From: STU@mwvm.mitre.org
Subject: Re: Crewing
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, McLean VA 22102
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 13:51:37 GMT

>FL>From: floydb@rpi.edu
>
>FL>Has anyone ever gotten a crew position through the net?
>I caught a notice from Stu Bell when he was taking his uacht from
 
 
I was extremely pleased with the "net-crew" I had for the Ft. Lauderdale
leg of my trip to D.C.  I believe I've made some life-long friends and
learned some sailing tricks that will be in my bag forever.
 
Some suggestions:
 
 
1.  Committment:  I requested my "net-crew" provide confirmed air line
reservations for the return leg before I "counted" them among the crew.  It
worked very well for the first leg.  Everyone who said they were coming
showed up - that is a better score than a wedding!  On the second leg, a
friend of a new-reader called and "begged" to go along with his girl friend.
 
I talked with them for about an hour - liked the fit and skills and agreed
to accept them as crew.  As you might have guessed, two days before I left,
they finked out.  While the two of us that remained had an easy (and fun)
trip from Ft. Lauderdale to Beaufort, I had wanted 4-6 for each off shore
leg and felt slighted when the non-net crew proved to be unreliable.
 
 
2.  Be honest - always a good idea when sailing.  I told prospective crew
members about the accomodations, the food to be provisioned, the equipment
and as much of my sailing skill and skipper style as I could.  The result,
from my prospective, was zero (0) interpersonal tensions for 11 days of
difficult sailing conditions.  The second result was that the Shearwater
ended the trip cleaner and in better condition than she started, dispite
having blown the main in two places during a sudden gybe in a squall when
we saw very high winds.  It was hard to imagine a group of 5 guys who never
met each other getting along better than this group.
 
3.  Eat well:  I provisioned with care for a variety of conditions.  We had
lots of fresh fruit, good food (I think), fresh baked bread, and generally
enough variety that whatever the sea conditions, we had enough to eat
(triskets and pretzels during the worst of it) that everyone at least was
fed.  We also had lots of tea for cold weather.  Carry de-caf tea - you can
drink gallons of it and stay warm with the night watches get cold.
 
4.  Establish a watch system.  There are a variety of systems - and you must
find a system that meets the needs of your crew.  We had a range of skills
and experience so we established a 2 hours ready, two hours on, 6 hours off
rotation where each "beginner" had a more experienced "ready" on deck (maybe
asleep) and available to help immediately.
 
5.  Have an autopilot.  My belt order didn't arrive so I had one belt and
two broken spares for the first leg.  This was the only MAJOR problem - it
is very annoying to man the wheel for 24 hours/day and the belts I had only
worked in good conditions.  Fortunately, I got three spare belts in Key West
and was able to use the autopilot during the legs when there were only two
of us on board.
 
If you want to crew, list with CrewFinders.  Everyone we saw that was
"professional" crew listed with them and was successful in finding work.
 
 
 
Good luck.   /Stu
Newsgroups: rec.boats