Worst crew stories

Chrissie

Chrissie

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Worst crew Ive had was yesterday, sailing with someone who had previously sailed his own boat single handed for a couple of years in the Solent, I was expecting him to be fairly competent. I started to worry when he made a comment about how it was funny that sometimes ferries had a flashing light on and sometimes they didnt...but that he didnt know why. He had great difficulty in helming, and didnt understand how to put us 'into wind' for me to raise and lower the sails. When we were on starboard tack, and in the stand on scenario, he was saying he didnt know which way to turn as he couldnt work out which way the other boats were going to go! so he really confused them all by keep changing direction, I was telling him to hold our course to which he was yelling at me that he was, whilst we were actually all over the place, causing confusion. The last straw being when he went as close as he could get to ballast buoy, I thought we were going to hit it, I was putting out warps and fenders at the time, I yelled to him to watch out, to which he accused me of being a bad skipper as I have a problem with close proximities! then he walked away from the helm in a huff telling me "you do it then" as I scrambled back across the coach roof trying to reach the tiller before we hit something. He also regularly sails a powerboat on the Thames, so not without experience. :( It was far more stressful than sailing single handed.
 
Hope he doesn't see this but a few weeks ago one of the girlies was sick all over his bunk (and my kit) and i managed to bust the toilet resulting in a mess.To top it all she put fag ash on the deck! (Mates boat)
 
My all-time worst crew showed his colours the moment we met him. Laden with a heavy back pack he grabbed the top lifeline midway between stanchions and swung himself aboard. We could see the stanchions flex and the gelcoat around the bases cracking.

Along the way he asked to navigate for a day but I withdrew the offer when I saw he had plotted a course over a half-tide rock and dismissed that as 'details' when I pointed it out. We take on crew to share the responsibility on a long passage but knowing we couldn't trust him to take a watch meant he was little use to us.

The worst aspect of his character was his tight-fistedness. The arrangement was that we provided food and drink on board but he was to pay his own way ashore. Every time we said we were eating ashore his face fell and he ate the cheapest thing on the menu, making up for the lack of sustenance by raiding the larder once back aboard. He preferred gin to the scotch we had on board so, after failing to get us to buy him a bottle he eventually bought his own. At the end of the trip after we had fed him for 2 weeks he decanted the remaining gin into a plastic bottle and stuffed it into his rucksack.

Good crew are all the same but bad crew come in many varieties.
 
snowleopard said:
My all-time worst crew showed his colours the moment we met him. Laden with a heavy back pack he grabbed the top lifeline midway between stanchions and swung himself aboard. We could see the stanchions flex and the gelcoat around the bases cracking.

Along the way he asked to navigate for a day but I withdrew the offer when I saw he had plotted a course over a half-tide rock and dismissed that as 'details' when I pointed it out. We take on crew to share the responsibility on a long passage but knowing we couldn't trust him to take a watch meant he was little use to us.

The worst aspect of his character was his tight-fistedness. The arrangement was that we provided food and drink on board but he was to pay his own way ashore. Every time we said we were eating ashore his face fell and he ate the cheapest thing on the menu, making up for the lack of sustenance by raiding the larder once back aboard. He preferred gin to the scotch we had on board so, after failing to get us to buy him a bottle he eventually bought his own. At the end of the trip after we had fed him for 2 weeks he decanted the remaining gin into a plastic bottle and stuffed it into his rucksack.

Good crew are all the same but bad crew come in many varieties.
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Whilst I appreciate that grabbing a lifeline mid span may not be ideal, if your stanchions flex the deck enough to crack the gel at this type of treatment then I suspect that they wouldn't carry the load of someone going overboard under a wave!

Maybe he was just checking out your safety gear :) :) :) :)
 
Having done the corporate charter gig a fair bit, I've sailed with some right shockers. I've never quite got to the point of refusing to sail with someone, but I have had to threaten to padlock the boat to the pontoon if they didn't pay attention to the safety brief.

But the absolute worst I've ever had was a chap who (during a very windy day at Cowes week, with boats everywhere) insisted on opening the champagne, saying that had been "in the brochure".

After I politely suggested that after the racing might be a more suitable time he used the line "I'm a captain of industry, and I'm not used to being told what I can't do, I say we should open the champagne now so we are."

My reply was quite short and pointed out what I was "The captain" of that was slightly more relavent to the current situation. The Champagne stayed in the bottle.

Back ashore the rest of the crew (who were his staff) insisted on treating me to a very fine meal after he left!
 
I've refused to sail with someone ...

He offered his crewing "services" on here after I had asked ... a bit strange since we'd never had a positive word between us ...
Needless to say - the offer was declined ... and the chap who did come was a superb crew ...

I've not had a bad crew that I can remember ... although I did threaten to throw 2 overboard once ...
 
nimbusgb said:
if your stanchions flex the deck enough to crack the gel at this type of treatment then I suspect that they wouldn't carry the load of someone going overboard under a wave!
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They work like Armco motorway barriers. The ends are securely fastened, and will (hopefully!) take the weight of a wave-driven body crashing into them. The stanchions (like the legs on Armco) are just there to put the wires into the right position to make the catch. They won't take any serious load pulling the tops outwards (or inwards) - clearly the leverage at the bottom is more than small bases and hollow tubes can deal with.

Pete
 
Skipper of the boat I sailed across the pond insisted on taking a nurse who had no sailing experience (and he was fit and healthy with no known issues). (BTW nothing against nurses esp as my wife is one!)

Boat had no generator and was a 48 foot modern cruising boat (Lightwave 48) so no autopilot could be used especially as had downwind sailing with sea coming from two directions - anyway during her watches we ended up heading in the opposite direction and she was demoted to no watches and to cook - not much use then for 15 days - at least there were 3 of us left that could steer a course to St Lucia!
 
