Jim Eagles: Stand by to weigh anchor

Summer is only a memory, it's icy outside, and the weeks ahead hold the prospect of cold, wind and rain. Wouldn't it be nice to leave it all behind and spend the next few months sailing round the Caribbean, cruising the Mediterranean, or navigating from New Zealand to Europe via the Panama Canal?

That's what Hamilton resident Peter Axelrad does every winter. Last year he spent the cold months cruising around the Caribbean. Now this year is turning chilly he's about to head for Norfolk Island, New Caledonia and the Bahamas. What a life.

The secret of his success, he says, is the Australian-based website www.findacrew.net which aims to match enthusiastic sailors with yacht owners looking for crew.

"I look on the site two or three months ahead of time, see who's sailing the right sort of boat in the right area, and have no trouble getting a ride."

The website even helps sort things out if - as happened with last year's Caribbean cruise - he doesn't particularly enjoy the yacht he's on.

"I looked up the site again and got on to another boat that was in Trinidad. It took me to Venezuela and I flew back home from there."

There are all sorts of arrangements for such cruises. For this year's South Pacific cruise, for instance, Axelrad is paying $40 a day towards general costs as well as meeting a share of food costs.

"That's fairly typical for someone like me - I'm a competent sailor but I'm not a professional - although some boats are cheaper and some don't charge anything apart from your food."

Some owners are happy to take people purely as paying passengers, while professional skippers, deckhands, engineers and cooks can be well paid.

"It all depends what you're looking for."

The website that makes this idyllic lifestyle possible has been developed by husband and wife Kylie and Raffael Gretener, who live on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

The idea came from Raffael's experience - before he settled down for marriage and a family - as a professional yacht skipper who often had problems finding suitable crew.

It works extremely simply.

Yacht owners access findacrew and supply information about the boat, where they plan to go and what sort of people they are looking for.

Sailors go there and enter details of their experience and the sort of trips they would like. The website puts them together.

Signing up is free but there is a charge for contacting someone through the site.

The system works so well that in a few years it has grown into the largest crew-finding search engine in the world with more than 8000 members.

The biggest interest so far has come from Europe and the United States but there are also huge numbers of New Zealanders and Australians "who are travelling the globe looking for their next job or adventure, or maybe a passage home".

Kylie says New Zealand sailors are very popular with boat owners. "Kiwis do have a reputation for being classy, especially when it comes to the marine industry, and classy sailors are always in demand."

The website is not only popular with sailors looking to get out on the water but with yacht owners seeking professional crews.

Marc Robinson, of Sensation Yachts, says the site was a great help in finding a crew of 12 for a large charter yacht. "It makes it so much easier for me. It cuts down the time I spend interviewing staff who might not be appropriate."

That particular yacht planned "a bit of a stint down here in the South Pacific first, then sailing to Monaco and then on to Florida and through the Caribbean" and Robinson was specifically looking for people from New Zealand and Australia.

"What I needed were crew members who were not only highly competent but who weren't going to be overwhelmed if they had, say, a movie star on board.

"I have very high-profile clients and the last thing they need is to be ogled or have a crew member ask them for an autograph or to talk about it in the wrong way. Finding the right people is very important and for me findacrew is the best place to go."

The website certainly offers an amazing range of opportunities to sail the world on everything from mega-yachts and research vessels to small cruisers and motor boats.

During a quick visit to findacrew I was invited to:

* Work as cook on a 29m motor-yacht in the Bahamas.

* Become a member of the amateur racing crew of a British Volvo 60.

* Become the mate of a 12m Finnish yacht sailing from New Zealand to Helsinki.

* Sail on a Spanish-based yacht heading for the Barbary coast.

* Accompany a retired British couple in their 15m yacht on a cruise to the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands and then across the Atlantic.

* Cruise through the Red Sea and the Mediterranean on a yacht now tied up in Egypt.

* Skipper a 27m historic motor-yacht based in Britain.

* Join a 20m yacht on a voyage from New Zealand to Europe via the Panama Canal.

* Crew an 11m yacht sailing from Savannah, Georgia, to Norway.

* Climb on board a 10m yacht planning a cruise from Adelaide to the United States via Tasmania, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands ... no, that guy was looking for a female crew member.

There are hundreds more trips on offer. It's incredibly tempting. If there's no column from me next week, you'll know what happened.