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.
Each year hundreds of boats sail south in the fall from North America to the Caribbean or east from Europe via the Canary Island to the same West Indies. While many make the passages on their own, a growing number of boat owners sign up in organized rallies. What is a rally? Like the caravans of old where travelers were tethered by strings of camels traveling between oases, offshore rallies today tether their boats by AIS, e-mail and satellite trackers.
Many people buy boats to be free to do what they want when they want. Very often weather patterns dictate the best times to depart to popular cruising grounds. How do you convince a bunch of free-spirited people to follow a schedule? Offer discounts and socials to entice registration and then deliver on what you promise.
The NARC Rally was started in 2000 when Hank Schmitt, who runs the "Offshore Passage Opportunities" (OPO) crew network, started moving a fleet of Swan Charter yachts that needed to be moved twice a year between the French St. Martin and Newport. Since there were ten Swans departing together Hank decided to invite other boats to join their departure at the end of Hurricane Season. The charter company went out of business a long time ago but Hank kept the Swan Program and NARC Rally going. What once was mostly a group of professionals moving boats from one sailing center to another has morphed into a rally. The goal was to help the amateur sailor sail south in company with a core group of professional skippers who have completed the passage hundreds of times between them. Since the purpose of the rally was never to make money, the rally remains free with a per head fee for socials and meals ashore.
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.
Dear Sailors,
We like to speak with potential Swan Crew before they sign up for any of the following passages. Please let me know if you have any questions before placing a deposit online or by mailing a check.
A $1,000 is required for any two week or longer passage. $500 is enough for any of the one-week options.
I am in or near the office most of December and January at 631-423-4988. E-mail works very well at hank@sailopo.com
Once we have agreed you are ready to join us, you can make a deposit online at www.sailopo.com/store or pay by check made out to Offshore Passage Opportunities and mailed to OPO, PO Box 2600, Halesite NY 11743.
Best Regards,
Hank Schmitt
OPO
Join us for a full week of a truly unique sailing vacation. Half the crew stay aboard the boat for the regatta and half the crew stay in luxurious accommodations in a rented 5-bedroom villa. We sail in the cruising "white sail" division which allows us to sleep in later and enjoy the pool and meals living like the rich and famous.
Crew arrive on Monday and move aboard the boat or into the villa. We finish getting the boat ready to race on Tuesday. Wednesday is practice day and then we race Thursday through Sunday with the final awards night Sunday. Crew fly home on Monday. Although some crew stay on the boat we do get an extra car so crew can come back to the villa after the race or on days off to use the pool and dine at the main house. The main house has a big outdoor space with a full bar near the pool. My wife Cathy will be with us and not racing. If you would like to bring your spouse, who does not wish to race, they can hang out at the pool during the day and explore the island. The Villa is over the top and one crew (with spouse) can reserve the owners suite complete with a bathtub in the room. There are two more king size bedrooms upstairs with a 2nd kitchen and the room under the main floor has another bedroom for 2 more crew. We can easily accommodate 3 crew with spouses and two crew sharing twin beds in the main house. 3 crew can stay aboard and have their own cabins aboard Avocation, but still come to the house for meals and a swim.
Accommodations on the boat ($1,750 per person)
Accommodations at the Villa (single $2,250 – Couple add $750-$3,000 and master suite $3,500)
Price does not include provisioning. We all pitch in $200 per person to buy groceries for the house and the lunches for racing during the day. Most melas we eat at the house or on the boat so you do not need a big budget for eating ashore.
We really want to have a full boat going to Dominica. This will be the first year that YAW has been back since 2019. We were caught in Dominica in the 2020 MARCH COVID Meltdown, and 2021 was a bust. 2022 restriction were not lifted in time to have a full YAW. This is the first year that we expect a full YAW celebration. Please join us for over 2 weeks on a captained Swan 48 helping a less developed island do better.
This is an event we started after donating a mooring field to the PAYS Association in Portsmouth, Dominica. Crew arrive in St. Maarten midweek and we depart for a 180 miles non-stop passage to the island of Dominica. We then spend a full week exploring the island by car and by small boat. Just like the Heineken Regatta, half the crew will stay ashore and three or four people can stay on the boat. Shoreside accommodations are at Mango Cottages where I have stayed with my wife before.
New Low Price! Accommodations Aboard Avocation (2 weeks) $2,500 $1,500
New Low Price! Accommodations Ashore Mango Cottages (1 week) $2,000 $1,250 plus $611 or half of $977 to Mango Cottages directly for staying ashore.
We provision for the two weeks in St. Maarten for both those staying ashore and aboard the boat. We spend the week in Dominica touring by tour bus three or four days to planned events during the week. There are meals at the PAYS Pavilion and at the Fort on the last day. There will be two full days of sailing, but the emphasis is on seeing the interior and swimming in waterfalls.
This is our annual return passage from the Caribbean. It is a very good 1st time offshore passage as we start in warm trade wind conditions and work up to the more challenging 2nd leg from Bermuda to Newport crossing the Gulf Stream. This year we have added a couple of days and are departing earlier so we can avoid the crowds in Bermuda. The ARC Europe starts Saturday May 6th. This has been our traditional departure date (The first weekend in May) for over 20 years, but now the World Cruising Club in the UK has barged in. By departing two days before, we will arrive and be departing Bermuda when they arrive.
