"Motor kings"--don't we sail any more?

[nolatom]

Okay, I'm being an armchair admiral on vacation, enjoying a week in Jensen Beach where from my motel window I look out over the Indian River/ICW.

Beautiful cool morning stiff 15-18 outta the NNW, perfect for southbounders to sail and make good time. the nearby bridges are new and high-up, no waiting for the average mast.

So why are the 40-something-foot cruisers motoring south, no sail up at all? They love their engines, and breathing their own exhaust that much?

Even shorthanded (or a delivery crew?), you could at least unroll that jib, huh? Give the motor a little help and save some fuel? Or put the main up, you could broad reach all day.

Nortbound, I get it. But southbound?

What up?

[my900ss]

I have not been in the ICW, nor have I sailed a 40 foot boat... but most video I have seen of the ICW shows it to be shallow and narrow. Not really ideal for sailing, so it might just be not that you couldn't do it, just that its not worth the effort? Hows that for "I have to frame of reference but here's an opinion anyway"

[nolatom]

Well, if it's a draft problem, then it's a problem under power as well. And i wouldn't want to ground with the main up and wind behind me, but with roller-furl jib, less of a problem in dousing sail.

Not sure it's a draft issue. Is it?

Anyway, just saw a 30?-footer slide by wing-and-wing. That's more concentration needed than what I was talking about, but well done whoever you are. And a couple of bigger boys with jibs up. Ah, I feel much better now..

(it's so easy to sail other peoples' boats from shore, eh? ;-)

[my900ss]

I was thinking with a motor you can choose where to be in the channel, when sailing you need to at tack to and fro across your desired course... in that case draft can be an issue in the ICW no? I myself would put the jib up and try to motor sail as the Jib on my Catalina 27 does not intrude on the cockpit as the main sail boom does. I.E. nothing gained nothing lost.

[travlineasy]

If my memory serves me correctly, that segment of the ICW is nothing more than a narrow ditch through the flats. You don't have to stray very far out of the channel to be hard aground. I'm kinda' gutsy when it comes to this stuff, though, and with that much breeze I would have at least had the jib out. Ironically, this fall, when the sunbirds were headed down Chesapeake Bay for the Norfolk, 95-percent of the boats I saw were not sailing, even when the winds were favorable. Instead, they were motoring along the Chesapeake's main shipping channel as fast as they could. Didn't make any sense to me at all.

Cheers,

Gary

[BubbleheadMd]

I see this often in the Chesapeake. I'm quite the a$$hole about it too. If they are close enough, I'll holler over "Hey, you know those white, flappy things will make the boat go too, right? And they're free to use?"

Yeah, I've gotten some looks.

[Faster]

We frequently see boats motoring in perfectly fine sailing conditions.... and always 'shake our heads.....' But who knows? Schedules to keep, charterers unfamiliar, nervous crew/passengers, 'too windy', don't like downwind, don't like heeling (but you gotta wonder 'why a sailboat then?")

It's not gonna go away, I'm afraid....

[JonEisberg]

So, what percentage of those tubs had full cockpit enclosures, and yellow jerry cans lining the rail? (grin)

Yeah, it's pretty sad, but the simple fact is that a depressingly small percentage of East coast snowbirds actually sail... Maybe unfurl a jib while motoring down the Ditch, that's generally about it...

Sailing appears to be too much work for most, and given the manner in which most cruising boats have been laden with all the crap one "needs" to go off cruising, they'll perform far better under power, than under sail...

there's no reason one couldn't be sailing through there - though the channel is narrow, it's as straight as an arrow... On a day such as you describe, however, it's a mystery why anyone would be doing that stretch inside, anyway... Life doesn't get much better than a sail down the beach between Ft. Pierce and Palm Beach in 15-18 knots out of the NW...

[CapnBilll]

One big advantage to motoring is if you soft ground, a quick reverse will get you loose. Hard to do that if sailing. Narrow ditch full of traffic = hard to sail in. No room to tack, slows you down and upsets power boaters stacking up behind you.

I've seen people sail the ICW, but you have to be ready to dowse sails and change course in a hurry. Also structures along shoreline block wind.

Better if the weather's good, just go out and sail the coast.

[BubbleheadMd]

Some of you guys keep speaking of tacking in the ICW. In the OP's example, we're talking about sailing DOWNWIND. There is no tacking, and possibly not even any gybing.

I think we're all onboard with the fact that you don't sail upwind, in the middle of busy traffic in the ICW.