.
rowdyhorse
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its not a tough nut to crack but you need to be at the waters edge so to speak and into the environment to pick up news typically.
if you live in the northwest then focus on seattle. seattle also has a sort of a dating club thing (i never attended or belonged to it)that runs meetings and ads where someone wants a boating partner or a date or has an offer for some sort of employment.
other cities like seattle surely exist all over the country.
finally.....i again would caution to look before you leap off of the dock onto a boat. lots of reasons for this. know the details. if details are not spelled out somethings not quite right. know the people as best you can.....and even ask about them if possible without being obvious about it...who are they, what are they like, ever heard of complaints about the people, their conduct, or their friends.....stuff like that.
once your out on the water.....and you discover your caught up in a very disappointing environment.....its mighty tough to just up and quit unless you know how to walk on water. : )
so take it seriously.
that you land the right sort of a yacht with the right sort of people aboard i dare say you will be most pleased.
on a final note i have been telling people about pirates still existing in this world for a good many years now. basically i have done so since viet nam. low and behold as you may have heard about in the news the USA recently had a pirate incident overseas.
IF your boat travels into dangerous waters then your boat owner should have seen to a master plan to protect the boat, weapons training for you and fellow crew mates, and the appropriate supply of weapons on the boat. while chances are slim you would ever be confronted its better to be safe than sorry. you will never train quite enough for such an event sould it take place. take it seriously just for the heck of it.
you could be confronted from mexico south in the americas. any place over in the orient. any place around the african continet. etc
geraldo rivera had or likely still does have a large sailing boat. he liked to remark on the news a few years back how he was sailing around the world on the boat. actually, in truth, he came and went from it at various places around the world when the weather was nice and the port of call was comfortable and friendly. he also remarked about how he was gearing up for pirates as the boat was going into potentially dangerous waters. which it did do momentarily. but he was no place near the boat during this period. only his crew was. brave rivera.....or so he wanted us to think.
no doubt it would be the same for you and your crew where your boat owner is busy elsewhere or simply chickens out and finds an excuse to be elsewhere. to my way of thinking...fine...i would not need someone in his panama whites sipping a martini next to me while i am busy trying to ward off pirates or druggies out on the water. i believe you will come to feel the very same way no doubt...given your with a competent crew.
just fuel for the fire...like i said....know the boat and know the owners
before you hire on and shove off if at all possible. if its not possible then the moment your hired make it a point to go among crew mates and try to get to know them....and through them...try to get to know the owner. if you do not like what your hearing, getting vibes, step off the boat right away or at the next port of call and try again elsewhere for a new boat and owner you can live with.
it may also interest you to know that the number of larger boats being built and launched is growing. theres surely a spot for you then.
Anonymous
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J