Want to Work on Tall Ships?
You are not alone. Brutal fact. Very few tall ships can afford to pay staff at ‘entry level’ like deck hands or watch leaders. These are generally filled by volunteers and some have to pay living costs. You can spend a lot of time and money gaining qualifications but you will nearly always earn more on private yachts than sail training ships.
The big difference between private yachts and ships that do charter or sail training is . . . .
Get the full information The Tall Ship Guide and Log Book paperback version.
Please note Classic Sailing is a booking office. We can advise you on your career or where to send a CV, but we rarely handle recruitment processes.
We are not an employment agency for tall ships, and we are not responsible for employing the paid or voluntary crew on the vessels we work with.
- Voluntary positions are available on some of the ships we work with but you have to be approved by the vessel owners or Captain.
- The vessels offering volunteer positions change from time to time and you will need to contact them directly yourself.
- Please bear in mind that to gain approval as a volunteer you may have to pay to sail on them first.
Job Opportunities on Facebook
From time to time we may post on our Facebook Page job opportunities from our sailing partners. Please LIKE our Classic Sailing Page and we can keep you in the loop.
Classic Sailing Facebook
A Career on Tall Ships
Working on tall ships is a very desirable occupation for many reasons. Unfortunately this gives rise to a situation where tall ship owners, who all have very difficult finances, can either charge people to work for them or pay practically nothing. As many of them are also charities you can see the logic of this, but it is very frustrating if you have your heart set on a sailing career.
If you live in the Americas the qualifications are different. The best source of information is:
the American Sail Training Organisation https://tallships.sailtraining.org
Here are some ways into the Tall Ship Industry in the UK
Routes 1 to 5
