Neither Ron nor Bligh were in fact bad skippers nor bad sailors, and in fact captkris might be a dang fine sailor (admittely Ron has some character flaws, but life is fun that way sometimes).
What gets my all up in my craw is it is absolutely the responsibility of the capt/owner of the boat to ensure the boat is properly equipped and seaworthy to a certain standard (name your standards of seaworthiness here)
prior to setting a date to depart, shakedowns and breakdown cruises should have already been done prior to the arrival of unpaid crew, far enough in advance to allow them to get a refund / cancel tickets etc..
Unpaid crew duties do not and should not include large / long term maintenance including painting, storage other than personal gear and consumables for that specific passage.
Saying a unpaid crew 'volunteered' to help install a motor,
paint the bottom and test the repairs is just wrong, what do you expect them to do, throw away more money, buy another plane ticket and go home?
How do you avoid all that, talk, talk, talk. If the capt isn't willing to put the unfront investment in talking to you and communicating all this prior to the trip - is that a skipper you want to put your life on?
I love working on boats, that's why I own one - my friends know that, and know I love working on thier boats for free as well (even head repair and bottom painting beat cutting grass). If you want 'crew' to do repairs, say so, you'll probably still get people wanting experience, just don't talk crap about blue water sailing when what you have is a hull and a dream.
Chuckles
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