1. Crewing is psychologically very different than skippering. Beyond assuming that everyone wants to sail well, a skipper and a crew have different goals. The way I think about it is that skippering is objective while crewing is subjective. For example, the question that a skipper has to answer to is: “Did you win the race?” whereas the question for a crew is: “Did you make the skipper sail better than they would have with a different crew?”

2. A crew might not be as emotional as a skipper about winning or losing a race. Sometimes skippers can interpret this as indifference or not being as involved in the race. However, having different motivations can really balance out the boat. One example is that a crew knows that at moments the skipper might need a little bit of anger in order to stay fired up for the last set of the regatta, but that doesn’t mean the crew has to lose their cool over the small stuff.

3.  Crewing can sometimes be paradoxical.  One of the worst feelings for a crew is to win a race or regatta but feel like they did a terrible job on the water. The next worse scenario is to feel like they sailed the best they could, but the race results were horrible. 

4. If the crew feels like they can’t contribute anything, they start to space out. This can happen in a lot of ways. With a skipper that’s so talented that it doesn’t matter who the crew is, it’s actually difficult for the crew to stay invested in the race. With a skipper that doesn’t care, there’s not much a crew can do. With a micromanaging skipper, the crew can’t take initiative in the boat and will assume the skipper wants to do everything.

5. A crew cares when the skipper cares. A crew can have an easier time dealing with a tough day of losses, but a crew can’t keep trying once the skipper stops. However, when skippers care about a race, most crews will rise to the occasion.

6. A lot of crews will either be better communicators, or better at making the boat go fast. For less experienced crews there is usually a trade-off between being able to look around the course or have good boat handling. It takes a while before a crew can do both of those things very well simultaneously.

7. There are two main indicators that a crew doesn't know what needs to be communicated in the boat. One way is silence. Another way is feeding trivial or irrelevant information with an authoritative tone. Skippers can with help this though. Crews need to know specific things that the skipper does want to hear, what doesn’t need to be said, and also need to feel like what they’re saying makes a difference.

8. Good communication takes two. What underlies good communication isn’t always what’s being said, but that everyone in the boat trusts each other and acts as a team. A lot of good communication depends on what’s being done just as much as the verbal aspect. In some cases the best communication is when things can be taken care of with just a glance or a nod. 

9. The most difficult crewing is for indecisive skippers. Especially in boat handling when the crew doesn’t really have an option to not follow the skipper’s pace and style. If the skipper is second-guessing the pace, it’s impossible for the crew to make boat handling smooth.

10. Sometimes… crews lie. There are many reasons that crews do and should lie: to make the skipper more confidant; when the crew has no idea what’s going on; by letting it slide when the skipper lies; to make the competition seem easier; to keep the skipper from getting derailed on smaller details. Just trust that it’s to make everyone’s life easier. 

So hopefully this is some insight into the mind of a crew.  Next time you have the urge to ask your crew, "what was going on in the front of the boat?" take a moment to see if this little checklist might apply to the situation at hand. In the meantime, happy sailing.