#schooner bum life

[charminglyantiquated]

So, I’m seriously looking into getting into tall ship sailing (waiting on follow-up from an interview rn) and I’m wondering for getting into it more long-term -

what do people do after sailing tall ships? Like, it’s a pretty physical job, and I’d assume there’s a point where your joints just can’t keep up with it.

Are there other jobs in the industry that people move to? I’m not really keen on the idea of moving up in the ship’s hierarchy- admin and being someone’s boss both aren’t really my thing. Do people retrain in completely different careers? Go back to whatever they were doing before they started sailing?

Anyway, I know your sample size might not be super large so I’d appreciate anything. Thanks a bunch!

This is hard to answer directly - on the one hand sailing tall ships is such a niche industry that there are limited pathways for straightforward advancement. But on the other hand, it overlaps with such a large number of other industries, and requires such a jack of all trades skillset - tourism, carpentry, history and preservation, hospitality, marine electronics, etc. etc. etc. - that there's a lot of ways forward for what I guess I'd call lateral advancement: moving to another job which uses most of the same skills. So there's no one answer, but if it helps, here's some things my tall ship deckhand friends have ended up doing, after no longer deckhanding tallships:

Get a captain's license and keep sailing. Captains often have it a bit easier physically (balanced out by the mental stress lol), and are paid better. Owning your own boat is optional; plenty of companies hire captains by the season to sail the boat, while the management of the company is dealt with by the actual owners. (This is what I did! I don't have the sail-hauling arms I did as a deckhand, but my knees and bank account are both in better shape).

Bosun, first mate, engineer, some other specialized non-captain crew member, usually involves licensing or other education that's useful down the road if you switch to an adjacent career

Racing yachts

Captain for hire on private vessels

Outward bound guide, other wilderness education programs

Harbor cruises, lobster tour guides, and other motor-powered tourist boats, both as captain and as crew - you have the patter and the safety skills but you don't want to deal with the hassle of sails

Water taxis, ferries and other passenger vessels

Lobstering, fishing, aquaculture, tugboats, other non-tourist waterfront industries

Marine surveyor, marine electrician, other specialized technician

Working in a shipyard - good fit for all the fit-out skills of sanding, painting, varnishing, covering and uncovering the boat

Cruise ship hostess

Train conductor (the passion for the early 1900s carried over well)

Working at a a museum focused on local maritime history

Tour guide for local buses, walking tours, etc

Boatbuilder (IYRS, Wooden Boat School)

Teaching the captain's license courses (nota bene: there were obviously some other steps between deckhand and teacher, notably ten years of being a captain in between. But this is what they settled into when they decided sailing was too physically taxing, so I want to include it).

Carpentry, house painting

Designing and selling custom made van-homes (apart from the technical skills, living on board a ship helps familiarize making use of every square inch of space)

Sailmaker

Of course there's other friends who went on to try something completely new and unrelated - I think because so many of the people who start sailing tall ships are here for something completely new in the first place, that's not an intimidating prospect so much as an exciting one. But many of them did make use of tall ship skills even when moving on from tall ships, so I hope the above list is helpful in giving a broad sense of what can follow!

#schooner bum life #i am probably forgetting some tbh #for fun. some unrelated post-sailing jobs: #artist #dog mushing in alaska #cheese making #sword maker #chocolatier #orchestra conductor #model #looking at that i think there's probably also something to be said for the confidence it takes #to pursue something you find interesting #even if it means starting from scratch #the same leap of faith that gets you on a tall ship can take you somewhere else

[theleastprofessionalchef]

you have maybe one of the most interesting jobs i've ever seen... how many people live aboard the ship? what do living quarters look like?

Thank you! It's definitely fun, though it has its fair share of stress and unique challenges.

This year we have ten full time, paid crew. We're contracted out through the end of season, or the end of downrig, whichever was determined at the start. Throughout the season, though, we have a number of unpaid volunteers who come through and stay for anywhere from a week to a month at a time, during which they're fed and given a sleeping space like all other crew- only difference being lack of a paycheck. Lady is different from a lot of east coast boats, in that we don't take completely green (new) deckhands on, even as unpaid volunteers; you need to have knowledge of sailing already to come on with us. It's because we're an education-focused vessel, and need our people to know their stuff.

