I organized several trips from Los Angeles to Mexico in the late 60's and early 70's. We generally had 8 to 12 boats. We had about 25% experienced boaters and we had some who had never anchored before. All in all the experiece was fun. We belonged to the same yacht club and and known each other for some time. One of the problems was going at the rate of the slowest boat. We did help people out. There was one fire, several anchor draggings and a couple of groundings in a lagoon--but nothing serious. Later I refused to go offshore with a group of boaters going from Acapulco to Punta Arenas. I was the only one experienced offshore, the only one with weather fax. I also had the largest boat. The six boats had a different schedule that we had. The result of that group was that one boat went on the beach--the others did not turn back to find him--the boat was lost and the man and crew almost died. We eventually rescued him many days later. One boat was blown so far out to sea that he never made Costa Rica and almost didn't make Panama! As we have cruised I have used Ham radio on a very regular basis. This gets away from not being in contact with friends. We talked to boaters and other hams on shore. We also met people on Islands and foreign lands via the Ham radio, who were great assets. Ham radio is on the decline in the boating community and this is too bad. Also we have been in many situations where we had VHF contact with other boats about the same size as we made passages. For example in the Bermuda to Azores Passage in 1984, May 15 to 27th) we had a very bad storm for about 9 days. There were two other boats who left Bermuda the same time we did and well were in almost constant VHF contact. Both of these boats had similar hull forms and were about the same speed. When we encounted 55 knot head winds going into Gibralter, We knew other boats were around and got on the VHF--we all talked thru the night--Southern Cross (Alan Bond's large yacht) and a U S Navy Ocean going tug. We all made the decision to turn back to Cadiz at the same time. We have made about 50% of our passages with friends. These have all been expert boaters and fully capable of standing watches--most had made other passages, often on their own boats. The company was good. However we also enjoy a passage with just the two of us.h Being along when we arrive in a foreign country forces you to seek out the locals and to explore. My observation is that people traveling in large groups (be it tour busses, cruise liners or Rallys tend to stick with the people they know, rather than trying to make new friends. Again this is a very personal matter. But meeting different people is one of the goals of our travels--be it by RV, Boat, train or car. Scott brings up another important issue; the complexity of some systems. I prefer to have only systems which are easily backed up, which I can repair if they fail, or I can do without. Stabalizers are a good example. I suspect I will also have paravanes--since many passagemakers really do need some stabilization---any comments? Bob Austin