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Grenada cruising observations

1521 Views 8 Replies 6 Participants Last post by outbound, Mar 2, 2015

killarney_sailor

Discussion Starter · Feb 27, 2015

Still in Grenada and have a few observations about cruising from what I see here.

This one applies more generally than just here. Seems like there are two types of cruisers. One group was called 'permacruisers' by someone. These folks find a place they like and stay there, either all year or seasonally. We know one boat that was launched from Spice Island boat yard, went about 200 m to anchor and has no intention to move until they haul in May, when they will go another 200 m to the travellift. The other type of cruisers are transients, who come for a time and then go somewhere else.
The median boat size here is about 45'. Interestingly, the median was notably smaller in obscure places on our circumnavigation where we were one of the larger boats at 45'.
Some countries have a lot of cruisers here. For some reason there are a disproportionate number of Danish boats.
There are relatively fewer American boats here than you would expect, based on distance and the number of boats there are in the country. Not sure why this is. The proportion of Americans in the permacruiser category is definitely higher than in the transient group.
There are quite a few catamarans here compared to most places.
If you are on a boat less than 33' you are almost certainly to be European.
If you less than 50 years old, you are almost certainly European. This of course may be related to the previous point.

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I realized I should have added one more section to my observations and that would be trends I have noticed in Grenada now compared to 2010.

- the use of some sort of flashing light for an anchor light, either alone or with a masthead light. These would not qualify as full-fledged strobes. They are not that bright.

- an increase in the number of various French aluminum boats. In the past you would see a few French-flagged boats of this sort. Now they have a broader ownership.

- a growing number (from essentially zero) of Solent stay rigs. Many of these are on new, often quite fancy boats; some are refits on older boats. Still a small minority but I wonder if these are coming to replace cutter rigs?

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killarney_sailor

Discussion Starter · #8 · Mar 2, 2015

outbound said:
K don't some people just regionally wander from a home base. In my group see folks who have a slip. Fly back and forth to the states two or three times a year leaving the boat under yacht management for 1-3 weeks. When down here are off the dock for 1-3 weeks bits cruising locally. To St. Martin or Spanish virgins and like trips. If it's friends visiting a week doing BVI circle or USVI national park. Then back to the slip.
Basically that's what I'm doing and I would say 80%+ of my marinna mates the same. Agree there are very few mainstream production boats that smack is enamoured of. Rather if you see a Smackdaddy boat it's very safe to assume it's a charter.
Here the Brits and canooks predominate. Most are mom and pop.
90% are 45' plus 10' or minus 5'

For sure many boats do go for a short cruise and then return to home base. I would compare it to people on western Lake Ontario who do their annual trip to the Thousand Islands. They might do 500 miles a year. People here typically seem not to go as far - perhaps to Bequia. One consideration is the question about being to windward here. Most people don't want to get to leeward and have to come back uphill.

We are becoming permacruisers as we get some work done (the stuff we can do is done). We are getting an overhaul on our mainsail furled, new heat exchanger, and a bit of engine work. Probably won't get out of here for a couple of weeks (he said hopefully). Want to be in St. Martin by mid-April to get ready to go to Bermuda.

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