Why the endless need for speed?

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by geoleo

My max ideal is 7.6kn when there are not rough seas-- my slow 'we will never get there" is 3.5 kn -that's when engine comes on. Motoring is 6.1 kn

You must have a boat with an about 32' waterline, cause those are my numbers

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Good question. I'm often amused by this theme is a sailing/cruising forum. Seriously, if speed is important then get a power boat. Or better yet, buy a plane ticket. Sailing has to be nearly the slowest way to travel the world. If speed is paramount, then you've picked the wrong vehicle.

That's not to say speed is never important. But this constant need-for-speed, in everything from boat knots to anchor retrieval speed, always leaves me amused.

Speed is relative, Mike, and of course sailing is slow compared to many means of moving about. But to realize some pleasure in doing it as well as possible given the constraints of non-powered ocean crossing (or subsets of) doesn't seem silly to me. It is a physical and mental challenge that I and others enjoy. You may be amused, but that doesn't make it wrong.

Thinking back a few years, I remember telling you about sailing a few races on a Rafiki, and that you were happy to learn that we had won one, a race for Colin Archer type boats in the SF bay. It was slow compared to my own boat, but very gratifying to successfully outsail other similar boats. Besides, the owner bought us a lot of beers afterward in his euphoria!

Anyhow, I don't understand why some folks, like the OP find trying to sail one's boat as fast as is feasible so repellent. They are welcome to sail however they want, and if poorly trimmed sails and a dirty bottom make them happy, more power to them... they'll spend less money on their boats!

Jim

[HopCar]

People like to go fast for the same reason you should eat desert first, life is short.
I'm sorry but someone has to post this link.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CUpwLhZh66A

[StuM]

Heading to Cairns next month in a light 30 footer (Farr 1/2 ton) to position it for the Coral Sea Rally back to POM.

It's probably going to be close hauled in 20+ knots and 3+ metre seas. with 1/2 that in short period wind waves all the way.

The faster we can go and the sooner we can get it over with the better

Strange, we've got plenty of crew for the rally coming back up, but not so many want to do the delivery down.

[Jim Cate]

Strange, we've got plenty of crew for the rally coming back up, but not so many want to do the delivery down.

Stu, surely you wouldn't want crew stupid enough to WANT to do that nasty passage!

Maybe if you offer a silver shilling for signing up?? Failing that, the press gang!

good luck with the recruitment

Jim

Jim

[Factor]

See below for an article I wrote relevant to our part of the world:

Over the years in general sailing, racing, cruising my own boats and working in the industry one of the most frequent comments I hear relates to performance, particularly sailing performance. Often you will hear people indicate that as a cruiser sailing performance is not relevant to them, they are cruisers after all and not racing boats with racing crews. Why should they care about sailing performance.

On the face of it that argument sounds feasible and even reasonable but like most cliched hackneyed phrases the reality is quite the opposite of the truism. Lets examine some fundamentals of cruising in our part of the world.

Sensible cruising is done without too large an eye on schedules, yes there are times when you just have to get somewhere but the whole idea of cruising is to take life at a simple level. Cruising under sail, fairly self evidently involves sailing. Lets face it, unless you are sailing your sailing boat, you should have bought a motor boat. Sailing boats are very inefficient motor boats, if their hull shape is good for sailing its not so good for motoring, that mast is annoying and adds drag and doesn’t let you get some places and the sails, well, they will pay for a lot of fuel.

The weather is important to a sailor and all jokes aside the Bureau of Meteorology does a pretty good job along with a range of other providers in forecasts for 5 to 7 days. There is little need to be significantly surprised, in a macro sense by the weather over a four to six day range. And that range will get you to a safe anchorage anywhere along the east cost of Australia.

Speaking of the Bureau of Meteorology, they have a range of excellent tools for sailors; one of the key sources of actual recorded data for this article was the Average Wind Velocity maps (Bureau Home > Climate > Climate Data Online > Average wind velocity) along with weather station historical records.

What my sailing experiences tell me and what the Bureau of Meteorology confirms is that the average wind speeds along the east coast of Australia are below 15 knots and mostly below 12 knots. Of course as cruisers we don’t leave safe harbour if its blowing stupid wind speeds, so by a combination of choice and nature the large majority of our sailing is done in winds. of less than 15 knots

What that means then is that if you own a boat that won’t effectively sail in 12 knots of wind or less then you own a motor sailer. What that means is that Performance IS important to cruisers, perhaps more so that racers, performance to a cruiser means actually sailing whilst cruising and not motoring with the all the costs and frequent trips to marinas that is inherent in motorboat travel. Performance under sail is a cruisers life, whereas performance under sail is a racers afternoon fun. If you need 20 knots to get going then you aren’t going to sail too much, at least in this part of the world. If you need 20 knots to get going you should have bought a motorboat.

PERFORMANCE IS IMPORTANT - not in outright speed terms, but certainly in cruising sailing VMG terms. So when you here someone say “Performance is not important - I’m a cruiser not a racer” you can probably be confident that they are justifying owning a slow sailing boat. And that is just not fun.

