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Sailing East Coast to West Coast

30K views 24 replies 14 participants last post by  capta 
#1 ·
I am looking into purchasing a blue water cruising boat to do some cruising after 1-2 years of working on her, and gaining some more sailing experience on a cruising boat. I have plenty of experience on smaller racing dinghies and a bareboat charter license. My question is that given I'm seeing more availability of the type of boat I am looking for on the East Coast (I am currently in Seattle), what is the feasibility of sailing a purchased boat in good condition from the East Coast to the West Coast? How difficult is such a sail and how long would it take?

Any input would be appreciated.
 
#2 ·
The trip to Panama may be pretty straight forward. From there the best route is to Hawaii and then to Seattle. Check Jimmy Cornell's World Cruising Routes for timing.
 
#3 ·
I read a short bit by someone who followed the advice of Brent Swain - the one from Vanc. Island who builds steel boats.

What he said was to go about 1000 miles out. Apparently then you have a reach all the way back to Vancouver (or Seattle obviously). I've heard or read some confirmations of it as well. It's probably worth checking out since I've heard coming back from Hawaii can be a bash unless you start northwest and go up & around the Pacific High.
 
#5 ·
Sounds like the scenic route has a lot of merit if comfortable cruising is the plan. Brent is the deepest of the deep blue sailors around here but he hasn't had to contend with the flotsam coming from Japan lately. That would make me nervous sailing over the Pacific High, unless I had a bullet proof hull like Brent's.Besides, leaving the best till last give you something to look forward to.
 
#6 ·
olli, difficulty and time have to consider all sorts of things. Starting out from CT or Miami? Big difference. Sailing offshore on the east coast, or motoring inside the intracoastal?

Gonna try to do it solo? If not, how will you get who for crew, in how many stages subject to how many schedules?

Then there's the Panama Canal, they publish their rate tables but there are requirements to transit that also, expect another $1500-2000 for the fees, or more.

If you plan to do bluewater sailing, this is a good time to start working with charts, with pilot guides or Jimy Cornell's World Cruising Routes book, asking yourself how to navigate that trip, how long each piece will take and where and when you will choose to go.
 
#8 · (Edited)
From a purely financial perspective, it's probably just a cheap (and a year or so faster) to have the boat trucked across country. Granted, if all of the folks on SN were always motivated solely by the financial perspective, none of us would have boats. However, for the type of trip that you're talking about (East Coast to to Seattle via the Gulf of Mexico and/or the Caribbean and then either bash up the West Coast or via Hawaii; probably at least 10,000 nm) you would probably have to do a complete refit (depending on the condition of the boat) before you left the East Coast, and then at least a partial refit once you got to Seattle to fix everything that broke and/or wore out on the "delivery".

On the other hand, it would be an adventure. Which is reason enough to go for it.
 
#9 ·
You guys are great! Thanks for the replies and ideas. An option is to buy the boat on the West Coast, even though the selection seems less (looking at a West Sail 32); however, another crazy idea is to purchase on the East Coast and sail with ACR to the Med and hang out there for a couple of years until I feel comfortable heading West?
 
#12 ·
I heard that some 2500 lemmings a season do that southern crossing now Sounds like there's lots of support and hand holding for you . Ann Davidson drifted across alone in 90 days. I sailed? a Colin Archer fishboat to Tobago in 34 days . With all the company and electronics to boot one should be able to experience a great and memorable voyage without a whiff of adventure or romance. Wish you well! A tall ship and a star to steer her by.
 
#14 ·
All depends on the wind It moves the ice about and either clears or jams the only narrow channel for small vessels.Look at the charts. You make it through or go back to Tuk and try again next year.Getting better every year but still no guarantee .From Greenland same story. One year nobody made it , next year a Hobi cat from Denmark made it. Steel hull is best but several glass have done the passage. I had a 42 ft wooden and never considered it as a contender. Besides I was doing commercial (science) charters. Really challenging cruising area but getting there is fun. North Pacific.Bering St ,Prudeau Bay, Beaufort Sea. and you're only to Tuktoyyaktuk Then the passage. Lots has written about it both historic and contemporary. It will be a while before it's more than big commerce and military but the B.C. coast still has my vote.
 
#16 ·
#17 ·
I purchased a Hallberg Rassy 46 in Feb 2011 and sailed up to the Pacific North West from San Diego. The advice was to either truck the boat up or sail to Hawaii and then across to Vancouver island. Given the prevailing winds are NNW and a 1knot plus current we knew it was not going to be the most pleasant of trips. We chose to do the trip in two legs, first leg to San Fran then after 3 days sail to Victoria on Vancouver island. We decided to sail offshore, as close to the wind as possible and do large tacks up the coast. The first day out of San Diego was calm and not enough wind to sail. The following two days we had winds 30-40 knots and heading into 8 ft seas. It took a day to get used to the movement but with 6 crew on board we had plenty of time for rest and the boat performed well. We left at the beginning of May hoping to catch a southerly change. As luck had it we caught one and sailed into San Fran doing 10knts with the wind behind. Marvelous. We had a few minor repairs to do: the nav lights on the pulpit were torn off going through the waves and the dorade in the v berth would not close and therefore leaked. Other than that we had no repairs. The leg from San Fran to Victoria was almost identical to the first leg. Calm for the first day then 30-40 knots from the north until we turned into the straight of San Juan de Fuca. Although the trip was rough we had great fun. I really got to know the boat, warts and all, and although the winds were strong the sun shone and we all laughed most of the way (except one crew member who broke two ribs have being thrown out of the head as we lurched over the top of one wave). We could have trucked it but would not have had the experience and the repairs only mounted to a few hundred dollars. The crew was made up of half experienced sailors and half with little but some experience. We always had one experienced sailor on watch. The whole trip took 12 days excluding the stopover in San Fran.
 
#18 ·
Isn't the coast just the greatest sailing area? Last time I came up from San Diego (60 ft steel cutter, 2 crew) we motored the entire way to Victoria.NOT a breath of wind. You just never know.Hope you enjoy further cruising in our local waters.I'm the tanbark gaff ketch working out of Victoria Touristy stuff.Drop over for a gam but watch out for the cannon.
 
#19 ·
Capt Len. We have had a great season in the PNW. I live in Denver and manage to get to the boat once a month. Spent most of the time exploring the San Juan islands and have been to Victoria a couple of times. What a beautiful place the PNW is. We have been very lucky with the weather. Every single day were were there it was sunny! We are booked to come back for Christmas and sail to Victoria where we will spend Christmas day so I will keep my eye out for you if you are about. We have booked a slip infront of the Empress hotel. I will watch out for the canon. Next year we plan to explore a little more north. so many choices. (SV Sarita).
 
#22 ·
DRory, I notice this is your first post. This threads a bit old, which is okay, but if you look at the active threads section you can see current posts that people are more currently engaged in.

Each post has a date on it to help you out :)

Having said that, the OP did mention he was an experienced dinghy racer, when he made his post back in 2011, he quite possibly was already a decent sailor, and just hadn't gotten in to cruising yet :)
 
#25 ·
. But i advice you to select the perfect time after checking the weather updates.
What might be perfect weather for departure may not be so nice 5, 10 or 13 days into a 15 to 20 odd day voyage. Weather is always a crap shoot and the best defense is a vessel and crew capable of taking anything mother nature decides to throw at you.
 
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