The Ocean Race (Ex-Volvo) is coming back to Newport, RI this May 2023. We will arrive in Newport three or four days before the start of the leg from Newport to Europe. I will reserve dock space for three days in Newport and then we will go out for the start on Sunday May 21. After the start we will set sail 100 miles to Huntington NY and you will fly home from New York on Tuesday, May 23. We did this the last time they were in Newport in 2017 and it was great fun.
The price for the passage north to Newport is $4,000 and the extra stay for The Race and ending in NY is $5,000.
Swan 48 Avocation
Extended Ocean Race Option: May 2 to 23 (23 days) $5,000 Sold Out Join the Wait List
Swan 65 Option: May 2 to May 19 (18 days) $4,000
Swan 68 Option: May 2 to May 19 (18 days) $4,000 Sold Out Join the Wait List
Murray Jacob is one of our most popular skippers and we can guarantee you a great time sailing across with him. There will also be a full time mate aboard for this almost one month Trans-At on a big Swan from Newport RI to the Med. The route will most likely be from Newport to the Azores (3-day visit) to Gibraltar (2-day visit) and then to Mallorca by July 2.
Swan 68 with Murray Jacob: $5,500 Sold Out Join the Wait List
Please come join us for the only offshore passage of the year where we sail via New York City on our way to Bermuda. This is a great first-time offshore passage as it is sailing at the best time of year to be sailing to or from Bermuda. I skipper Avocation, our flagship Swan 48, from NY to Bermuda. We have crew change on Sunday June 18. Tania Aebi, who sailed around the world by herself on a 26-foot boat, skippers the return passage. Swan 48 Avocation with Hank Schmitt: $2,500 Sold Out Join the Wait List
This is the big Rally that started it all. Sail with Captain Muray Jacob on the Swan 68 Aphrodite. Enjoy up to a week of pre-rally activities and a visit to Las Palmas before the Start Sunday November 19 2023. It is not too early to let us know that you want to lock in a berth sailing with Murray next November in the ARC Rally 2023: $6,000
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!
Hank Schmitt provides an overview of Offshore Passage Opportunities to the Blue Water Sailing Club, complete with Q & A.
The discussion shares how you can learn to sail offshore, how OPO has helped countless sailors gain blue water experience, and the benefits of crewing on a boat delivery. Importantly, Hank also discusses the Swan Program, the annual NARC Rally (North American Rally to Caribbean) and other rallies. Enjoy!
 | Hank, thanks again for connecting me with crew and running an excellent rally. I needed the support and appreciated all the hard work you put in to make the rest of us safe and confident. Thank you, Ruth, for crewing on Lady Slipper (this feels so inadequate for the gratitude I have for your support on the passage, thanks). -- Doug, SV Lady Slipper, Owner/Skipper |  |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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! | |
| 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. | |
| 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!! | |
| Hank - Just a note to say I had a great experience with skipper Chris. I know he has used OPO before and I would expect him to say I was a well qualified crew member. Nice boat, great guy and an excellent sailor. I only wish I had more time to spend offshore. I am sure I will be looking for another berth. I think the OPO service has been worth every penny for me already just a few months in! -- Chad | |
| 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. | |
| Joining OPO has been great for me. I have had great trips and each has taught me a lot. Most recently I joined Jon on his Swan 40 trip from Southport, NC to Fort Pierce. This was the perfect trip for me in this stage of getting prepared to get our own boat. It was just the two of us and I really enjoyed getting to know him. All of these people became friends and we stay in touch. One day I will get a chance to meet you but in the meantime I want to say Thanks for doing what you do. -- Ken | |
| 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! 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! | |
| I received a good response for a very short notice transatlantic passage crew spot and was quite pleased with the whole process. I confirmed a very experienced fellow after reference checking him with one of the Captain with whom he regularly sails. Thank you. I am sold on OPO! Of the 8-10 hits, at least 4 filled the bill for this particular spot (needed watch captain level experience) but all of them would have been fine to fill a berth and be able bodied crew. -- John Youngblood, S/V High Cotton | |
| Your Swan Program made my goal/dream of experiencing a multi-day offshore passage a reality! From the first time I contacted you, your communication, follow up, and detailed logistics planning for the trips has been fantastic. The captains were eager to share their extensive knowledge, focused on safety, and made the trips fun with their stories of cursing the world. My fellow crew members were from widely diverse backgrounds and ages, and we all had an awesome time getting to know each other, and coming together as a crew. I'm already looking for my next OPO trip! -- Steve | |
| One of my new crew mates asked, "Are you always this happy? Is there ever a time when you don't have a smile on your face?" The freedom that sailing a Swan on the Atlantic Ocean gave me to be my own person, and to be happy. To test my limits. I'd been putting off making a life changing decision for some time. I realized that I wanted to remain being this person who was at peace and happy. So, when I returned to the mainland, that's what I chose. -- Jim | |
| As this was my first true deep offshore experience, I really did not know what to expect and I came prepared for "anything". Capt. Woody and the first mate were amazing and very knowledgeable and patient. The 5 other crew members on the first leg and the 3 replacement crew on the second leg were all pleasures to get to know and sail with. Nothing like a challenge like this to develop a common bond and camaraderie. The entire rally and organization was well done and the activities in Bermuda especially were a blast. So many great people there. Your organization and the folks that participated in and help organize the rally were amazing and my Captain and crew were first rate and for all of that, I am thankful. -- Doug | |
| Thanks for letting me be a part of Aurora's crew in last month's St. Maarten to Newport run. It was a great adventure. I think that Jonathan Ishmael is a very good captain and the crew you put together was a fun, congenial mix of men. I have been working toward this trip for four years and it exceeded my high expectations. -- Charlie | |
