What are the realities of yacht delivery crew

obmij said:
It is NOT the responsibility of the crew to ensure that the vessel is adequately provisioned, or that it is any any way suitable to embark on a voyage. That responsibility lies entirely with the skip. There are limited (obvious) exceptions for example if a crew member is instructed to carry out a task but the skipper must be sure that the crew is both qualified and competent to carry out that task and the skipper will always retain responsibility for its outcome.

With deliveries, where the majority of crew are young, inexperienced and unpaid it's important that skips are especially aware of their responsibilities. Human nature (and the largely unregulated nature of the industry) means that this isn't always the case . Most of the time the outcome is a good story..
Click to expand...
Are you really happy to put your life in someone else's hands and not check everything you can? The legalistic nonsense onl;y matters in court and if you survive.
 
Yacht delivery are not my thing. I’ve never done a professional yacht delivery.
Seams to me I would treat it very much like any other voyage I was about to embark on. With the particular addition of it being an unfamiliar vessel and possibly an unfamiliar skipper and crew.
New places, New boats, even New Crew are always interesting.

Would I ask questions,? Yes of course I would. Most likley as part of a polite conversation much of it just plain curiosity.
I would fully expect someone who did not know me to ask me a few. again probably as a polite conversation.

There are a number of things I would be doing on joining new vessel. I would also say I star judging the expierience of other people based on what they do. Particularly if I’m the skipper. I expect to be asked questions.

A few habits
Never put your head down until you know where to go in an emergency. Particularly how to evacuate the vessel JIK. This would include emergency signals.
Additionally I always have a quick look arround for all the emergency gear where is it and how do you get to it.
I might take the time to change, make a cup of tea and do some introductions.
But I’m going to start familiarizing myself with the boat pretty soon after I get there and definitely before I put my head down for the first time.
I also notice if others start to familiarize themselves. Or not.
I would certainly ask about the passage plan.
Somewhere in this what is the plan is for food and beer?
Most of the above comes before where the ropes are. As far as my priorities are concerned. Even so as a general walk around you can still figure out where the ropes are at the same time.
The above is primarily to get me up to speed. I am quite happy to do this with other crew particularly if they are green.

If any of the above turns awkward, then your spider sense starts to tingle.

When sailing with friends, I expect this to be friendly and informal.
If I was working I expect it to be quite friendly but quite formal.
 
Halcyon Yachts said:
The three main variables are the type of boat, the route and the skipper. If all three are good then you will have an amazing time crewing on a yacht delivery...


I started out years ago as delivery crew and haven't looked back.

Pete
Click to expand...

Does it ever happen that you, or one of your skippers, show up at a boat and decide it's not fit for the voyage?
 
I have done a couple of delivery trips with friends and they went mostly well. On one the owner got a bit stroppy because I seemed a bit smart-arsed. He was right I was nice and relaxed cos it wasnt my boat so breakages etc didnt hurt me unless the ship sank and my life was endangered. We are still good friends.

Otherwise, I did many voyages on a training schooner which on account of its size and having paying passengers doing adventure training, had to have professional skippers.

I did this for about ten years and experienced a number of these "professional" mariners.

Their most common fault was that they resented the fact that "all-powerful unions" stopped them from from using unfettered authoritarian methods on their seamen in the all-professional situation. They revelled in their freedom to behave like Captain Bligh to their volunteer seamen and women. The Association who ran the ship had to tolerate their behavior mostly, because there was a very short supply of "qualified" masters to command the ship.
 
I have done it a few times for people in our club, usually at the beginning and end of the season when the weather is crap, usually an overnighter to get their boats to their summer moorings and back home for a few beers, grub and a lift home. Not something I would like to do professionally.
 
BobPrell said:
I have done a couple of delivery trips with friends and they went mostly well. On one the owner got a bit stroppy because I seemed a bit smart-arsed. He was right I was nice and relaxed cos it wasnt my boat so breakages etc didnt hurt me unless the ship sank and my life was endangered. We are still good friends.

Otherwise, I did many voyages on a training schooner which on account of its size and having paying passengers doing adventure training, had to have professional skippers.

I did this for about ten years and experienced a number of these "professional" mariners.

Their most common fault was that they resented the fact that "all-powerful unions" stopped them from from using unfettered authoritarian methods on their seamen in the all-professional situation. They revelled in their freedom to behave like Captain Bligh to their volunteer seamen and women. The Association who ran the ship had to tolerate their behavior mostly, because there was a very short supply of "qualified" masters to command the ship.
Click to expand...

At risk of drifting into an entirely different topic.
I used to really enjoy my sail training experience.
Mine was with the OYC I’m sure it has gone through a lot of changes since my days of yore. I believe it the ocean trust now.