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We had the company of a girl who ate like a horse, when I'd cooked, then proclaimed sea-sickness every time any washing up was required. She didn't wash up during the entire trip, with her other excuse being that she couldn't put her hands into water. we even bought her some rubber gloves, but that didn't help. She wasn't much good for anything else either, with a tendency to jump ashore at the wrong moments. She jumped off at the fuel pontoon, fell in and came up under the pontoon! She had a very boring habit as well of talking constantly and endlessly about herself.
 
Chrissie said:
Worst crew Ive had was yesterday, sailing with someone who had previously sailed his own boat single handed for a couple of years in the Solent, I was expecting him to be fairly competent. I started to worry when he made a comment about how it was funny that sometimes ferries had a flashing light on and sometimes they didnt...but that he didnt know why. He had great difficulty in helming, and didnt understand how to put us 'into wind' for me to raise and lower the sails. When we were on starboard tack, and in the stand on scenario, he was saying he didnt know which way to turn as he couldnt work out which way the other boats were going to go! so he really confused them all by keep changing direction, I was telling him to hold our course to which he was yelling at me that he was, whilst we were actually all over the place, causing confusion. The last straw being when he went as close as he could get to ballast buoy, I thought we were going to hit it, I was putting out warps and fenders at the time, I yelled to him to watch out, to which he accused me of being a bad skipper as I have a problem with close proximities! then he walked away from the helm in a huff telling me "you do it then" as I scrambled back across the coach roof trying to reach the tiller before we hit something. He also regularly sails a powerboat on the Thames, so not without experience. :( It was far more stressful than sailing single handed.
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I'm reminded of the Sailing Master to a certain late Prime Minister, when in close quarters racing;

" Bear Away, Sir ".

" Bear Away Sir ! "

" Bear Away the other way, Sir !!! "

also a chap on my YM course, ( doing 'competent crew ') " we once chartered a boat from Bucklers Hard, do you know, the instruments were perfectly calibrated; we watched the depth sounder reading going down, and just when it said zero we hit the bottom ! "

I shall never forget the look on the guy behind him's face when he said this; he was then a Royal Navy Navigator, and currently commands a Type 45 :)

After this and various similar incidents - he insisted on using the nav' dividers to cut accurate sections out of the pie one evening ( I never thought I'd see a REAL pie chart ! ) and wondered why we were all helpless in tears with laughter - we mentioned this character to the excellent instructor, M.D, who shrugged ( this was mid December ) " well it goes to show God has a warped sense of humour, this must be his idea of an early Christmas present for me ! "
 
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Seajet said:
I shall never forget the look on the guy behind him's face when he said this; he was then a Royal Navy Navigator, and currently commands a Type 45 :)
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Yeah, we all now how good RN navigators are ...

1514203.jpg
 
Ubergeekian,

I am aware of your love of sparring and left-wing views, but this chap was / is not only an excellent navigator, but a top human being as well - which I concede is not always the case with officers from any of the services !

Our instructor at the time was an ex-submarine 'Jimmy' ( No.1 ) and had been in a lot of Fastnet Races including 1979; I would happily sail anywhere with either, and while I'm proud of my navigation, having grown up before yacht Decca & GPS, I'd hesitate to go into a navigating test against an R.N. type !

If you are referring to HMS Astute, that was not a navigational snag, the skipper was pressured into a poor decision he was always unhappy about.
 
Seajet said:
Ubergeekian,

If you are referring to HMS Astute, that was not a navigational snag, the skipper was pressured into a poor decision he was always unhappy about.
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if he was unhappy when he started then he must be downright miserable now!
 
Jimi,

as far as I know you are sadly right.

The sub' had a team of reviewing officers aboard, who apparently made it clear they'd like to be dropped off at a place handy to them.

The skipper was unhappy as he knew the depth was dodgy, but sub' skippers are meant to be slightly gung-ho - it was presumably inferred that refusing would be a career limiting move.

Of course, with 20/20 hindsight it's easy to say he should have stood his ground, refused, and been rewarded for it.

In real life, the Navy has lost someone who must be red-hot to have got to that position in the first place.
 
Seajet said:
I am aware of your ... left-wing views...
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A common but odd misconception.

If you are referring to HMS Astute, that was not a navigational snag, the skipper was pressured into a poor decision he was always unhappy about.
Click to expand...

That picture was HMS Nottingham, not HMS Astute. You can tell by the big "D" on the side, the lack of conning tower and a few other details. It was run aground by an RN navigator.
 
Ubergeekian said:
A common but odd misconception.



That picture was HMS Nottingham, not HMS Astute. You can tell by the big "D" on the side, the lack of conning tower and a few other details. It was run aground by an RN navigator.
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Said picture isn't being displayed, "Access Denied" :rolleyes: hence, presumably, the misinterpretation
 
Seajet said:
Jimi,

as far as I know you are sadly right.

The sub' had a team of reviewing officers aboard, who apparently made it clear they'd like to be dropped off at a place handy to them.

The skipper was unhappy as he knew the depth was dodgy, but sub' skippers are meant to be slightly gung-ho - it was presumably inferred that refusing would be a career limiting move.

Of course, with 20/20 hindsight it's easy to say he should have stood his ground, refused, and been rewarded for it.

In real life, the Navy has lost someone who must be red-hot to have got to that position in the first place.
Click to expand...

Reminds me of the tale of a Captain of a type 22 who ran aground on exercise and was asked by the No1 what he was going to do next. The reply was *Take up farming*
 
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