How to Find Crew for an Offshore Passage or Racing Season

Community · Crew & Passages

Short-handed sailing is the default mode for most passage-makers. The question of who sails with you — and where you find them — is one that every skipper settles differently, and the answers have changed considerably since crewed sailing moved online. The digital platforms have widened the pool and standardized the process. The informal networks at departure ports have survived because they connect people who have already proven they show up.

Finding good crew is less about the platform than about filtering well. The platforms give you volume; the interview, references, and crew agreement give you information. Both matter.

The Crew Placement Platforms

CrewSeekers is the dominant platform for international passages, built in the UK but genuinely global in reach. A subscription gives you access to crew profiles, the ability to post your passage, and direct contact with candidates. The candidate pool skews toward serious offshore aspirants — people who have gone to the trouble of subscribing and building a profile are self-selected for intent. The depth of profiles varies considerably; look for candidates who have logged specific passages with specific boats and skippers, not just claimed general competence.

OceanCrewLink is worth using for bluewater passages specifically. The platform is more focused than the general crew sites — it attracts the kind of people who want to sail across oceans, not just do some coastal racing. For an Atlantic crossing, a Pacific puddle jump, or a South Atlantic passage, the candidate quality tends to be higher than on the broader platforms. The listing base is smaller, but the matching is better for offshore purposes.

Find-a-Crew.net and 7knots.com are useful for broadening your search and for cruising routes where the other platforms have thinner coverage. Post your passage on multiple platforms simultaneously — the incremental cost is low and you want volume at the top of the funnel.

The Informal Route: Departure Port Cruiser Nets

The formal platforms matter less at the major departure ports, where the informal crew market runs on conversation and reputation. At Las Palmas de Gran Canaria — the primary staging point for Atlantic crossings toward the Caribbean — the cruiser net at the Real Club Náutico and the marina bulletin boards are full of crew-wanted and crew-available notices in season. The same dynamic exists at Horta in the Azores (a frequent stopover for boats crossing eastbound or making Atlantic loops), at La Paz in the Sea of Cortez (for Pacific passages and Mexican coast passages), and at Opua in New Zealand (the standard departure for South Pacific and Indian Ocean passages westbound).

At these ports, buy a beer and ask. The informal network at departure ports produces crew who have already proven they can manage a long ocean passage, because they got there somehow. A crew member who arrived in Las Palmas on somebody else's boat across the Bay of Biscay is categorically more reliable than an unknown from a crew listing — they have a track record you can actually verify by talking to their previous skipper, who is probably three slips down.

Your Yacht Club: The Overlooked Option

Most yacht club members want offshore experience. Most of them have never been offered it. Posting a crew notice on your club's board — or mentioning your upcoming passage at a club event — will often produce serious candidates from your existing sailing community. These people know each other, can be vetted through the club social network, and have already demonstrated commitment to sailing by showing up to club events. For coastal passages and club racing, this is often the best source. For offshore passages, it narrows the candidate pool but improves the reference-checking considerably.

What Crew Candidates Should Provide

When a candidate responds to your listing, you want three things before you go further: a sailing resume with specific passages (not just "lots of offshore experience"), documentation of any ASA or RYA certifications if they hold them, and references from previous skippers with contact information. The sailing resume should list boats they've sailed on, passages made, approximate miles offshore, and their role on each passage — crew, watch captain, delivery skipper. Certifications help, but documented passage experience counts more: a crew member with a logged Atlantic crossing and no certification is more valuable offshore than someone with an ASA 114 and 200 coastal miles.

Follow up on references. Call the previous skipper, not email. Ask directly: did they stand their watches without complaint? Were they useful in heavy weather? Would you take them offshore again? The answers to those questions are the ones that matter.

The Crew Interview

The crew interview is the stage where most skipper-crew mismatches get resolved, if the skipper asks the right questions. Meeting in person is strongly preferred over video call; have them come to the boat if you can arrange it, because how they interact with the vessel tells you something.

