BVI SAIL TRIP - THE CREW

                                         
Click to enlarge

Well now that the decision has been made to go sailing in the BVI, the next important step in the process is to assemble a crew.

This is a crucial part of the trip and needs some careful thought. It was decided that we wanted to charter a Catamaran with four cabins so potentially we could have eight people if we sailed with four couples...or we could just go with four guys each with our own cabin.

So, since Zohar and myself hatched this scheme we needed to first approach our wives to see what they thought of the idea of sailing with two other couples or did they think we should just make it a male bonding trip? Now bear in mind neither of these Ladies are into sailing as much as we are so we kind of knew going in what the outcome was likely to be but there was always the chance they might have been receptive given the location of the trip and that we have all sailed together for day trips on Lake Ontario. Turns out our first instinct was correct which made the job of selecting the remainder of the crew much easier as we now only had to convince two other like minded sailors to join us rather than two couples.

No matter whether you decide on couples or singles compatibility and like interests are key. I would suggest that it's far easier to find four sailors that are compatible than it will be to find four couples that are...having said that I would like to give it try for the next time but I know that it will require more thought and plenty of lead time not to mention a lot of sweet talking with my better half.

From a planning point of view this was now going to be a much simpler endeavour..so it was time to approach some of our fellow sailors to round out the crew. First up was Mark who is the other partner that Zohar and I share a 27' sail boat with at the National. It did not take too much convincing even though he had completed a contract position and was between jobs. That left us with one more to get so we approached several other members of the National as well as a fellow we sail with regularly on a Catalina 42 that is a friend of the owner. Turns out that he was the one that was able to commit so we now had our fourth member, Warren.

We were actually well into the next step of securing a boat and starting to talk about the trip to anyone that would listen that we decided we could actually take on a fifth crew member as long as that person did not mind getting the salon rather than an actual cabin. And so it came to be that Darcy decided to join us. Darcy has been sailing for quite a number of years longer than any of the rest of us and keeps a 34' sailboat at the Boulevard Club which is just down the road from the National.

I had sailed several times with Darcy as part of the Broadreach Foundation sailing program in the summer and knew that we got along well and figured there would be no issues with the others. There is a link to Broadreach on the right under Other Links if you would like to check out the great work they do as an organization to help disadvantaged youth.

So the crew line up for our BVI trip is Zohar, Mark, Darcy, Warren and me - Bill. The point here is that we have pulled together a crew that knows and likes each other and we have all sailed together. Three of us are members of the National and also co owners of a sail boat we have there and we have been sailing together for many years.

Compatability and sailing skills should help to make this trip memorable. Hopefully you will keep these tips in mind when selecting your crew...a boat, even a 40' catamaran is a relatively small space for 5 people to share for a week...just think it could have been 8 people (four couples)..imagine the dynamics on that one!!..so choose wisely. Now for the selection of the boat...oops that's the topic for the next BVI blog...don't miss it!

FLASH UPDATE...as I was putting the finishing touches on this blog we learned that Warren suffered a very serious injury to his left arm and might not be able to make the trip...we are all hoping that he will recover quickly and still be able to join us.