Ease of finding crew as blue water cruisers?

[chrisr]

first thing any worthwhile crew does before agreeing to sail on a boat (ie risk his life) is assess the worth of the boat and the owner

i suspect you may find it difficult to get useful folk to sail with you if they don't have confidence that you (the owner) knows what you are doing

you will also find it difficult to judge whether said crew are any use...or in fact a liability

all that having been said, try https://www.findacrew.net/

good luck

cheers,

[NaClyDog]

Originally Posted by daletournier

I've had lots of crew, very easy to find on sites like findacrew.

Normally I ask them just to chip in for food, I cover boat costs. As long as it dosent cost me to have them I'm happy.

I've been fortunate, only ever had one crew problem. Also people get crew and passenger definitions mixed up. In the real world we are just asking people to share the experience of cruising with us and yes they help out with the sailing and cooking, it's not crew in the sense of a job, they want to cruise paradise, I have a boat , that's how it works. I have crew onboard now.

Crew are onboard now in Tahiti, they get to experience paradise for the price of covering their food and alcohol, not a bad deal.

Thank you for the response.


So you sailed there with them and you will be sailing out of there with them eventually?

[NaClyDog]

Originally Posted by fxykty

In our case we pay for all boat and passage expenses and expect crew to make their own way to and from either end and to pay their own land-based expenses. Where crew have extended to cruising pre or post the passage then we share on board food and alcohol expenses during that period.

Thank you. When I started this thread, this was the kind of expectation I had in mind and wanted to see if it was realistic or not.


Cheers.

[Palarran]

Originally Posted by fxykty

So far no bad experiences with crew we didn’t know before. We’ve had some trouble with crew that we knew as friends. Weird.

I've had this also, several times in fact. It's really important to make them aware that we are on an adventure, not a vacation and we are not tour directors. Now I'll tell friends that out of 24 hours, you sleep 8 so have 16 left over. The boat and it's operations typically take 4 of those so you have 12 hours of fun time. It's reasonable to expect the 4 hours for the boat to be productive. Wash the dishes, wash the boat, cook a meal - it's not too hard.

[Stewie12]

I would rather not have crew as some of them I have had created more work than I would have had without them, plus the loss of privacy. I have had crew on larger motor yachts where they had their own quarters. That worked well.

[DEAN2140]

Some years ago, I knew an elderly cruiser who easily found crew to help him sail his large wooden boat around the world. Before the internet, he advertised in local sailing magazines and word of mouth for crew. He told me the key was to just have crew for the passage making parts of the trip, it being understood that when they arrived at a destination the crew would leave. In my own experience this was good advice. I found that problems generally arose after a passage when the daily interactions of people living together became manifest, whereas when crossing an ocean people have jobs to do and a shared sense of purpose (to survive).

[doublewide]

This is a good thread

Not mentioned yet, and this may not be true in every case, but in our case, our yacht insurance policy excludes paid crew. If you have paid crew, you need a policy that covers the crew.

If your crew pays you, then they are not crew, they are passengers. For that you need a captain's license, and an insurance policy for commercial, not recreational use.

I have had good luck finding volunteer crew willing to pay their own travel, and split food and mooring expenses (they buy their share of the food and moorings; they don't reimburse me for expenses) in exchange for a couple of weeks in paradise and instruction in live-aboard cruising. Yes actual instruction with books, charts, tide and current tables, COLREGS, hands-on anchoring, maneuvering and docking under power, sail trim, the whole thing. It takes some effort, but is very rewarding. And it makes them better crew.

This forum, for example, has a place to post crew-wanted notices.

[slug]

Originally Posted by Stewie12

I would rather not have crew as some of them I have had created more work than I would have had without them, plus the loss of privacy. I have had crew on larger motor yachts where they had their own quarters. That worked well.

This is true

Over the years I've has a 50 percent failure rate with pick up crew

Fights onboard in mid ocean

Bad vibes for days

Drugs

Visa problems

Right down to visits to crew who have been thrown in jail

Best to avoid crew

If you choose a lifestyle or boat that requires additional manpower, you will have to bite the bullet


Be alert

[NaClyDog]

Originally Posted by DEAN2140

Some years ago, I knew an elderly cruiser who easily found crew to help him sail his large wooden boat around the world. Before the internet, he advertised in local sailing magazines and word of mouth for crew. He told me the key was to just have crew for the passage making parts of the trip, it being understood that when they arrived at a destination the crew would leave. In my own experience this was good advice. I found that problems generally arose after a passage when the daily interactions of people living together became manifest, whereas when crossing an ocean people have jobs to do and a shared sense of purpose (to survive).

