by Claudia Kondracky
We all know the captain gets all the glory so just what goes into being a great crew? This article will describe the ways you can improve your performance as well as your captain's.
Let's start with the start of the day. Never fully commit to race on that boat on that day. You never know when a hotter boat will offer you a ride. We all know that the dog boats always chases us down. If the captain wants you at the dock at 10 assume he means 10:20 or later. He'll be just driving all day which is easy. You'll be doing all the grunt work so you should try to remain fresh.
Make sure you point out all the bad points of the boat. This way the captain will step up and improve the boat. If the sails aren't new, the sheets show some wear or the wrenches don't spin smoothly, point it out. The captain will appreciate how much you know about boats.
Never show any enthusiasm for anything that happens aboard the boat. The captain will know that you have seen far more difficult situations and lived to talk about them. Tell everyone about the time that you saved the day when the captain made a bad call or when all was lost. We all love to hear these stories told by a true veteran of the sea.
The race is starting and your getting there just in time. The captain wanted to practice but you don't need no stinking practice. So what if it's a new boat to you and you don't know where anything is. You've been aboard a lot of boats and have figured it out. Plus screaming and pointing always has worked before.
You know that the captain will be ordering all kinds of things with the race under way. Remember that while he only drives, you control the sails. If you don't want to tack, don't. If you feel the right move is to tack now, let the sails go, he'll turn quick enough. If he calls a poor move, point this out. When he asks for your advice, tell him you should have stayed in bed this morning and when is lunch? Give him lots of suggestions. One or two may be valid and you'll look like a hero. If he's calling sail trim, and asks for jib trim, pretend to ease the jib, make squeaky noise too. Make sure you're close enough to the jib to pull this off.
After the race is over you need to establish quickly why the boat did so poorly. Tell people that your driver wasn't on his game today in spite of all the suggestions the crew made. He'll be telling the other captains about his crew's lack of performance so don't feel bad about this. He may also complain about his PHRF. Everyone does that.
If you follow all of these suggestions and believe me I know there are more out there, you will improve your sailing resume and get on the boats you so deserve. Please feel free to drop me a line with the suggestions I may have missed.