Every yachtie has a story, and they are as different as the people who tell them.

This month, we asked every yachtie in our database how they got their start in yachting and we got an incredible response. More than 350 people took the survey, about half of whom gave us the details of their start.

One thing kept coming up for many yachties, and that is timing.

“I was applying for a position in a bar in order to keep the money flowing and saw out of the corner of my eye a note looking to hire and took it from there,” said a woman who joined yachting in the 2000s. “From day one, I realized that getting a job is about being in the right place at the right time. The windows of opportunity are only open for a few days, in most cases, and captains seem to take whoever is there and available at that time.”

Yes, skills matter. Yes, credentials and experience matter. But getting your foot in the door often takes simple dumb-luck.

“I was working in a restaurant, and instead of going out back to smoke with the girls I went out to the dock to help a boat tie up,” said a woman who has worked in yachting more than 20 years. “I was asked if I would rather work in the marina instead. It was divine intervention.”

First, we should note that although we opened this survey to everyone in our database, we still got a majority of captains and crew responding, about 70 percent of the 361 respondents. The largest group of non-crew were business owners, just more than 13 percent.

Looked at as a whole, the length of time our respondents spent in yachting (either working on yachts as crew or on land in some support capacity) was an almost perfect bell curve with the largest group between 5 and 15 years. 

The bulk of our respondents got into yachting in the 1980s (23.3 percent), 1990s (25.3 percent) or 2000s (29.7 percent), meaning the largest single group is those relatively new to yachting, landing their first jobs since the turn of the century. (We know this isn’t true of the industry as a whole; it’s just true of our survey, so view the results through that lens.)

Most of our respondents -- more than 62 percent -- never left the yachting industry, which coincides with our crew-heavy response rate. If they did leave, they came back (nearly 32 percent), either to their same post or to another yachting job.

Just 6 percent got out of yachting and stayed out. We crunched these folks to see if they were women, thinking that women would get out and stay out to raise families, but just half were women, making it statistically insignificant.

Of course, what we really wanted to know in doing this survey was How did you get your start in yachting?

The ways are as diverse as yachting itself, but it seems that the largest group got into yachting because of someone they met or already knew.

The largest group -- 37.5 percent of all respondents -- got into yachting when someone in the industry opened a door and helped them land that first job.

“After working the showroom at a yacht brokerage, it was decided by some senior staff that I 'could handle the crewing life' and was sent off on a few Bahamas charters,” said a woman who is a junior crew member on yachts today. “That was almost nine years ago. So happy things went that way.”

“I had been looking for work for three months and I was in a bar in St. Maarten when a girl (a former co-worker of a crew-house mate) gave me the name and number of a captain friend,” said a woman who joined yachting this decade. “I met him two days later and got the job.”

(These stories support our theory that it’s all about the timing, don’t they?)

“I was working on a live-aboard dive boat in the Caribbean,” said a captain in yachting more than 10 years. “I met the captain off a private yacht in the marina. He showed me around the boat and told me a little about what the industry had to offer. I never looked back.”

“I met my now husband when my family chartered a sailboat,” said a woman who joined yachting in her 20s. “He was my captain for the week, and I was so amazed that 1. You didn't have to live in the United States, and 2. I could live and work on the thing I love the most, the ocean. It was an awesome revelation.”

The next largest group at 22 percent indicated that a friend recruited or hired them.

“My parents were actually guests on board a charter yacht (M/Y Big Eagle) and they told me I would fit in with crew on a yacht with my personality,” said a woman who worked on yachts 3-4 years before joining a yachting business. 

More than 13 percent were recruited from their previous life shore.

“I was the manager of a local furniture store and a broker came in and bought a house full of stuff,” said a broker who joined the industry in the 1990s. “He liked how I handled everything and told me I'm wasting my time with furniture.”

Just 10 percent got their first yacht job by walking the docks.

“The biggest boat I'd ever seen in my life, a 180-foot Maridome, was tied up in Vancouver,” said a captain who joined the industry in the 1990s. “I was cooking at a nearby waterfront restaurant. I walked down after work to ask if they needed a chef. Turned out the chef broke his ankle the night before. I offered to work for free. The captain and owner liked me so I stayed on for couple of years (and got paid).”

About 8.5 percent were successful by replying to a job posting.

