Is there such a thing as volunteer opportunities in return for sailing experience?

[jim King]

Posting a note on a local bulletin board is a great start. You might also check the marina to see if anyone is working on their boat and offer help for a ride. You'd be surprised at the results. Many skippers going out on a weekly sail would enjoy the company and help in cranking the wenches.

[Joh.Ghurt]

Originally Posted by jim King

[...] help in cranking the wenches.

I hope you meant winches.

If not, please elaborate, this might be an interesting story...

[jen1722terry]

Ditto on all the comments above.

Especially a local sailing club. Different from a yacht club in that sailing clubs often charter boats on weekends or longer trips and the members sail them. There's a variety of experience levels and the veterans teach the newbies.
I got much of my early cruising experience in such a club near Philadelphia.

Also, is there a maritime museum near you? I volunteered for one in my youth and learned much about maintence, mechanics and navigation. Great fun, while your at it. Some of these museums own large old square riggers. Cool to sail.

And don't forget to come to this wonderful forum with questions. You'll always find thoughtful answers.

Cheers, and welcome to sail-world.

[Apollo366]

Look for a sailing course, you will meet many other sailors there as well as learn a lot too!
Most clubs & charter operations have courses as a way to entice people to go sailing in their boats.

Apollo Wayne

[DonnaM]

Hi Apollo, will do. Thank you for your advice. Donna

[GoneDiving]

Isn't YouTube's Brupeg in Bundaberg?

Not a yacht but a large trawler undergoing a major refit. It's not too far off hitting the water so I'd contact them via YouTube and ask about helping in return for on the water experience. Trawlers also need to be navigated, docked, maintained etc and they seem like a really down to earth and approachable couple. Perhaps have a look at their channel and see if it's something you might be interested in.

[Apollo366]

Hey Donna, keep us posted on how it goes, we all love stories of learning to sail & then going cruising!!

Wayne

[DonnaM]

Hi Apollo, we are located in Bundaberg Australia and have a dream of spending our retirement on a boat (even though we can't sail, yet) But we have spent our lives (obsessively) on the water on every sort of human propelled craft you can imagine, and after several years living along the Amazon river haven't been able to settle back into 'normal' suburban life. We know this is going to be a HUGE learning curve so we've started to plan years ahead, but we also know we're about to enter into an awesome community. Thank you for your interest. We're off to join a sailing club asap and I can see I'm going to be spending many hours on Youtube. Donna

[JPA Cate]

Hi, Donna, welcome aboard CF.

Don't take cruising You tubes too seriously; they are basically entertainment. Your time will be better spent on the water, learning. And helping your skippers at haulout times. Study their organization (or lack there of).

Good luck with it. It will be more fun than trying to square off your corners to fit in suburbia's round holes.

Ann

[DonnaM]

Thanks JPS Cate, we've had such great advice from the forum. We now have a plan and in appreciation of everybody's time on this forum will report back to share our progress--as slow as that might seem to seasoned sailors

[old pirate]

As mentioned earlier, the marina at the river mouth is a good place to start. There is also little cafe/restaraunt there which might be a good place to strike up conversations with cruisers. The yacht club is a kilometer or so back up the river. Worth a visit to see how "things"lie.
Get word out there as there are a few active "yatties" with boats in the anchorage at the sugar port.

[Fore and Aft]

Donna the Port Marina at the bottom of Bundaberg river has a notice board in the laundry. The laundry is always open so you could put a note in there offering to help.
Bpurg is easy to spot on the hard across the road from the laundry. They might know someone since they have been there so long.
The easy way to get experience is to buy a trailer sailer and stick to the Bundaberg river until you get confident. You can't go to wrong in the river. Then you can trailer the boat to Hervey Bay etc to continue your learning curve.
Cheers

[Clivevon]

Originally Posted by DonnaM

Would there be such a thing as volunteering as day crew for short trips to gain experience about sailing? Or alternatively offering muscle to sand or paint and other maintenance in return for getting out on the water and learning? We are based in Bundaberg, Qld, Australia and this is part of a 5 year plan leading to what we hope might be boat living in our retirement. Fit and healthy with a sense of humour.

You wouldn't happen to have a mate in Portsmouth, would you?