Some advice for a wannabe sailor!

Mayze91 · Nov 20, 2008

I'm fairly new to sailing and have a few questions that need answering, let me just tell you a bit about myself.

I've just recently moved to France, La Rochelle to be more precise. I've been here for a couple of weeks now and was told that the main thing in this part of the region and this particular part of France is sailing. So I've joined up this infamous sailing club, i'm just in Catamarans at the moment and I'm enjoying it. We're using the 16 Catamarans if anyone's heard of that before, they're basically the biggest junior one's, and you need 2 people to sail them. So we're sailing around a little course the instructor made for us, we're just going round 2 floaters and forming a sort of diamond as we're going round. It's all about knowing exactly when to turn, changing the sail, changing sides, and basically not letting the boat drop too much speed because as there wasn't much wind in there first place. The instructor then tested the group out and made us go round the course 3 times on our own, which wasn't too difficult as the boat can be sailed by just 1 man. I found this quite fun and I'm eager to go back along for the rest of the year. Here are some of the questions I'd like you guys to help me out with:

-Are there any sailing scholarships to American universities, they're obviously not as big as football or basketball scholarships but how exactly does it work out? Which universities are the best to go to for sailing?

-Is a career in sailing a promising move? With that being said I'm enjoying it right now but sailing around the world and just outside a port are different things I can imagine. How do sailors earn their money, teaching, sailing other people's boats?

-Would you recommend taking up fulltime sailing to anyone?

-Where does a sailor find the most work? North America, Europe, Middle East, Asia, Caribbean, Ocenia?

-I don't really care about the money aslong as I'm having fun but in which sailing field does one make the most money?

-Do you have tips for a young wannabe sailing like myself?

Thanks for the help.

Capt J · Nov 20, 2008

Sailor's that race sailboats are generally wealthy people that finance the entire boat and expenses themselves and then have some sponsors that will pay a part of it. Very few make a living at it.

You can make a living sailing by becoming a Captain or crew on a sailboat and basically getting paid by an owner to maintain and sail his boat wherever he wants it.

sailandfish · Nov 20, 2008

As far as I know there are no sailing scholarships for US schools, however if you are one of the best sailors around with a long resume of national and international wins as a junior then you stand a good chance of getting accepted to a school that may otherwise not even have looked at you.

Getting a job in sailing is not too hard if you dont care about the money and just want to have fun. You can be a instructor like the one teaching you now, they get hired all around the world at all the yacht clubs, junior clubs, even resorts like club med will hire them.

You could work on tall ships or other historical sailing vessels.

Getting on a nice sailing yacht may be a little harder, but very possible.

Getting on a pro racing team as an unpaid crew is like getting on any pro sports team, except you dont get paid.

Getting paid to race, now your pretty elite and most are pretty cocky. The world of pro sailing is a world of excessive egos and unfriendly folks, at least from this outsiders point of view.

But regardless if you just want to sail and have fun, well theres plenty of oportunities as long as you have an open mind.

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Some advice for a wannabe sailor!

Mayze91 New Member

Capt J Senior Member

sailandfish Member