“The Triton had a classified ad I responded to,” said a man who joined yachting in the 2000s. “I packed my stuff from Michigan, overdrafted my bank account, quit my job, sold my stuff and drove to Ft. Lauderdale to compete with another dayworker for my deckhand job.”

And just 8 percent said a crew agent found them their first job.

“I got sailing delivery jobs easily just by hanging out at the marina for a few days,” said a captain in his 50s who joined yachting in the 2000s. “I got my first job on a yacht before I dropped my bag at the crew house. I got a full-time mate position through a crew agent within a day of arriving in Ft. Lauderdale in 2006.”

When we looked at this last group more closely, we discovered that the largest single group of yachties who used a crew agent joined the industry just this decade (18.8 percent, in the 2010s); the next largest group to use an agent, 12.1 percent, joined in the 2000s.

Even more interesting than how people got into yachting might be why, so we asked Why did you take that first yacht job?

The most ideal reasons won, hands down.Nearly 40 percent said they took that first yacht job because they love being at sea.

“I will most likely continue yachting until my death at sea,” said a senior crew member in yachting more than 30 years. “My love of the oceans, the places I have sailed and the wonderful people I've met along the way will be with me for the rest of my life. I've sailed to more than 60 countries and survived four hurricanes at sea.”

Slightly more than 21 percent said they wanted to travel.Less than 20 percent said they did it because they needed the job.

Just 4.4 percent did it for the money.

We were curious to learn if yachties were backpackers who stumbled into the industry or if they were the kind of people with saltwater in their veins. Given the response to the previous question, it’s no surprise that when we asked Did you know anything about yachts when you got your first crew job?, the majority said yes.

More than 60 percent grew up on the water and around boats.Still, nearly 20 percent of respondents admitted they didn’t know a thing.

“I walked on the aft deck of a 40m Jongert and pointed at the large, round, stainless steel thing, and asked the captain, ‘What is that?’” said a man who joined yachting in the 2000s. “He chuckled and said it was the winch. Later in the day, I sat with the owner, he offered me a salary and a trip to the western Caribbean from Maine. Kind of hard to turn down. It lasted two years.”

Of those with experience on boats, more than 45 percent got it from sailboats; about 36 percent getting it from power boats. 

“I sailed a 23-foot engine-less yacht 17,000 nm singlehanded and when I got back to my small sailing club in the UK, the club put on a big party,” said a captain who joined yachting in the 1980s. “A man came up to me and said, ‘I have bought a yacht and want to sail to the Caribbean and back like you. Will you be my captain?’ I said yes, if it's bigger than 23 feet. It was a 55-foot Swan so I said OK.” 

Less than 5 percent got it from being in the military.

“I was still in the Coast Guard, and the executive officer at the SAR station I was at worked part time for Bill Koch running his 55-foot Rybovich Gryphon,” said a broker who joined yachting in the 1980s. “He asked me if I wanted to crew for him one day and I thought what a cool way to make a living when I got out of the CG. I logged my sea time and took the captain’s test. I’ve been a licensed captain since 1985.”

Considering that most of our respondents are fairly new to the yachting scene, including more than a third who started since 2000, we were surprised at the answer to this question: Did you take classes before your first yachting job?

Sixty-four percent said no. But looking more closely, we saw that the number of yachties who first took classes before taking that first job increased as the decades wore on. Only 20 percent of those who got into yachting in the 1970s took classes; 41.5 percent of those who got into the industry in the 2000s took classes first; 75 percent of those who are just getting in took classes first.

In inviting our entire database to this survey, we were curious to know why those who got out of the industry made that decision, so we asked If you left yachting at any time, why?

The answers were hard to categorize. The largest group, more than a third of respondents, chose “other.” 

“I left yachting because I wanted to move away from steward and into the deck department, so I took two years out and came back as a junior deckhand and worked right up to captain within seven years,” said a captain in his 40s.

“I left the industry to travel for eight months,” said a crew member in her 20s. “It is really important to get a good balance of life. Being at sea all the time starts to give you a false sense of reality. There is a whole world going on out there. It’s good to stay in touch.”

The most popular reason was that the person simply needed a break. Other popular reasons were to attend university and to pursue a land-based opportunity, either enticed by the yacht owner or someone else.

More than a few noted that they had at least one terrible boss (be they captain or owner) or several in a row and simply got discouraged.

