
Each crewmember doesn't have to be an RYA Yacht-master or 6-Pack captain—I have sailed across an ocean with a complete novice. My wife was concerned about what might happen if I got ill so I signed up an intensive care nurse as crew—they were not a novice sailor by the time we reached land.
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I usually only make coastal passages with a crew of two besides myself. When I apprenticed on SEA Semester’s R/V Westward decades ago, we used what they called a “Swedish watch schedule. With 3 people I set 3 4-hour watches at night and 2 6-hour watches during the day. I set them this way: 19:00 – 23:00, 23:00 – 03:00, 03:00 – 07:00, 07:00 to 13:00 and 13:00 – 19:00. That way the watches rotate, and everyone gets 8 hours at least once a day. With 4 total crew there are 4 night watches of 3 hours each, and 3 day watches of 4 hours each. I let the day watches be more casual, and if the crew wants to spell each other then, it’s not a problem.
I usually take the first dawn watch, as I know the crew, who don’t do this often, will be awake for most of first the evening, and I go to bed as soon as the first watch evening watch is set so I’m rested when my watch comes up.
Something else I do is to let each crew member decide how long before they’re due to relieve the watch they want to be roused. It then becomes the on watch member’s responsibility to wake them in time, and theirs to get on deck in a timely fashion.