Failed Pacific crossing

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trevor gates

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Oct 17, 2025, 2:22:40 PM10/17/25
to Na Hoa Holomoku of Hawaii Yacht Club members
Hi again, Hilo sailing club, 
This is Joel with the crazy idea to sail two boats from BC to Hawaii.

My plan has been a failure so far.
I only crew I found so far were either inexperienced, incompetent, and/or stole from me. Also not enough to crew both boats. 

I had to put see wolf(the 38' ketch) on the hard due to lack of competent crew.

I am now in port Angeles Washington by myself in Aitherios (the 50' ketch).

I am wondering if anyone reading this could help me to find competent crew to motor/sail Aitherios to Coos bay Oregon for drydocking. 

Or possibly even as far as La Paz, Mexico if I can get the crew. 

Thanks for reading and considering this.

-Joel

Erik Lash

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Oct 18, 2025, 4:02:10 PM10/18/25
to na-hoa-holo...@googlegroups.com

I'm pretty sure that there were a lot of qualified people, even a few RYA certified yacht masters, who were interested. 

It is rather disingenuous to get on a public list and call everyone who tried to help you out inexperienced and incompetent. 

What I found most difficult to accommodate regarding the Pacific voyage was the overall approach to passage planning.  People typically take 1 - 2 years to refit a yacht and while doing so put together a team that works while running sea trials and testing the boats systems. 

Getting on an untested boat with people who have never done an ocean crossing before a week after legally purchasing a boat while advocating for running stateless/flagless because going through the legal importation process is too costly and time consuming is not a recipe for success.

Sailboats are meant to be sailed and while running the iron gennie is suitable when you have no wind, motoring is not sailing. 

I would recommend taking a look at the RYA Yachtmaster certification program for yourself to become a competent skipper. 

From there you can run small crews on single boats on the mainland until you grow the confidence and skill level to manage multiple ships in a fleet. 

You will pick up crew that fit with your ideologies along the way.

And when you are ready those boats can sail an ocean crossing.

I didn't want to respond to this at all but starting out by insulting people is not how you gain a community to sail with.

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