Contrary to the Charles Laughton, Blyth. As a harsh or brutal authoritarian.
Blyth was in reality a relatively popular and lenient Captain, he was one of Cooks sailing masters. Promoted to lieutenant for the voyage and the only commissioned officer on board.
Many of the crew chose not to muitiny but to risk thier lives in an open boat voyage halfway across the pacific with Blyth.
when the fleet mutiny at Spithead and the Nore demanded the removal of particularly brutal officers Blyth was not one of them
Despite his court martial for loosing his ship he was cleared of wrongdoing.
He would later be one of Nelsons Captains.
I believe it was Blyth who was the first to follow Nelsons Muitiny and lead at Copenhagen followed by the rest of the line.

In later life. He would find he faced yet another mutiny. As Governor of the Colony in New South Wales.
He was appointed Governor due to his reputation for fairness and honesty. To counter allegations of corruption.
He was unsuccessful if dealing with corruption the mutiny followed.

I imagine if I had been an old salt of the era I would have been relatively happy to sail with Blyth but perhaps not some of the others.

in any event as a volunteer I always enjoyed the camaraderie of sail training and the skippers I sailed with were all good to sail with.
The STA had the reputation of being a bit more formal but I never sailed with them having felt a loyalty to the OYC.

Since none of them had the ability to press thier crews. I’m sure most were quite reasonable or they didn’t last.

I did do a very enjoyable delivery of an OYC sailing vessel. The skipper who was a friend called several of us who crewed regularly with him and asked. It was a very pleasant trip.
since I just pulled ropes and ground the winch.
 
Last edited:
I did an out of season delivery of 1 of 2 new Beneteaus from St Giles croix de La vie to St Lucia (admittedly 30+ yrs ago!) and had an absolute blast. Was for a company called compass yacht services at the time and I got lucky because the skipper was a very experienced (100’s thousands miles) and good humoured Australian. Other than a new boat we had a life raft, sextant and vhf, scaffold plank for poling out the headsail and took watches hand steering. The skipper of the other beneteau was rumoured to be on drugs but I have no idea if that was true. A work colleagues Son was doing some deliveries this summer and had an horrendous experience in the Med on a boat that should have remained firmly on the hard! Fortunately his subsequent experiences were with Halcyon so all good ;) pretty sure 30 yrs ago it was common practice that skippers were given a fee and told to get the boat there. I know we sold all the copious extra diesel we had bought back in the Caribbean. Some skippers were quite inventive and used to stock up on all sorts so they could make a buck on arrival. Apparently nappies were highly lucrative at the time in certain parts of the world. Was offered a trip from France to Tonga shortly after with the same skipper but I had a proper job by then. One of life’s regrets :(
 
Uricanejack said:
At risk of drifting into an entirely different topic.
I used to really enjoy my sail training experience.
Mine was with the OYC I’m sure it has gone through a lot of changes since my days of yore. I believe it the ocean trust now.

Contrary to the Charles Laughton, Blyth. As a harsh or brutal authoritarian.
Blyth was in reality a relatively popular and lenient Captain, he was one of Cooks sailing masters. Promoted to lieutenant for the voyage and the only commissioned officer on board.
Many of the crew chose not to muitiny but to risk thier lives in an open boat voyage halfway across the pacific with Blyth.
when the fleet mutiny at Spithead and the Nore demanded the removal of particularly brutal officers Blyth was not one of them
Despite his court martial for loosing his ship he was cleared of wrongdoing.
He would later be one of Nelsons Captains.
I believe it was Blyth who was the first to follow Nelsons Muitiny and lead at Copenhagen followed by the rest of the line.

In later life. He would find he faced yet another mutiny. As Governor of the Colony in New South Wales.
He was appointed Governor due to his reputation for fairness and honesty. To counter allegations of corruption.
He was unsuccessful if dealing with corruption the mutiny followed.

I imagine if I had been an old salt of the era I would have been relatively happy to sail with Blyth but perhaps not some of the others.

in any event as a volunteer I always enjoyed the camaraderie of sail training and the skippers I sailed with were all good to sail with.
The STA had the reputation of being a bit more formal but I never sailed with them having felt a loyalty to the OYC.

Since none of them had the ability to press thier crews. I’m sure most were quite reasonable or they didn’t last.

I did do a very enjoyable delivery of an OYC sailing vessel. The skipper who was a friend called several of us who crewed regularly with him and asked. It was a very pleasant trip.
since I just pulled ropes and ground the winch.
Click to expand...
To correct the obvious slip up, his name was BLIGH not Blyth.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top