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Curiosity About These "Crew Wanted" Posts

10K views 49 replies 34 participants last post by  svzephyr44 
#1 ·
My curiosity is getting the best of me.

In reality, how many inexperienced people find crew positions from posting here (or any forum) and if you are a skipper, do you really look in these forums for inexperienced crew? If a potential crew member has never sailed or only sailed a few hours on a local lake, do you really want to take a chance that you get an inexperienced person offshore and they become violently sea sick? Or suddenly decide that sailing isn't for them and wig out?

I know you have to start somewhere, but it seems to me that cultivating a relationship over a few months would be a better bet than taking on total strangers (whether skipper or crew).

Just thinking out loud.
 
#34 ·
I have no certificates, or references. But I'm pretty sure I would be good crew on a passage. I have experience though, mainly because I sailed my own boat on long blue water passages and in some really nasty weather. You can still find work at the dock, I was offered a job to crew a boat from Panama to China, but I didn't have the time and the pay was a little low, the skipper was nice but... intense.... He had sailed a hijacked ship out of somalia after it was captured by pirates and was an Ex eastern european soldier.

I think a lot comes down to timing. I know I'm looking for crew, but I'm asking people I know first before I scour the web. A month or two on a small boat with someone is intense, anyone can handle a few days.

i never been sea sick!!
Then you have not been in rough enough weather then. I don't throw up, but I get queasy/easily agitated for a few hrs when I head straight out into 25 knots and steep seas. What would scare me is crew that is too confident in their abilities, or not scared a bit about going offshore. I stay well away from people with big egos, Captain or crew.
 
#42 · (Edited)
I have no certificates, or references. But I'm pretty sure I would be good crew on a passage.
....
hi comrade in arms...didn't know they existed outside my home-turf (=eg waters)

I don't throw up, but I get queasy/easily agitated for a few hrs
my experience:
..get the green wallpaper-thing,
throw up as quick and as much U can,
then (+that's hardest thing in line) : eat as soon + as much U can...
-got over it usually within 2-3 hours with rough weather

... scare me is crew that is too confident in their abilities...
;
I stay well away from people with big egos,
Captain or crew.[/QUOTE]
-? ever met a cptn with low ego? (except foresters hornblower.../sorry, got no better more recent example)
whereas crew:
1. too timid
2. too confident within nxt 2-3 beauford
3.too bored within nxt 0-1 beauford
4.too scared >4 bfd
5 exhilarating ego restored at bar/after 1st beer on anchor

,,,,or not scared a bit about going offshore.
who is (deep-within...) the 1st dozen miles at a long-range törn...
 
#35 ·
Well, speaking of inexperienced crew - I'm a Boston area graduate student with a giant itch to get out onto the water! I'm an MIT Sailing member and have taken a handful of classes. Trying to get to the point where I can be confident on my own and I would LOVE the opportunity to volunteer on a larger boat. Any type of coastal trip would be of huge interest to me, as I have time throughout these next few years (and as immediately as this summer) to experiment with.

If anyone can point me in the right direction of where to start in terms of volunteering as a crew on a larger, coastal boat, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!

Drew
pierson.drew@gmail.com
 
#38 ·
Contact local yacht clubs that host weekly races, just showing up on race night can work. This is a relatively easy and fun way to build experience and also to meet boat owners. I picked up three newbie crew members this season, two from this forum and one who just showed up on race night. All three worked out well and will be invited back for the next series. As a skipper trying to put a crew together for a race series, reliability (showing up for races and practices) was higher on my list than experience.

I don't think I'd take someone new on a long passage, but the crew that I've raced with the past 10 weeks? Sure!
 
#36 ·
I was an inexperienced sailor when I crewed on 3 boats out of Annapolis (2 were from postings I found on sailnet). Now I race in San Fran Bay with someone who only knew of me from the local yacht club. Everyone has to do their homework and to feel free to back out if competence and camaraderie are (or seem) lacking. As a woman, it can get a little funny ascertaining motives of the male skippers, so I stay away from posts that are strictly looking for female crew, and I conduct my own due diligence, but it's been my limited experience that most of sailors just want to sail with interesting crew and have a good time on the water.
 
#37 ·
From the crew end, yes, these message boards work.

My boyfriend and I sailed to French Polynesia from California with a captain we met on a forum like this, and in September, we meet our new captain (whom we also met online) in Bali and sail to South Africa.

When using forums to find crew/boats, I try to be honest about my experience and my desires in a captain, and stay professional in tone. We already had some sailing experience prior to hitching rides around the world with captains we met on the internet, which certainly helped our postings portray us as less like flaky dreamers, and more like folks who know what they are doing (though are still willing to learn), and aren't going to puke for a week straight or drive their captian to turn them into fish bait. Since our experience was as paid crew on tall ships, we also had professional references, which probably helped.

It is, however, extremely important to get to know each other as well as possible--email a lot, talk on the phone, get references. Not doing so can lead to very unpleasant situations. This danger is far less if you're just looking for crew/a boat for short trips. In that case, I don't see why a captain wouldn't occasionally be willing to take on inexperienced crew. If you're only sailing around the bay, what's the harm?

My boyfriend and I actually wrote a rather detailed article on our experiences and our strategies for finding boats to crew on. It will be coming out in the February 2013 edition of SAIL Magazine.

In conclusion: captians aren't exactly knocking down our door to have us on their boats, but, yes, crew finder forums work, if you're persistent and do it the right way.

Wynne

www.crossingtheline2011.blogspot.com
 
#43 ·
I have been a captain looking for crew as well as crew looking for a boat. In short....it works but with "caveat emptor" The screening process starts with e-mails, then phone calls, (as you can tell alot about a person by their voice), a lot of references and reference checking, hopefully one may actually know some of the references ,then a face to face and at that moment of getting to know someone, after all due diligence a decision is made, to go or not go. Sometimes people misrepresent....its kinda like a job interview where one has to read between the lines about a person. I had one crew who represented themselves as a seasoned sailor and then got scared and wanted us to turn back 400 miles out!!! Hope this helps.:)
 
#44 ·
well, I myself find me once in a while, that:
1st step: over-enthousiastic
2nd step (>bfd 7-8): dead-sober
3rd step (after a 6 hours watch, with a stiff Mistral): cooled down to the point of: " how the heck human beings ever get the idea of travelling the seas?"

...but, I know what you mean- prefer to get there with a huddled together crew & good humoured cptn instead of shipping them back (preferably) within the 1st 3/4 of an hour
 
#45 ·
re: seasickness, I think it's pretty easy for ANYONE to succumb given enough time and circumstances...on long passages I always recommend doing/taking something 'just in case'. Especially when shorthanded.

Given enough time, I have been 'picked up' as crew for racing, and I always recommend doing 'practice days' or 'shakedown cruises' if possible to get to know the people. Setting expectations is another key success factor.
 
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