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Offshore Passage Opportunities offers three services all focused around matching experienced crew with qualified skippers -- and helping those who seek more sailing experience to safely acquire it.
Delivery skippers and private boat owners quickly realize their friends and family have jobs and cannot always sail with them. So they call us looking for crew. We collect their information and pass it on to our members to help them get aboard. Since you are helping to deliver a boat, you get to go sailing for free. Many are repeat skippers or members so we pre-qualify a majority of the opportunities for you.
This webinar was originally recorded in late September for Seven Seas Cruising Association. This 30-minute video is a good introduction to owners, skippers and crews planning to sail to the Caribbean this fall, 2020.
Since then, the protocols for entering Sint Maarten have changed. If you want to visit, SXM please contact Dockmaster ship agency to help you with your arrival. Their number is 721-544-4096. They can explain the current protocol.
The balance of the information in this video will be of interest to anyone interested in offshore passage-making, especially with a stop in Bermuda.
Dear OPO Members (and Skippers and Boat Owners in need of Crew):
Everyone is preparing for the new normal: going back to work, returning to school and sailing offshore at the end of the summer (and hurricane) season. Now, let's add new requirements when entering a foreign county. As an example, I visited Bermuda last July as part of the "Spirit of Bermuda Fundraiser Rally" and was part of four boats that sailed from Newport or the Chesapeake Bay. As the first crews to be allowed to go ashore, we were were required to follow these protocols. Ah, the "new" normal.
Skippers and crew should be prepared to follow these or similar guidelines throughout the Caribbean this season.
While we are not organizing an official 21st NARC Rally this season, we will be running our Swan Program from Newport to St. Maarten with a planned stop in Bermuda. We will allow others boats to join us as long as they know we are not responsible if countries close up because of a second wave of infections in the United States. We can all hope a vaccine is available this winter to allow more freedom of access once we get to the Caribbean after the New Year. But expect to see restrictions to join as crew on any boat. It is the responsibility of the skipper to make sure crew comply with entry requirements that may be fluid this season as it was last spring.
If you think you may wish to invite people to sail with you as crew this season, please call or e-mail and we can talk about your options.
Regards,
Hank Schmitt
Offshore Passage Opportunities
Call 1-800-4-PASSAGe or 631-423-4988
While we are not organizing an official 21st NARC Rally this season, we will be running our Swan Program from Newport to St. Maarten with a planned stop in Bermuda. We will allow others boats to join us as long as they know we are not responsible if countries close up because of a second wave of infections in the United States. We can all hope a vaccine is available this winter to allow more freedom of access once we get to the Caribbean after the New Year. But expect to see restrictions to join as crew on any boat. It is the responsibility of the skipper to make sure crew comply with entry requirements that may be fluid this season as it was last spring.
If you think you may wish to invite people to sail with you as crew this season, please call or e-mail and we can talk about your options.
We have been organizing the NARC Rally since the year 2000. We are almost always offshore for US elections results since Election Day is the first Tuesday in November. This year we are leaving a little early so we can watch election results in Bermuda. So the dates this year are:
2020 NARC Schedule Summary
This year waiting until after Election Day would mean moving the departure date from Newport too late. So this year we will depart on Monday, October 26, 2020. This date still allows for a weather delay and time to reach Bermuda by Election Day results on Tuesday night, November 3. The fleet will depart Bermuda no earlier than Wednesday, November 4 and arrive in St. Maarten 5 or 6 days later. Now you have the dates for the start of the NARC Rally and everyone can schedule accordingly.
Hank Schmitt is profiled in the several episodes of a new series entitled "Tips from the Pros." Regardless how long you have been sailing, you will learn something new by watching Hank share some of his techniques based upon decades of sailing.
Please contact Hank with any comments and feedback!
If you've ever considering deepwater sailing but were not sure how to jump start your sailing career, our Swan Program is for you.
Our Swan Program was specifically designed to introduce people to the world of offshore sailing by providing hands-on crew experience under the watchful eye of an professional skipper on a proven boat. During your tenure onboard, you’ll learn to keep watch, make log entries, navigate, use the radio, steer the boat and perform tasks that are essential to safe offshore sailing. The Swan Program offers a fixed price for everything you’ll need aboard—you just pay for your travel to and from the boat. The Swan Program sails south from New England to Bermuda and the Caribbean in the fall, and north from Bermuda and the Caribbean to New England in the spring. Summer trips are also available.
After your first Swan Program experience, you’ll have the skills to sail on other boats. Please view the video below to learn more.
 | The OPO announcement we put out earlier this year produced several very well qualified crew for my voyage from Annapolis to New Zealand. I’ve filled my crew needs from Annapolis to Galapagos and have one crew for the remainder of the passage to New Zealand, but I would like one or two more for Galapagos to New Zealand. |  |
| Thanks a ton for your help. I received a lot of responses from very capable seamen and have filled out my crew. You run a very good organization and I have given your contact info to a couple of broker friends of mine. Great job! | |
| The response for crew has been fa-nominal !!! I just wanted to say "thank you" and I am sure we will have crew thanks to you. Keep in touch. | |
| Almost immediately after your sending out my crew request, I received 6 qualified responses. Through Christmas Eve and day, I have received an additional 4 responses. In a word: Wow.... This is a terrific service that you are providing. | |
| So nice to get to see you again — and to get a look at Avocation — in Newport and in Bermuda. You and OPO are responsible for me racing with Marcus, and I’m grateful. In the last 8 years or so I’ve gone from a pretty novice cruiser to steering a race boat at night through 30 knot squalls and big seas! | |
| Hi Hank, First of all, I would really like to thank you for your kindness. I have been emailing and calling every contact I could find since November, and no one has come close to being so genuine and helpful as you have been in just this one email. It really means a lot to me that you would be willing to put in your own time, energy, and offerings into helping me pursue this journey. I think it is so cool that you were able to participate in such an intense level of competitive sailing at the age of just 18 - that must have been such a great experience. | |
| Thank you for all you do to create sailing opportunities for others and to create such a creative community. When I first called you I could have never imagined what OPO would mean to me. I have lifelong friends and lifelong memories. You make everyone feel welcome and valuable. Thank you! I appreciate you!! | |
| Hi Hank! Just saying "Ahoy". Your OPO has changed my life, I showed off my sailing passage list to a friend the other day and he was impressed, I was too! | |
| Just wanted to let you know that NARC 2018 was a great experience. To me, the combination of Jonathan and the Swan 60 represented the absolute best in offshore passage making. I was very fortunate to be part of the adventure. Thanks for the opportunity, you and Jon have one big thumbs-up from me. I look forward to a long association with OPO. | |
