Chart Your Course

Helmut’s Marine Service’s initiative to build the next generation of marine trades professionals.

Saturday, September 26, 2026 @ Clipper Yacht Harbor, 310 Harbor Drive, Sausalito, CA 94965

Connecting students to careers in the marine trades

We’ve spent decades on the water and in the shop, and lately we keep hearing the same thing from marine businesses all around us: we need more people. More technicians, more parts advisors, more service writers, riggers, apprentices, yard crew. These are skilled, hands-on, well-paying jobs, and the people doing them genuinely love the work. The problem is that not enough young people know these careers exist.

At the same time, a lot of students are asking a real question: what if college isn’t the right path for me? College works for some people — it doesn’t work for everyone. The trades have always been a strong answer to that. The marine industry especially. There are people in this industry who built remarkable careers without a four-year degree — master technicians, shop owners, service managers, captains and riggers who came up through apprenticeships and on-the-job training. They’re the backbone of every business on the waterfront, and they’re proof that this path is real.

Chart Your Course is how we help students find their path into the marine industry, and how we help the industry find them.

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HOW Chart Your Course WORKS

Students enrolled in technical, trade, vocational, internship, apprenticeship, or career-readiness programs get free admission to the Sausalito Boat Show on Saturday, September 26. To register, email Nadine at nadine@helmutsmarine.com with your name and the program you’re enrolled in, and we’ll send you your show ticket and your Chart Your Course Passport.

The Passport is your guide for the day and your raffle entry. It leads you to eight participating marine businesses around the show. At each booth, have a short conversation with someone from the company about what they do, what jobs they hire for, and how someone gets started. Once you’ve talked, the rep stamps your Passport.

When you’ve collected all eight stamps, bring your completed Passport back to the Helmut’s Marine Service booth and you’re entered into the student raffle, drawn at the end of the day.

  1. Register for free admission — email nadine@helmutsmarine.com with your name and program
  2. Receive your ticket and Passport by email (extra Passports available at the Helmut’s Marine booth)
  3. Explore the show and visit all eight participant businesses
  4. Talk with a rep at each booth and get your Passport stamped
  5. Return your completed your Passport to the Helmut’s Marine booth to enter a raffle

To qualify, you just need to be currently enrolled in a technical or trade program, a vocational school or course, an internship or apprenticeship, or a career-readiness program.

What To Expect On The Day

No pressure, no sales pitch — just a day to explore and see what’s out there. Here’s what’s waiting for you:

– Free admission for enrolled students
– Your Chart Your Course Passport (sent by email, with extras at the Helmut’s Marine booth)
– Real conversations with eight marine businesses across the show floor
– A stamp at every stop
– A raffle at the end of the day for students who complete their Passport
– A close-up look at an industry that might just become your next step

Participating Businesses

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Helmut’s Marine Service

helmutsmarine.com

Family-owned since 1988 and based in San Rafael, Helmut’s Marine is the factory-authorized Volvo Penta distributor for the Southwest and an authorized MAN Engines dealer, providing sales, parts, and service for recreational and commercial vessels throughout the Bay Area and beyond. We’re always looking for the next generation to join our crew! Whether you love turning wrenches on big diesel engines, working outdoors in the boatyard, tracking down parts and keeping boats running, helping customers as a service advisor, or hitting the docks as a sales rep, there’s a career on the water waiting for you at Helmut’s Marine.
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Silver Seas Yachts

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Picture a 57-foot yacht with a flybridge lounge, a full kitchen, multiple staterooms, and a joystick at the helm that lets you park it like a video game — that’s what Silver Seas Yachts sells. Based at 300 Harbor Drive in Sausalito, they’re the West Coast dealer for big-name luxury brands like Azimut, Cruisers, Tiara, and Galeon, some of the most impressive boats you’ll see on the Bay. And selling them is only part of the job. Their team gets these yachts delivered, rigged, and ready to go: installing electronics, commissioning engines, running sea trials, and teaching new owners how to handle a million-dollar boat. Whether you’re into sales, tech, or just want to be around serious yachts every day, this is where that world starts.

