Becoming a yacht engineer

Hi,

Welcome to YF.

Do you have a trade/ experience or anything to offer other than a wish to become an Engineer?

What interests you more about engineering than Deck?

Hi,

I do not want to be thought of as pissing on your fish and chips but have to say that you will have a tough road to hoe given you are starting from scratch now.

Can you get a job at a boatyard helping out to at least get some idea of what is what on a boat? Then try to get on one as a deckie and be willing to help the engineer or engineers wherever possible.

This is not going to be a 5 min route to riches but will be attainable with a lot of diligence and hard work plus a certain amount of luck along the way.

Hi there,
Welcome aboard!
You have too paths:
The Hard Way: Do intensive labor as advised by K1W1, agree to work even if the penny is short, get the captains and engineers to like you and want to help you be taught well and spend all your time doing so.

The Hardest Way: Pay for education if you can afford it, pick a school that offers internship on merchant vessels, then start implementing what i mentioned in the "Hard Way" but this time you will get kind of a better and secured pay.

In any case, don't set a time table and concentrate on learning to be useful to the vessels you operate on and to your self.

Best of luck.

Cheers,

Maritime Academy?

In the US a great route (and a huge investment of time/funding) is to do a four year maritime academy. It is a major commitment, but every graduate I personally know has done wonderful stuff since. Examples include a straight from high school to academy guy that's about 6 years out of school and Chief Engineer on a large cargo vessel (big $$ and 6 months off a year), another that was a professional chef (did a chef gig on a charter vessel) that changed careers and now works mid-size craft in Engineering slots, and a past employee who went from school to a USCG stint then 20 years in telecom after which I hired on "retirement" to work on high speed navy craft navigation systems... I could go on. I trained as a commercial aircraft pilot, picked up my Airframe and Powerplant tickets as a resume enhancer, but quickly realized I preferred the engineering world to all the other stuff. 35 years later I have my own company (of 30 years), and projects that make every day fun and challenging in a good way.

You may or may not end up in the "yacht" world, but frankly... once the shine of the rich and famous wears off, the reality is that what one does day-to-day is what matters. And engineering can be a rewarding blast (and will drive you nuts occasionally, just to keep things interesting...).

Bottom line, if you're young and can find a way to get a solid all around technical education... the world will be your oyster. You may not end up where you thought you were headed, but you'll be in demand and able to find work that pays you back in more ways than $$... the rewards and variety of the jobs are something most folk never get a chance at.