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[Guest]

one of my school teachers who works at sailnz recommended me to them because i am failing in school and i need a job. i went in on thursday and friday for the day and they invited me back for all of next week. so far i have been crew on NZL40 and been made to sponge out the bilges of both yachts.

its not so much a job as of yet, i assume(hope) that it is a trial period that will eventuate into something later this year

[wheels 543]

Well that's a good attitude so far. I was waiting for the complain about sponging out the bilge, but good on ya for not turning it that way. Keep your chin up, doing anything and everything that is asked of you and with a good attitude all the way. Jobs are tuff to come by right now and getting more so and I expect will get even tougher for the next 12 to 18mths. Be patient. It seems like such a long time looking forward, but once you are on the other side of the time, you wonder where the heck it flew too.

And one day years from now, you can say you started at the bottom and worked up, quite literally.

Remember, always remember this, even though at times it may noit seem like it, someone senior to you will always be watching and taking note of your efforts and if they were any good at their own job, they will one day remember that young Lad with the good hard working attitude.

I had one lad that had that attitude. He worked for me for free just for the fun of it. Then one day I was in a management position and I emplyed him on Jade Stadium. He ended up becoming one of my top installer. A few years later, he is now overseas as a sound engineer, starting off with a few lame gigs. I put in a few good words for him and he has just finished two tours through Europe with two very famous band and now has constant gigs offerd by the biggest Sound company in the UK.

It all started with the right attitude.

[Guest]

Wheels is right - attitude is everything, you can teach anyone to mop bilges, pull up sails, steer a boat, but the person with the right atitude will win out every time.

And don't give up on school, what about using your downtime when you aren't mopping bilges to start working towards a qualification - RYA yachtmaster if that's where you see yourself going. There are plenty of others on this site who can point you to the right ticket if you know where you want to end up.

[wheels 543]

And I am with Squid. Don;t give up on school. If you are struggling with it, you may have a learning disability. find out if you have and get some help. Even though attitude is a major componenet, I do continually struggle with lack of qualifications. I maybe able to do a task, but trying to prove I can before hand, especially in todays world, is very difficult. And it seems more and more that the qualification outweighs the ability. However, the guys that hire are still mostly old school and we don';t go so much on the Quals, so the attitude is still important. But if you can have the Attitude AND the Quals, the world is your oyster mate.

Most people struggle at school for one of two reasons. They do not learn in the way they are being taught and therefore the subject goes over there head and they become frustrated and lose focus and school sucks and some end up causing trouble and getting into trouble.

The other is that they are just too clever and get completely bored with life because there is no challenge.

Actually there is a third. A combination of the two, which tends to be the reason for the Number one. I don't believe there is a "learning Disability" (*unless you are mentally handicapped) but more of a "learning difference" and thus the Teaching has the disibility because it does not fit a certain learning style. That has to change in NZ as many many young people learn differently than the "standard" and we are simply not recognising it in education.

[Guest]

And if you start a course that is where your interest lies everything suddenly changes.

[wheels 543]

Squid, we just need one more oldie to make a comment now and we could be called the "Three Wise men". Assuming the third makes a wise statment too of course.

[Guest]

I just turned 50 but for the life of me I can't think of anything wise to say.

Except that my bilges need mopping so I'd be thrilled to have such an experienced man aboard some time. If you gather other skills, please be sure to advertise them here and I'm sure you'll get support. I'm not being sarcastic. Put yourself out there and someone will appreciate your work ethic. I'm glad that's what you've started to do.

[wheels 543]

And there ya have it, the Three Old wise Men. Well maybe a couple of wise ones, a couple of Old ones

 

And if you thik your Job may suck, just remember that there could always be worse.

[Guest]

I'm knot 50, a whiles to go yet, so hardly old and wise?? I think knot.

 

But I will echo the comments above from the 3 maybe old maybe wise Gentlemen. I had issues at school, one being getting past my boat locker an actually too school in the 1st place, so I had reports full of 'could do better', but I didn't care. But then I decided my boating activities could have more knowledge behind them so I started to get into some Tickets and etc. This was back in the Ministry of Transport times where you have to find an old sea dog captain to take you under his wing and show you hows it's done before fronting to the MOT Inspectors for a gazillion hours of exams.

