What Is The Big Deal About Single Handling?

[domander]

And let's not forget the people who single hand because they have to. My wife couldn't get away, nor did she want to, for the extended period of time (2 years plus) I took to single hand down the West Indies and across the Caribbean back to North America. So it was either single hand, or immediately put my "new to me" boat up on land and wait.

Single handing IS more difficult. One can't be in 2 places at the same time, and so maneuvering the boat takes more skill and sometimes a bit of luck. Judging your closing speed to an upwind dock needs to be a quality assessment when you have to leave the helm to get a line around a bollard. Motoring into the wind to pick up your anchor in strong wind can be a nightmare when you can either be at the helm, OR at the bow, and not both! And try picking up a mooring ball when at some place like Warderick Wells when a strong current is running and you are both the helmsman PLUS the the guy at the bow with the boat hook!

And don't fall off the boat anytime. That's not just inconvenient, it can be a death sentence.

So I take pride in having single handed the Caribbean on a 43 foot boat. Ya learn like crazy! :-) But I'm looking forward to the enjoyment of having crew for the upcoming continuation of the circumnavigation. Imagine the luxury of getting to sleep for more than 15 minutes at a time!

- Brian Domander

[zeehag]

something no one mentioned is that often when folks decide to sail a passage with ye, the personalities donot mesh or the person owning boat cannot trust the newcomer, due to observations, to go to sea with em. it is better to go out to sea alone than with someone who is not able to gain your trust out in open ocean. too much can fail, and stray people do not help anything but make it worse by being in the way.

i have to laugh at your need for smokinhot women. thisis a need/desire i do not share, being female and choosing to sail either short handed or sola.

many of you express derogatory comments against women. i can see how you guys would be sailing solo.....tis this kinda male i seem to find, as well as those who allegedly want to help yet cannot overcome control issues.

[Howelllee]

Single handing cruising versus simple home port bay sailing are two different things.
Usually the larger a boat, the more difficult to single hand.
It is much easier to handle a boat in difficult weather and seas with a crew; single handed it can be an immensely difficult task.
Is braggadocio involved? With some people, probably so.
With others, it is a casual reference to one’s level of sailing ability.

Over-all, I believe until you have single handed several days on the high seas in any water with variable and sometime difficult weather, currents, and wind, you will not know the answer to your question. Try it, and you’ll know why people talk about it.

[eyschulman]

Here it is in a nut shell(for me anyway) Its me my boat and the elements. It can slow and quiet it can be white knuckles and its always my judgments and actions that count, And there is never crew discord or Chinese fire drills.

[VOYAGER II]

If being alone floats your boat, have at it. If you're a loner, you might as well do it and leave the normal folk alone

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by zeehag

many of you express derogatory comments against women. i can see how you guys would be sailing solo.....tis this kinda male i seem to find, as well as those who allegedly want to help yet cannot overcome control issues.

Yup, a another sub-group identified (the control part--though I think all single handers have a bit of this in them).

The misogynist group can just go to hell.

---

We are certainly a varied lot. Good.

[vancouver25]

I just started James Baldwin's second book, "Bound for Distant Seas," and he touches on the subject of the solo sailor as well as the rationale for simplicity (granted, this voyage was 20 years ago and his funds were quite meager):

Nowadays, getting away from it all seems to require frequent contact with “it all” via satellite phones offshore and cell phones along the coast, SSB radio, and shipboard email messaging. At that time, most of those distracting devices were not available. I’d like to think it wouldn’t have mattered if they were, because I imagined an experience aboard Atom alone as a sea-going attempt to emulate Henry David Thoreau’s elemental sojourn at his self-built cabin at Walden Pond in the mid 19th century. Whereas Thoreau dirtied his hands in the soil and traipsed through the woods around his cabin with wide-open eyes and fertile mind, I roamed the seas and its islands. We both sought to know our place in the world intimately and, in doing so, to cultivate the man within....

