Insurance for trans Ocean passage

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by Aden

Hi, Chuckr

May I ask what went wrong when you took a crew crossing Atlantic? It would be good to know how to pick the right crew based on other experiences.

We did not take crew on our Atlantic crossing. It was early on in the Caribbean and when we lived in Miami. We are not racers and they wanted to see how hard they could push the boat and complained that I had a slow boat and needed more sail. I told them to shut up and sit down and reefed and we sped up a lot and they were amazed that less sail met more speed.
Second time I let someone have the helm and we had to go around a marker and they cut it so close I could almost touch it - if we had gotten a wave or anything we would have hit it and it was steel - Third time someone had the helm in a channel and I looked behind us and we were drifting out of the channel and looked ahead and it looked like we were in the channel - I told the person that we were out of the channel and they began to argue that they were in the channel and they had more experience than me, which was true, but they were still out of the channel and we almost went aground.

We are fairly easy going and not great sailors as a lot of folks have a ton more experience than us, at least in getting around cans, but we know our boat and I do not want to argue with someone on how much sail to put up or not or our route. When we crossed we had winds of 30-35 for 3 days and seas of 10-12' or more. The boat wanted to run and she would have had we let her. But she was going to pound and we said no as we think our first obligation is to take of our boat and if we do that she will take care of us. We reefed to a handkerchief on the jib and inmast furling main and slowed the boat down to 5k+ and had a "pleasant" sail.

Our issue is we are fairly easy going and try to get along and we are not a capt bligh but I think that if we took crew I would have to become a capt bligh as after a while I am no longer mr nice guy and you can not fire crew 1/2 across. By the way in my career I managed a lot of people and was known as someone who was good to their people, non judgmental, would hire a person based on their qualifications and that only, but if I said I wanted it done this way that was what I wanted. I would ask for input but my decision was final and if you did not like it then as our now pres elect would say you are fired.

This is a bit long but only a few incidents.

[daletournier]

Pantaenius and Topsail will both ok a couple crossing oceans, I had quotes from them last week regarding crossing to Africa. Both seemed resonable.

Sent from my vivo Y35 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[TJ D]

We are insured by Seaworthy, now Geico, and they didn't give us any grief about 2 people either. We took a third for our transat, but that was not required.

They tacked on a few bucks for some reason, like 100.

They did ask for a detailed sailing/marine resume.

Anyway, shop around, there are some outfits around that will insure 2 people, as long as your experience meets their requirements. At least I think so.

On another note- oh, the stories we could tell about crew! Chuck gives some good advice. I would do at least a 48 hour trip with somebody before crossing an ocean with them.

Good luck, TJ

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by TJ D

We are insured by Seaworthy, now Geico, and they didn't give us any grief about 2 people either. We took a third for our transat, but that was not required.

They tacked on a few bucks for some reason, like 100.

They did ask for a detailed sailing/marine resume.

Anyway, shop around, there are some outfits around that will insure 2 people, as long as your experience meets their requirements. At least I think so.

On another note- oh, the stories we could tell about crew! Chuck gives some good advice. I would do at least a 48 hour trip with somebody before crossing an ocean with them.

Good luck, TJ

There are 2 very important qualities in choosing crew, experience and chemistry. Once you have determined basic experience levels make your decision based on chemistry. We seldom take crew as we prefer to sail as a couple but women often make great crew.

[CatCouple]

Originally Posted by Maka

Good advice. Plz dont stop here. More if you have it.
Thanks

Yachtmasters that couldn't tie a Bowline, Vegetarians that kept the fact secret until at the supermarket,10000 miles of ocean experience, on Virtual sailor 5!

I kid you not...

lessons learned: Don't believe anything crew say on their cv / sailing resume everyone exaggerates. No more than one married couple on the boat, enthusiastic amateurs are trainable, old salty sea dogs are not.

You all need to eat together, the same food at the same time. Good personal hygiene is expected even in week three of the ocean passage.

Look for a good mix of skills set on board complimentary to your own. if you cant cook or engines are your weak suit then find crew with those skills.

You have to have common interests on long voyages you cant talk about squalls and knots for three weeks.

My earlier post on this suggests skype and a trial sail add to this get a reference from someone they have sailed with before.

Be really upfront on whats expected ,detail in writing responsibilities and any costs or remuneration involved. Give the responsibility of handling the 'kitty' to a crew remember. Cant over emphasise how important it is to be upfront and transparent about money issues. I have had crew try to take off ' their share' of the medical kit bought for the voyage for example. Be clear what happens to any food left over at the end of the trip, is engine oil paid for by the owner. Try and avoid any of these type of discussions at the end of the voyage.

Have a proper watch system posted so that the crew knows for example Breakfast is at 8.00, on Thursday at 9.00 its their turn to clean the heads, but they get to sleep in on Friday, no arguments no exceptions.

Its your boat even if you may not the skipper!

To repeat my earlier post: Skype or meet up, do a get to know us and the boat sail week or weekend, must be a minimum of an overnight at sea.

Set you crew a task to fix something , prepare a meal, organise a passage.

You tend to only hear the negatives on crew.I have met some great people through Crewseekers and similar sites and have a band of shipmates now with whom I would happily sail again.