Crew Wanted - Etiquette & Proper Customs

[NoTies]

I pay return fare and a bottle of rum for crew. Just taken on a 300lb crew (a chef) for a trip Wellington to Auckland (4-5 days). Galley's on the port side so meals will have to be cooked on the port tack, can't afford to have him to leeward. If the crew has to travel to join the boat I put them in a hotel until sailing and pay for their meals. Sue seems to avoiding all the long coastal passages but I guess someone's got to earn a living.

[GordMay]

Think what a "... a borken leg could ..." do to your crew's day.

[hellosailor]

Lynx-
In answer to your question about medical costs...Legal liabilities for persons on a boat will vary with the vessel's flag (i.e. in the US, the Jones Act) and admiralty law, and contract law, all depending on things like whether you are paying them to crew, or they paid you to sail with you.
In some cases, if a guest falls and breaks a leg on your boat, your liability insurance will cover it the same way as a guest falling in your house or on your steps.
Bottom line is "It depends" on the details of your situation. And of course, the owner's pockets.

[Weyalan]

On the delivery of the Insatiable from Queensland to Tasmania, I had a crew of 6 including me - 3 of us were "offshore experienced" while the other 3 were relatively green (figuratively, not literally, thank goodness). I felt that I needed those other 2 offshore-capable sailors because I wanted to be sure of having a competent, dependable person on each watch (we ran 4 hour watches of 2 people, so it was 4 on, 8 off, unless we needed extra people on deck). So, to cut to the chase, I paid the air-fare from Tasmania to Brisbane for the 2 experienced people. The other 3 crew paid their own airfares (I had plenty of less experienced crew expressed an interst in teh delivery)

I paid for all the food for the on board meals. On the 3 occasions that we went ashore, the crew paid for their own meals & drinks.

[Lynx]

hellosailor - thanks. Lynx

[Rangiroo]

As others have said different situations require different approaches.....

I moved my 60ft Ketch from St Thomas to NYC last summer. I couldn't do the VI-West Palm leg and I NEEDED crew to move tha boat so I paid airfare for crew to the boat from WPB to VI and I provisioned the boat.
From the WPB to Charleston leg I sailed with another captain and we had 2 other crew on board. I paid airfare and provisioning....same deal for the Charleston-NYC leg. I NEEDED crew to help sail the boat and I took responsibility for their expenses. They did NOT get paid for their help. They were volunteer crew (friends of friends of friends) who jumped at the chance for the experience.

Next year I am planning on jumping shore and sailing off around the world. I have my other captain and his partner coming too so there will be a basic crew of 4 ppl on board however this size vessel works best (read much easier watch schedule etc) with 6 people on board so I'm going to be looking for extra crew for different legs of the trip along the way. My attitude to THAT trip is that it is purely a pleasure trip...if people want to come with then they will have to pay their own way to AND from the boat and they will be expected to contribute to provisioning expenses. The way I look at it is that I am providing at my expense a large comfortable boat and a GRAND adventure and in return I get extra help. The way I see it for them is that they get to sail across the world for however long they want without the HUGE outlay of owning and maintaining their own boat. It is a trade-off....I am benefitting and so are they. It may be exploitation as someone else said but it works both ways.....I cannot wait!!!!!!