Does anyone sail now or have sailed before without a motor

[flyingfin]

As long as you can catch the winds in a favourable direction and can find a southbound current close to shore, you might make South Florida in 2-3 weeks. But if the gulf stream grabs you, you will spend a few weeks going nowhere. You just missed the hurricane that might have pushed you south, but its gone now
Check the wind forecast maps here

https://www.windguru.cz/map/

PS, dont try St Marys entrance without a motor, or a strong wind to help you navigate, 6' tides, wicked currents and lots of shallow mud banks

[Estrellita]

I'm sticking strictly coastal. No bridges , not going way up any rivers. I wish I could put a outboard but it's a steel boat so things need welded and the stern is at a point. I can't figure out how to post a picture of the boat or I would show you an outboard really isn't an option. After Fernandina I'll make what even repairs needed and then wait for maybe Nov 1st and sail to Key West with a North wind. But who knows. I don't live in real time anymore, just cruising

[Rorzech]

What did they do without engines in the days of sailing two hundred cannon galleons and no tide tables GPS's or reliable charts ??? Hundreds of years without motors and they made it back and forth most of the time . It's just like computers . People wrote books for thousands of years and now you almost wouldn't consider writing a book without using a computer. Myself , I want every advantage on my side possible , and back ups to those advantages , along with insurances and lots of reading about everyone else's mistakes that I can learn from. Minimum 2 engines barely makes me comfortable. I guess I'm a firm believer in "Murphy's Law"

[Cavalier]

Originally Posted by Rorzech

What did they do without engines in the days of sailing two hundred cannon galleons and no tide tables GPS's or reliable charts ??? Hundreds of years without motors and they made it back and forth most of the time .

I'm not sure the OP has space on-board for 200crew! ;-)

Sent from mTalk

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Cavalier

I'm not sure the OP has space on-board for 200crew! ;-)

Sent from mTalk

With long boats and lots of oars.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by Rorzech

What did they do without engines in the days of sailing two hundred cannon galleons and no tide tables GPS's or reliable charts ??? Hundreds of years without motors and they made it back and forth most of the time .

Well, one thing they did NOT do was single hand them through narrow cuts and into tiny marinas, filled with shiny and kinda fragile yachts owned by litigious jerks.

All the talk about the days gone by is quite romantic, but hardly applicable to the OP's situation.

Jim

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Rorzech

What did they do without engines in the days of sailing two hundred cannon galleons and no tide tables GPS's or reliable charts ??? Hundreds of years without motors and they made it back and forth most of the time .

That's when there were no boats around with engines. Alternatively:



https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/3056547339

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Rorzech

What did they do without engines in the days of sailing two hundred cannon galleons and no tide tables GPS's or reliable charts ???

Lack of tide tables are easy to figure out. Simple observation solves that one. As for what they did with those big engineless ships, two things: firstly, mostly they didn't come close to shore. They anchored out and sent skiffs in. And otherwise, they would get towed in by the raft of skiffs. Row! Row! Row!

[seandepagnier]

Engines were never needed and this was proven long ago. I never used an engine.


The boat in question is possibly too big. How many crew? I can scull my boat against 15 knots of wind.


Also, despite being able to navigate 8 knot passes in indonesia with little wind, and navigating many harbors around the world, there unfortunately exist idiots in patrol boats who write rules such as "all boats must have augxillary power to transit the canal"

I had at the time an electric outboard, and sculling oar. The "canal patrol" said I had misinterpreted the definition of augxillary power. They say it must be "internal combustion" . I claim this is not what the written rule is, and they explain "We can deny any vessel for any reason, and you are denied" I was traveling at 6 knots over ground on sail power alone with wind and tide running straight down canal.

They said that having an engine is "common sense" which makes sense if you don't care about anyone else in this world.

I said sailing down a canal with 15 knots of wind blowing down the canal is "common sense" but "common sense" is illegal.

They made me tack 20 times to get out of the canal against the wind and current so I could sail an extra 30 hours to get to the same place.

United States is a horrible country. So far worst cruising destination from 26 countries.

[foufou]

Alexandra, you must be very strong to scull against 15 knot wind. What speed do you make? Sculling a 15 ton boat years ago we only made 1/2 k knot against no wind

[hamburking]

I don't know if this counts, but I used to sail and race a Kirby 23 with no motor. Sometimes it took us a long time to get to the race course, or to get home after. During races we didn't miss it at all. The only time it was a concern, was the few times the wind was very light. Then we would beg a tow from a bigger boat. We kept a 6 pack of beer in a deep locker to pay for the tow. The same drunk sailor would always come check on us when there was no wind, eager to get our warm beer into his icebox.

Later, I had outboard engine trouble on my C&C25. I took it in to a repair shop, but being high season there was quite a wait. With such a short sailing season, I wasn't going to miss any sailing because of the engine. Besides, for the previous weeks, the outboard had been pretty much useless anyway. It felt wonderful and free to sail with no engine. The transom was clean and light. No gasoline. No fussing with the outboard. No exhaust fumes. No noise. To depart my marina, I would swivel around the end of my finger dock so I was facing out, then give a mighty push. Once aboard I would unroll the jib and tack out of the harbour. My home marina at the time was Portsmouth Olympic Harbour. My dock was near the entrance. As home to CORK, there are often dozens of small boats sailing into and out of the harbour, so it did not seem out of place. And I enjoyed the right of way over the powered vessels.

I really enjoyed sailing with no engine. Made me feel like a real sailor. My only concern was running out of wind, and getting stuck someplace...but this is Kingston...its windy here every day. Even with an engine, I prefer to sail onto and off of anchorages. With my bigger boats, I used the engine in the marina, for safety, but was prepared and would have liked to sail on and off.

A big part of sailing on and off is having a good dock. Good with respect to the wind direction and lee.

As for the actual sailing...not a problem. The only issue is if you have time commitments.

I recommend taking off the training wheels, save your money, and sail with no engine.

[Steadman Uhlich]

A few tips:

1. Get Towing insurance before you make the trip.

2. When approaching an inlet, call your towing company via VHF, and ask about local conditions at your chosen inlet.

[peterbeale]

If you have a tiller you can use a sculling oar over the transom to get you into harbors and marinas. I have seen these used successfully on 55ft ketches. But the treaty of the time you just have to wait for the wind.

Normally a wheel is too close to the transom and does not provide enough space to skull.

[akprb]

Sailing engineless requires skill. Growing up racing we sailed engineless 90% of the time and when cruising started out with an essentially engineless Sea Sprite 24. I've done the same with Catalina 30's on up to a Hans Christian 43 (it had an engine of course but we tried to use as little as possible.)

All that being said from a brief read of your original post you are not at that point. Could you? Yes. Will you likely be a burden to others at some point and soon, likely.

Take the time to get to know your engine. I wrote a piece called "motoring" if you get a chance, it's on the blog. Diesels are simple, require basic care and understanding and it is simply prudent (which is what we sailors are suppose to be) to have it at the ready.

Side note, I've been following Lin and Larry for years, even stalked them at their house in NZ :-) (They were not home but Talisman was there, very cool.) For true engineless sailing toss in a large dose of patience ;-) and a dash of time.

Be careful out there, don't want to put others in harms way as a result of your decisions if at all possible.

Cheers ;-)

[Estrellita]

How would I be endangering anyone elses if I'm single-handed?