OSRS Sailing Crew Management Guide

Jonas Author

Created - 20.11.2025 Updated - 24.11.2025

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Want to make sure that your OSRS Sailing journey goes as smoothly as possible? We'll help you each step of the way and this time, we're focused on your crew.

This is an OSRS Sailing crew management guide that's solely focused on helping you build a strong team for your ship in the game. We'll talk about the mechanics in-depth and we'll make sure that you're able to get the most out of each member of your crew and each aspect of Sailing.

Another great way would be to prepare yourself by stocking up on OSRS gold. We'll make sure that you'll never run out of money with our cheap and safe OSRS gold for sale. Now, what is the crew for in OSRS?

What Is The Crew For In OSRS Sailing?

Crew management is essentially an interface where you can distribute certain tasks while you're Sailing. Just like in real life, you're able to recruit people who will help you do all sorts of stuff for your ship. Having a crew for OSRS sailing is important as it helps you max out certain Skills related to your ship.

Each member of the crew will affect how your stats work for your Ship. In total, there are three different stats to consider.

Helmsmanship

This skill affects how you're able to navigate, sail, and steer your ship. The better the navigation, the better and faster your ship is in terms of actual sailing. You can manually do a huge part of sailing but you can assign members of your crew to do it but this will grant you only half the Sailing XP.

Some of the tasks in Helmsmanship include manning the ship and trimming the sails. To assign a crewmate to this task, you simply need to click on any of the crewmates you have on the raft or boat and choose a task that fits their helmsmanship level.

While the task is almost automated, you still need to manually click to aim the ship towards where you want to go. You also need to click on the sails icon to lower or set the sails. You'll also be prompted to click an icon if you want to reverse the ship. You can only assign one crewmate to the helm at any point in the game.

Privateering

Privateering is primarily focused on your ship's activities at sea. These include fighting other enemy vessels and even the monsters at sea. The higher your Privateering is, the more firepower you have in your ship, it's that simple.

For crewmates, they'll need to be at a certain level of Privateering in order for them to use different facilities or weapons on your ship. At level 1 Privateering, they can use the Bronze Cannon. At the highest level, they can use the Dragon Cannon, which of course, is the best weapon in the game for Sailing. Here's a chart showing all of the weapons used for Sailing.

You'll need to build each of the cannons. Of course, you'll need to grind for gold, materials, and specific levels for your Construction and Sailing Skill before you can build these.

Deckhandiness

This will affect various manual tasks for your ship. A part of the chores here include salvaging with a salvaging hook. What's even better about this skill is that a crewmate can carry a select number of courier tasks depending on what level their Deckhandiness is.

At levels 1 and 2, a crewmate can carry one crate. At level 3, they can carry two. Unfortunately, we don't know how many crates a crewmate with level 4 Deckhandiness can carry.

OSRS Sailing Crewmates

There are already a few select crewmates that we know will be a part of the Sailing Skill when it launches. To recruit them, you simply need to reach a certain level of Sailing per crewmate. You can then talk to a Crew Registrar to assign the crewmate to your ship. Here are the current crewmates:

We don't know whether Jagex is planning on adding more crewmates in the future but it's good to know that there are already a handful to choose from as early as now. Make sure to choose your crew wisely.

Crew Management Tips For OSRS

Now that you know about crew management in the game, it's time to talk about a few important tips to keep in mind when it comes to this feature.

1. Don't Waste XP With Helmsmanship

Crewmates with high helmsmanship will help you maneuver the seas pretty quickly. However, that comes at the cost of halving your Sailing XP in half. If it's not too much trouble for you, it would be best to just manually Sail.

You can lose a ton of XP by having a Crewmate do the sailing for you. If you're out exploring, you may as well do it yourself and get 100% of the Sailing XP in the process.

1. Switch It Up

The good news is that changing your crewmates is free. Instead of just sticking to one crewmate the entire time, you can switch it up.

By this, we mean changing your crewmate depending on what you need. If you're doing courier tasks, look for a crewmate with a high Deckhandiness. Use a Privateering crewmate if you're expecting many battles along the way.

1. Focus On Skilling Up First

It's very important that you work on Skilling up your Sailing first. Don't hesitate to get the highest level crewmate that's available for you the moment you progress through the Skill tree. Crewmates aren't always needed but they're pretty helpful if you want the extra manpower.

Rally Your Crew

OSRS Sailing is going to be one of the major updates for the game in a really long time. Things are looking exciting for players. If you want to prepare, come check out the Sailing prep offers for OSRS that we have at RPG Stash!