Skipper or not

I, too, sail with a skipper every now and then. When I just want to hand over the responsibility - with the family.

Why I will (hopefully) never go sailing with a hired skipper again.

Actually, the trip from Dubrovnik into the Adriatic was planned differently. A family vacation with my wife, child, and relatives. It must be said that my wife isn't on a boat often, her cousin had never seen a yacht, and my small son (then 2) actually required four hands to keep him contained. As a sailor with a sense of responsibility, I booked an "additional" skipper for our 2-week trip. While I am certainly confident in my ability to handle a boat, doing it almost alone with a 2-year-old on board? No!

So, the boat was equipped with nets to prevent spontaneous jumping attempts, and "monkey lines" were prepared. Presumably, it would have turned into quite a good trip for a family. From bay to bay, swimming, resting, eating, and of course, sailing. It was supposed to be a sailing trip, after all. Due to sudden reasons (This is another story) that were unforeseeable, I was suddenly alone on the boat with this skipper and my (not exactly sailing-enthusiastic) 18-year-old son. Three people on 47 feet, but why not enjoy the extra space.

I might have liked to spend 14 days of a guys' trip with my best friend, but with a complete stranger, it's a bit strange. So, make the best of it. When booking, I had explicitly said I needed support with sailing and not a nanny for myself. But the young man, let's call him L., was somewhat overzealous and had immediately signed all necessary papers himself, which I thought was absolutely great for liability reasons. (Note: Charter company Sunsail also states this on their website, which I must have overlooked). Now I was his crew on "my" boat. But then the problems really started. Involuntarily alone and without my family, I no longer had to take a child into consideration. One could have actually done everything possible on a 47 ft. yacht. Only my skipper didn't want to let me steer or dock. This, knowing my license and sailing experience. I suggested to him that we should use some time for training purposes and simply perform a few realistic MOB maneuvers or docking maneuvers; it can't hurt and you never stop learning. However, this was rejected by him; he was, so to speak, just a taxi between the islands.

Skipper L. found the idea less than good. He was only being paid to drive us from one place to another for 4–5 hours. Nothing more. Furthermore, he had to talk about money: His company would always only pay him after 60 days, and so he was practically always broke. Since I was already providing for the skipper, I didn't see that as a problem. We shop together and go to restaurants together, I pay. But the first restaurant was quite something. L. said that only thanks to him could we still manage to find an anchorage in front of a friend's restaurant with difficulty, but that the friend expected us to order at least "the steak." Fine by me. The steak was good and the wine was decent, but the price was no longer funny. For nearly 250 Euros, 2 steaks with a bit of garnish and 1 bottle of (almost the cheapest) wine? He said Croatia is just expensive. But if that was too much for me, then I could give him 50 Euros a day so he could buy his own food. I agreed and, after tough negotiations, gave him 40 Euros/day. Suddenly he found the cheapest restaurants in the best locations. I see. Otherwise, he got through the day well with some finger food and 1 bottle of water.

In my imagination, skippers like to sail, just not L. He boasted incessantly about his heroic deeds on board, but sailing adventures were not among them. After all, he had apparently enjoyed a tough six-month captain's training, which was incomparable to German sailing licenses because real experience was taught there. So, we puttered around at 1–10 kn of wind only with the engine. Horrible. So, from 5 kn of wind, I would sail myself and just be patient. Only my skipper refused to use the sails and we drove – 250 NM in total – with the engine. In between, there was certainly some wind. Windfinder and the Windy app showed 10–15 kn, the waves were not high. Euphoric, I implored my sailing expert to sail. But he could quickly show me that in gusts it could also be 20 kn, and this is too much and far too dangerous in these waters. So we drove with the engine then, too. Super. Now we are rocking through perfect sailing wind with the engine. In fact, in 14 days, we spent a total of 4 hours under sail, and I practically had to force him to do that. At approx. 15 kn of wind, we hoisted the sails. Hooray. Then came the 1st gust. The boat heeled a bit. Suddenly we go through the wind – without a command – jib is backed. I ask what's wrong: "Technical problem".

So we stood practically still and survived the heavy gust of 25 kn. Yawn. Since he always used the autopilot, he naturally didn't notice that there was immense rudder pressure, which could be attributed to the mainsail being trimmed much too tight. The ship was so weather helm that the autopilot gave up and the boat went through the wind with a loud bang. This whole incident (yes, things like this can of course happen) was then for him the final proof that you couldn't sail at all in such wind.

I would quite like to invite him to the Baltic Sea for sailing, where we usually still head out at 20 to 30 kn and completely different gusts occur, which we have always mastered confidently so far. Naturally, not with the autopilot switched on.

Oh yes, the gas station. The whole time we were being pressured to go to the Dubrovnik marina a day early, as otherwise one would have to wait all day at the gas station. Of course, I can hardly assess this in advance. So we arrived 24 hours early – wasting an entire vacation day – to take on diesel, which was then finished around 10 am. At 12 pm, the skipper suddenly left us with all his things; he had to take over a new crew immediately, and we could just stay on board for another day. Thanks, L.!

In any case, in the future, I would rather ask a known sailor or friend to support me on a trip, but I will not hire Croatian skippers again. From a "sailor's point of view," these were lost days with a diesel bill of nearly 300 Euros and costs for the skipper of nearly 3500 Euros. Sorry.

Sorry, Sunsail. I actually like you.