Girls vs boys for crew

A   MAN WHO WANTS to go deep-sea cruising with his family has a problem. His loyal wife, who crews for him on their 32-foot sloop, is happy to go along with him, but he is worried about his two daughters, aged 16 and 14.

“If they were boys I wouldn’t have a moment’s hesitation,” he says, “but I’m not sure girls will be able to handle the hardships.”

Well, I don’t know these daughters of his, of course, but I can’t help thinking it’s a bit old-fashioned to regard girls as lacking in the ability to handle crew duties aboard yachts. What they might lack in brute strength they surely make up for in ingenuity. You only have to be able to read to know that girls of 15 and 16 are sailing bigger yachts than his around the world on their own these days.

Besides, boys don’t always make ideal crews anyway. The last time I crossed an ocean with a son, who was then 17 years old, I lost a lot of sleep worrying about him.

As we were the only two watchkeepers, he had specific orders to call me if he spotted another vessel at night. He had specific orders to call me if he thought a sail change was necessary. He had specific orders to wear a harness and tether when he was alone in the cockpit at night.

But he was 17. He was becoming a man. He couldn’t help himself. Nature was pumping testosterone through his tissues. He didn’t obey any of those orders. Although he was color blind, he guided us through a fleet of fishing boats one dark night way out in the South Atlantic while my wife and I slept below. I nearly had a fit when I found out.

And when we were running fast in the southeast trades I was woken up one night by the thud of footsteps running forward along the cabintop. My untethered son was jibing the foresail singlehanded, shifting the pole from one side to the other. I lay awake, staring into the darkness, listening to the noises, waiting for the thuds that would indicate he was returning to the safety of the cockpit. But they never came. Had he gone overboard? I reasoned — I hoped — that he had returned along the side deck. I wanted to get up and peek out of the companionway hatch, but I didn’t want him to know that I had caught him in an act of disobedience because that would have forced me to impose disciplinary punishment or else lose my power of authority over him, such as it was. So I lay there fretting for another half hour until it was time to go on watch and I could decently make an appearance. And there he was, sitting in the cockpit, neatly buckled up and looking the picture of innocence in the moonlight. I could have bitten him. But I didn’t ask him why the jib pole was suddenly on the other side.

I don’t think a girl would have disobeyed her father/skipper like that. Girls don’t have the same impulse to prove they’re macho.

Or do they? Maybe now I’m the one who’s acting old-fashioned. Well, if I am, I can’t help it. Old-fashioned is what I am. Like it or lump it. But my advice to the would-be cruiser is simple: Go for it. Invest some trust in those daughters of yours. I’m sure it will be amply repaid.

Today’s Thought

A man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man nobody trusts.

— Harold Macmillan

Tailpiece

Did you hear about the short-sighted moth who blundered into a 2-year-old’s birthday party? He burned his end at both candles.   

Crewing around the world

TWO QUESTIONS ARISE: 1. Can you work your way around the world by crewing on other people’s sailboats?  2. Should you have to pay?

The answer to No. 1 is yes, I believe you can. And to No. 2: Certainly not.

I have read and heard stories about round-the-world skippers who ask for money from prospective crews in two ways. They ask for passage money, and/or they ask for pantry money, a contribution toward food. Neither request is valid, in my view. The workman is worth his salt. A crewmember provides skill and labor and ought to be recompensed, either with cash in the normal way, or with food, accommodation, and a passage from port to port.

There are various ports scattered around the globe where long-distance cruisers more often take on extra crew. Durban, South Africa, where I once lived, is one of them. After following the reasonable gentle trade-wind routes for thousands of miles, the mom-and-pop cruisers are suddenly faced with the prospect of a tough passage around the Cape of Storms to Cape Town. It often seems to be a good idea to take on an extra hand to help with the rough-weather watches and sail handling. And if things work out well during this passage, it’s possible that the extra crewmember could go much farther with them.

There are several websites (listed below) that aim to put prospective crews in touch with prospective skippers. They’re interesting to read, but some are aimed more at professionals than others. More helpfully, there is a book that is intended for the amateur sailor, and even the unskilled amateur. It was written by Alison Muir Bennett and it’s called The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Oceans: Crewing Around the World.

I haven’t read it myself, but I see that the respected British magazine Yachting Monthly has called it “an invaluable guide to crewing anywhere in the world,”  which is a valuable recommendation. It’s apparently packed with practical information about how to find a crewing position, what to expect from different kinds of skipper, and (most importantly) how to be in the right place at the right time of the year.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide also spells out ways of improving your odds of being taken on as crew and what will be expected of you under way. The author also provides “yacht migration charts” showing where and when seasonal bottlenecks occur.

I wouldn’t want to kid anybody by suggesting that you can just pitch up in one of these places and find a host of desperate skippers pleading with you to come aboard. It can take time and a lot of effort to find a compatible berth on a small sailboat, and skippers are a notoriously picky, not to say cranky, lot. All the same, whether they like it or not, they sometimes need to take on extra crew and the odds of success are with you. And so are the odds of bargaining away any suggestion that you should have to pay your way like some first-class passenger on the QE2.

Ø  www.crewseekers.net

Ø www.findacrew.net

Ø www.sailingnetworks.com

Ø www.crewfinders.com

Today’s Thought

There were gentlemen and there were seamen in the navy of Charles the Second. But the seamen were not gentlemen; and the gentlemen were not seamen.

— Macauley, History of England

Tailpiece

“Pardon me, sir, I’m looking for a friend. Do you have a Sexauer on this ship?”

“Mister, we don’t even have a lunch-hour on this ship.”

(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday for a new Mainly about Boats column.)

The perfect crew

WHAT KIND OF PERSON makes the best crew? Sometimes I try to rank the assets of a good crewmember.  For example, is a sense of humor more valuable than the ability to steer a nice course to windward? Is a good cook better than a hand who can apply bottom paint without supervision?

The permutations are endless, but every time I come up with the same answer. The best crew is the one who is almost invisible. The one who is always in the right place at right time. Never in your way.  Never sits on companionway steps. Never blocks the gangway down below. Just glides into a bunk and disappears. Never hogs the head.

This person has a sort of sixth sense regarding his or her presence in relation to other people, particularly the skipper, and always keeps clear. Without consciously knowing it, this person is acutely aware of exactly where other people are and where they are likely to want to be in the immediate future.

Now and then you see people like this in airports and on planes. They always have their shoes off without being asked. They never get pinged by the metal detector. They always have their ID ready to show alongside their ticket and boarding pass. They never have to search their carry-on for their missing passport. The main thing about them is that you never notice them unless you're specifically looking for them. They're never the center of any fuss. They never seem to need help. They just quietly and efficiently go about their business, slipping in and out of exactly the right lines. And they all had a pee before they left home, just like their Mom told them.

I have a theory about these people.  I think they're somebody's crew.  Some sailboat owner has trained them.  Sailors, all of them.  Sailors of the best kind, bless 'em.  Why can't everybody be like them?

Today's Thought

How often the highest talent is wrapped in obscurity.

— Plautus, Captivi

Tailpiece

"Mom, what are those things?"
"They're blackberries."
"But they're red."
"Yes, blackberries are always red when they're green."

(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday for a new Mainly about Boats column.)