After the busyness of life ashore, one of the biggest problems stopping a yacht owner from going off and doing that big trip is getting crew to help them deliver the boat to the region they want to visit, or even just some easygoing fun crew to race around the buoys with. If you are a skipper looking for crew, we’ll make some suggestions as to how to go about it here.
When would you need crew?
The answer is almost every time you set foot on your boat! In the case of your writer of this blog, despite loving her experience sailing with him his wife set herself against sailing. Should I get a boat I would need crew for any decent distance unless I were to go solo!
As crew I used to volunteer at various sailing clubs and you’d be surprised at how much competition there was for a decent crew member who could hand, reef and steer. I had all sorts of invites from Sunday racing to a delivery from Cadiz to Dartmouth.
You may not even need someone with years of sailing experience like me – you may just want someone aboard for beer and jollies to get you round the buoys on a sunny Sunday.
Experienced yacht crew are as rare as rocking horse shit
In the UK we have a metaphor for something very rare – ‘as rare as rocking horse shit’. Toy horses don’t shit! As a skipper you may be looking to move your yacht over a decent distance to explore a new region of the world and need experienced crew to help you get there. What do you do? You can put the boat on a yacht transporter cargo ship at a cost of €€€ or you can check out the community board at the local marina / yacht club.
The problem with those ads is that some people are great at sales yet couldn’t tell the difference between the cabin sole and the sole of their foot! Until recently you had to wing it by picking the idiot on the dock or hire a professional skipper to do it.
Skippers look for crew at Onboard Space!
A new venture has been started in Spain but reaching all over Europe called Onboard Space. This is a social economy skipper and crewing agency. The skipper looking for crew can advertise the trip they are planning and who they need to help. The crew then respond to the advert and the skipper and crew then pay a credit each to hook up on the phone.
As a special offer you get three credits free as soon as you sign up on Onboard Space
After that it costs just €5 per set of contact details. Compared to paying €200 a day for a professional crew member, or leaving your yacht behind and chartering a yacht for €2000 a week, that’s no bad deal!
The final but arguably most important part of this scheme is that skippers and crew rate one another so others know just who they are dealing with. A creepy old man after young girls would be rapidly blackballed on the system while a decent skipper who people would feel safe with on a lee shore in a F9 would get the maximum score and is able to hire whoever he wants.
Skipper looking for crew? Sign up at Onboard Space today!
