Crew Available: Advice for a young bloke looking to take a gap year.

[GILow]

Based on his personality is guess he comes from a very engaged and supportive family.

I'd just like to give him a short, encouraging list to get him started, he can take it from there.

[Fore and Aft]

Gilow I wonder if his parents have a boat that he can borrow? I have no doubt that when our kids get to year 12 that borrowing our yacht will be no different to borrowing the family car.
I am all for blowing out some cobwebs before settling down to a career.
Life's such an adventure when you're young.
Cheers

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Fore and Aft

Gilow I wonder if his parents have a boat that he can borrow? I have no doubt that when our kids get to year 12 that borrowing our yacht will be no different to borrowing the family car.

I am all for blowing out some cobwebs before settling down to a career.

Life's such an adventure when you're young.

Cheers

The family boat was a 41 foot Catana.

I don’t know many families who’d loan out a boat like that to an 18 year old lad.

It’s kinda a moot point now, as the boat was sold and they don’t have a boat at the moment.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Bill O

Grey doesn't sound like black and white, but understand.

Anyone else you know who is experienced and would take him under their wing as a fledgling sailor?

I think there was some quote from Groucho Marx that covered this. It was not being a member of a club that would take me as a member.

A bit like the boaties I know really. A ragtag and disreputable bunch.

A bit like me.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by LLCoolDave

There is also a facebook group called sailboat hitchhikers. It's full of dirty hippies, lol so if he presents well he should be able to find a ride.

Noted, I will add it to the list.

[Fore and Aft]

Gilow what about buying something like this and then having some fun. It won't break the bank and could make an interesting YouTube channel. ( I cannot believe I said that) Being a bilge keeler all you need is a car trailer to move her around.
Cheers
https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/port...cht/1259907729

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Fore and Aft

Gilow what about buying something like this and then having some fun. It won't break the bank and could make an interesting YouTube channel. ( I cannot believe I said that) Being a bilge keeler all you need is a car trailer to move her around.

Cheers

https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/port...cht/1259907729

Ummm.... this is taking a pretty strange turn.

Taking a student sailing is enough of a no-no.

Buying them a boat has to be crossing so many lines they’d have to draw new lines just to keep up.

I just want to give the lad some ideas to get him started.

I really liked the idea of crewing for cruising couple.

[Fore and Aft]

Gilow I was meaning for him to buy the boat, then fix it up at home and go sailing. $500 is not much and it shouldn't break the bank restoring her. Roger Taylor with Ming Ming showed what a small bilge keeler can do.
The trouble with deliveries or cruising with a couple is they have no idea if he is a 18 year old mummy's boy who has no idea how to pull his weight. Besides how many 18 year olds want to hang out with older people?
Cheers

[chrisr]

he should try https://www.findacrew.net/

i've not used it, but looks pretty good

cheers,

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Fore and Aft

Gilow I was meaning for him to buy the boat, then fix it up at home and go sailing. $500 is not much and it shouldn't break the bank restoring her. Roger Taylor with Ming Ming showed what a small bilge keeler can do.

The trouble with deliveries or cruising with a couple is they have no idea if he is a 18 year old mummy's boy who has no idea how to pull his weight. Besides how many 18 year olds want to hang out with older people?

Cheers

That’s the whole point of my original question: how to establish his credentials. To show, in fact, that he’s not a mummy’s boy.

As for fixing up a boat... having just been patronised endlessly about how it takes ten years, I don’t really think I’ll go down that path.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by chrisr

he should try https://www.findacrew.net/

i've not used it, but looks pretty good

cheers,

Thank you, I’ll put that on the list.

[Benz]

When I was 18, having never been to sea, I took a bus to San Diego and walked the docks talking to every cruiser I saw and offering to work my passage south. That tactic got me half a dozen rides ultimately, over the next several years. I think part of what made me acceptable was that I was obviously enterprising enough to do it on my own. No one was helping me along; I was my own backup plan, and it showed in the confident attitude I displayed (though maybe didn't entirely feel).
Plenty of boats out there looking for free crew for short runs, if your student is enterprising enough to walk the docks for a few days. It will help greatly if he presents well--clean, sober, well spoken, confident--and if he has solvency to get himself back from any destination (I usually caught another boat).

[LittleWing77]

Hi GI,

When I was in Oz for a year, I got crewing jobs by just plain walking the docks and talking to people. I did the Sydney to Gold Coast offshore racing, Club racing in Sydney Harbour, a couple of sea trials out to Lord Howe Island on big cats, racing on and then delivery from Adelaide via backstairs passage down to Melbourne on the original Wild Thing - all by just plain ol' talking to people.

Racing and doing the big regattas would also be an opportunity to demonstrate he knows how to sail and what to do on a boat, as well as connect with sailing people who know other sailing people who are looking for crew.

I was like a jumping bean - the next thing always seemed to show up by the time the previous thing finished. Word of mouth is a powerful thing in the sailing community! A LOT more useful than the find-a-crew website BS. In all my years of full-time sailing, I think I can say I NEVER got a crew position from a website - and I was signed up on all of them.

Australians are incredibly generous and welcoming people! As long as I demonstrated I was tough enough to pitch in onboard, another position always materialized. He's lucky that he lives in Oz and can always go home for a bit in between boats. Tell him to also get his YHA card (Youth Hostelling Card). So if he finishes up a delivery in Peru, say, he can just drop his dufflebag at the local hostel for $8/day while he walks the docks to find his next boat.

Of course, I wanted to actually SEE Oz while I was there (plus I was building sea miles for my YM), so I didn't take anything that was leaving Australia and going elsewhere.... If he does take offshore stuff going elsewhere, tell him to try and take positions that would land him somewhere at dates/times where the next jobs are there for the picking. For example, participating or arriving for Antigua Racing Week at the end of April means you can find a ride back across the Atlantic to get a boat job in the Med for the Summer, at least, if not for longer.

You're right about not buying a boat or encouraging him to buy a boat. Tell him to get on other people's boats where they are dealing with the costs - just coach him to be as helpful as he can to sail the boat well. If he's a good kid like you say, he'll get jobs (more unpaid than paid - with the exception of passages - which should have a day rate + plane ticket - but even on the "unpaid" they'll feed you and you live aboard for free while she's sailing). If they want him to pay anything, tell him don't bother. Waste of time.

Another thought: PM DaleTournier? I know he's back in Oz, but is a liveaboard... maybe Dale will be back out there soon and looking for crew...?

You're a good man, GILow!
Warmly,
LittleWing77

P.S. Tell him to get an RYA YM Logbook and document all his sea miles (starting with what he can remember of his passages on his family's boat). From then, tell him to document *everything*. That way, he'll have something to show a potential owner as he goes along (plus, you never know, maybe he'll want to do the RYA tests eventually, and the sea miles will have already been accumulated...)

[LittleWing77]

Oh, and I thought of another crewing option: Hiring him to keep the teenagers-in-the-hammocks entertained - especially if he's cute!

MWAH-HA-HA!

But I do suppose that would fall under a dodgy boundaries item...

LittleWing77

[Yihang]

Our PE teacher in year 12 organized an annual sailing trip from Sydney to Pittwater. That was what got me started. Probably one of my best memories until I skippered my own boat and had a whale breach a couple meter away from us under the Golden gate bridge.

If you get them young it really stays with them.