Anyone in the RFA?

[MercuryRises]

Ladies and Gents,

Just a quick question, is anyone here in the RFA?

I've been offered a position with them as a Third Engineer, and I was just after some honest opinions on the job/organisation, after all, the recruitment staff are never going to say "well, the job's ok, but the food is st, half the people you work with will be incompetent and you'll get no recognition for anything you do"


Cheers!

[rog007]

Double checking you mean Royal Fleet Auxilliary?

If so, worked with but not for; very commendable organisation and the people I was dealing with at the time were good.

[dai1983]

Spent two months on an RFA ship and the crew seemed very professional and did an awesome job while being more chilled out than the RN. You will obviously be away a lot but you could also get your income tax refunded. Food was also decent!

[MercuryRises]

Yeah, Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

I've been Merchant Navy for 7 or 8 years, but I got laid off in October due to the oil price downturn.

It's the RFA or Cruise Ships at the moment (I can't go deep sea on things like tankers/container ships etc as I don't have experience which, funnily enough, I can't get because I can't go deep sea) and frankly Cruise Ships don't interest me all that much.

Appreciate any input, just so I can get an idea what I'm letting myself in for really!

[ColdoRS]

I too have done almost 6 years in the Merchant Navy. Cruise Ships and Superyachts so far.

Know a few guys in the RFA, aside from food and the whole military aspect of it, the over-riding thing I hear from them is that the money is shocking. (2EO/ETO at least). There's also the risk you're tied up to the UK somewhere and subsequently lose your tax relief status... which seems like a fair risk to me.

There are alot of jobs out there for decent 3EO, cruise ships, superyachts or deep sea if you so desire. Obviously the Oil and Gas sector is a bit tighter however.

[MercuryRises]

ColdoRS said:

I too have done almost 6 years in the Merchant Navy. Cruise Ships and Superyachts so far.

Know a few guys in the RFA, aside from food and the whole military aspect of it, the over-riding thing I hear from them is that the money is shocking. (2EO/ETO at least). There's also the risk you're tied up to the UK somewhere and subsequently lose your tax relief status... which seems like a fair risk to me.

There are alot of jobs out there for decent 3EO, cruise ships, superyachts or deep sea if you so desire. Obviously the Oil and Gas sector is a bit tighter however.

Thing is, I've worked almost my whole career so far in the North Sea, never got my tax relief yet!

The money they're offering me as 3/E isn't amazing, up to about 40k depending on grading. But at the moment, I'm unemployed, so it's more than I'm getting! Hopefully I won't be 3/E for too long, I have all my 2/E qualifications, I'm hoping it's a temporary "training" position

Deep Sea only seem to be hiring people with several years in Rank plus Dangerous Cargo endorsements. which you can't get without working deep sea. and you can't work deep sea because you have no experience..........

I turned down a cruise job the other day, terribly unprofessional interview, the most random questions I've ever heard (what is the process by which paper catches fire without application of a flame?), st, the Interviewer actually insulted me during the interview!

Superyachts, I know a couple of fellas who work/have worked on them, sounds pretty good, but again, they all want Superyacht experience at the moment.

[bomb]

The RFA have different classes of vessel, so if you can get onto a Tanker and vessel that does RAS, you could get the Dangerous Cargo Endorsements there, thus opening up the Tanker market to you. Worth investigating ??

[MercuryRises]

bomb said:

The RFA have different classes of vessel, so if you can get onto a Tanker and vessel that does RAS, you could get the Dangerous Cargo Endorsements there, thus opening up the Tanker market to you. Worth investigating ??

I'd be lying if I said the thought had never crossed my mind.

In fact it was pretty much suggested by the Recruiter during my interview!

[dai1983]

I've been looking into this and the MN the last few days. Perks that I can see are:

-civil service pension
-regular 4 months on, 84 days off so you always know what you are working but some MN companies have 1:1.
-if you get on a tanker then you stand a good chance of getting out of the U.K and therefore claim your tax back.

Id be interested in knowing what's life like for a 3/O. I'm a very hands on person and don't mind being away if the money and leave are able to compensate. The sticking point for me would be the 3 years training on less than half the wages I'm on currently with my family and mortgage etc.

I intend on leaving the RM in two years time so I could try and blag any RN courses that may help me out. Im already considering doing a part time engineering qualification before I leave such an HND. I have a BSc (hons) in Computer Science but I graduated in 2004 and have not really touched it since so not sure if that will be of any use.