Sailing alone and without an engine or distracting electric gadgets would eventually teach me whatever I hadn’t learned about sailing and my own abilities during my first circumnavigation. That journey had taught me how rich our lives become when our needs remain few. What you don’t have, you likely don’t need. Now I took that lesson one step further.

[Alec H]

Main reason for single handed sailing is the stories. You can make up edge of your seat sailing tails, and there's no one to say different.

[TacomaSailor]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

Did we forget? No one snoring next to you!!!

It is not the snoring of the one next to me that is the problem!

The problem is the one next to me whacking me in the chest every hour or so 'cause she thinks I am snoring. I know, for a fact, that I am too much a gentleman to snore.

[bailsout]

In tennis I play singles and doubles. I enjoy both. In doubles the enjoyment level can be dependent on who your partner is. In singles it's just you. Definitely a higher anxiety level in singles and a greater sense of achievement for me. Of course , more when I win.
But in tennis singles you are not really alone like you are single-handling a sailboat on the big blue on the central coast. And there is a sense of triumph and bravado.
As much as I enjoy sailing alone when it's in optimum sailing conditions I then lament that my wife's not with me.
And it sure makes impulse sailing simpler. Now I just should set my boat up for single-handling. That will help reduce the fright! Maybe roller redding? Lazy jacks? Self-tailing winches? Thank goodness for autopilot.
It's all good.

[TacomaSailor]

One of my points of conflict with most folks who come sail on my boat is my desire / intent / obsession with sailing.

- constant sail trimming
- put up the spinnaker, take down the spinnaker, raise the drifter...etc
- ghosting along at 2 knots with no hope of getting where we planned to go
- pounding to weather with a double reefed main and staysail in driving rain
- changing the destination three or four times a day depending on what the wind gives me
- suddenly leaving the anchorage with little warning or planning because an unexpected wind has come up
- leaving for a 10-day cruise with no schedule, no destination, and no commitment as to when/where it will end

Few of my sailing companions thought any of the above was a good time. I thought all the above was the essence of sailing.

[thomm225]

I'm a virtual pilot on multimillion dollar government flight simulators. (when time is available) It's a great escape. I do that solo as well many times flying over my intended sailing destinations.

When I first arrived back up here, I learned the area by flying around over the city and surrounding area.

You can cover a lot of ground with two 5,000 HP engines and two 8 blade props!

It's like turning on goggle earth and flying around except the simulator has 10 projectors creating the display instead of a single screen!

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by bailsout

And it sure makes impulse sailing simpler. Now I just should set my boat up for single-handling. That will help reduce the fright! Maybe roller redding? Lazy jacks? Self-tailing winches? Thank goodness for autopilot.
It's all good.

Yes, lazyjacks help. Self tailing winches might be good, but I've never used them. I still tack with both jib sheets in my hand, which is easier to do without self tailing. Mind you I steer from in front of the wheel too as that places me at all controls easily.

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by TacomaSailor

- leaving for a 10-day cruise with no schedule, no destination, and no commitment as to when/where it will end

That is the only way to do it, in my book. No schedules.

[meirriba]

Originally Posted by Saleen411

Please enlighten me. Many here LOVE to mention that they "single hand" Well good for you.

Why do people say this all the time? Is it a form of braggadocio or what?

From what little I know, many if not most competent sailors can single hand....so what?

To me, boating, cruising, sailing is something to be shared and enjoyed with friends, family and loved ones. Personally, life is too short to spend alone....esp sleeping alone. IMHO, sailing is OK fun....not super exciting...but is a COMPLETELY different experience with my gal.....makes all the difference in the world. So again...why all the bravado about single handling?

Not to be insulting...but I REAYLLY don't get this.

But your tone is denigatory anyway and you should rethink your attitude.
Sailing is a different thing to different people and while I do not singlehand myself for more than a day at a time (I like to have a decent sleep) I do understand others that do so for a variety of reasons:
Love of solitude
Personal achievement
Lack of crew
The list is as long as the number of singlehanders