Crew Wanted: How to tell who the scammers are on here?

[weavis]

This is a thorny subject.

A Passport is government property in an individual's care. A captain has no legal right to hold passports for crew. Demand your passport back, since it isn't yours to give away in the first place. Actually, in most countries there is a legal prerequisite that the holder never abandons his/her passport and also signs in the application for a passport that this will not take place.

For merchant sailors, the captain normally holds the seaman's discharge book for the duration of the voyage, and released to the mariner when leaving the ship. It is mustered by the captain to the port/national authorities upon entering a new port of call. A merchant captain would never ask you to render your passport, but he can ask to see it for verification of licenses etc.

Yacht captains have however a problem when it comes to verifying crewlists to port/national auth. when entering a new country since most of the yachties never bothered/not qualified to get a seaman's discharge book.

Having had my passport destroyed in an incident, my reluctance to part with the ID has been amplified 100%. The time, the money and the hoops to replace it, make me wary of entrusting it to anyone else.

Given that everyone on the vessel has different criteria that applies to them regarding passports from the Captain down, it will require some trust and some thinking about.

[Capt Phil]

It has been a while since I was in the delivery business but I clearly remember my adventure with crew passports. During my pre-passage safety spiel, I would give crew members a choice, this was pre 9/11, mind you. They could put their valuables including passports in a baggy and keep them in the ditch bag or they could hang onto them themselves and I would give them a plastic baggy for that purpose. There was one young man who refused to give up his passport until he was forced to come with me on a 2 hour hike to the C&I office and back in some nondescript Mexican port while the rest of the crew lounged around aboard a beautiful 90 foot boat which we were delivering.
He promptly surrendered his papers after the stroll in 110 degree heat!
My deliveries were primarily on the west coast from Alaska to Panama so we're in and out of several countries on a delivery.
I know that Europe had been a bit of a problem a while back but with the Shengen treaties, I would have thought it had become a no brainier. At least until it all blows up again!
I rarely had more than 3 crew members, all US citizens, and there was probably one newbie among them and most times I recall, the newbies were female. I found them to be hard working, quick learners and interested in all things marine. Brute strength was never an issue and I did not have blue vs pink jobs aboard but the guys would naturally jump in if there was a particularly dirty or physically demanding task.
In 15 years of delivering boats up and down the coast, I was blessed with a regular and willing group of young people. Not to say there weren't issues from time to time, but generally things ran pretty smoothly. I would always host a pre-passage dinner or get together so folks could get to know each other and me if they were new. This worked out great in building a team and my most experienced crew seemed to rise to the occasion and put everyone at ease.
I personally, was never made aware of any hanky panky between crew members although on a couple of deliveries, I was pretty sure something of a mutual consent went on. It never got in the way of work to be done aboard.
These were all paid crew, mostly experienced and had known me for years.
Not certain how much the rules have changed but boys will continue to be boys and girls continue to be girls. I guess, don't know, that social mores, expectations and behaviors because of social media influences are different now than in the 90's but folks today need to make their own decisions, not be told by an old fuddy duddy like me what to do and how to behave.
Just my 2 cents... Cheers, Phil

[donradcliffe]

I have used

https://www.sailopo.com/default.aspx

several times in the past to find crew, and can recommend them. The fact that prospective crew have to put some money up to get on their list keeps most of the posers out. Hank Schmitt is a straight-up guy, and there are a lot of opportunities on his system.

[Pelagic]

Good post Captn Phil , but the dynamics of yacht crew change quite dramatically when the numbers change from 4 to 6 on a yacht delivery to 16 to 26 for a Superyacht.

Working hard on keeping the 4 departments communicating with each other, was the hardest challenge.

Also from an administrative perspectives, I held on to their passports and gave them plastics card of the passport as a back up I'd.

[Mark2772]

Always trust a sailor. So ask open ended questions to make sure the people you are speaking with in two way conversations are genuine sailors. That's it. I built my career around this! Best of luck!


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