Taking on New Crew

When we were in A Coruna Spain, a captain of another boat ask me which direction we were headed, North or South. I told him South and he said that was the wrong way with a slight chuckle. He stated that he had engine trouble and would be stuck in A Coruna for at least another week getting it fixed. He proceeded to tell me that he had a crew member that was running low on money and needed to get home. He was hopping that we could take her with us.

That got me thinking about us taking on crew. What do we want in a new crew member for the type of upcoming sailing.

• Do we want experience? Even though they have experience, that does not mean they are good sailors. They could have been trained wrong or learned on their own and picked up some bad habits. On the other hand, someone with no experience would be fine as well. I know they know nothing so I know what level they are at and can plan for that. Teach them to be competent crew and work up from there.
• What type of personality would best gel with us? If they would be with us for only a short time, say a week, then most of the time, people can get along. Each persons personality quirks can be tolerated for such a short period. But if they were to be crewing for a month or more, than the personalities need gel and not irritate.
• Do we want to try a test sail with them first? This would be a good option since you could see if they lied about their experience or if they are willing to learn. This sometimes may not be practical though, since they me be flying in from somewhere far away and it would really suck to say to them that they are not coming on the boat after they traveled a long distance. You also may need to get underway fairly quickly due to a good weather window and finding time to do a test sail may not be possible due to all the other last minute prep that is going on.

We are open for guests but I think the type of guest would depend on how long they wanted to sail with us, the type of sailing, (short hops or a big ocean passage) and probably the biggest would be do we get along and are compatible.

Would you think that these two would make a good crew 😂?

Cold Clyde

Anna trying to hide.