Found this. http://www.scouter.com/forum/venturing-program/23585-sea-scout-ship-vs-venturing-crew

Why not do both? My venture crew is also a Sea Scout ship. We follow Venturing Advancement and then we also follow Sea Scout advancement. During some parts of the year we concentrate on Sea Scouts and some parts of the year we concentrate on Venturing. Since we are a very active crew most of what we did as Venturers counts towards Sea Scout Advancement. During our meetings we either split time between working on Sea Scout stuff and Venturing stuff or we alternate meetings. This seems to work out the best with peoples intrests.

What are the KIDS interested in ?

I've been trying to reply for a while. We'll see if it takes my post this time. In general your link is how we see things. If your kids and the CO is after a specialty program focused on aquatic skills, be a ship. If they want to specialize in something land based (outdoors, sports, youth ministry, a hobby, etc ..), or be more general interest (like ours) and evolve their program in various directions over time, be a crew.

Also, what do the youth in your community need? If there already is a vibrant sailing community with a youth program (as we have just an hour north of us), you probably don't need to fill that niche. Some units have tried to form ships along our three rivers (I met one youth who was a member of several crews and a ship), but they haven't held together for very long. Boating is a subculture here, so only a few kids really see it as something they want to commit to. But, if you've got that few kids who are really interested (and maybe someone who'll donate the slip and the water craft), it may be the ideal program for you.

Thirdtime test venturerere Test.

Does the opportunity for rank advancement in Sea Scouts as opposed to Venturing make a difference? In a community where there is a focus on college application resume padding, might a Ship that let's you earn both Venturing Awards AND Sea Scout Ranks/Awards help you with parental support for their kids involvement?

A large portion of my community is college bound, and I have yet to have a youth or parent come to me enthused about getting a medal for all of this.

I've only met one youth who was in a ship and a couple of crews (at the same time), and the guy just loved earning medals! But, I don't think he did either program for the purpose of awards. (The cool uniforms, maybe.)

Just like in Troops, youth get sick of participating if their folks are making it all about the awards. They don't get sick of a unit that accomplishes stuff like activities and cool service projects. So, I pitch program more than awards. Simply put, I did not have the skills or connections to promote nautical activities, so starting crew was the most sensible thing for me to do. Now if I had a committee member come to me and say, "I have a slip on the river, and have acquired a sternwheeler..."