Crew Available: WARNING

[Sea Wings]

Warning to all....... and a BIG note to self!

After spending 10 days aboard with a crew member from HELL, I must remind myself to meet the crew before signing them on for a passage.......... Nothing worse than having a crew member arrive on the day before casting off and finding that they have come from HELL and are not what you expect. I now have to clean up their mess and repair the damage caused to the vessel before the owner arrives on board! A great passage in a beautiful environment is easily made into a disaster......

Please follow some simple rules where possible:
1) Ask for and check references.
2) Ask for and check qualifications .
3) Have a meaningful conversation with the crew at least on the phone, preferable on Skype and even better - IN PERSON.
4) Get them to sign an indemnity.
5) If possible, get a damage and repatriation deposit from them in cash to at least get them from mid passage to their home port if all goes bad.
6) Get a good photo - pics tell a story and can help answer certain questions.
7) Check their medical and physical needs are suited to your vessel.
8) Have a test sail where possible.
9) Get a proof of fixed address and next of kin details.
10) If you can get one then get a criminal history confirmation from their local authorities.

Very sad but there are a lot of people out their that should not be.

Good luck and fair winds to all sailors.
Seawings

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by Sea Wings

I've posted this on Crew Wanted as well, but similarly it belongs here too with the same rules applying to crew looking for a vessel to crew on.....

Warning to all....... and a BIG note to self!

After spending 10 days aboard with a crew member from HELL, I must remind myself to meet the crew before signing them on for a passage.......... Nothing worse than having a crew member arrive on the day before casting off and finding that they have come from HELL and are not what you expect. I now have to clean up their mess and repair the damage caused to the vessel before the owner arrives on board! A great passage in a beautiful environment is easily made into a disaster......

Please follow some simple rules where possible:
1) Ask for and check references.
2) Ask for and check qualifications .
3) Have a meaningful conversation with the crew at least on the phone, preferable on Skype and even better - IN PERSON.
4) Get them to sign an indemnity.
5) If possible, get a damage and repatriation deposit from them in cash to at least get them from mid passage to their home port if all goes bad.
6) Get a good photo - pics tell a story and can help answer certain questions.
7) Check their medical and physical needs are suited to your vessel.
8) Have a test sail where possible.
9) Get a proof of fixed address and next of kin details.
10) If you can get one then get a criminal history confirmation from their local authorities.

Very sad but there are a lot of people out their that should not be.

Good luck and fair winds to all sailors.
Seawings

Good heavens -- what happened?

You can get criminal checks, and they don't cost too much. Each state varies but ... yeah you should have that, and check everything.

I agree -- crew members should put up their own money for transportation home if that's what you need to do.

I also think a trial sail, and then a trial overnight sail, would be a really good idea. It could turn out that the person is completely upstanding and worthy, and has the skills you need -- but grates on you terribly for some reason. You need to be able to get along congenially.

I had a problem with a crew member once who turned out to be a huge misogynist, to the point that it interfered with my skippering my own boat. We had sailed together many times and had a good time -- but on HIS boat, where I didn't question his decisions because it was his boat ... including his mistaken idea that by not reefing a small boat in 20 mph winds, he would go faster and win the race. No -- in fact he blew out the foot of his mainsail, which would have been protected had we reefed. It was an old sail, but still ...

We had serious engine problems and had to turn back, but if that hadn't happened, I would have put him off at the nearest marina with bus fare home.

And that wasn't nearly what you have apparently gone through. YIKES.

[rebel heart]

I only do deliveries when people I already know can help me. If their schedule doesn't work, I'm not taking the job. Much easier ways to make a couple of hundred bucks a day than bobbing up and down on a weird boat with weird people.

[ArtM]

Only 10 simple steps to the perfect crew!

Hard to imagine so much trouble coming from the types of folks who will voluntarily show up in a strange location with no notice to spend several days or weeks at sea for poor pay and potentially dangerous work conditions.

[SurferShane]

Yep, been there done that. Now a dedicated solo passage maker!

[Andrew Troup]

Ah yes, but .... what if someone takes up the solo solution only to find that the problem all along was THEM ! ! !

In such cases, the nightmare never ends... :-)

[Dockhead]

Mankind is full of all types . . .

Nevertheless, I have never had a problem with crew recruited blindly over the Internet. I have a lot of experience with this since my boat lives in a different country from me, and I don't like to single hand her. It has frequently happened that the sailing and seamanship skills advertised turned out to be grossly exaggerated, but without a single exception every crew I recruited that way were really good folks who were fun to sail with. Several of them eventually became good friends.

YMMV.

[David_Old_Jersey]

A few more details (juicy ones?!) from OP would help.....or at least be of interest!

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Andrew Troup

Ah yes, but .... what if someone takes up the solo solution only to find that the problem all along was THEM ! ! !

