Here are a few things I would to to get more sailing experience around the UK before planning a big sailing adventure. One of the below options will definitely work out but what you will need is personal time to commit 😉
- Join the Sailing Community: Join a few FB Groups where boat owners look for crew to crew their boats for a race etc . Three examples are: https://www.facebook.com/groups/807735232653760/https://www.facebook.com/groups/204397408368/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/838050656242885/
- Join a Boat Sharing: Down south you can own a boat with a team who focus on racing weekends and then you can sail with them almost every weekend. Put our a request in these FB Groups
- Sail with Friends: Find a friend who owns a boat and offer to help
- Join a Sailing Club: visit the Royal Ocean Racing Club or the Little Ship Club or London Corinthian Sailing Club ir Greenwich SC to get to know their members who are often looking for crew. They have open days I guess every month !!
- Join trips by Sailing Operators: Companies like Rubicon use a Clipper 60 and does a lot of offshore sailing trips right from Iceland to Azores. Google them out.
- Join a Race: Signup to a Fastnet / Sydney Hobart Race team and get a lot of sailing/ training with them. Many sailing schools in the UK provide this opportunity
- If you have signed up to do Clipper Round the World Race, then every crew is literally on the same boat
- Hire a boat: Find 19-20 race crew mates or even 17-18 crew who will not join till a later leg and then organize some sailing together in the Solent or anywhere for experience. Everyone has a Day Skipper these days
- Use their boats: Most of the Clipper Alumni and new crew own their own boats and you can sail with them. I suspect the Alumni will be reluctant to take on a non Clipper Crew since they want to share time with people who have been through the experience before but lookout for 17-18 or 19-20 crew with boats