What Makes a Top Crew?

I've always felt that the contribution and value of any crew member goes beyond the nuts and bolts of the job he has to do. Doing that task, whatever it is, and doing it well; that is a given.

But where a shipmate adds value to the team is in the other contributions, the extra ones: the quiet observations made about the competition or a puff coming, the un-noticed switching of a winch from low to high, the clearing of a snarl in a line, the comment to the forward hand that if he doesn't move out of the bite of the jib sheet he's going to lose his head.

These are the little things that shipmate does besides doing his regular assignment perfectly and with finesse that add up to a team that has an advantage, and doing those items depends more on someone's experience and concentration and intellect then on strength and skill at any job.

And then even beyond that there is the subtlety in the performance of each job which takes it from "doing" to "doing superbly, and with finesse". If you looked from a distance at two sailors on different boats performing the same task, you might not notice any difference in what they are doing or how they are doing it. But in one case the boat will be performing better. The difference is there, but it is subtle, you can't see it or measure it or define it, but that subtle difference is everything; it is all that matters.

And the skipper feels it. He knows when the crew is great and he knows when each crew member has got it just right and is doing his job with the subtle difference that separates the top people from the average guy, and he knows when everyone is contributing beyond his job assignment.

And do you know what? The crew knows it too. When a crew is like that the boat just clicks and everyone feels it.

The Salty Dog