Best ports and which month to find crewing opportunities

[boatymyboatface]

Hello all,

I currently work as an Outdoor Instructor and my centre manger has been talking to me about his time working as crew - I've sailed yachts a handful of times and working it sounds like my sort of thing!!!

He and his partner got their Offshore Yachtmaster to then crew boats around Europe an America.

I'm looking at doing a very similar thing and gaining my Offshore Yachtmaster - I found this great video series on Youtube about starting a career in sailing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsYxqXj3zKA (for anyone wanting to get into a career of sailing like myself I would give it a listen as I have gained so much info from it).
Anyway, in part three it suggests to go to a port where crew is in demand at certain times of the year to gain experience. He walks through a method of paying for the first few trips, then working for free as crew to then be paid once you have experience. He says that it's worth flying back to the same port if it is in a busy period in order to quickly build mileage and become increasingly useful as you have just sailed around that area. It sounds like a great way in to build on my current experience and build some initial mileage.

I was wondering if anyone here would be able to suggest some ports, along with the time of year, that would be good for trying to get some experience as crew on a boat.

Thanks,

Steve

 

[boatymyboatface]

Anyone?

 

[Gargleblaster]

Where you are based could be useful. I would highly recommend the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron that is very encouraging to beginners and offers free sailing for inexperienced as well as highly experienced sailors on a Wednesday afternoon with some gentle racing. But flying into Brisbane every Wednesday may not be possible for you.

 

[boatymyboatface]

I'm not looking at doing that sort of sailing, more livaboard based careers, I would fly to Brisbane with my partner for that sort of work.
I have a small list of places and months such as the Canaries around October to early December time when boats often do the Atlantic crossing.

 

[[3889]]

I've just got back from the Canaries and there are literally hundreds of adverts littering the streets offering to crew. Being paid as sailing crew on a yacht is very unlikely other than as a professional skippper, for which there is strong competition from very experienced sailors with 10s of thousands of miles. Using the atlantic crossing as an example, at best I'd expect a yachtmaster to have to share the costs of food and fuel plus travel to get a berth on a boat.