My life at a million mph!

[lil_coz]

OK guys and gals, firstly I'd like to apologise in advanced for the length of this post but I've been buzzing so much its untrue! Its basically about what I've been doing/planning in the past 3 months (career wise) and where its heading. So if its boring, again I apologise. For those who are still reading on, you have been warned! lol

OK, about 4 years back I went to uni in Coventry doing a degree in Motorsport Engineering. Started with Foundation and then went onto the actual course. In the mean time I've been working on an off in between school/uni back home with a company (I've been with them for about 7 years now). Basically all the Virgin Media vehicles out there are ours and we contract them out to Virgin and we have sites all over the country. I work in the transport department in part stores as we have a bodyshop and garage to repair them when our drivers decide to crash.

I started thinking realistically about where I wanted my career to head. I figured that if I carried on with my degree, I'd get a job in motorsport that will most probably pay sh*t money and I'd have to start from scratch. Money wouldn't be good unless I'm in the sharp end of motorsport and the competition is fierce! Where as if I stay where I am now, I wouldn't need a degree because I've got nothing to prove to them and potentially have a decent job.

Cut a long story short, 3 months ago I quit uni because the plan at work was for me to become a mobile mechanic and be contracted. Pay would be good and I've always enjoyed working there because I get on with everyone. I was a very happy lad to say the least!

Last week my whole life got turned on its head! I got approached from one of our managers and he said that he had an apportunity for me (this was on Monday). He said that the CEO of the company wanted someone to look after his yatch out in Spain and it would be a good year out for me. I said that there'd be a 60% chance of me taking it on and he told me to think about it over the week. Later on that day I saw him and he asked if I'd though about it (which I had and the more I thought about it, the more I really wanted to do it!). I told him that chances are I'd go for it and we chatted a bit more about what would need to be done. 5 mins later he finds me and tells me that he'd spoken to the CEO and that he was keen on meeting me and he wanted me to take a course to captain his yatch too!

Things have been going so quick since Monday that I've only really had the chance to sit down and think about whats gone on! I'll be Supervisor and Captain of the boat. Basically I'm flying out there in a weeks time to meet him and show me round the boat. He's gonna take me down to Gibraltar to show me the ropes and let me have a little play. I could be out there for a week or 3. Not sure yet. Then I'm coming back to go on a 2 week intensive course to get my license which lets me go anywhere worldwide. I'll also be a qualified Jet Ski instructor because when he has his guests on board, if they want to play on the Jet Ski I'll be showing them how. Then in October I'll be going out there to live on it for 9 odd months! If we click and it works out nicely, it could well be permanent!
I've had 2 major career changes in as many months! Its just been mental!

Well anyway I'll stop going on now and thanks to anyone who's read on this far! :icon_thumright:

Coss

 

[jojo]

I just read the whole post mate, sounds like a dream job to a certain extent, hope it all goes well for you, and that you are immune to sea sickness. :icon_thumright:

 

[Andy_S3]

****** hell, well done matey-just hope you click with CEO!

 

[Rev-head]

I am jealous as hell...You lucky sod !!!...good luck hope it works out for you ...and hope there is lots of pretty girls on deck sunbathing

 

[mitch78]

:thumbsup:

 

[S3 Big Andy]

Sweet! Go for it what have you got to lose!!! I would love to do that job, you lucky Steward of bars ;-)

 

[lil_coz]

I just read the whole post mate, sounds like a dream job to a certain extent, hope it all goes well for you, and that you are immune to sea sickness. :icon_thumright:

Thats what made me laugh. I still haven't been asked if I have a sense of direction or if I get sea sick! lol

I can see why you pulled out of the Switzerland trip now!

It sounds fantastic, good luck to you!
:icon_thumright:

Yup, still might be able to do it tho. Me and Ems have really been looking forward to it so it'll be a shame not to go.

Thanks guys! :icon_thumright:

 

[Broken Byzan]

What an excellent opertunity. Its good its not april first as it does semm too good to be true, lmao

 

[lil_coz]

What an excellent opertunity. Its good its not april first as it does semm too good to be true, lmao

lol. The other night, some church goers come up to us and invited us to the local for tea and biscuits. I said there's no point because I'm not in the country etc. My mate looked at me and said that no one will ever believe that story! lol

 

[willnabby]

Well done, hope it all works out perfect for you.:icon_thumright:

 

[quattrojames]

Wow what an excellent opportunity! You had better start revising port and starboard lol

 

[Nilz]

Liar Liar...bums on fire!!!

