In Praise of the Smaller Boat

[mudnut]

Sailfar is a site mainly for people with 30' or under boats.So many of these people cruise and don't just sail.The reason I'm a member and constantly surf the site is because SOOOO many of these kool people actually live on their boats full time.Contentment is deffinatly not measured in size,but, lifestyle.Mudnut.

[ssullivan]

Nice to see this movement is alive and well. I sure miss the days of a smaller boat. We bought large for chartering. Now that we're living aboard and not chartering, we use one entire stateroom as storage for light objects. We use maybe 2/3 of our 45' boat. One thing I like is the ability of a larger boat to handle rough seas.

Things that are not so great are:

Cost to maintain
Cost of dockage
Cost of diesel and everything
Purchase price
And the kicker - I have to work the next 2 years solid to pay off the damn loan. Wouldn't it be smarter to get a slightly smaller boat and have a cruising kitty all read to go? I think so.


PS: I also really miss sailing things like Hobie Cats, Lasers and 420's. Pure sailing fun without any of the responsibility!

[Raven]

Originally Posted by ssullivan

PS: I also really miss sailing things like Hobie Cats, Lasers and 420's. Pure sailing fun without any of the responsibility!

Sean,

My first "boat" was a homemade raft on the Connecticut River. My best friend from high school and I would take a week-long trip each spring down an 80 mile stretch of the river - Huck Finn style. We had a homemade charcoal stove built on the front, wooden supply boxes, kerosene lanterns, and a pup-tent we'd pitch on deck at night. We drifted with the slow-moving current during the day and had adventures to last a lifetime.

I spent many an hour in canoes and kayaks before getting turned on to sailing with a Hobie 16. Today, I live aboard my PS Crealock 34 (except for the four months a year that the water is frozen up here). I haven't been able to give up the other smaller boats, though. They're just too much fun!

My sea kayak is 17' and has a 20 inch beam. I've had it out in up to 50 knot sustained winds (remnants of Hurricane Floyd several years back) - nothing like a small boat in a big storm to make you feel like a piece of flotsam.



My Nacra 6.0 is 20 feet of pure adrenaline! At 20+ knots, it's more akin to flying.



My PS Crealock 34 is a comfortable home and a solid, well-behaved cruising boat.



I love them all!

[capt lar]

Sean - I always question that "bigger boat for bigger seas" statement. True you will make better time and have more comfort, assuming you have the crew. I know there are couples who sail big boats long distances, but I feel more confident in a smaller boat. Look at Donna Lange in her 28' Southern Cross. Little boats, by their nature and design, have less to go wrong. For a cruising couple, I still think buying as little boat as you can live on is the way.

[ssullivan]

Originally Posted by capt lar

Sean - I always question that "bigger boat for bigger seas" statement. True you will make better time and have more comfort, assuming you have the crew. I know there are couples who sail big boats long distances, but I feel more confident in a smaller boat. Look at Donna Lange in her 28' Southern Cross. Little boats, by their nature and design, have less to go wrong. For a cruising couple, I still think buying as little boat as you can live on is the way.

Actually, I mostly single hand, other than my wife doing "this or that" at this time. She's good, but some of the forces are too great for her. I sure am a fan of smaller boats, as I said above. I'd never knock them. I do wish I had one. The grass is always greener.

But... when you get on a bigger boat (more displacement), it just doesn't get smacked around by the sea the same way a small boat does. Also, while in anchorage, the smaller boats tend to roll more. I say this from experience going from an O'day 302 to a Gulfstar Hirsh 45. Also, the megayachts I worked on were much more comfortable at sea than the boat I'm on now. Cruise ships are pretty comfortable. People don't usually have a rough ride in those. I like the small boats, but in my experience, they don't take the pounding as well when things kick up a bit. Just a function of displacement and possibly LWL, but not as sure about that last quantity.

[Raven]

Originally Posted by capt lar

Sean - I always question that "bigger boat for bigger seas" statement.

I question it, as well.

My seagoing experience covers a spectrum from the sea kayak along coastal Maine to an 85' fishing vessel on the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea. My gut has always felt that when the boat is small, I'm taking care of her, and, when the boat is large, she's taking care of me.

Put another way, I feel that with a smaller boat it is easier for a captain and crew to overcome "behavioral problems" associated with design than it is with a larger boat.

[ssullivan]

Raven, each and every boat you have is beautiful. I can definitely appreciate the variety you have there. I can't even begin to imagine how great those Connecticut River trips were. Those are times that don't seem to happen so much anymore. Fantastic post. Thanks for sharing that. It's got to be one of the coolest things I've ever read about on here as far as adventures go. You can travel the world, but often some of the best times are had just stopping to smell the roses close to home.

[Raven]

Originally Posted by ssullivan

I can't even begin to imagine how great those Connecticut River trips were. Those are times that don't seem to happen so much anymore.

That raft was my first "liveaboard" boat. It was the result of curious kids who loved to watch the river during the springtime flooding. When the waters would get high enough to jump the banks, its reach expanded well into the farm fields of my hometown.

A typically "boy" response to water is to throw things into it. One April day, when I was 14, my friends and I were doing just that. Then, along the water's edge we found a couple of 50 gallon steel drums that had floated into the trees. We strapped a couple of planks to them, found some other boards for makeshift paddles and floated off into the flooded field. That moment became the impetus for "Foxy Lady," our 16' liveaboard raft. (We were Hendrix fans who also named our canoe after one of his songs - "Wild Thing.")