 

That I did enjoy and as boring as some of it was it, was far better than learning the square root of African history in relation to marketing a lower colon.

 

Just like an apprenticeship, the young fellas on boats start at the bottom or bilge in this case and work up. Everyone started as a bilge emptier. If you have the attitude where you can mop bilges without wingeing and realise it's step one on a tall ladder, you'll go a long way. Swap some boring time for marine learning time and you'll climb that ladder faster.

 

Once you get up that ladder a was it'll be your turn to utter the phrase 'Oui you boy, out with a bucket, YY's just spilt another drink again, mop it up'.

[Dagwood 57]

I've watched my wife's nephew over the years deal with a learning difficulty. What he lacked in academic progress he has more than countered with a great attitude and a willingness to work.

 

He's now well on the way to achieving the first milestone in his dream of becoming a commercial skipper.

 

He loves his work and from all accounts he's a highly regarded employee who's well liked by management, colleagues and customers.

 

Good on you and best of luck for the future....

[PaulR 3]

I met a young 20 ~ 22 year old who could not do maths. dropped out of school, left home etc.

 

Started with getting him to look in the paper for all the mathmatical symbols he could find and explained each one to him.

 

Then found out he had been fishing commercially and from that, used fishing boat problems to do maths. It meant something real to him. Fuel consumption / range, speed and time to port etc Then he got right into it and found the maths interesting and applicable to his world.

 

That is the key, i believe.

 

In form 1 & 2 days, what young kiwi lad wants to learn sewing and cooking. Nobody.

 

Parachute, kite, sails or glider making is much better. Still you need the same sewing skills, cutting trimming stiching etc as making a bag but far more exciting to then throw parachutes out of the 3rd story classrooms at the end.

 

Like wise cooking. Yes scouts was great learning to do that but schools would have IMHO better results for boys to have "survival" or BBQ cooking, rahter than bake a cake.

 

Making bombs in Chemistry, playing with wave tanks or sonic "BOOMS" in Physics was always better!!

 

Repairs at school progressed well. In 7th form, we even built a wall across the classroom to make a study area!!

[Atom Ant 0]

JH doesn't have any learning difficulties - he just doesn't like being at school! He'd rather be on a boat, or fixing a boat, or designing a boat, or building a boat. Anything as long as it has boat and not school in it eh?

 

I spent years at school dreaming about boats and paying no attention to (maths especially) almost every subject. I couldn't see the point and didn't listen to anybody and everybody who tried to get me to work harder - actually - work at all. Well I'm not crying over spilt (or is it spilled) milk but I have missed out on many opportunities in life due to my laziness as a teenager. I don't have regrets as I don't see the point - I made my decisions then and I live with them now. JH I hope you decide to do what it takes at school cos if you want to be a boat designer then learning maths etc will be what you need to get into naval architecture. Yes you may be able to do it another way, but trying at school will turn out to be the easiest way in the long run. Clean bilges on the weekends.

[Guest]

thanks for all the advice guys

mum and dad say that if i am going to leave school next year then i have to go do a course at uni or get a skippers license or something from mahurangi tech

the crew is letting me do more stuff now, today i helped remove a fuel tank, clean the engines/engine room and rebuild a grinder pedestal. then we had a down sydrome girl from the make a wish foundation come sailing with us in the afternoon

[Guest]

JH - stay at school if you can, later in life having a few qualifications might be the difference between being promoted into the warm, dry office, the company car and the nice salary or lying on your back sanding epoxy off the inside of a quarter berth on a boat for one of your mates that stayed at school.

 

Unfortunately it does give you more options later but is less fun now.

 

You have some awesome talents/ideas in terms of design etc. but I doubt Brett Bakewell-White or the ETNZ design team got to where they are by not having seventh form maths (whatever that means these days)

 

Stick to the part-time sailing/working and get the school marks while you can.

 

EE