Excellent dude, hope it all goes well and it does all go to plan, love it when a plan comes together!!!

 

[Kontraband]

haha, good stuff... my step bro does a very similar thing...

He's being doing it for a couple of years now... and has since taken up smoking heavily, having a bird in every port and often smelling slightly damp! (Look out for the last one!)

Good luck

 

[dansansome]

wow. just....wow.

did you ever land on your feet. that sounds like an amazing chance to be paid for enjoying the millionaire lifestle (almost).

i hope it all works out for you. good luck

 

[Nickynibbles]

Seems a little nuts to me that someone would invite a total novice to captain a yacht based in the med, but hey ho its a hell of a lucky break!

I've been sailing most of my life as my father was an avid sailer having started out learning on an adventure training exercise with the Army at a place called Kiel in the Baltic Sea (which by the way is where there was one of the more famous u-boat stations!). He'd been sailing for 30 odd years and took many family holidays and other trips with him as I grew up, even going on courses he was instructing on at Kiel! Sadly he passed away 4yrs ago having taken ill one night on his own boat mored just of Swannage nr Poole. I miss sailing a lot having not set foot on a boat for 4yrs now, best of luck in this venture as im sure you'll have the time of your life!

 

[lil_coz]

Liar Liar...bums on fire!!!

Excellent dude, hope it all goes well and it does all go to plan, love it when a plan comes together!!!

Me too! lol And to your first comment....

haha, good stuff... my step bro does a very similar thing...

He's being doing it for a couple of years now... and has since taken up smoking heavily, having a bird in every port and often smelling slightly damp! (Look out for the last one!)

Good luck

I hope I don't start the smoking thing! Wouldn't mind the the 2nd bit tho!

Seems a little nuts to me that someone would invite a total novice to captain a yacht based in the med, but hey ho its a hell of a lucky break!

The thing with the CEO is when he wants something, he wants it yesterday. But I've been so grateful for this opportunity its unreal. It did litterately come completely out of the blue! Anything that you think I should look out for?

Thanks again for the comments peeps!

Coss

 

[voorhees]

good luck...heres one I saw recently

 

[Kontraband]

they parked that like sizzos parked his S3 recently!

 

[R14AYN]

Ten points that man!!

I went to China 3 weeks ago, got back and thought it sucks here. Now moving to Sydney in 3 weeks...forever. A change is as good as a rest

 

[Nickynibbles]

The thing with the CEO is when he wants something, he wants it yesterday. But I've been so grateful for this opportunity its unreal. It did litterately come completely out of the blue! Anything that you think I should look out for?

Thanks again for the comments peeps!

Coss

Is it a sailing yacht or a motor boat by the way? Any ideas what sort of size? Thing to bear in mind is that sailing a boat seems simple enough to put some sail up & off you go, its a fair bit harder than that in reality and a 2 week intensive course will teach you the basics of how a sailing boat works but a 40ft sailing boat can be a handful if you've got much sail up, never mind what they're like to manouver in tight spots like a marina! If you go for it demand as much training as you can get before you go, and hope you get a crew with experience you can learn from as well!

 

[dansansome]

Anything that you think I should look out for?

iceburgs.

sorry, couldnt help myself

 

[lil_coz]

Ten points that man!!

I went to China 3 weeks ago, got back and thought it sucks here. Now moving to Sydney in 3 weeks...forever. A change is as good as a rest

Australia is one place I'd love to go! Anything or anyone out there that you know? Hope it all works out for you dude! :thumbsup:

Is it a sailing yacht or a motor boat by the way? Any ideas what sort of size? Thing to bear in mind is that sailing a boat seems simple enough to put some sail up & off you go, its a fair bit harder than that in reality and a 2 week intensive course will teach you the basics of how a sailing boat works but a 40ft sailing boat can be a handful if you've got much sail up, never mind what they're like to manouver in tight spots like a marina! If you go for it demand as much training as you can get before you go, and hope you get a crew with experience you can learn from as well!