“I left yachting because in the space of five months I had two bad boats in a row,” said a captain in his 50s. “I was maltreated, my physical and mental health suffered and I seriously questioned why I was in the field. After two years out, I couldn't imagine doing anything else, and decided I've just had bad luck.”

The next largest group, at 28.3 percent, said they wanted a normal life.

“I still do some yachting; I just don't want to be part of a permanent crew,” said a woman in her 40s who has been in yachting more than a decade. “I want to live my own life, not the life the owner wants.”

More than 17 percent left yachting because of family demands.

Just 4 percent blamed the onerous license requirements.

And less than 1 percent got out because they needed a job and couldn’t find one in yachting.

We went into our survey assuming that most of our respondents would be former yachties, so we asked When was the last time you were out to sea?

Given the number of respondents still working on yachts, however, these answers don’t surprise.

More than half have been to sea within the past month, with half of the rest in the past six months.

Just 7 percent admitted it’s been a long time.

This sort of survey lends itself to reminiscing, possibly about the best times in life -- being young, unencumbered, and brave. So we asked What do you remember most about the day you got that first yacht job?

The answers didn’t disappoint.

“The best day of my life.”

“A lot of wax.”

“That I had finally legitimized the years spent messing about in boats.”

“A very nice dinner at the Ritz Carlton.”

“The thrill of being on board an 80-foot Camper Nicholson, as a rookie. No pay, just a cabin and food, hands-on training. Worked my way up from bilge rat to captain.”

“That $4 an hour was good money.”

“I remember the feeling that, no matter what happened, my entire life was changing.”

“Thinking ‘what do you mean I could cook on a boat?’ Although I had lived on Nantucket and been to the islands many times (and worked as a chef), it never occurred to me that that was an industry that I was qualified for.”

“I remember thinking it seemed too good to be true.”

“I didn't want to break anything.”

“Being truly shocked. After winning two local fishing tournaments, I received a call while attending boarding school and was offered a summer/part-time job as captain of a 50-foot private sportfishing boat … as a 17-year-old. I could not believe that anyone would trust a teenager to run their boat, but went for it anyway.”

“I'm going to get paid for doing this?”

“I remember meeting the first mate, Shay, who gave me my first opportunity. She had a profound effect on me in more ways than one, a true professional.”

“It is easy for me to remember: It was the day I turned 65. Instead of retiring I started a new career as a yacht captain. I have had a captain’s license for years but never used it in a professional status. Here I am, eight years later, with the same owner but with a much larger boat. You’re never too old.”

“My dad asking me if that is what I intended to do with the rest of my life.”

“How great it felt.”

“Being paid in cash at the end of the day an amount that would have taken two weeks to earn at my other job.”

“The excitement of having my dreams come true. I had grown up on boats and was excited to get into yachting as a career.”

“I was terrified, curious, excited. I drove to the yacht and sat in my car and spied on it for about three hours the night before I started. The next day I moved on board, stayed on the boat for four years, and have been on yachts ever since.” 

“Thinking ‘what have I gotten into?’”

“Getting a free lunch.”

“Sitting on the outside dock at LMC scrubbing teak chairs thinking, ‘wow, I'm in Florida, broke, hot, scrubbing chairs outside in the blazing heat. I've really made it.’”  

“The smell of Feadship interior.”

“Stunned at the tiny crew quarters and having to share a cabin with a guy.”

“I didn't have any idea what I was doing.”

“Getting very dirty within minutes of being hired.”

“Bikinis.”

“I remember the thrill of being at the helm of a 68' Sunseeker and thinking ‘I'd better not screw up’." 

“Relief, and wondering (as I was stowing my quarters) what life was going to be like in the future and how long I'd last?”

“Seeing a Canadian flag flying on the mast of a huge sailing vessel in Rio De Janerio. I had been traveling for three months in South America and when I saw that flag, I nearly cried. I am Canadian and missed a good Canadian conversation.”

“Thinking I'd hit the jackpot.”

“Getting sea sick off of Point Judith on my way to Miami aboard a 55-foot yawl named Tara.” 

These first impressions came from yachties who got into the industry in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990, 2000s and 2010s. Some things don’t change.

We conduct our monthly surveys online. All captains and crew members are welcome to participate. If you haven’t been invited to take our surveys and would like to be, register for our e-mails online at www.the-triton.com.