Crew Dynamics — A Make or Break of Good Sailing

We often share stories about what crews achieve together when racing across oceans, delivering boats, or simply cruising at leisure. We talk about the sailors, the boats, the equipment, the weather … but as reader Greg Clausen from Point Richmond brought up, how often do we talk about the crew dynamics? It’s not very often.

Sure, we share stories about crew life from time to time, and our crew parties (the next one coming up on April 3) are geared to bringing crews together. That said, it takes effort, patience and tact to be part of a crew, and we think that’s a good conversation to have.

“From my experience and [that of] a lot of other people,” Greg writes, “we have found that we are OK with problems with the boat or weather because those are expected, but sometimes the biggest challenges are getting along with fellow crew members.”

Greg shares an important point. Boats are small places, particularly when you’re aboard for a long time with no way of getting off (unless you want to swim). There are limited places where one can get personal space, and often there’s limited time anyway. Greg refers a situation in which crew members stopped communicating with each other after they got to shore “because of bad experiences,” and another scenario involving an evacuation.

We get it. While we haven’t necessarily had the same experiences, this writer recalls a time as part of a paid crew, being inexplicably shunned and ignored by another crew. What happened? What unspoken rules were broken? How did it feel? Terrible. And yes, it did affect the crew dynamics and the smooth running of the ship.

How often does this happen? Probably more than we know. People don’t like to talk about such personal issues, but shipboard relationships are important and make the difference between a pleasant voyage and sheer agony. In some cases, it’s the difference between survival and perishing. (It sounds dramatic, but we think it’s true.) We share a story in this month’s Sightings: “8 Tips on Being Great Crew.” But all the planning in the world won’t necessarily protect us from the unexpected personal issues that can and do arise from time to time.

Anyway, we’re going to hand this over to you, dear readers. What have you experienced, and what do you think is important in terms of crew dynamics?

Please share in the comments below or send us an email at [email protected]. (Please be courteous.)

Greg is happy his “worst-case example” is over, but he wanted to bring these issues to light. In the meantime he says, “Anyway, we are coming into spring and happy about a warmer-weather sailing season that is upon us.” We couldn’t agree more!