Best way to find full time captain?

[cruisincanucks]

We were hired after a volunteer stint on a cruising yacht. Our paperwork is not as complete as others with reems of courses but our experience has given us the education we require to keep your vessel and you safe and happy. We have tons of sea miles on our own vessels as well as others. I now work for 6 months on a sailing yacht 70 ft and 6 months on a new motor yacht 70ft. I have found that the rule of thumb of 1000 per ft ONLY exists with years of experience with the same owner. Other owners will tell you that alchohol will be your biggest problem and we have seen that even in crew that we have attempted to hire on behalf of the owner. Try the volunteer route first and then see what happens?? Just a thought. Home

[chris_gee]

I see a few fishhooks there.

At this point it is unclear how much your wife will be a fully functioning crew member.

On most boats it is much easier if there are 3 operational crew ie able to stand watches, albeit that you can have labour saving devices.
If two are sharing watches fatigue is a problem from broken sleep even assuming decent sea berths are available. Then add in repairs even on a new boat, navigation and general checks for the captain, plus callouts when two are required equals more time, plus training of the owners.

Then housekeeping or cooking. Even if it is not shared it is difficult to cook in a seaway. It is even difficult to stand. So even if your wife did all of it her other available times would be limited.

Many delivery captains charge more if the owner comes along. Guess why.

There is also some need for clarity over roles. You want the captain to take responsibility, therefore he is in command. As owner you have some rights, but it is not a 100 footer where the owner is on board for a few weeks now and again and in a sense you don't have staff. Well you can hire and fire but you need a working relationship that probably requires a certain amount of mutual respect and an authoritarian or tight approach can lead to problems.

You live together in a confined space, but when not on passage the captain is stuck in some location where maybe he doesn't want to be until you decide otherwise.

What you need depends somewhat on where you are going - like a few days passage to the Bahamas or weeks.

Just because you can afford a 60' doesn't mean you need one. You may find a 45' very adequate. With this could do sailing courses individually for each of you; perhaps a captain or very experienced person for a few months; and then casual crew for long passages.

I think it is very different sailing with friends or a few mates or even as part of a delivery crew for a defined task and time, than sailing with an owner for a long time in a relatively confined space with little or no escape.

Some people can be "difficult" at times to work with let alone live with.

[brian and clare]

Hi Folks,

Just to put my hand in the mix. (Slow day at work)
Somone who has learned aboard a large professionaly crewed boat can be quite good, and in many cases will have all the procedures worked out for operating/maintaining a large boat, as opposed to a captian that has come up on his own smaller boats.

Having sailed on big professionally crewed boats, and on some very big, very expensive boats with experienced volunteer crew, I have to say that, though the volunteer folks get the boat from a to b quite well, and come up with a solution quickly when the s-it hits the fan, a crew that is trained under a professional sailor will have the routine that takes into account a million seemingly insignificant factors so that the s-it will not hit the fan in the first place. If a sailor has extensive experience in private boats they may have learned a routine for themselves that works on their own boat, but if they trained under somone who is a true professional they then have the experience of many many years packed in those routines.

It is that structure in my opinion that makes someone a professional, not a ticket or even a tally of miles sailed, or oceans crossed. A person can get amazingly far while sailing by the seat of their pants and staying in deep water, but when the luck runs out do you want it to be on your boat?

You train for the battle, not the light air days, and the crewing of a big professionally trained boat should be nothing less than coreography. 60 foot may not be all that big, but you are starting to get into a territory where routine becomes a factor, and the 30 to 40 footer sloppy sailing can get you into trouble.

Good captians will know what they are worth, and will become your heroes and show you not just how to sail, but to be in command (subtle but important difference).