all good crew are the same...

[snowleopard]

but every bad crew is diffferent.

tell us about your experiences of difficult crew (or skippers for that matter). here are a few of mine.

* the would-be yachtmaster who would lay a gps course over the top of a rock. when i mentioned it he said 'oh, it's only approximate'
* the one who was fed for free for 3 weeks then at the end took back the remains of the bottle of gin which had been his only contribution to the stores.
* the one who didn't wash
* the one who didn't understand enough english to let go of the mainsheet when we gybed
* the one who wouldn't eat tomatoes

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[Viking]

I 'friend' was crewing (very experienced) who said that he would do the Nav. (Cherbourg to Chichester) disappeared down to the nav.station each hour. The periods down became longing and longer. After 8 hours he didnt come back up I went down to check. He was in the heads, I looked at the chart which was folded in half (French side up) unfolded the chart to find we were on our way to Poole.
He finally fall out of the heads pissed as a fart. Has a friend for sometime, it finally confined our fears that he had drink problem. Has skipper I searched his kit a found a lemonade bottle heavy laced with vodka.


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[Guest]

I think we should generate a list of offences that deserve lashing to the mainmast and flogging.
· Doing anything whatsoever that blocks the loos
· Mixing water with diesel and visa/versa
· Standing in the companionway
· The ones who eat all the tomatoes
· The ones who are incredibly happy in the morning
· The ones who are incredibly miserable in the morning
· The ones who ask silly questions and then turn out to be right
· Women who use half the fresh water washing their hair
· And so on, add to this


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[alant]

Its the bl---y owners that can be the problem!
A few trips a year in the Solent/Annual Cruise to the West Country & they then (after reading some romantic yarns involving sailing-Famous Five etc presumably) become experts in Offshore - even one actually wanting 'would love to experience really heavy weather' when crossing Biscay. Also, "Let's not victual with 'easy rations' (which can be eaten without cooking if necessary), we'll take proper potatoes that need peeling" (in this "heavy weather across Biscay"). And the one who when his VHF was condemned - only pushing out 7watts & dropping - still argued it was safe to sail with (even though in practice, could only be received in the Marina Office from about half mile range.
Experts in their own fields, but sometimes they would be best left grazing in them.

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[DeeGee]

The worst of the worst - one who CONTINUALLY picked his nose, bad enough... but was thrilled when nobody else fancied the crisps and nuts with a sundowner!

<hr width=100% size=1>Black Sugar - the sweetest of all

 

[Laurin]

How about a guy on my day Skipper course, had been selected for BT challenge 2004 and had come to do his comp crew. Had done the first 4 days of a weeks training with BT but then gone home sick. All he wanted to do all week was put sails up, reef in, reef out, and put them down again 'cos that's all he knew how to do! Look out for keel hauling on BT challenge next year..... I would have struggled to spend more than the 5 days with him let alone 10 months!

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[sambo]

Skippers should take these hints to heart to heart too. Giving instructions whilst facing away from the crew into the teeth of a gale means you won't get heard. Full stop. Oh and however stretchy your rope is, it isn't going to magically grow 10' longer when you tell your crew to use it, so don't get angry with them when it doesn't!

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