The raft was built in secret, lest our parents find out and put a halt to the project. Eventually (a year later), we'd collected six steel drums and enough dimensional lumber to build the raft. (It's amazing how much "stuff" gets delivered by floodwaters to young kids like us.) We put it together at a "secret" site under the railroad bridge near the confluence of the Waits River with the Connecticut River (Bradford, Vermont). We launched her for the maiden voyage after school one April afternoon after school. (I'm not sure we planned to do it that day. We were just sitting there thinking, "she seems ready," and next thing you know, off we went.) Without a complete deck (still searching for enough 2x6's), without PFD's (the water was about 40 degrees), and without any clue as to the potential dangers, we shoved our raft into the river and used the paddles (1x6 planks) to keep her midstream and out of the "strainers" (trees that overhang the river's edge whose branches extend into the waters at flood stage).

We floated 10 miles downstream that afternoon, eventually coming ashore at a riverside boat launch. My friend Ralph and I walked into the village and dialed my dad from a payphone.

"Dad, can you come pick us up in Fairlee?"
"How'd you get there?"
"Um, well, um, we'll show you when you get here."

As a parent who seemed more aware of the dangers than Ralph and I, my dad "went through the roof" when he saw that raft, but he knew that he'd have a serious rebellion on his hands if he tried to tell us to stay away from the river. He borrowed a friend's truck and flatbed trailer, helped us load and transport "Foxy Lady" back to my friend Ralph's house for improvements (completed deck, supply boxes, stove, etc.) and shuttled the whole show to and from the river each Spring when we'd take it on our weeklong trips. The annual adventure began by dropping the raft and supplies at the base of the Rygate dam, then driving to Littleton, NH where we'd launch our canoe on the whitewaters of the Ammonusac River. After surviving 20 miles of fast, cold water, we'd paddle the short stretch upstream on the Connecticut River, pull our raft out of the bushes and push off to spend the rest of the week drifting downstream with canoe in tow. Along the way we'd fish, shoot an occasional duck for dinner, and talk endlessly about who knows what (girls and future fun, most likely).

What was to become a lifetime of adventures was well under way in those early days . . .

[capt lar]

I would certainly love to have that extra ten feet on the hook !

[Lynx]

A small boat with money in the bank is nice IF you don't have money in the bank.

Well, my 26'er is paid for and I am making mods while I get ready to go cruising. Although I do agree with the Big boat for big seas people so, the Bahamas and US waterways is for me. A little comprimise in where I can go is worth it to be on the hook every night and money in the bank.

Leaving in 1 year is very real and have a 3 to 5 year cruise. With more expensive boat I would have to waite another year or more.

[ssullivan]

Kevin,

You have the makings of a riveting book there! Especially one for local presses. I know I'd buy a copy. It would make for a great summer afternoon read. Also, you do make an interesting point about larger vessels taking care of you, while you take care of smaller vessels. That does seem accurate. But... at the same time, I have been out in stuff in my 30 footer where I was a bit nervous. In this boat, I barely feel it in the same conditions.

Bigger isn't right for everyone... and I sure miss the freedom that comes along with a smaller boat (less complexity usually and less hit on the wallet). As with everything on boats - yet another compromise, I think.

[Raven]

Originally Posted by ssullivan

. . . you do make an interesting point about larger vessels taking care of you, while you take care of smaller vessels. That does seem accurate. But... at the same time, I have been out in stuff in my 30 footer where I was a bit nervous. In this boat, I barely feel it in the same conditions.

I have a good friend who seems to be spending his lifetime in search of the "perfect boat." He buys then sells, buys then sells . . . endlessly. It probably should be more correctly phrased as the "perfect compromise."

I agree with you about taking on similar conditions in different boats. It has been the smaller ones on which I have been most indelibly humbled (read: had the sh@t scared out of me), but I've often wondered if I wouldn't rather be on the smaller ones if the boat were overwhelmed by the sea (i.e. would I rather experience a rollover on a large boat or a small one?).

I suppose that thought is an expansion of the question originally posed by this thread. Beyond the pros and cons of the boat that may be best suited for those days we all dream of, I've wandered into the realm of questioning what I'd rather be aboard in the nightmares.

[Dunkers]

Raven, you describe what kids should be doing - going out and having their own adventures and learning about life. Making mistakes, remembering them and working how not to make them again is what that kind of thing is all about. How sad that present generation kids rarely have that sort of opportunity now. If its not the kids being too lazy its the parents worried about what predators (the two legged kind) lie behind every blade of grass or that they might cut their knees and be blemished for life. We all took our cuts and bruises as badges of honour - now its piercings and tattoos as early as they can.

Anyway a great post - the mental imagery brought a big smile to my face - messing about in boats - fabulous!

[Raven]

Originally Posted by Dunkers

Raven, you describe what kids should be doing - going out and having their own adventures and learning about life . . . We all took our cuts and bruises as badges of honour . . . messing about in boats - fabulous!

This year I'll be celebrating a half-century of "life," yet I'm still just beginning to reveal to my parents the details of what went on during my youth.

During the school breaks, my mom would send us out the door with the warning, "Don't come back until dinner time!" We had a grand time making it up as we went - quite a contrast to today's overscheduled, overprotected youth, living in in the shadow of their parents' fear of what's around the next corner. Yep, the times they are a changin' . . .

[Razman23]

I think the biggest reason a person enjoys a smaller boat over a larger one is the ease of actually going sailing. It is more fun for me to unhook from the dock with a 27' boat than being on a 40-45' yacht especially if you want just to go on a day sail.

30-35' is probably the largest I will ever go for a boat. That should be the right mix of sea ability and cost.