When we landed in Punta Gorda a couple of years ago and took posssesion of my dad's Tayana 42, we intended to sail her across the gulf. Now, sailing across the gulf is not the same as sailing across the Atlantic, but it is not cake walk either. We were on the baot for about a week. The boat was ready to go short of polishing the fuel. We bought a handheld Garmin GPS as a backup and began preparing. In the end, we did not sail it as we caught an unbelieveable deal on a dead-head (trucker) that was going that way and we could not say no.
It was not the sailing that bothered me, it was where the systems were. You will also need to polish that fuel and do a complete evaluation of that boat before going. You will need to buy a fair amount of spares, like water pumps, impellers, backup gps, etc. As far as how long it will take you to feel comfortable sailing the boat on that type of a trip, I guess I would say it would be less the trip that would scare me versus the prep to make sure that I had not missed anything. Assuming you just had the boat surveyed, it is probably sfer than 90% of all the other boats that just take off across.
These are just my opinions, but I have never crossed the Atlantic so others may have different opinions and suggestions. I guess I have just sailed long enough that I can pretty much hop on any boat and make her go where I want. It is the finding out where all the systems are and how they are run that bothers me (along with having sufficient spares).
- CD
It was not the sailing that bothered me, it was where the systems were. You will also need to polish that fuel and do a complete evaluation of that boat before going. You will need to buy a fair amount of spares, like water pumps, impellers, backup gps, etc. As far as how long it will take you to feel comfortable sailing the boat on that type of a trip, I guess I would say it would be less the trip that would scare me versus the prep to make sure that I had not missed anything. Assuming you just had the boat surveyed, it is probably sfer than 90% of all the other boats that just take off across.
These are just my opinions, but I have never crossed the Atlantic so others may have different opinions and suggestions. I guess I have just sailed long enough that I can pretty much hop on any boat and make her go where I want. It is the finding out where all the systems are and how they are run that bothers me (along with having sufficient spares).
- CD