Jan. 19, 2005--CREW WANTED?
by Michel & Jane DeRidder

(SetSail asked our Cruising Contributors: If you ever sail with crew, how do you prep them for an ocean passage? Do you go over nav issues, weather, safety, medical, food, etiquette, etc.? Here is Jane and Michel's take on the crew scenario.)

A few years ago, while we were moored in Newport Beach California at a friend's dock, we read a sad story in the newspaper. A couple of young ladies had been found drifting off the coast in a ketch with sails floggin,g not knowing what to do to return to port. Apparently, they had been invited for a day sail by an old gentleman. The poor guy had died of a heart attack or some such catastrophe and the girls knew nothing about sailing or using the radio or starting the engine. They just sat in the cockpit petrified, afraid to go below where the old man lay dead. An extreme example, for sure, but a reminder that not everybody is familiar with boats and that an explanation of a few things when inviting guests--or crew--is not a bad idea.

When we were chartering MAGIC DRAGON in the early days I used to show the basics of engine starting and sail lowering to those who were not sailors. However, looking back, I was probably too casual about it, and my brief explanation would have been forgotten if a real need had occurred to do something in a hurry. Even seasoned sailors may have been puzzled by some of MAGIC DRAGON's unconventional systems. We have been lucky in that we have not had serious problems while sailing with others on board. However, probably because of having chartered in a small way for seven seasons, forcing us to keep to other people's time schedules, we have shied away from taking anyone on long passages.

Nevertheless, our first offshore trips to San Francisco and Hawaii from Victoria, BC were great fun with two Kiwi nurses and a friend from Victoria taking part in the experiment. They were ideal crew members, each doing more than their share of watch keeping, dishes, cooking, navigating and more. We still keep in regular contact with them all.

Female crew are more likely to pull their weight in the galley and in helping to keep things tidy aboard, whereas heavy lifting and pulling sometimes can be more easily done by a young buck. Nevertheless, in order to simplify preparation, provisioning and weather planning, we seldom take anybody on passages. On MAGIC DRAGON, sail handling and watch keeping are not arduous duties. So far, we've managed fine.

On a few occasions when we have taken friends, we've found ourselves forced to sail into weather that we ourselves would have waited out had we not been tied to their schedules--once leaving New Zealand for New Caledonia in the face of a NW gale, and once beating back from Beautemps-Beaupres in the Loyalties against 25-30 knot headwinds because of a flight and a job to return to.

Of course MAGIC DRAGON has always had permanent crew, our full-time helmsman the wind vane. We just go along for the ride. Returning to BC from Hawaii, once sailing down to Panama, twice across the Atlantic, and then back up to BC via Panama again in the late 1960s, we never even kept night watches!

MAGIC DRAGON now has several permanent crew members who never get seasick, never complain, don't talk back and don't eat us out of boat and home. We wouldn't want to make passages without them. Each serves in different sets of conditions. Each has a role to play.

Winnie the Windvane is particularly valued for upwind sailing. She reacts to each wind shift, some so subtle the best of human helmsmen might miss them. She is also a reliable downwind helmswoman both wing and wing or under spinnaker or even under bare poles--times when a human might be taken aback in a moment of inattention. She is not perfect, however. At times when wind shifts might cause a course change that could put us on a reef or a shore, she is taken off watch.

When there's not enough wind to sail, there's probably not enough for the wind vane either. This is when we call upon Woodie the Wood-Freeman hunting auto pilot, the old-time fisherman's standby who wags the tiller tirelessly. With his 12 amp draw, Woody is on watch ONLY when MAGIC DRAGON is under power. Woody's shortcoming is his disquieting habit of sometimes abruptly changing course 180 degrees if his contacts are dirty, so he's a crew member that requires supervision. We have to keep an eye on him and be ready to give him a little attention.

When accurate compass course is vital, there's Tillie the Tillermaster (and in a pinch, her older sister)--invaluable and capable helmswomen under power or sail, as when making a landfall or in coastal cruising. Tillie steers either directly via the tiller ball pin, or else with power assist coupled to the wind vane trim tab. Tillermaster's one third of an amp current draw when active is easy on the battery. The little buzz as she makes mini-course adjustments reassures us that all is under control.

Lastly, oven timers are helpers we prefer not to sail without. One is a mechanical wind-up timer, the other a digital ding-dinger. They are our reminders, relied upon to wake us regularly, telling us to scan the horizon for ships, to check the course, the weather, and a host of other essentials.

A French sailor girl, who was stranded in Mexico when the yacht she was on did not sail to Tahiti as planned, asked us to take her along. On the crossing she remarked that she had never been on a sail like that where there was nothing more to do than read, eat and sleep while waiting to arrive. Keeping watch in an enclosed cockpit on wet days, not wearing oil skins, was new to her.

There can be problems having others aboard. A personality clash can spoil a cruise. Or worse. We have heard stories from both owners and crews that would make anybody hesitate to take on crew, or to offer to crew for that matter. One man sailing back from Japan to Canada barricaded himself in his cabin when off watch at night and carried a loaded pistol after discovering that the two young men sailing with him were on drugs and at each other's throats. Some stories of Captain Bligh skippers are more amusing than frightening. One had the crew on strict fresh water rations, but insisted that they wash the varnish work with fresh water. Others have found themselves doing long overdue sail repairs underway in the hope of eventually making it back to port.

Looking at some of our friends who organize their cruises like chartering outfits makes us shake our heads in disbelief. I suppose it is a game that one can play, but it would be very different from the free casual cruising life that we have enjoyed all these years. We'd miss the freedom of having no schedule, no plans, the choice to do what we feel like doing when the spirit moves us.

We prefer--as do many other small boat voyagers--to make passages with just the two of us. We've met many who prefer to cross oceans by themselves. Mind you, one of these days, we may welcome a crew member or two to lend a hand and to keep us old fogies up to scratch, even if it does mean loading heaps more provisions to feed another mouth or two. When that time comes, here's hoping that we can find someone willing to put up with our idiosyncrasies!