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Call Of The Sea

callorfthesea.org

Ever wanted to climb the rigging of a real tall ship? Call of the Sea is a Sausalito nonprofit that gets young people out on the water aboard two traditional sailing ships: the schooner Seaward and the 132-foot brigantine Matthew Turner, a wooden ship built right here in Sausalito. Students help raise the sails, steer the ship, and learn about marine science and Bay history while sailing past the Golden Gate and Alcatraz. They offer school field trips, summer camps, teen voyages, and public sails — no experience needed.
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H&M Marine

handmmarine.com

If you’ve ever seen a sleek fishing boat or a center console cutting across the Bay, there’s a good chance H&M Marine sold it, powers it, or keeps it running. This family-run shop on Harbor Drive in Sausalito sells new boats from brands like Pursuit and SeaSport, installs and services outboard motors from Yamaha, Suzuki, and Mercury, and handles everything from electrical upgrades to full engine swaps. Their technicians are certified by the American Boat & Yacht Council, which means they’re trained to the highest safety standards in the industry — the kind of hands-on, skilled work that keeps boaters safe on the water.
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Safe Harbor Marina Bay Yacht Harbor

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A marina is basically a neighborhood for boats, and Safe Harbor Marina Bay in Richmond is one of the best on the East Bay. It’s a deep-water harbor with secure, gated docks where hundreds of sailboats and powerboats call home, with quick access to the San Francisco Bay, the Delta, and the open Pacific. Safe Harbor is part of the largest network of marinas in the world, and running one takes a whole team — dockhands, harbor staff, and people who keep the waterfront humming for boaters heading out every weekend.
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Safe Harbor Sausalito

safeharbor.com

Every boat eventually needs to come out of the water for repairs, painting, or a new engine — and that’s what a boatyard is for. Safe Harbor Sausalito, located in Clipper Yacht Harbor, is a full-service yard where boats are hauled out with massive lifts and worked on by skilled craftspeople in modern workshops. They’re committed to keeping Sausalito’s working waterfront alive, which means real trade jobs: fiberglass and paint, rigging, mechanical work, and more, all done with an eye toward protecting the Bay.

Cruiser Services

cruiserservices.com

Ever wonder how people live on a sailboat for months at a time, far from any dock? That’s where Cruiser Services comes in. Founded by Rich Boren, who spent years cruising Mexico with his family aboard their own sailboat, the company supplies the gear that makes long-distance boating possible: watermakers that turn seawater into fresh drinking water, marine refrigeration that keeps food cold using only the boat’s batteries and solar power, and energy-efficient air conditioning built for life at sea. Rich is known for answering the phone himself and helping boaters troubleshoot from anywhere in the world — proof that the marine industry runs on people who know their stuff and love the lifestyle.
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Modern Sailing School & Club

modernsailing.com

Modern Sailing is where people go to learn how to sail, even if they’ve never stepped on a boat. Based in Sausalito and Berkeley since 1983, they’ve been named the American Sailing Association’s Outstanding School of the Year three times. Students start with the basics on 30-foot sailboats and can work their way up to racing and even sailing across oceans. With a fleet of more than 40 boats, a members’ club, and sailing trips around the world, it’s a great place to discover whether life on the water — as a sailor, an instructor, or a captain — is for you.

WHY THE MARINE INDUSTRY?

Because there’s genuinely nothing quite like it. You work with your hands, near the water, on real problems for real people. Marine technicians, parts professionals, riggers, shipwrights, service writers, yard crew — every role connects to something you can actually see and touch.

A lot of people in this industry built remarkable careers through apprenticeships and technical programs, without ever setting foot in a four-year college. Master technicians, shop owners, service managers, captains — they came up through hands-on training and they’re the backbone of every business on the waterfront. They’re proof this path works, and we want more students to know it exists.

A Note from Helmut’s Marine Service

We’re a family-owned Volvo Penta Power Center in San Rafael, California, and we’ve been part of this industry since 1988. Chart Your Course is our way of doing something about the gap we’ve been watching grow. We hope it gives students a real look at where they could go, and gives the industry a clearer picture of who’s coming next.

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Join Us

Saturday, September 26, 2026 @ Clipper Yacht Harbor, Sausalito, CA

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