Key questions: What offshore passages have you made, and what was your role? How do you handle seasickness — are you prone to it, and have you found what works? Any dietary restrictions that affect provisioning? Are you comfortable taking a night watch solo? Do you have any medical conditions I should know about? What do you expect in terms of passage expenses? What's your plan if the passage needs to be cut short and you need to disembark at an intermediate port?

Listen for how they answer as much as what they say. A candidate who downplays seasickness without having offshore experience to back it up is a red flag. A candidate who asks good questions about your boat's systems, watch schedule, and safety equipment is a candidate who is thinking seriously about the passage.

The Financial Question

The financial arrangement between skippers and passage crew is one of the most variable and occasionally awkward topics in offshore sailing. The standard practice for offshore passages — Atlantic crossings, Pacific passages, bluewater deliveries — is that crew contribute to boat expenses rather than paying for the experience, and are not paid for their time. The typical contribution is $20–35 per day toward food and provisioning, though this varies by boat, by region, and by the preferences of the skipper.

Paid crew — professional delivery skippers and hands — operate on a different basis entirely and are a separate category from passage crew. Don't conflate them. For the kind of passage crew relationships that the platforms facilitate, the expectation is shared expenses with no payment in either direction. Be explicit about your expectations upfront; ambiguity about money is the source of most crew conflicts.

Crew Agreements

A written crew agreement sounds formal for what is often a collaborative and social arrangement, but it is worth having for any offshore passage. The document doesn't need to be long or legalistic — a one-page letter covering the key points is sufficient. It should address: the planned passage route and ports, each crew member's responsibilities (specific watches, galley duties, sail handling), the financial arrangement (daily contribution, how unexpected expenses are handled), the protocol if a crew member needs to leave the boat mid-passage, and basic conduct expectations aboard.

The crew agreement serves two purposes. The obvious one is that it establishes expectations in writing before anyone commits. The less obvious one is that the process of writing it forces both parties to think through scenarios they might not have discussed — what happens if someone gets seriously ill offshore, or if the boat sustains significant damage and diverts to an unplanned port. Those are not comfortable conversations, but they are much better had before departure than during a passage in the North Atlantic.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are the leading online platforms for finding offshore sailing crew? CrewSeekers and OceanCrewLink are the two principal online crew-finding platforms. CrewSeekers is UK-based with strong European coverage, while OceanCrewLink focuses specifically on offshore passages and blue-water deliveries. Both require profiles from both boat owners and prospective crew, allowing mutual evaluation before commitment.

What crew contribution amount is typical for offshore passage crew? The standard crew contribution for joining an offshore passage as unpaid crew is $20–35 per day, covering the boat's provisioning and shared running costs. This is distinct from a paid passage berth; the contribution is a cost-sharing arrangement, not a commercial transaction, and the primary compensation to crew is the sea miles and offshore experience gained.

Where are the best places to find crew in person in the Caribbean and Pacific? Las Palmas in the Canaries, Horta in the Azores, La Paz in Mexico, and Opua in New Zealand are the classic crewing hubs where boats post crew-wanted notices on marina bulletin boards and VHF nets. These ports concentrate cruising traffic at natural passage waypoints, creating dense pools of sailors looking for berths and boats looking for crew.

How do VHF morning nets help sailors find crew for offshore passages? Morning VHF nets in cruising hubs broadcast crew-wanted and berth-wanted announcements to all boats in the anchorage simultaneously, reaching sailors who may not be checking online platforms. In active anchorages like Rodney Bay or Horta, a morning net announcement for crew can generate several inquiries within hours from sailors already in the same location and ready to sail.

What should a boat owner discuss with prospective crew before an offshore passage? Essential pre-passage discussions include the prospective crew's actual offshore experience (not just sailing experience), seasickness history, physical limitations, watch-keeping expectations, emergency procedures familiarity, and dietary requirements. A trial sail of at least one overnight passage before committing to an ocean crossing is strongly advisable, regardless of how impressive a crew member's background appears on paper.