How do you deal with a bad captain?

[FamilyVan]

Originally Posted by NoQuarter79

He yelled basically the entire trip. He yelled every order at us, when there was no reason to do so. If it's loud, sure, you need to yell. When it's calm and you're just telling us to pull the line in or whatever, there's no reason to yell.

There is almost no reason to raise your voice on a boat unless it's in order to be heard over the ambient noise, caused by the wind or the engine or whatever is noisy.

If he was "yelling" at you, rather than increasing volume, it was probably an indication that he lacked confidence in his own abilities.

I spend a LOT of time on the water with crews of widely varying ability and experience levels and never ever yell at any body. I don't see anything wrong with you jumping ship, as long as you informed him where you were going so he wasn't worried about you- which it sounds like you did.

What I don't think you should have done is constantly question his decisions. You questioned his collision avoidance techniques. One thing I can't get my head around is the bilge thing. I could be wrong, but I think when coastal cruising most people leave their bilge pumps set to automatic- I know many do any way.

If motoring a lot, as you would be on the icw, a properly adjusted shaft seal will drip continuously, you just want to keep the water on the outside as much as possible- easiest way I know of to do that is an automatic bilge pump.

Sent from my SGH-I547C using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[NoQuarter79]

Originally Posted by Greenhand

OK, this ended up kind of long, so I will put my question at the top: Are you saying that you left behind a business to get on this guy's ship and now you are in danger of losing your boat and the business?

This trip and the issues with our boat and business are completely unrelated.

[NoQuarter79]

Originally Posted by FamilyVan

There is almost no reason to raise your voice on a boat unless it's in order to be heard over the ambient noise, caused by the wind or the engine or whatever is noisy.

If he was "yelling" at you, rather than increasing volume, it was probably an indication that he lacked confidence in his own abilities.

I spend a LOT of time on the water with crews of widely varying ability and experience levels and never ever yell at any body. I don't see anything wrong with you jumping ship, as long as you informed him where you were going so he wasn't worried about you- which it sounds like you did.

What I don't think you should have done is constantly question his decisions. You questioned his collision avoidance techniques. One thing I can't get my head around is the bilge thing. I could be wrong, but I think when coastal cruising most people leave their bilge pumps set to automatic- I know many do any way.

If motoring a lot, as you would be on the icw, a properly adjusted shaft seal will drip continuously, you just want to keep the water on the outside as much as possible- easiest way I know of to do that is an automatic bilge pump.

Sent from my SGH-I547C using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

Something was going on with the bilge that it kept filling up with water, and at one point there was a thin layer of water in the cabin. It was just a matter of a hose getting knocked over and needing propped back up. But, it was oily. People in here have said there shouldn't be oil in the bilge, but there definitely was. Because he stored Gatorade in there, and when it filled up with water they felt oily and tasted oily.

And I'm pretty sure there was an issue with his auto pump too. We would have to turn it on and listen for a certain noise then turn it off.

[atoll]

Originally Posted by NoQuarter79

Something was going on with the bilge that it kept filling up with water, and at one point there was a thin layer of water in the cabin. It was just a matter of a hose getting knocked over and needing propped back up. But, it was oily. People in here have said there shouldn't be oil in the bilge, but there definitely was. Because he stored Gatorade in there, and when it filled up with water they felt oily and tasted oily.

oil and diesel float on top of seawater/water so even a tiny amount of oil is going to seem like a lot seen from above,good thing is it will rarely get pumped overboard as bilge pumps stop working for the last few inches of fluid left in the bilge,leaving the oil behind.

[monte]

It seems you've had a lot of advice on here noq. I'd be interested to hear what you have gleaned from the discussion and if you feel your original question of how to deal with a bad captain has been answered. What would you do differently, if anything in a similar situation in the future from the initial meeting to when you left the boat?
Do you think you learned a lot during the trip? What to do, what not to do, general seamanship etc...

[NoQuarter79]

Originally Posted by monte

It seems you've had a lot of advice on here noq. I'd be interested to hear what you have gleaned from the discussion and if you feel your original question of how to deal with a bad captain has been answered. What would you do differently, if anything in a similar situation in the future from the initial meeting to when you left the boat?
Do you think you learned a lot during the trip? What to do, what not to do, general seamanship etc...

I think we could have spoke up a little bit more, sure. There were reasons we did not at the time, but thinking back now those reasons should not have kept us from asking a question if we didn't fully understand.

