Global Yacht Racing Reviews 3

In 2020, when It looked like the pandemic was coming to an end, I decided to commit to a once in a lifetime experience and signed up to do a 10 month yachtmaster traineeship in 2021 with global yacht racing for a 50% discount. I booked for a year later due to needing time to save for the still very expensive course. As the time drew closer to starting the course I realised that even working 60 hour weeks wouldn't have covered enough for the course and spending money. So I got in contact and global yacht racing who were happy to hold my place to start the 10 month course in August 2022 while I continued to save what I needed. Come May 2022, only 2 and a half months before we were planned to depart from port I receive an email from global yacht racing informing me that due to rising costs and the pandemic the 10 month traineeship I had been saving so hard for was going to now only be 3 months and not to worry about not having any experience on a yacht before because you will still be able to pass the offshore yachtmaster exam after the training we provide. As you can imagine, after a year and half of hard saving and looking forward to 10 months sailing around the world this was very upsetting and dis heartening. So I decided to cancel the course and was then told that if I did so I would not receive a refund of what I had already paid even though they reduced the initial deal by 2/3!! After some negotiation we come to am agreement that I would be on the yacht for 6 months and sail around the Mediterranean and doing a regatta, then to do a transatlantic race over to Antigua where we would do our offshore yachtmaster exam. Oh but all of this would come at an extra cost of about £2000 on top of the original price we agreed for 10 months. (What they failed to mention is that I wasn't actually going to be able to do 6 months on the boat and would have to leave the boat for a month anyway due to days in the EU. I found this out 2 weeks into the course from one of the skippers).I was now in a position to have this money spare, so I accepted. After arriving on global yacht racings boat in Cowes we met the 2 skippers aboard who I would soon realise one of them didn't want me there as much as I think she wanted to be there and after about 1000nm it got so uncomfortable on the boat that I felt it was necessary to pull the skippers aside and explain to them that I had paid alot of money to be on this boat and I shouldn't be spoken to/ treated like a worker for them. (I am more than happy to help deep clean the boat and do maintenance jobs, but when the cleaning is left to the other clients and I, while the skippers would go out for breakfast for 4 hours that's what I would class as unfair) Temporarily the yacht improved until we hit St tropez where I would make sandwiches for 11 crew everyday but when I wanted to make myself some pasta in the evening it was not OK. At this point I wanted to leave the boat and get a refund to which the boat owner made the situation better and removed one of the skippers who was making the boat life unbearable (to which I respect the decision) but unfortunately the 2 skippers were a couple and the removal of one of them caused the other to become a little salty towards myself and the other trainee.

After a month or so more of delivering the yacht and next to no RYA syllabus training on EH01 (a few crew and I participated in our coastal skipper course in Malta with a different company and this is where we got the majority of the RYA syllabus training) I was told that I was not going to be ready to take my offshore yachtmaster and to go for the lower level of yachtmaster (for the 3rd time, not what I had been sold) . At this point I had already had enough of being on the boat and decided to not go back and take the loss of money because I would have rather worked a boring job in England over winter than be on this yacht sailing around the Caribbean. So I flew home a couple of days later.

To highlight the reason I gave this review 1 star and not 0 is because there was about 4 days of training I had missed on EH01, the reason being, after arriving at port after 4 days - 1 week at sea where the crew would be working 4 hours on, 4 hours off shifts, without being able to have a shower and feeling an almost constant tension on the boat, all I wanted to do was get off of it

I have tried to make this review as short as possible and even though it isn't very short, it is 100% honest. Honestly If if it wasn't for the other crew members and trainee I had met on the boat I wouldn't have been there for 3 months. I hope this review isnt taken light hearted and if you're thinking of spending your money on global yacht racing, make sure you are 100% clear on what you're getting yourself in for.

I signed up for traineeship. After 1 month I was advised the course was cancelled due to Covid. I received £8k back (50% of cost of 10mth course) for less than 8 weeks of training. They will not remove pictures of me from social media and have not provided the RYA certificates for all the courses completed. They no longer reply to emails.

The team was just fantastic.
The knowledge of the captain and first mate is impressive.
If you are asking about opportunities to improve, I will suggest the next:
1. Enough vegetables for the whole trip and alternatives of bread, cheese and food in general.
2. Bring on board one sailor junior that can be in charge of sailing chores and housekeeping.
3. Bring a desalinizator so more water can be used by the crew for self cleaning instead of just wet towels.
4. The shift of 3 hours to sleep seemed too short taking in hand that we were waked up 15mins before plus the time it took to prepare to sleep we slept 2 or 2.5hrs. I would suggest 4x4 or make a roll of just 2 persons in standby so the third can sleep 5 or 6 hours in a row.