This week I’m all about helping you meet other like-minded sailors! And they DO exist. I promise. So whether you’ve had a hard time getting into the “boys club” or you don’t know where to start to look for sailing friends, here are some of my suggestions!

Off-Season Training: Boating Skills

This is a great way to meet other sailors! The setbacks would include financial commitments. Some clubs can be a bit pricy, but most places offer social memberships if you are not looking for boat mooring. Have a clubhouse, or a place to gather, is a great way to meet others. Grab a pint, break bread, and soak up the local sailing banter!

Boat shows are not only visually pleasing, but you can meet so many people from many different areas. Sailors tend to flock to these shows from great distances sometimes, so if you can get to a boat show I highly recommend it. Also, many boat shows have excellent guest speakers and training sessions that you can join to add to your credentials. Be sure to include them in your sailor resume!

3. Sign up for a Crew Bank

There are many different crew banks available online where you can highlight your experience and publish your interests. This is a great way to meet other sailors. Don’t assume that skippers already have their crew and don’t look at these crew banks! They do!

Facebook has many different engaging boating groups. If you are looking for some humour, join the Boat Fails group, or if you’re looking for something more serious, search for some cruising groups. They could include groups in your area, or maybe an area that you would like to sail to one day. These groups are also a great place to get added value and information (such as “WTF is this thing on my boat?!” or “Sewing on Boats”).

This one sounds a little daunting from the title, but even creating a pub night for local boaters is a great idea to get people out! Just create a FB event with a date, time and place and note that it is for boaters. I did a paint night once where we learned how to paint sailboats! It was fantastic and I met all kinds of new sailors.

Well clearly I think this is a great idea as I run a sailing school, but you would not believe how many of my students get together and sail together after their courses! It makes sense as they have now trained together for several days, and some of them even go into boat ownership together. Taking a course not only improves your skills, but helps to increase your social circle. This is how I ended up doing a Maui to Victoria boat delivery in 2018.

There are some cities that have very active meetup groups. These groups do all kinds of outdoor activities together. I would say that you could even join in on other outdoor enthusiast activities and you’ll probably find other sailors in the group. I have found that many sailors are also skiers, climbers, and scuba divers.