The success of In The Same Boat relies on skilled skippers and hosts for the volunteers. Our skippers’ most important tasks are to provide safety of those on board, to make sure we perform according to our sponsors’ expectations, and to make a positive impact on our surroundings in general.
Being a skipper and team leader for In The Same Boat entails working and living on a boat for extended periods with our long-term volunteers, often in remote areas far from cities and towns.
This can be charming and exciting along the world’s most beautiful coastline. Still, it’s also challenging since you have significant responsibility for everyone on board, not just regarding safety at all levels but ensuring that everyone who is part of our organization can leave us with good memories, being ambassadors for a clean and thriving sea.
The skipper is ultimately responsible for their team, but in most cases, an assistant or co-skipper assists with team management and daily tasks.
Some basic tasks and responsibilities are:
- Acting as skipper/master on our sailboats and workboats
- Planning operations for the team
- Organizing the team for daily tasks
- Financial responsibility for the team, weekly reporting
- Facilitating welfare and well-being
- Technical maintenance of boats
- Alarm instructions, conducting exercises
- Reporting on cleanup activities and findings
- Liaising with authorities during ongoing operations
- Organizing the production of content for social media
- Participating in strategy processes for the organization as a whole
Organizing and planning the beach cleaning itself is complex, combining many tools and systems to achieve as high efficiency as possible. There are many considerations, such as birds nesting, governmental regulations and legislations, relations with third parties in the area, choosing a location for depots, ordering containers and pickups, etc.
Competency requirements and training programs for skippers.
For skippers who can commit for 2 years or more, we offer to cover the costs of the necessary education and courses that might be missing. To be a skipper on our boats, you need D5L or D6, safety courses for seafarers (STCW), passenger and crisis management, VHF/SRC, and a seafarer’s medical certificate.
We are looking for individuals with extensive boat experience. Still, previous sea time and formal education are not an absolute requirement for applying — what is crucial is your personal qualities, willingness, and ability to learn. Being engaged in environmental work is, of course, a good thing.
New employees will receive thorough training and support regarding the technical and practical aspects of the work. This also applies to our beach cleaning methodology, which has been developed over many years.
Experience/background emphasized in applicants:
- Practical experience with vessels up to 50 feet
- Experience in financial management and project management
- Professional experience in craftsmanship
- Participation in volunteer organizational work
- Experience with logistics and transportation
Other terms
Salaries for skippers and assistant skippers with us start at NOK 42,000 per month and peak at NOK 50,000 per month when fully responsible for a team. The employer covers travel, accommodation, and meals during work periods. 150 days of work at the teams equals to a 100% position, as we count 7 days a week and 12 hours a day, meaning you practically have 215 days off pr. year. The salary is distributed over 11 months, and the 12th month is vacation, even if you do your 150 days from May to September.
The salary level is low compared to the average for skipper positions in the commercial industries with equivalent competency requirements, especially when considering the sum of tasks and responsibilities.
However, we are not looking for personnel motivated solely by money; instead, we seek individuals driven by their love for the sea and the joy of participating in the ideological work we do.
The employment will be with Salt Life AS, which is owned by In The Same Boat, and more than 30 other shareholders.
Application Process
To get a full time job as a skipper in In The Same Boat/Salt Life AS, we have a recruitment and training process like this:
- Send us your CV and application.
- Volunteer period, minimum 2 weeks, usually not more than 2 months, focus on maritime training.
- Courses and education if needed (D5L/D6, Safety Course++)
- Trainee period 1 with 50% salary, usually 2-6 months.
- Trainee period 2, after checked out on one or more boats, normally 2 months.
- Full time 100% position contract.
The volunteer period is on the same terms as a normal volunteer beach cleaner, but you’ll get som technical training and you’ll be included in internal processes with the other skippers and management team. The purpose of this is to find out if you can thrive in our very special work community, before we start investing in training and make further mutual commitment. If you’re a former ITSB volunteer, in some occasions we will jump this part of the process.
To be able to enter stage 5 you will have to “check out” on minimum one of our boat types, and stage 6 checkout on all types.
- Workboats up to 8 meters
- Workboats up to 15 meters
- Sailboats up to 15 meters
If you are interested, follow further instructions here: https://www.inthesameboat.eco/apply/ and send your CV and application to job@inthesameboat.eco