[Stakaman]

I sail like I feel at that time !! There are times I like to sail fast and others I like a smooth pleasent sail.
The past 3 years my boat is heavily loaded with staff to live onboard with family and my speed is less than I would like so I crew my self on others boats for several races .
Some times boosting your senses and mind isn't bad

[UNCIVILIZED]

There's always the reality that unless you're beating, or doing well into the double digits, speed means a smoother ride, & thus equals comfort. With less noise, relatively. As full sails, well pinned by the wind, make a lot less racket than do creaking booms, & slatting canvas. Ditto the stability from sliding along on a reach at 8kts, vs. being pushed around by every 3rd cross sea while doing 5kts.

Then there are the historic & current realities of speed. When commerce was conducted by sail, the fastest boats commanded the highest price for their goods, by arriving in port with them first. And the most weatherly, not to mention quickest, of them could get to places which others couldn't. Thus yielding them cargos which few others could get. A semi-priceless commodity. Which in point of fact, is still true, even if said "cargos" aren't always carried by sail. Though speed at sea does mean that less of your cargo will spoil enroute, thus again boosting your profits.

When it comes to cruising, if you can get to X quicker than your contemporaries who left port at the same time as you. You get the choice of the primo anchoring spots; AKA more comfortable, as well as more secure. Which was also true back in the day.
You also get to expore the new port sooner, & have the prime pick of foods & other goods. Gather invites, who's numbers are limited, to X, Y, & Z. If you're single, or even a couple, it means that you tend to get better choices for socializing, & networking. Parties, etc. Also, you go to the head of the line for maintenance which requires outside help, be it hauling out, or finding skilled local artisans.

I could go on. But at the end of the day, all of it adds up to how long you have to spend in port, & the quality of your time there, before a weather season either closes you in for the better part of a year, or kicks you out prior to it's arrival. Thus forcing you to leave before you got to see X, do Y, or fix Z on your boat. You did buy a boat to go & see places, people, & things, right? Otherwise build or buy a house there.

Besides, it's primal. Conscious or not. As to the strongest, & swiftest, go the spoils. This is universal in every language, & most every culture. So then, furtherance of your genetic lineage is better guaranteed: For this, as well as all of the above reasons.

So bottom line: Speed is literally sexy!

[Dockhead]

As others have said -- Speed is Fun!

And -- speed means being exposed less to weather risks on long passages.

But also --

A sailboat going fast points higher.

It's going more where you want it to do, and less just bobbing around.

You can cover greater distances in a given time period.

Of course "speed" is relative here. Even 10 knots is less than we can do on bicycle!

[conachair]

Why the need to judge how other people view the world so much,

Should we not rather relish the greater contentment of doing whatever makes most sense at any given moment in any situation without feeling the need to compare that against what someone else might think?

[UNCIVILIZED]

Originally Posted by conachair

Why the need to judge how other people view the world so much,

Should we not rather relish the greater contentment of doing whatever makes most sense at any given moment in any situation without feeling the need to compare that against what someone else might think?

Is this a general philosophical question for say Socrates? Or a comment on boat speed?

Why did the Wright brothers want to fly? And is the world a better place for it?

[conachair]

Originally Posted by UNCIVILIZED

Is this a general philosophical question for say Socrates? Or a comment on boat speed?

Why did the Wright brothers want to fly? And is the world a better place for it?

More a lesson from Eastern philosophy, live in the real world right now, not by what others judge to be the way you should behave in their illusory internaly created version of reality

The wright brothers probably thought it was the right thing to do there and then, world a "better" place? Another subjective unanswerable question.

Sometimes fast is good onboard, other times it really doesn't matter....

IMHO of course.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by conachair

. . .

Sometimes fast is good onboard, other times it really doesn't matter....

IMHO of course.

Sometimes slow is good too.

In fine weather under a high pressure dome.

When you're getting close to a landfall you don't really want to make. Like when you're experiencing Moitessier Syndrome.

Sometimes you don't actually want so much to get to where you're going.

But I would hate to not be able to go fast when I want to.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Good question. I'm often amused by this theme is a sailing/cruising forum. Seriously, if speed is important then get a power boat. Or better yet, buy a plane ticket. Sailing has to be nearly the slowest way to travel the world. If speed is paramount, then you've picked the wrong vehicle.

That's not to say speed is never important. But this constant need-for-speed, in everything from boat knots to anchor retrieval speed, always leaves me amused.

Someday your desire for all things slow will bite you in the a.... BIG TIME.

[boatman61]

For me speed = breakage.. more stress on rigs that are of dubious quality so slow and steady wins the race..
Weather and sea state do not bother me overmuch as I'm quite happy heaving to with some good books for a few days while it passes at its average 12kts while I drift at 1kt.. leave all the running to those with lesser understanding.. one owner could not understand how I could sleep while wind, waves and lightening raged.. he was sure we should be fighting the elements.. 😂
Thats for rich folk.