However, we do have a program and a way for newbies to join our crew! You have to pay (and I don't quite remember how much it is. I wanna say somewhere in the vicinity of $600-800? Don't quote me on that), but what you pay for is two weeks of living on board, being fed, housed, and taught from the ground up how to sail! It's called Two Weeks Before the Mast, and it's how we get most of our return volunteers- because after you've done it, you can come back whenever you want! Most people who do it do end up coming back, or staying past the initial two weeks (schedule permitting). It's definitely an investment, but one I highly recommend if it's something you can do.

Right at this moment, we have two volunteers staying with us, both two-weekers. Last week, we had two return volunteers as well, bringing the total crew count up to fourteen- that's a lot of mouths to feed! They're all great though, and I love them all :)

Now, for your second question: it's all communal, baby! Permanent crew gets better bunks and more storage space, but it's still all a big bunkroom for the most part. On Lady, it's down in the foc's'le (short for forecastle, the compartment towards the front of the boat). Four bunks on each side built into the hull itself, cubbies for storage, the like. In the rear of the boat is a smaller compartment, the aft cabin, where there are two more bunks like in the foc's'le, as well as two actual cabins - gasp - with doors! Those belong to the captain and first mate.

The main hold, the central compartment of the ship - where, historically, merchant vessels stored their merchandise - is where the part timers and volunteers sleep. The bunks there are a touch less comfortable and there's a smaller amount of storage space, and in addition, the main hold is basically the crew's communal hangout space. It's our living room, with the heads (toilets- we've got two of them, but they need pumping out at times if they get too full. Think marine port-a-potties), and the galley- that's my domain!

Someday I might do a video tour, or maybe just take a bunch of pictures. It's surprisingly roomy, but you really get to know the people you live with. Best hope you like them! (And best hope you don't snore; everyone will know)

#ask #sailing #tall ship #lady washington #tall ship lady washington #tall ship sailing #schooner bum life #<-I see that tag get used a lot for the east coast? why not

[toothsalad]

have u guys seen. schooner bum meme instagram.

#schooner bum life

[no-taxis]

#photos #travel #schooner bum life

[thesundanceghost]

We told the passengers to only take pictures of us when we looked cool and I’m not sure it worked but I do have like ten pictures now that are basically just of my ass

#I’m okay with it #schooner bum life

[birdybirdnerd]

tallship sailors is the same, we get a free tour of a seaport/waterway museum and five minutes later we're re-rigging their display boats

#personal #tallships #tallship sailing #foss waterway seaport tacoma #sailing #lady washington #schooner bum life #schooners

[moreleafedclovers]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAgNKRMjYnk&list=PLGzoCJL4dG9S9_yTxhG48ZcSFghjJulpW

Playlist of some songs that I like/have written/rewritten about sailing, tall ships, schooners, et cetera. I’ll likely be adding to it in the future.

#schooners #sailing #boats #tall ships #schooner bum life #music #sea shanties #art

[ravenboats]

2023 summer film dump - shot on Pentax ME Super

#film photography #35mm #schooner bum life

[mishalogic]

Fair suck of the sav an Aussie would quip, a schooner of middy we hold to our lips. A shandy a cold beer in a glass, half filled with lemonade a flavour to last. Early days in pubs ladies not allowed, they sipped "shandies" away from the noisy male mob crowd. Capstan, Ardath, Princton early cigarette brands some even held wacky backy ciggies in their hands. Reefers Marijuana smokes they should have ignored, some dead now, others brains good no more A weird mob was heard from many a gob, he's a half-witted silly bugger slob. Some went to shops with a horse and a Drey, cow cocky and bluey dog to the pub every day. Pointing "Percy" at the porcelain where wee was a wiss, getting drunk by swaggy man was sure a bliss! I've never seen a female swaggy sitting under eucalypt tree, would the first female swaggy be the "Sheralee"? The dunny owner's plea when you relieve yourself, our aim is to please, your aim will help! The urinal ciggy a real short glow, makes them soggy hard to light the butt collector did know. Redbacks under the seat gave Mabel quite a scare so much colourful language from outside dunny there. The black round dunny can stank quite a lot held many a cow cocky and swaggies plop. Botting for a ciggie the local bum did know, cadging for a beer his life a misery to show. A punch up over Mabel was done now and then she was the love life of the dunny cart man. Some looked for ciggy butts in the streets as they go, tally-ho ciggy paper they made roll your owns. I'm as dry as a dingoes donger yelled stringer Bob, three miles we've struggle with this bloody mob. Yes Mabel, I can see you winkin' at me there, gotta down a couple more darlin, with you Percy I will share. Two up with two pennies in country pub in early Aussie days the most honest way to gamble shearers and cow cockies pay. Most country towns had pubs three and more because farm work, shearing, mob moving, coal mining, bloody hard worked up a thirst, so many country people had to endure. The wife, the Sheila's, the blokes the tin lids all struggled along, life in early day Australia may not have been a symphony, but it was a bloody good early day Aussie country song. Time gentlemen please the pub owner used to say, it was 6 o'clock closing in early Aussie country and city days ... Misha.

