Pro's and Con's of working on a boat

Working on a boat has many pro's and con's, let me take a few minutes to highlight some of them to help you decide if this type of work is for you.

Lets start with the con's.

Working on a boat will require you to work in close quarters with other people that you didn't get to pick. Take for example a relationship. At first everything is great, so you move in together. After a while little thing's that never bothered you before start bothering you. On a boat when this happens you can't go hunting for the weekend to get away or go out, you are just stuck there. The company picks who works on the boat so there is personality conflicts that you have to deal with and there isn't much you can do about it. Sure you can go to a different boat but you will soon realise a boat is a boat, and there will be people you like and get along with and people you don't like or get along with no matter what boat you are on.

While on the topic of relationships that is a major hurdle for many. If you are a family man or women, working on a boat means time away from loved ones with little to no communications sometimes. This can put a lot of stress on your relationships. If you jealous or don't trust your counterpart than you will really have a tough time dealing with the time away with no Idea what is going on back home.

Parents sometimes have a hard time working on a boat. Lets face it you will be providing very well for you children with the money a seaman makes but you will miss a lot of your children growing up. Schedules differ from boat to boat and company to company but in general you are looking at half you life on a boat or 2/3rds. Thats a lot of missed school activities, first words, first steps, good report cards. This can be hard to deal with for many.

The toughest part of working on a boat is the relative lack of control you have over your home life. It is mentally draining worrying about what is going on at home. This is even tougher for those in relationships and or with children.

Working on a boat is a big sacrifice to make for the money. You do make a great living but you sacrifice you home life to do it.

The pro's and this is why I do it.

The money is probably the biggest pro about it. Different boats make different amount's of money but in general you start off at about 50,000$ a year to start out with. With experience training and schools you can increase your earnings to 125,000 a year to even 200,000 a year depending on what type of boats you work on.

Working on a boat is kinda like having a babysitter. It might seem strange to hear that but its true. As a young man starting out being on a boat helped me stay out of trouble. Cant get into any trouble when you are at work. It also helped me by basically having a place that took care of me. No matter how badly I managed my money all I had to do is have enough money to get back to work with the things I needed and I could star the process all over again. Many young men go through this. Spend all your money while you are off the boat then just stay on the boat until you had enough money to go home and do what you want to do.

Working on a boat allows you the freedom of travel. When the average person gets off work they can only go so far on the weekend. It always felt like I had 1 day off a week. Working on a boat means you have 4 to 6 months vacation a year. You can go anywhere you want and do what you want. This is probably the most important thing to me. Sacrificing so much to be at work pays itself off when I get off the boat and can go anywhere I want. Travel is one of my passions. I live part time out of the US in Asia. What other job will allow that.

Sometimes the job itself will provide travel, depending on what type of boat. I have worked out of Mexico, Trinidad, and soon I will be working in Brazil living in Asia on my time off. This may not be what you are looking for and you don't have to work out of the US if you don't want to but it is an option.