Crew Responsibility

Welcome Aboard

The Sailing Club would like to take this opportunity to extend a hearty welcome to you. We are a group of people bound together by a common love of sailing. It’s always great to have new members on our trips that can share in our enthusiasm and enhance our experience. To help you get acquainted with our modus operandi, we’ve prepared this short flyer. We hope it will make your trips with our group even more fun and interesting.

As you’ve no doubt heard, our trips are a lot of fun. Whether rafting at Luce Creek on the Chesapeake or handling 6 foot seas off Newport, a trip with the Sailing Club is sure to be interesting. (Good, and good for you!)

A sailboat is a closed environment which tends to limit personal privacy. This may be a little unusual for you, particularly if there are people on your boat that you don’t know. (Don’t worry, you’ll get over it by the end of the first day.)

Understanding some of the etiquette and responsibilities for you as a crew member will help the trip go more smoothly.

Safety Safety Safety

There are three very important things to remember on a sailboat. (You guessed it!) We are proud of the fact that we have had very few accidents on our trips. In fact, your skipper’s main responsibility is the SAFE operation of the vessel. Use common senseKnow the ”Rules of the Road.”

• Make sure you know where all safety equipment is and how to use it. This includes: Personal Floatation Devices (PFD), Fire Extinguishers, Marine Radio, First Aid Kit, and Life Ring.

• If your skipper doesn’t explain all this to you, just ask.

• If you can’t swim, make sure you tell your skipper. No one will laugh. We have non-swimmers all the time.

• Make sure your skipper discusses and demonstrates man-overboard (MOB) procedures (just in case).

Ask the Skipper

If you have any questions about anything (sailing, safety, the meaning of life, who is John Galt?), ask your skipper. He or she is a veritable repository of useful (and not-so-useful) information. Moreover, they will be glad to answer your questions or direct you to the proper authority. One of the criteria we use in selecting our skippers is their willingness to share knowledge. (Use a little discretion regarding timing. Reefing the sail in a 35-knot wind is probably not the right moment to ask how the chart plotter works.)

REMEMBER: The only stupid question is the one that wasn’t asked.

The skipper is responsible for the safe operation of a boat that may cost from $100,000 to $500,000. They are also responsible (to a lesser degree) for the smooth interaction of the crew. Most non-safety decisions should be made with input from all crew members. For these decisions, the skipper should act more as a mediator or facilitator.

Planning

This is a very important part of the trip. Before each cruise, there will be a pre-trip meeting. The trip leader will go over the itinerary and answer questions. Then the meeting will break up into crews for planning menus, provisions, etc. Each member will usually be designated to bring various items (chocolate chip cookies, paper goods, chocolate chip cookies, etc.). Keep your receipts as all the expenses are usually divvied up at the end of the trip.

Share ‘da Work

This ain’t a four-star hotel. Your crew is a team where all members share equally. Part of the fun of our trips is that we all work together. Everybody likes to share the sailing work. Tacking, jibing, anchoring... it’s all fun. However, the other stuff needs to be done also (i.e., cooking and meal preparation, cleaning dishes, swabbing the deck, etc.)

Attention Guys: Nothing will tick off the women in your crew more than your assumption that they are going to handle all the galley chores. Likewise, don’t assume that the women can’t handle their share of deck work.

Smoking

The Club has a no-smoking on board policy. That means it is against our rules to light up on deck or below, whether you’re sailing, at anchor, or in a slip. Smoking ashore depends on the rules of the location—smoking on a fuel dock, for example, is not allowed. Smoking on a wooden dock is unwise.

Give Us Feedback 

This is a big one. You are responsible for your having a good time. If you want to take the helm, tell the skipper-they’ll be happy to let you. If you want to learn, ask. If you feel uncomfortable about something (sleeping arrangements, food, whatever), tell the skipper. Usually something can be done. Sometimes not. Either way, an explanation of the reasons may make things easier to handle. 

Finally, please fill out the trip evaluation survey. We really do read them in an effort to improve our trips. Tell your skipper what you did and didn’t like about the trip so we can make it even better! 

ANCHORS AWEIGH! We look forward to seeing you on our next trip.