#aussie #australia #shandy beer #schooner #middy #country town #sheila #blokes #tin lids #symphony #country #city

[charminglyantiquated]

furling the jib

#schooner bum life #putting the boat to bed :)

[theleastprofessionalchef]

hey! i just found your blog and its so cool! do you have any advice for people who want to look into sailing on tallships? ive been taking sailing lessons and i absolutely love it, so i have some tangential experience, and i know there are tallships that make port around here, but ive never quite been able to figure out a good place to start looking for volunteer programs or find out what tallships are near me. its something id love to look into more but i think starting is always the hardest part

You are absolutely right in that starting is the hardest part! I dreamed about sailing for years before ever getting the courage to actually apply to anything, and then it was only because it was late at night and a post crossed my dash asking for a cook for Lady, and it was worded fun and I was tired and in the middle of a crisis, so I took the dive and applied! I'm so glad you're looking to jump in too, it's definitely a wonderful community and a job that will be tough, but with great potential to be so so rewarding.

I've only ever cooked, and my entry into the industry was a little non-standard, but while I'm not the best person to go for advice on how to break in, I do have a few posts for you! They're ones that helped me learn about what it would be like and what would be needed of me, and gave me enough courage and knowledge that when that post did cross my dash, I was ready :)

Running off to sea to seek your fortune: a how-to guide

Qualifications needed/lack thereof (note about this one: keep in mind that for some boats, like Lady, sailing experience is needed! I don't know if modern sailing experience would translate to what we need and count as 'enough', but it couldn't hurt to ask the captain!)

Winter maintenance to summer crew

Pay vs. Cost of living

I hope this helps!

#sailing #tall ship #schooner bum life #tall ship sailing #ask #haha hey our bosun is featured in that third link as a reply screenshotted! hiiii brooke #also yeah most of these came from charminglyantiquated who i love and adore and who reblogged the post that started my new life lmao #shoutout to sam! hope your season is going well :)

[toothsalad]

time lapse of us stepping the mainmast of a 150 year old schooner

#sailing #schooner bum life #tall ship

[no-taxis]

the tumblr to schooner bum pipeline is REAL

#schooner bum life #and im here for it #hello to all the people I met at the gam last night who apparently follow me :D

[trollcafe]

Typhon what was Juleus like when he was younger?

“Juleus was a schooner bum if i’d ever seen one. How that idiot made it to first mate baffles me. Cocky, arrogant, dumber than a box o’ rocks…but he had a good heart. Desire t’ learn. He wanted t’ grow and be a better troll. Almost a martyr. He’d risk life ‘n limb for his crew and captain.”

“Much like his descendants, he was one full of life.”

“The man you know, and the man I knew, are two very different people. I din’t think my Jules died when Bixith did, My Jules died the moment he set foot in this damn fleet ship. The Jules I knew wouldn’t’ve locked his ‘rail up as a battery to rot away.”

#typhon speaks #ghost.ask

[shoestrung]

Hey, I was wondering if you have recommendations for rig knives? I'm in the market for a new one but I'm not sure where to look. Thank you!!

Mine was a gift and I’m not sure where it’s from, so unfortunately I don’t have anything specific to suggest, but hopefully some of my sailor followers might!

#schooner bum life #Anonymous

[birdybirdnerd]

I've been doing a lot of sketching lately, doodles of me and my crew and various parts of the ship. i haven't drawn as much in the past few years as I'd like, but lately has found me in a good place to do a lot of quick sketches like this. it's nice; I've made a game of seeing how fast i can sketch a crewmate while they're standing still for a minute doing something. haven't been able to do that with our hyperactive ships dog though lmao, she's always moving

a couple pages of reference at the start for the others, since i always doodle myself the same style i decided to give them the same treatment. then a few pages of around the ship, then pages of the crew in motion

probably gonna post more of these as i do them, in batches like this

#personal #my art #sketch #tallship sailing #lady washington #schooner bum life