Circumnavigation

[laika]

Originally Posted by Hudson Force

Several people have mentioned that the 50' length seemed to be a burden for a single person. Even if the expense was not an issue and the rigging was designed for ease of single handling, the cause for such a size would be unclear to me. I know single and couple members here that are pleased have such size vessels, but I can't see the need.

A single person can find a boat at 36' to 40' capable of stowing gear & having tankage for long distance cruising. The same smaller vessel could easily have all the needed comforts and safety.

I think that it is very common for people who have a background of living in houses to overestimate the size of vessel that they would tolerate or require. You could have more in strength and quality if you're not buying an extra dozen feet of boat length!

+1

I'm a relative youngen, but there was a time when even a 27' boat could be "designed squarely for a couple to sail the world's oceans"

Maybe I'll get something bigger when little rugrats start scampering about the decks.

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by The Smokester

My experience: I bought a 16 year old, barely used "blue water" boat. It is prestine. To modernize it as a circumnavigator I have installed autopilots and windvanes for self steering, new sails, new rigging, new electronics, AIS transponder, new comms, EPERB, liferaft, dinghy, refrigerator, solar, LED lighting, and modernized the engine propulsion. These changes alone are well north of $50k. If you find such a ready boat, or a subset thereof, for $50k, buy it for the parts alone.

In other words, I believe that your $50k budget for a circum-ready boat is way low.

Also, I will echo some of the comments for 50' being big for single handing. If all goes well it will be a dream. However, when things are wrong it will be a nightmare. If you arrive late in the day to a harbor all the 40'+ slips will be taken...You will anchor out a lot. The sails will be heavy or even heavier depending on the sail plan. Costs seem to go up surprisingly with size beyond a scaling based on simple common sense. The forces go as size^2 so winches get larger and slower and the systems to support them more massive. When $h??!! happens there is a lot more energy on the loose.

So I advise looking closer to 40 ft, and planning on a bigger budget.

These are excellent comments.

A question you should seriously consider is "What do I need 50 ft for?" Singlehanding you really don't need all that space. Certainly not for stowage. One of the pleasures of long range crusing is getting rid of all the cr*p you 've accumulated during a lifetime.

Back to basics so to speak.

Don't discount the complexities of running a bigger boat. Yes you'll have electric winches etc, but as an example, consider what 40 meters of 1- 1 1/2" inch docking lines weigh (you'll be lugging this around sometimes, not to mention the sheer unhandiness of coiling and dragging (not carrying ) it.