long term crew

[snowleopard]

looking for other peoples' experiences here.

we had various crew from uk to caribbean, mostly contacted through the ARC forum. generally good results though after a few weeks we wanted the boat to ourselves again. for the return trip we sailed 2-up as we couldn't find crew who wanted to travel eastbound.

we are now planning the big one, to australia. swmbo says she wants a couple more people on board (fair enough). i'm a bit concerned about being able to find people for that length of time or doing complicated crew swaps.

what are your experiences of recruiting and keeping crew on a circumnavigation and where did you find them?

plagiarised quote: "all good crew are the same but there are a thousand ways of being a bad crew"

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[Guest]

Would it be a good idea to look for some homesick and broke Aussies to sail with you? It could possibly avoid you the below conditions. I know the Aussies have some of the strictest immigration/customs/quarantine laws of any place I know.

Title: Documents

A cruising permit is obtained from customs on arrival, being granted when the officials are satisfied that the applicant is a genuine tourist, and has proof of sufficient funds for the maintenance of the vessel and the crew without work visas. Extensions are available from customs, upon application and assessment of the reasons. An initial six-month period is given, with provisions for extensions totalling a further six months. The permit enables foreign yachts to cruise freely between their port of entry and exit, and allows them to visit ports and places besides the official ports of entry. This permit is not for the use of anyone with the intention of using the vessel for commercial gain while in Australia.

Main website: www.noonsite.com

Link: http://www.noonsite.com/Countries/Australia/?rc=Formalities#Immigration




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[Reap]

One way may be to contact UKSA and offer a first mate position (unpaid of course)
There are newly qualified Yachtmasters dead keen to do an exciting trip particularly as a first mate.
I got my first mate for a delivery trip to the Med (not quite as far I'll admit) and he turned out to be excellent!

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[tcm]

i have no experince of doing this, but i hear that blue water types seem to congregate at www.7knots.com, quite few seeking unpaid passages.


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[Guest]

When are you looking at going? I could be interested! my e-mail address is:miles.woodhouse@email.com.

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[snowleopard]

if i can get the ducks in a row, late 2004.

the main aim of this post was to share info on getting & keeping crew rather than wanting to recruit at present. i'll try again later with a more carefully phrased heading.

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[wpsalm]

The Pacific is terrific ....but some of the passages are quite long the sailing is easy the trafic light are you really sure you need extra crew...have seen a few of the once in a lifetime passages ruined by personality conflicts developing don,t know why this happens but suspect something to do with confined spaces and long passages another thing to consider is that you will be responsible for the cost of repatriation of your crew should you find yourself in this position... something to think about Brock

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[Bob]

Try the very busy free cruising crewfinder at
http://www.cruiser.co.za/crewfinder.asp

Good luck


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[sambo]

I agree with the uksa idea, they are keen and most of them are decent. However, find out how much sailing they'd done before it. There are worries about the zero to hero aspect of such courses.

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[temptress]

Getting good crew is always a problem even for a paid for delivery! There a always people looking to 'hitch' a ride somewhere - but are they going to fit in ith your style of sailing/living?

I have found 'Crewseekers' a help in the past they provide paid and non paid vetted crews but you need to pay them for the service.

If you have time you could try inviting a few people to cruise with you in the UK and then select some to sail to Spain wht you to see if you are compatable. The ARC folks always have a list of people looking to crew on long passages.

We just gave up and went ourselves.

In my experiance the majority of longterm Cruisers are couples of one sort or another. My wife and I sail a 47 foot sloop. We have riged it for single handed sailing and can sail it on our own i fneeded. The only problem on long trips is that you may not 'see' eqach other for very long each day. Gneerally the sailing can be planned to be relatively easy although you always get caught out somewhere.



<hr width=100% size=1>Temptress of Down