I think we should have tried to talk to him about leaving before we did. I'm sure it would have resulted in the same thing, but it was not right of us to try to bail on him like we did. But it wasn't like he turned around and we were gone either. He saw us getting our stuff, then got mad about it.

When it comes to how we handled him though, I think we did the right thing. We didn't argue back with him, we didn't ask him to do things for us, and we followed every order as he directed, which would still result in him yelling at us.

I definitely know we learned a lot from the trip. I don't hate this guy, and he gave us an opportunity to do something we wouldn't have had the chance to do for a while. I guess it was just personal issues that got in the way.

[tropicalescape]

Originally Posted by monte

It seems you've had a lot of advice on here noq. I'd be interested to hear what you have gleaned from the discussion and if you feel your original question of how to deal with a bad captain has been answered. What would you do differently, if anything in a similar situation in the future from the initial meeting to when you left the boat?
Do you think you learned a lot during the trip? What to do, what not to do, general seamanship etc...

Great questions..

[lancelot9898]

It seems to me that you did not have a bad captain.....you were just bad crew.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by NoQuarter79

I definitely know we learned a lot from the trip. I don't hate this guy, and he gave us an opportunity to do something we wouldn't have had the chance to do for a while. I guess it was just personal issues that got in the way.

Reckon thats your cue to walk away from the thread now.. its often something simple like that.. likely if you ever sailed together again it'd go easier as you'd all be aware of each others limits..
Enjoy the summer guys.. file the bad.. remember the good..

[Island Time O25]

Assuming NoQ and her partner knew beforehand that this crewing will be of significant length of time, whatever happened to the good old tradition of captain and potential crew feeling out each other, meeting beforehand to see if they fit together in close confines of a boat, doing a day say to (mutually) ascertain each other's level of competence, etc?

If there was "no time" for all of this checking each other out, I, as a potential crew would be very apprehensive as such rush to sign on a crew would tend to show that either a) the captain was not very competent to start looking for crew in a timely fashion or b) not very sociable and lost an already scheduled crew members or c) couldn't find any timely due to his personality drawbacks/ boat condition/money or all of the above.

There is usually a very good reason that a boat owner needs a crew "yesterday" and it is more likely than not not a good reason.

[monte]

Also a good reason why many solo sailors are solo sailors

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by NoQuarter79

I think we could have spoke up a little bit more, sure. There were reasons we did not at the time, but thinking back now those reasons should not have kept us from asking a question if we didn't fully understand.

I think we should have tried to talk to him about leaving before we did. I'm sure it would have resulted in the same thing, but it was not right of us to try to bail on him like we did. But it wasn't like he turned around and we were gone either. He saw us getting our stuff, then got mad about it.

When it comes to how we handled him though, I think we did the right thing. We didn't argue back with him, we didn't ask him to do things for us, and we followed every order as he directed, which would still result in him yelling at us.

I definitely know we learned a lot from the trip. I don't hate this guy, and he gave us an opportunity to do something we wouldn't have had the chance to do for a while. I guess it was just personal issues that got in the way.

NoQ

You've been fired upon by lots here and stayed the course.

Hat's off - many would have walked away after some of these comments. You also kept your cool - which is nice to see

Stick around - there actually is a lot to learn around here and quite a few members who truly know what they are talking about.


carsten

[Island Time O25]

"How to deal with a bad captain?" Don't get on the boat with one. Duhhh.

So may be the question is better phrased as - "How to avoid a bad captain to begin with?"

[jtsailjt]

Originally Posted by Island Time O25

"How to deal with a bad captain?" Don't get on the boat with one. Duhhh.

So may be the question is better phrased as - "How to avoid a bad captain to begin with?"

But since the first step of getting on a boat with a "bad captain" had already occurred, it was a little late for your "better" phrasing.

[s/v Beth]

Originally Posted by FamilyVan

One thing I can't get my head around is the bilge thing. I could be wrong, but I think when coastal cruising most people leave their bilge pumps set to automatic- I know many do any way.

If motoring a lot, as you would be on the icw, a properly adjusted shaft seal will drip continuously, you just want to keep the water on the outside as much as possible- easiest way I know of to do that is an automatic bilge pump

Family- that old cote that I sailed with did the same thing. Once a day he would turn on the bilge pump and count the seconds before it emptied...that way he knew if he had a new leak in his "well used" boat. I think he thought he was saving battery power too. If we had a bad day- well sometimes it was out of the bilge.