Big Cow Centre

Corner of North Nambour Connection & Ferntree Creek Roads, Kulangoor, QLD.

Olivia Shelton(Graduated from STCW95 Basic Safety Training on the Sunshine Coast in September, 2007)

Hi Barry, my name is Olivia Shelton and I took your STCW course late last year (I believe it was in about October.) You said during the week you would be interested in hearing any updates on where people went from there so I thought I would send you an email! I've just joined a yacht 'Dilbar' in Barcelona. Although January is typically a very quiet time of the year I was able to find a few leads and found a job. I spent a little over a month in Antibes in France and went through the many crew agencies from there who were very helpful, you can find most of these on the internet or crew booklets in Antibes. As I have a sister in Antibes it was much easier for me as I had free accomodation and advice on where to go so I was able to 'hang around' and have a bit of a holliday during the quiet season. I enjoyed doing it this way as I didn't have to compete against other job seekers, got to know the town well, and became quite friendly with the different agents. That is one of the most important things, getting the agents to think of you so they continue to put you forward for all jobs possible! So, if your prepared to wait for a while getting in early worked quite well for me! Most agents recomended late March/April.

Anyway, thanks for all your help. The first thing all the agents asked me when I went in was if I had my STCW! Although on some private yachts you can find work without it, it is getting harder and harder! If you have any further questions let me know :)

thanks,

Olivia Shelton

Michael Townsend (Graduated from STCW95 in Melbourne in May, 2007)

Hi Barry,

Just writing to let you know how work with the STCW95 is going as requested.

I'm currently working on a 70 foot private yacht as Head Chef, been on for a month now with 2 to go. Currently in Capri, Italy, heading to Napoli tomorrow then onto the Greek islands for the remainder of the season.

Hard but enjoying it.

I attended the first course in Melbourne, just to remind you. If any of your future attendees wanted any information on finding employment in Europe, please pass on my email address. Its very competitive and I know that if I had any info before job hunting here it would have been very beneficial.

Hi Barry

I have been living in Mallorca Spain for just over a month.

The course really helped as a lot of guys and girls had not done the course before they came over. I stayed in a hostel called " Terramar "

where basically everyone came over to work on the yachts. Really funny place and great to stay in because we all encouraged each other.

Well dock walking I guess was my greatest success because you got to know captains and even delivery drivers. If they saw you often enough they would give you job leads and advice. Dressing properly for yachts certainly helped as most did not seem to care and the bigger yachts liked well groomed staff for their boats. Also being confident helps and being friendly of course. We have yachty bars as well which help just as long as you behaved yourself as everyone is watching you!

I am heading back to Palma and hopefully if i can get time off i can see all the friends I made. The agencies are helpful but not always successful, I had a couple of interviews and was put forward to a yacht owned by Mercedes-Benz and the guests were the grand prix drivers!

I found this other job before I found out if I was successful or not.

I'm not disappointed as I think I have found the best crew ever!

Everyone really friendly and funny, we have a couple of clowns onboard.

I guess basically you need to be easy going and get along with everyone.

Make sure you keep your areas clean and be polite to everyone. Just normal common sense I guess. I am sharing with the head stew onboard and we have a girl deckhand and a girl deckhand/stew who is coming aboard In Palma when we get there. It certainly helps to get into Palma at the right time, I guess I just timed it okay, maybe a little early but definitely mid may is a good time to come over.

Although it is much harder for guys to get deckhand work and certainly doing the course before will help. I also was offered a four day charter from another captain whose stewardess had walked off the boat the day before. I did jump at this chance so i had experience and realised what bloody hard work it can be. I did however still enjoy my first charter and had a strict captain but I still liked him. He needed someone a little more experienced as his yacht was smaller than the one I am on now.

Only myself the deckhand and the Captain who was also the chef. Well this experience was quite funny . We had to move to another location really quickly and as soon as I had served their lunch I was literally packing up straight away, the engines were running and I had to move really quickly - paper serviettes flying in the wind and quite dangerous walking from the top deck stairs down to the galley. But all in all I kept my cool and this I think was why he liked me. As he said I never lost my "cool"

He was my greatest reference and I still appreciate the fact he asked me to be his stewardess for that short time even though he hired someone else who was a little more experienced. Well I probably should get back to work and go and see what everyone else is doing. We have no guests for a little while and they are flying over to us when we do the Atlantic crossing.

Cheers

Adios

Barry

ps I will keep you informed

Jen