Crew or other people on your yacht

Hi,
With a lot of yachts heading Nth & a few seabreezers helping other seabreezers sail legs of passages at the moment, I thought it might be useful to discuss having other people on your yacht, the etiquette of what is expected etc from crew & owners & skippers.

It can be very difficult to coordinate availability of crew with weather windows. If you know the intended crew person it is a lot easier of course, but that is not always possible.
Obviously its a lot easier & safer to have crew that are competent sailors onboard & its often more fun to have someone to enjoy the sailing with. I think a lot depends on the situation, if you need or would like help & assistance from crew, I think its good form to feed them as well as you can & pay reasonable transport expenses to get them to & from the boat. If they are inexperienced, want to learn & looking for sea time & sailing experience, its reasonable for them to pay their own transport & chip in for the grub.
Whats others thoughts?
Its one of the things that should be discussed before committing to hope onboard for a passage, just to avoid misunderstandings,


cheers

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southace said...
I like Latvian or Colombian female backpackers to keep my bed warm and help with the cooking the rest I leave between me and the autopilot.

That's a fairly diverse dichotomy there Southace, any reason in particular that you don't for inststance like Croatian or Brazilian female backpackers?

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Donk107 said...
If I have anyone new to sailing on the boat I always get them to helm while I do the deck and winch work

I think that people enjoy the experience more if you get them to be involved

Regards Don

That is what I do as well but for selfish reasons. Being on the helm is like being in a prison. If somebody else is helming I am free to roam over the boat, checking this, adjusting that and doing galley work that keeps everybody fed and watered.

It only takes the occasional glance around to check the course and instruct the helms person on steering directions.

@ BlueMoon.

Thanks for raising this topic.

Before casting off and particularly before doing a passage, it is very important that all protocols and rules are discussed and agreed upon so that everybody is aware of where they stand if things go pear shaped down the track.

Yacht deliveries can be an absolute can of worms. The worst scenario is when the yacht/owner/voyage is underfunded. The owner is responsible for the care and safety of all crew including their reasonable travel expenses. A way of ensuring this is a cash surety given to each crew person.

Rare it is that a freshly purchased yacht does not experience some sort of breakdown or technical problem and the owner has to be financially capable of covering the expenses.

A recent delivery crew experience of mine cost me over $1,000 in contributions to the yacht and travel expenses. Mostly my fault though as I did not properly qualify the situation before embarking. Crew also have responsibilities.

I have to agree with Shaun, and having spend two days and two nights aboard, what would constitute for most, a small boat (Top Hat) with Shaun, it is imperative that you understand each others abilities before you set off. We both knew each other from other gatherings, but had never sailed together, so we were quite attuned to what the job at hand required. We did two legs, Botany Bay to Pittwater, then Pittwater to Newcastle. The tiller pilot didn't work, so we hand steered in roughly two hour shifts for two days. It worked well.

Shaun had all the food we needed, and some and had even catered for varying tastes. If not for the fact that some of the food required a micro wave . Not so sure about the dunny though. If there were women aboard, a good dunny is pretty important. Shaun paid me for my travel home, and I didn't need to take anything but my wets and inflatable life jacket.

Tomorrow morning, I'm to set off for a day with Lexmark, we'll do Pittwater to Newcastle, all going well. I understand he has all the kit under control and has already offered to pay my train fare home. Which whilst not necessary, is a very admirable offer.

Both the above are cases where I'm kind of "helping out" to get a boat from a to b. If however I was going out for a day or weekend of enjoyment (not that the above weren't or won't be enjoyable) on my own boat, and was inviting guests, I would have already asked them what they like to eat and drink. Told them what I would be bringing and suggesting that we pool resources and have them bring whatever they would like to eat/drink while out. This did backfire once, when my cousin and her husband brought along their party esky, loaded to the brim with beer, wine, mixers and a small amount of food. This esky took up almost all the cabin floor and I'm sure slowed us down by about 3 knots.

I think if someone is looking for a learning experience, then as Shaun says, I reckon they should foot their own expenses, and bring beer for the skipper.