In such cases, the nightmare never ends... :-)

I suspect that this is a VERY common problem . . .

[Sea Wings]

Originally Posted by ArtM

Only 10 simple steps to the perfect crew!

Hard to imagine so much trouble coming from the types of folks who will voluntarily show up in a strange location with no notice to spend several days or weeks at sea for poor pay and potentially dangerous work conditions.

Art you are perfectly correct and yes it is hard to imagine.

Fortunately in my thirty years of deliveries (Thanks to Neptune) I have only had 3 incidents worth complaining about:

The first started with me jumping ship and 2 other crew who stayed on ended up dead on the Gypsy Rose off Port Louis (1986).

The second - myself and the other paid crew abandoned ship in Cape Town with the owner and family ending up in hospital in St Helena.

Now this trip which fortunately no one was hurt but it sure had potential.

There is no way to guarantee good crew but there are some small steps that can be taken to assist in preventing these dangerous experiences.

Unfortunately we do become complacent and often invite these strangers into our homes and often find ourselves in situations that are sincerely challenging without the added issues that we can side step by following some simple considerations.....

[SurferShane]

Originally Posted by ArtM

Only 10 simple steps to the perfect crew!

Hard to imagine so much trouble coming from the types of folks who will voluntarily show up in a strange location with no notice to spend several days or weeks at sea for poor pay and potentially dangerous work conditions.

And the chance they might be nothing else more other than emergency rations? On Seabreeze I clearly list cannibalism in my interests. To date, no one has contacted me enquiring about going sailing!

[Sea Wings]

DOJ - unfortunately I cannot reveal too much on this forum for certain reasons but yes there were some very interesting situations.... It started with the crew member, who with a Day Skipper Cert from Africa, fell asleep on watch.... 1 hour and 6 minutes later, whilst in a very busy shipping lane surrounded by reef and other things that go bump in the night, I awoke and noticed the problem! The crew member of course then denied that he was asleep or praying for that matter and that he was putting the life and property of others at risk etc - I still cant work out though what he is trying to say about the photo which happened to be time and date stamped.... The list is endless and I unfortunately have ended up having to foot the bill for the damage to the vessel which is several hundred dollars - no one hurt so happy with that outcome at least.

[SurferShane]

Originally Posted by Andrew Troup

Ah yes, but .... what if someone takes up the solo solution only to find that the problem all along was THEM ! ! !

In such cases, the nightmare never ends... :-)

For years before I bought my first yacht I did a lot of offshore commercial fishing without ever having an argument or similar problem at sea, most likely because I respected my skippers and knew my arse depended on them and the boat. In contrast, I have had the unfortunate experience of having a couple of total idiots on board my yacht - both alpha male know it alls - who I was happy to dump at the first opportunity. Lucky for them this was not to the sharks. Both endanged the safety of my ship.

[Sea Wings]

Originally Posted by Rakuflames

Good heavens -- what happened?

You can get criminal checks, and they don't cost too much. Each state varies but ... yeah you should have that, and check everything.

I agree -- crew members should put up their own money for transportation home if that's what you need to do.

I also think a trial sail, and then a trial overnight sail, would be a really good idea. It could turn out that the person is completely upstanding and worthy, and has the skills you need -- but grates on you terribly for some reason. You need to be able to get along congenially.

I had a problem with a crew member once who turned out to be a huge misogynist, to the point that it interfered with my skippering my own boat. We had sailed together many times and had a good time -- but on HIS boat, where I didn't question his decisions because it was his boat ... including his mistaken idea that by not reefing a small boat in 20 mph winds, he would go faster and win the race. No -- in fact he blew out the foot of his mainsail, which would have been protected had we reefed. It was an old sail, but still ...

We had serious engine problems and had to turn back, but if that hadn't happened, I would have put him off at the nearest marina with bus fare home.

And that wasn't nearly what you have apparently gone through. YIKES.

Raku the list of things is very long and it was definitely a trying passage.

The unfortunate part is that the particular coastline is so beautiful with so many islands, reefs and wrecks worthy of spending time at.

I kick myself sincerely for letting my guard slip in vetting the person - I have worked extensively doing deliveries and also as Cpt within the Mega Yacht industry so am no stranger to finding crew. In our email exchange he ticked all the right boxes and had apparently been trained at an institution well known to me where I too actually grew up and started my sailing career so no more checks were done! Very foolish and I paid the price.

I hate posting threads like this but unfortunately sometimes we need a subtle reminder of the things we really should pay attention to. From the responses received so far it is sad to see so many people have also had bad experiences.

Regards
Seawings

[rivonia]

If ever you want crew you must always; Hold there passport. Have a deposit off them for there return flight/transport.Interview face to face. Ask do they take medication, what for. Do they do drugs-if so not with me on my boat. Show me your qualifications. Give me your physical address and telephone number of your next of kin.= Safety.