Its 70ft with 2 MAN engines. Not a sailing boat so it shouldn't be too tough. I've tried a bit of sailing on the past and its ****ing hard! When it comes to training, I am going to push for as much as possible. The more bits and pieces I do, the better it will be for me.

iceburgs.

sorry, couldnt help myself

Hopefully should be too many with all this 'Global Warming' lol

 

[TFSI]

Its 70ft with 2 MAN engines. Not a sailing boat so it shouldn't be too tough. I've tried a bit of sailing on the past and its ****ing hard! When it comes to training, I am going to push for as much as possible. The more bits and pieces I do, the better it will be for me.

Hopefully should be too many with all this 'Global Warming' lol

MAN Engines Are they D08, D20, D26 or D28 that are fitted ?

 

[Nickynibbles]

Its 70ft with 2 MAN engines. Not a sailing boat so it shouldn't be too tough. I've tried a bit of sailing on the past and its ****ing hard! When it comes to training, I am going to push for as much as possible. The more bits and pieces I do, the better it will be for me.

Oh crap mate your in trouble!! Speaking from experience large motorboats are a lot harder to handle than you could imagine! My old man once had a 30'odd foot Sealine motor cruiser and although was simple enough in open water to point it somewhere & open up the throttles manouvering her was tricky, never got the hang of it mysel, nor did he so it was sold after a year to buy a sail yacht instead! Trouble is motorboats have a lot of power so its easy to get in trouble, plus the larger ones have fixed propellors and use rudders to steer meaning if you dont give it some drive it wont turn & you have to be actually moving forwards or backwards for the rudders to work! A 70ft motorboat would be a real handful, although you'll have bow & stern thrusters to help manouver in port its a really really really big boat and should be manned by several crew just to run her! I suggest you get it clear what will be expected of you, if your to be in charge of actually moving the boat i'd really consider not doing it simply because of your lack of experience and ability. If your just to be responsible for keeping things ship shape so to speak on a permanent mooring without going anywhere go for it!! Dont want to put a dampener on things but to handle a 70ft motoryacht you need a lot of experience else your liable to do some real damage to your boat as well as others!

 

[lil_coz]

MAN Engines Are they D08, D20, D26 or D28 that are fitted ?

lol Do we approve of MAN engines?! Its the D28's. Is there anything in particular that I should know about them?

Oh crap mate your in trouble!! Speaking from experience large motorboats are a lot harder to handle than you could imagine! My old man once had a 30'odd foot Sealine motor cruiser and although was simple enough in open water to point it somewhere & open up the throttles manouvering her was tricky, never got the hang of it mysel, nor did he so it was sold after a year to buy a sail yacht instead! Trouble is motorboats have a lot of power so its easy to get in trouble, plus the larger ones have fixed propellors and use rudders to steer meaning if you dont give it some drive it wont turn & you have to be actually moving forwards or backwards for the rudders to work! A 70ft motorboat would be a real handful, although you'll have bow & stern thrusters to help manouver in port its a really really really big boat and should be manned by several crew just to run her! I suggest you get it clear what will be expected of you, if your to be in charge of actually moving the boat i'd really consider not doing it simply because of your lack of experience and ability. If your just to be responsible for keeping things ship shape so to speak on a permanent mooring without going anywhere go for it!! Dont want to put a dampener on things but to handle a 70ft motoryacht you need a lot of experience else your liable to do some real damage to your boat as well as others!

Blimey... I appreciate what your saying. I didn't expect it to be a complete walk in the park. Its just manouvering it that will be tricky. He did say that when I head out there on Mon he'll teach me a few things himself. Then I'll hit the courses when I come back. To be honest I'm loving the fact that its all completely new for me because that means that I'll be learning a hell of a lot and its something that I'll be willing to put some effort in. I tend to be a quick learner, especially when it comes to anything thats motorised! No doubt it is going to be a massive learning curve!

 

[jojo]

Reading it from the start, it sounds like a once in a lifetime opportunity for any mortal... just treat it like an Audi, you can't go wrong. Just go for it and enjoy it for the life of you.

 

[TFSI]

lol Do we approve of MAN engines?! Its the D28's. Is there anything in particular that I should know about them?

MAN Truck power units are my ball game not marine but the now obsolete D28's are not a bad old motor. We last fitted them at euro3 in the trucks. They are not quite as good as the newer D20 and D26 Common Rails but they are a good old work horse.

