Couples Co-Captains?

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Nic is listed as a Master on our registration papers so if anything happens to me she can more easily (in woman hating countires) command the boat..

But I am captain (unless I have a beer, then its her).

I listen to her advice but I make the decisions at sea.

One boat: One captain.

Good route to go down.... agree whole heartedly...
When I was in a relationship.... free of anchor/docklines I was Skipper(more experience)by matual consent. In Port she was Boss... except in emergencies like dragging anchor etc when we reverted to 'Sea Code'...... On the Ships Papers she was listed as
Majority(34 shares)Owner and me as Joint Owner/Skipper..

[SaucySailoress]

He's the Captain, and that's fine so long as he continues to do what I tell him.

[Ocean Girl]

Good one Aaza Dana You sound like an Admiral to me.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by Aaza Dana

He's the Captain, and that's fine so long as he continues to do what I tell him.

Not such a strange position. In the commercial world (and historically) the Captain's word onboard may be law - but nonetheless he is ultimately answerable to a higher power.............the Owner - aka "The Boss". How these two interact varies between vessels.


Methinks some folks may be getting these 2 positions mixed up

[Puddlefish]

The very first time I went on the ocean in a sailboat we were heading down a river towards a drawbridge when the captain (my dad) suddenly "had to use the head" and handed the wheel to me and pointed to the VHF radio so I could request a bridge opening. He knows a fair amount about the right way to do things, but tends to panic under pressure and also has a certain disregard for following procedures.

I managed to stumble my way through the procedure even though I had no idea of the mast height, the opening schedule for the bridge, the name of the bridge, what channel it monitored, or what the relative tide/current situation was. We were lucky nothing was broken and no one was hurt.

At that point I decided to learn everything I could about seamanship and had several long conversations with my dad. Even on his boat, I insist that he designate one of us, in advance, as the captain for any given procedure as this gives both of us time to plan out our respective duties.

Not exactly a "couples" situation, but whenever family is involved it's best to delegate all authority in advance so no one gets sad. I prefer a permanent captain, but as long as agreement is reached prior to a situation developing, then things can still go smoothly enough.