Designing a delivery crew

[DeepCut]

Prompted by another thread regarding an inexperienced delivery captain and crew, I wanted input as to delivery crew design to 1) assure safety,2) gain experience, 3) transition form Crew to Delivery Captain.

Mission: Delivery of 42ft Catamaran from East Coast Florida to BVI in the spring. 4 cabin layout.

Delivery captain: Requirements? Obviously experience, but at what requirements would you have to serve as first "delivery" captain? Every experienced delivery captain had a "first".

How many of the crew could be 1st experience for delivery(Assume experienced island and coastal experience)?

Other crew experience?

[donradcliffe]

If you are nervous about being the delivery captain for the first time, bring along another delivery captain. You will be in charge, but he/she will be there if you get in trouble.

You will not be able to be awake at all times--you will have to have someone else that you can TRUST to be in charge of the boat when you rest. The required skills for that person are navigation, watching for traffic, adjusting sails for conditions, and knowing when to wake you up. I'm not just talking about benign conditions during the day, I'm talking about squalls at 0300. That would be the other delivery captain if you brought one along.

Due to the economics of deliveries, many are done with just two people. If you want to bring another crew along to get experience, you will get more rest. However, you need to spend a good deal of time observing and training the additional person(s) before you can trust them alone. I've had inexperienced crew who were fast learners, and I've had some who were downright dangerous--I finished those trips pretty tired out.

[DeepCut]

I had thought bring a "more senior" delivery captain to function as a first mate would be great for the acting delivery captain... obviously a trust source to confirm decisions.

How many delivery trips (as crew) would be preferred before serving as delivery captain? Obviously, less if the first mate is a seasoned delivery captain.

Hard to imagine a delivery more than a few days being done single handed or even double handed. Even having 2 rookies to stand watch alone in "good weather" or overlapping with a more seasoned crew would lessen the work load, and give the rookie some experience.

Would it be ill-advised to have 3 rookies and a delivery captain?

[SFS]

In a 4 cabin layout, take 5 people, and have two on watch together. You could take two rookies, pairing each with more experienced crew. You should be able to find volunteer crew, if you feed them.