No 1 injector has an inductance sensor for injection timing purposes and if this fails they go gutless and smoke, oh and watch out for coolant in the fuel tanks its down to injector sleeves leaking or cracked cylinder heads. We have seen D28's with a million clicks under there belts and not suffered a problem.

After all MAN built the first diesel ever thanks to Rudolph, they should be good by now.

Enjoy the job offer it sounds good.

I considered a marine engineers job with Cummins Diesel Engines a good while ago but unfortunately they were mainly working boats like trawlers so i opted to train other people how to fix truck power units. With hindsight a good move i think.

 

[lil_coz]

MAN Truck power units are my ball game not marine but the now obsolete D28's are not a bad old motor. We last fitted them at euro3 in the trucks. They are not quite as good as the newer D20 and D26 Common Rails but they are a good old work horse.

No 1 injector has an inductance sensor for injection timing purposes and if this fails they go gutless and smoke, oh and watch out for coolant in the fuel tanks its down to injector sleeves leaking or cracked cylinder heads. We have seen D28's with a million clicks under there belts and not suffered a problem.

After all MAN built the first diesel ever thanks to Rudolph, they should be good by now.

Thanks for the info mate! I'll keep that in mind when I head out there. I've been given a folder which is a manual for the engine. Had a flick through but you cant beat experience and the info you get from someone who actually knows the unit! I know who to PM now if anything goes wrong! If you dont mind of course

 

[TFSI]

Thanks for the info mate! I'll keep that in mind when I head out there. I've been given a folder which is a manual for the engine. Had a flick through but you cant beat experience and the info you get from someone who actually knows the unit! I know who to PM now if anything goes wrong! If you dont mind of course

No problem, always willing to try and help.

Just out of interest whats there BHP output ?

In the trucks we fitted them to 480 hp with the Bosch EDC 6.1 system which is what i described with the no1 injector. Above 480 they were dressed with the EDC 7 Common Rail system this engine went to 530 hp but from experience i know they tend to jack up the power output considerably because of the constant speed with marine compared to stop/start vehicle engines.

Would guess they are probably 800 -1000 hp each maybe even a little more.

 

[lil_coz]

Just out of interest whats there BHP output ?

No idea mate. I'll find out as much info as I can on Mon. We just sent over 80 litres of 15/40 oil to meet us out there. I'll post up details and piccies when I can.

Coss

 

[Dennis Moeller]

interesting...how did it all go? U a captain now?

 

[Caesium]

Damn these people and their success stories when the rest of us are stuck in suburban hell...

 

[chris1988brown]

that is rly awsome news m8 n glad for you and hope it works out even beter than ur expecting, gd luck m8

chris

 

[jojo]

interesting...how did it all go? U a captain now?

Yup, I think he made it.

 

[lil_coz]

Christ, who dug up this relic?! lol

Yea, I've made it. Really enjoying myself! Summer months are really hard work. And a couple of months leading up to it getting things ready for the summer season, but the winter is mine really. I've actually only just come back on the boat for a week or so to make sure eveything is ok before I head back to the UK for Xmas and New Years.

The boat is now in Portugal. Much prefer it here to Spain. Coast line here is something else!

Coss

 

[L1 HCS]

That is simply fantastic! I think you've got the best job ever!

 

[A3Tom]

I'd want you to have a bit more training than that to captain my very expensive boat!.

Sounds great, but a 2 week intensive course to be allowed to do that for a job seems a bit odd for me. Randomly I know someone who does that for a living...being captain to the wealthy types with big boats. They have a great time

Enjoy it but I'd take his training ideas with a large pinch of salt if you get what I mean?.

T

 

[S3 HODGE]

Congrats buddy, Sounds like your living a dream.
Have you still got the S3? Thought you may own an R8 by now? hehe.

 

[tazzy baby]

congrats mate hope its all that you have dreamed and more,, what are the women like and have you got any pics for us unlucky so and so's lol
Nice one butty... P.S. have you got a cool captains name yet like pugwash or long john hehehe

 

[wibble111]

P.S. have you got a cool captains name yet like pugwash or long john hehehe

Or seaman stains , anyway on a more serious note :sign_pics: of the boat!