Free Sailing Trips
Visit the beautiful and isolated Refuge Cove in Wilson Promontory 2-3 days sail from Melbourne.
Eggi my Crew member from Finland Standing on the Deck as we look for a good spot to drop the anchor.
Eggi who had no sailing experience learnt to Sail as he sailed on Tin Tin to some of the most isolated and amazing locations around Australia.
How to Find a Yacht to Crew on
I have spent a lot of time crewing on other peoples yachts, it is best defined as the good, the bad and the ugly.
Yachts are normally split into the following categories:
- Racing Yachts
- Cruising Yachts
Racing Yachts
Racing Yachts are always looking for crew, it can be a great place to learn how to sail providing you have a good skipper and crew. Its is no fun just working the foredeck doing sail changes every Saturday and being yelled at.
The upside is a great skipper will train the entire crew to preform all functions onboard and rotate his crew to keep everybody on their toes. This also helps when people are not available or sick.
The good thing about racing yachts is that they generally have good safety equipment and update this equipment.
Cruising Yachts
Local Cruising Yachts are sitting in every marina around the World waiting to be taken out for a Day or Weekend sail and the reason most do not sail is lack of crew.
Local cruising yachts generally go sailing with family and friends and occasionally the solo sailer. This is an untapped market if you can find the owners you will generally find people very keen for crew.
Offshore cruising yachts are a different situation completely, most cruising yachts are setup for short handed sailing, meaning you need only one person to sail the yacht on the ocean.
These are also the yachts where you will learn the most about sailing, weather and visit exotic offshore locations.
Sunset over the bay before we row into the pub for a couple of Coldies
in Kangaroo Island South Australia
What is the best Method to find a yacht or sail boat to crew on
The best method is Word of Mouth via family and friends.
The next best methods of finding a yacht to crew on are listed below:
- Local Yacht Crew finder websites
- International Yacht Crew finder website
- Ride share website
- Gumtree - Rideshare website
- Ebay - Rideshare Website
We list considerations on accepting a crew position on a local yacht and more importantly accepting a position on an ocean going yacht.
I one yacht I worked on I only found out the safety equipment did not work when were sinking after being crushed in pack ice. This yacht had just completed the Sydney to Hobart Race, so much for safety inspections.
I was 1600nm from Hobart when I set off the EPIRB as we got crushed by a 10 story ice berg. You might find some good tips in our pre-sail checklist, any skipper who values his life, your life and the yacht will help you conduct this checklist. If he protest's find another yacht...
How to find Yacht Crew
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