You can travel on someone else’s sailing boat to really get a taste of what it’s like to live on a boat or to reach a certain place. And travelling by sail can have many different shapes or forms. It can be just for a day, for a couple of days. It can be along the coast or offshore and even across oceans. Or even for months if not years at a time.
Sail the World as Crew
Captains often want crew to make a trip more relaxed, more fun, more safe or more affordable. And then, there are people out there, like you, who are looking to get a taste of what sailing life is like, or perhaps looking for a more environmentally friendly way of travel. Or perhaps you are looking to buy your own boat and sail around the world but you are not confident or experienced enough to sail away. Here are 4 reasons why to sail as crew as opposed to buying a boat.
You get to sail more as crew
If you own a boat, a lot of time goes into fixing and maintaining the boat. A lot of time is going into working, so you can pay for the sailboat. And another part is sailing. If you jump on board someone else’s sail the world as crew with boat member, they often take you because they want to sail.
More accessible and more sailing crew opportunities
You can jump on a boat as crew tomorrow, as opposed to buying a boat, having the funds to buy a boat, and having the boat ready to sail away. It’s a way to test the waters without making huge time or money investments upfront. There are tons of sailing opportunities out there that welcome a range of experience and skills levels as crew on board of their boat. From Caribbean cruising to offshore passages and deliveries, you can find it. Within the ocean nomads network we have lots of nomads and vessels and contacts worldwide to team up with. Join the member community to mingle with fellow crew and boat owners, browse sailing opportunities, tips and discussions, and be the first to know about the next crew opportunities.
It’s less of a responsibility and commitment as opposed to being owner of a boat
Maybe you’re not ready to make a long-term commitment into buying and maintaining a boat. Owning a boat also comes with storing the sailboat, taking care of it, maintaining the vessel. By sailing on someone else’s boat as crew, you don’t have all of that.
Become a sailor by learning from different sailboat skippers
And another reason to sail on someone else’s sailing boat, and especially if you’re strongly considering become a skipper, and boat owner, you can learn a great deal from other sailboat captains and from figuring out what kind of sailing boat you like and which kind of boat you don’t like. There are so many different boats and so many different captains and there’s so much to learn by putting yourself as crew on different sailboats with different people.
To become a sailor, we encourage you to get out there, start crewing and learn from the wealth of experience living the sailing life out at sea. That’s how many of us ocean nomads learned to sail and learned how we would like to pursue the sailing lifestyle, and how not.
About Ocean Nomads
Ocean nomads connects you to the ocean and ocean people. We’re a global support network (+300 nomads, +85 vessels) for impact-driven ocean travellers, explorers, & nomadic lifestyle designers helping each other along our journeys.
The Ocean Nomads Toolkit
TRIBE | Join the network, meet your tribe and expand your action orientated sailing and ocean people network. Whether you’re 18 or 88, a total newbie or a seasoned sailor, welcome to join! It’s the mix that makes us thrive. Are you a boat owner or captain and looking for sailing crew? We have a database full of enthusiastic adventure and ocean minded crew determined to become sailors. We have mostly volunteer crew available but also lots of members are captain and experienced sailors happy to lend a hand for boat deliveries, boat fixing, or simply sharing the fun and voyage.
TIPS | Newbie in sailing and curious to learn more about sailboat travel? Check out our free mini-course by our founder Suzy Introducing you to Sailboat Travel. And explore this blog.
TOOLS + TIPS + TRIBE Go all in and enroll into our brand new Sailboat Travel Crew Discovery Course (+ Ocean Nomads community) for the pioneer early bird price setting sail soon covering everything we wish we knew when we started learning about the sailboat lifestyle. Be the best prepared crew member by joining this course. + you get full ocean nomads network access for more personalized tips and advice from experienced sailors.
