I was told that for safety purposes you need at the least 45 feed of sailboat. How many of you agree with this statement?
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4 hrs, beating upwind from Barrington? That's optimistic. It's 36 nm, if you never have to tack.....Block is a simple 4h daysail even when entirely upwind from the top ( Barrington) of Naragansett bay and shorter for the rest of the bay. Hence it's popularity.......
It depends on the period those monsters and if they were breaking. Not too many boats will be happy with a 30 wave braking on it.oh good bludi george. i must have died. i sailed a friends err former friends irwin citation 37 south in 30 ft following seas. day after an el nino storm 1994 january.
ohmygeorge i am dead and donot know it!!!!!
hahahahahahahahaha
Yup… The average size of circumnavigators on that Latitude 38 - West Coast Circumnavigators' List referenced earlier came out to be 41-feet.. This is a list that includes all the PNW circumnavigators going back to the 1960s. It also includes a fair number of round-the-world racers.The other side of the equation is how big is too big. We choose the O46 because although she has all powered winches and an AP I can run the boat by myself in the absence of any power. Same reason there's a hydro and on the back. Find many long distance cruisers end up on something in the 40 to 50 ft range with cutter or solent rigs. Big enough to get you there. Big enough to live in comfort. But not to big to manage as a mom and pop.
Multis are a different matter. Size equals safety. They move too fast for any form of mechanical wind driven steering to work ( most say 10k is the upper limit for vanes). So you're going to be dependent on electrons. They've gotten so dependable many don't think that's a big deal.
Hand steering in storms is very exhausting ergo dangerous. You need to find a comfortable safe point of sail or heave to... and wait for better conditions.Capta my experience is much more limited than yours but still feel compelled to disagree. I've been declared overdue with th cg sent out and have been in a few storms however. In each case the ability to set the boat up to be safe passively has saved the boat and my life.
Even on boats with 4 souls aboard they will become exhausted if hand steering. With a mom and pop crew this will occur earlier. In storms hand steering much beyond 1/2 h to 1 h becomes problematic. After a day or two of that you are dragging your fanny and more likely to not catch that wave just right or make some other mistake. Yes hand steering through a squall is wise but once you're in multi-day gales or storms your approach needs to be different on a small boat. imho.
Depending on the boat I've used hoving to ( in gales not storms where it may not be successful), warps and drogues. I've never used a sea anchor but others tell me of success with these on multis and full keel boats. Other than exceptionally fit racers crewing I've not heard of boats hand steering for days successfully.
Think it's important to acknowledge your limitations and be realistic about your ability to function in a gale let alone a storm.
I agree due to average wave period and size mono boats in the mid to upper forties may be better seaboats. I've not been in storms on multis so can't comment on whether there is a too big for smally crewed cats. Would say strong steering systems and powerful APs seem required. Storm damage to cat steering systems seems to occur. Also agree in a storm " a mono takes care of you....you take care of a multi". Although that seems to changing with better APs and the more common use of drogues.
I think this is the salient point. Taking a boat offshore, particularly exposed to heavy weather, is an inherently dangerous activity. For all the talk of what makes a solid boat or a bluewater boat or whatever...end of the day we are still putting hairless apes into an environment where they do not belong and are unable to survive without their shiny tools, and where we are depending on gear and hairless ape think to see us through a thousand unknowable variables which are determined by elemental forces of nature.capta said:But whatever you buy, "you pays your money and you takes your chances". I doubt the is any boat out there that anyone would guaranty your survival on. Wasn't the Titanic billed as "unsinkable"?
Excellent point. One should also consider having an incapacitated crew member along the way too. btdt....Today off shore passage making IS safer because of technology and better boats...and equipment. But while all that is changing... human capability has not changed... You still need sleep and can only lift so much etc.......
Along the same lines, my partner suffers from mal de mer. She's copes incredibly well, but when things get bumpy she has a hard time functioning down below. She's never missed a watch, but it means I end up taking over most galley tasks, and other down-below duties.^^^ you never know how the sickness thing is going to play out. Great lakes crossing in May, 35 ft boat, not just rough, but it was cold too. Had a 10 month old with us, so he had to stay below for the cold, but all other adults were too seasick to go below. They would become incapacitated with sickness if they went below. ...