Thank you, this sounds like great advice.

[Stewie12]

In Caribbean , say St. Lucia, before you can take the crew off the list on checking out they have to have an air ticket out, so watch out for that as you may end up paying for it. Probably other countries are the same.

[stormalong]

I had pickup crew for my circumnavigation. This was before internet was common. My deal with crew was they shared food expense, paid their own personal expenses and I paid all boat expenses. I also required them to have $1000 US or a credit card to cover their next transportation expense.

Usually I had met crew socially before the crewing had come up. They are often backpackers, adventure seekers, crew off other boats, etc. One requirement was that they had to have done a multi day passage before. I told them that before they came aboard their belonging would be searched and no drugs were allowed. I never actually did the search but I think that did the trick. We did some light drinking aboard and it was my booze.

Before every passage I did a safety speech and one rule has never leave the cockpit without notifying the next watch person. I expected them to keep watch and wake me if anything unusual happened.

I have not had "bad" crew. I have had disagreements with crew but never violence of any kind. I have had minor damage from reckless crew.

I had one crew member that dragged himself along, holding on to the windvane bracket in the middle of the night when he was the only one awake. He was a 23 year old Israeli, just out of his military duty. We were only doing 4-4.5 knots near the equator and he was hot. I had to explain to him that if he had slipped he would never have been found an I would have had no clue what happened to him. Also that I would have had to explain that to his mother. He got the message.

PS. For a 44 foot boat I thought three crew was ideal. Three hours on and six off. With than schedule everyone got to sleep and each watch was a different time so the crew got to have night watches, dawn watches, etc. To me the dawn watches at sea are the best so everyone got to experience that. In the mornings the next person going on watch started the bread making and the one going off watch popped it in the oven.

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by NaClyDog

Thank you for the response.


So you sailed there with them and you will be sailing out of there with them eventually?

Dave joined me in Panama and Donna joined me in Mexico. We sailed here to French Polynesia. Donna flys out from here on Monday and Dave will continue onto Fiji with me.

Theres 5 people here currently looking to crew with someone west, they arel are all happy to contribute financially ie food etc.

The biggest hassle I have is often crew dont put their hand in their pocket, it used to cause me stress because I dont like asking ,now I dont hesitate, I just say "ok groceries come to this ,you owe me x", I no longer have issues in that area.

[NaClyDog]

Originally Posted by daletournier

The biggest hassle I have is often crew dont put their hand in their pocket, it used to cause me stress because I dont like asking ,now I dont hesitate, I just say "ok groceries come to this ,you owe me x", I no longer have issues in that area.

On passages, it would be me expectation to pay for all costs - food included. In exchange, I would expect them to have their regular watches and help with the cooking / cleaning / etc...


We hadn't really considered having "crew" onboard while we spend time in a given destinations but this is something we will likely have to discuss and consider.


Thanks for the info.

[Lost Horizons]

It seems to me that getting a crew for a crossing is very similar to picking up a hitchhiker, bringing him home and letting him stay in your home for several days.
Oh, and if that person is experiencing a mental problem and decides to leave the boat mid-ocean you will spend next several years in jail or/and hundreds of thousands in legal fees defending yourself. Such a marvelous prospect.

[scobane]

Where will you be sailing out of - your home base? Just an idea for you, but after one year of sailing on the Chesapeake Bay, with 30 years a boating under my belt and a few Caribbean charters, I sailed the Caribbean 1500 Rally with the World Cruising Club in 2016,2018, and plan on it again for 2020. When you sign up, you have access to their crew list. You register your boat, the sailing opportunity, and set the parameters of your expectations as far as level of experience, expenses, and duties. I’ve been very fortunate to find very competent crew that I still keep in contact with. A couple were type-A personalities, but their virtues outweighed that. To me, compatibility is as important as their skill sets. One I even invited back to the boat for 10 days of sailing the Virgin Islands. Yes, you do pay a fee to join the rally, but to me it’s well worth it. They have extensive safety requirements and inspect the safety gear before departure. They have flare and life raft demonstrations and provide professional weather routing through WRI. The social functions and camaraderie are a plus for me, also. The WCC also does Atlantic crossings and circumnavigations. Good luck.