Help me plan my cruise North!

jameswilson29 said:

My situation is definitely different from many of yours.

I consider sails to be relatively light, somewhat bulky items, but I have plenty of room in the v-berth and cockpit lockers to carry them. Lightweight, bulky items are ideally suited for extra storage space at the ends of the boat, where I don't want to carry heavy items. The P28 does not have the aft head and cabin or even a quarterberth, so it does have a tremendous amount of storage space under the cockpit seats, which is mostly unused. I always carry a spare mainsail in my portside cockpit locker.

I do use older sails and I do like to sail fast and push the boat within certain limits. I don't go on these trips to gunkhole, linger over breakfast, sip wine and eat cheese at anchor watching the sunset, or to motor leasurely from one port to another enjoying the scenery. These trips are my only chances to really sail the boat the way I want to sail: fly the spinnaker, dip the rail, beat into the chop with a reef in the main, etc. My family meets me in port, so I want to put miles under the keel quickly and efficiently. The fact is, you never know when you could be hit by conditions that might blow out a mainsail, just as you never know when you could be hit by lightening. The same conditions that might blow out your mainsail might also blow out your jib, particularly if you rely on roller furling, which has proven to be less than 100% reliable.

A good mainsail for the Chesapeake Bay region would not a strong bullet-proof sail. You need lightweight sails that will fill and shape easily. We have predominantly light winds most of the year, particularly in the summer cruising season. If your regular mainsail is a strong, heavy-weight, full-batten sail an ocean cruiser might employ for longevity, you will be glued to the water most of the time, moving at a snail's pace. That is simply reality in the mid-Atlantic summer season.

I don't want to wait a day or two for a sail to be fixed or mailed to me, be at the mercy of someone I don't know, or to spend time at a sewing machine underway, which would render me seasick. Having your mainsail blow out in the middle of Buzzards Bay may be no big deal, but having your mainsail blow out halfway between Norfolk and B.I. would be a big deal, particularly if your engine becomes inoperable. Having no mainsail or using a small trysail when you are 100 miles from the nearest port and your engine is disabled means an extra day or two, or more, in the ocean during Hurricane season.

A spare cheap mainsail still makes perfect sense to me is relatively cheap insurance to make port quickly in any conditions.

It surprises me that those of you who are willing to jump on these idiots who set sail without flashlights or storm sails, think nothing of doing an extended coastal hop without a spare MAINsail. You are essentially relying exclusively on your engine working.

Click to expand...

JonEisberg said:

Uhhh, you do realize it's possible to sail using a headsail and trysail, or even under a jib alone, right? Hell, many folks sail most of the way across the Atlantic Ocean under headsails alone, after all... Plus, what's so appalling about the prospect of having to rely upon an engine in a pinch? The overwhelming percentage of professional mariners worldwide do so 24/7 I'd bet if you tallied the number of boats in the ARC, for example, that are carrying spare mains, the percentage might easily be under 10% of the fleet, and largely confined to the largest of yachts...

Sorry, but I think you're simply not appreciating the way most people use their boats... Assume a family of 4 is making the same trip as you, in the same boat. Do you seriously think they're gonna be stuffing the vee berth full of spare sails?

I'm presently packing my boat for my trip this summer. She has considerable interior volume for a 30-footer, and I've configured her with extended cruising in mind, building in oversized water and fuel tankage, and the effort to maximize and make 'creative' use of storage space. The sails I'll have aboard are a main, 130% genoa & staysail that both live above deck on furlers. and a trysail bagged at the base of the mast when heading offshore. Otherwise, it gets stowed below with a storm jib, spinnaker, and a Code 0...

Never ceases to amaze, how much crap I wind up stuffing into that boat for a cruise, and how quickly much of it occupies the limited available space. After wedging my folding Northill into the big locker beneath the forward berth, then laying my folding bicycle on top, a lot of that space is gone... Sure, I could stuff a spare main in there instead. But considering I have yet to EVER have the need of a spare mainsail, I'll take my storm anchor, and bicycle along instead...

I'll be headed north, so I'm dragging along a lot of cold-weather gear. Multiple sets of foul weather gear, survival suit, series drogue and para-anchor, 800' of shore lines, liferaft, a large ditch bag, Honda 1000 generator, sufficient oil for 2 complete oil changes, tools and spares coming out the wazoo, a 6-gallon jerry can for fuel, another for water, an outboard motor, 5 large fenders, a massive pile of paper charts and enough books to get me thru the summer, the list of items of considerable bulk just goes on and on... Since I'm obsessive about keeping my decks clear, ALL of that crap goes in the lazzarette/cockpit locker, or the quarter berth/garage below... Would I swap out any of those items to make room for a spare mainsail? Hmmm, I don't think so...

Obviously, your choices work well for you, for the sort of sailing you're doing at the moment... But, I think if you do find yourself starting to really go places with that boat, and needing to carry the sort of gear, stores and provisions required to be self-sufficient for longer periods of time, you'll realize there simply isn't room for all those spare sails you're carrying today...

Click to expand...

xort said:

We should be leaving the Upper Ches around the same time...

Click to expand...

BubbleheadMd said:

I'll be doing a DelMarVa circumnavigation in August.

My plans for communications are:
VHF with DSC, tied to GPS. Got it
SPOT tracker with SAR service.
Cell phone when close enough to shore. Got it plus a hot spot for the laptop

This link: Rescue 21 Distress System Coverage

...was recently provided to me. It states (and shows with a map) that USCG VHF range, is engineered to project at least 30 miles offshore, and often goes much further than that.

These projections factor in a boat's VHF antenna only 2 meters off the water, not even masthead mounted antenna.

I'm not trying to dissuade you from an EPIRB, just trying to provide some useful information. Do whatever makes you comfortable.got a PLB, picked it over an EPIRB in case we use it for other things as well, like hiking

I'm not going with a liferaft either.
I will have good jacklines, harnesses, etc. got it

Something oft overlooked is a securing mechanism and tethers for your hatchboards. done, almost If a hatchboard washes overboard, you now have a huge hole in your boat. I also have a "spare set"

Click to expand...

T37Chef said:

We will be in Cape May on the 5th, then from there I am still planning. Leaving MYC on the 3rd, don't want tot leave on the 4th because its a Friday!

Click to expand...

4arch said:

Beth and Evans cruise offshore without a liferaft and their reasoning for not having one seems pretty solid. Obviously everyone has to make their own decisions and find their own comfort level when it comes to these things, but the failure rates they report certainly make me think twice about how and whether to prioritize buying one.

Click to expand...