BoatU.S. - October/November 2010

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or anyone who has thought about a career in the marine trades — say, as a boatbuilder, designer, or marine technician — there’s a world of top-notch one- or two-year technical programs across the country created to open a direct path to a lifelong career in and around boats. Trade schools, community colleges, accredited certification programs — these are the focus of this BoatU.S. Magazine roundup of post-secondary schools. Some offer state or industry certification; others, an associate’s degree. Still others offer both.

In exploring these courses, we see a trend that promises two sustainable branches for growth: one for the person setting off on a new career in the marine industry; the other for the deliberate raising of the bar on standards-based work across the field. Together these trends promise to keep boat owners boating and marine trade professionals in steady demand.

Starting With Standards

Roger Hellyar-Brook envisions a different future for boatyards. It’s a future in which the staff to whom boat owners entrust the care of their second-biggest investment no longer rely on on-the-job training and a hit-or-miss approach to repairs. It’s a future no longer built on the promise that “your boat will be ready Friday,” when everybody — customer and technician alike — knows that’s not likely.

“I call it the Lexus model of customer
service,” says Hellyar-Brook. “When you
bring in your Lexus for service, you’re
offered coffee in a clean waiting room with
sofas and TV and magazines to read. If it’s
a longer project, they’ll even give you a
loaner car. It may be more expensive, but
if you’re told the vehicle will be ready on
Friday, you’ll get it on Friday. And it’ll be
fixed right.”
Hellyar-Brook is a former merchant
mariner from the north of England and it
doesn’t take long to understand that this
is a man who knows his trade. For over
a decade, Hellyar-Brook has directed and
taught the marine-systems program at The
Landing School in Arundel, Maine. In
addition to marine systems, The Landing
School also offers programs in wooden
boatbuilding, composite boatbuilding, and
yacht design.

PHOTO BY BILLY BLACK, BOT TOM RIGHT

Listen as Hellyar-Brook describes what
he calls the Trojan Project: “Every year, just
before Christmas, we give the students their
first big independent homework. They have
to go aboard this 30-foot twin-engine gas
cruiser and document every system: sani,
potable water, fuel, engine, starting and
charging, all the DC and AC wiring. Then
they do schematics, diagrams, a parts list.
Does it comply with standards or not in all
the wire gauges and hose sizes? And what
about the compatibility of materials?”
With the merest wink, Hellyar-Brook
says one more thing about this particular
aging vessel: “It’s very atypical.”
In the late 1990s, The Landing School
pioneered a yearlong marine-systems cur-
riculum that hews closely to the standards
laid out and adopted by the American
Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC). In fact,
Hellyar-Brook was disappointed when the
standards body began offering open-book
tests for certification; he’d been turning
out students who carried the standards in
their heads.