Are you tired of life in a cube? Had enough with starting at a computer screen and the back of that same head every day? Does that constantly blinking voicemail light drive you right up a wall?
What you need is an outdoor job! But not just any outdoor job. You need one that puts you in proximity to boats and the water. You could be a commercial fisherman, but the life is hard and the pay spotty. You could be a charter captain, but you'd have to know how to find fish and deal with disgruntled, and occasionally drunken, anglers. If you're young you could join the Coast Guard or Navy, but talk about working your way up from the bottom...
No, what you really want to be is a yacht captain. The "office" is way better than that cube you're in, although the sleeping accommodations might be about the same size. The view is--well, let's put it this way: There is a view. Iinstead of a bunch of equally unhappy aliens, your co-workers will be people who share your passion for boats and the water. And your room and board just may be paid for, which means you can save a lot of money very fast. But maybe best of all in today's economy, there's actually a shortage of qualified applicants, so your chances of landing a good job with excellent pay and benefits are quite good.
Ah, but money--that's the rub. Just how much does a yacht captain make? For a long time that was a matter of speculation and a pretty well-guarded secret. But the September issue of Superyacht Business went a long way towards lifting that veil of secrecy when it published the findings of a recent poll. The results may surprise you, depending on your expectations. As you might imagine, pay is a direct function of vessel size. That captain of a 100-foot or smaller yacht with two to six crew can expect to make a little more than $60,000 annually. For yachts 100 to roughly 150 feet and crew of five to 11, captain's pay jumps to around $96,000. Step up to a vessel of 150 to 200 feet with a crew of eight to 18, and you're talking around $120,000. And if you make it to the big leagues--200 to about 275 feet with a crew of 12 to 25--you can expect to pull down a cool $130,000. Not bad for running a boat, eh? And the cool uniform is free.
But note that even this stratospheric world is affected by global economic maladies. Overall, yacht captain salaried actually fell in the period from 2006 to 2008. Surprisingly (at least to me), the bigger the yacht, the greater the decrease. Captains of yachts 100 feet and less saw about a two-percent drop, while those commanding the largest vessels took an average 20-percent hit.
Even at its worst though, being a yacht captain sure beats the heck out of sitting in a cube.