Quote:
Originally Posted by Wotname
Yes it is possible for your Hunter to do it and the best way is from west to east in the southern summer staying off-shore in the southern summer; however from the scant information available, it wold be hard for any of us to comment on whether you (yourself) can do it or not. No disrespect but this is unknowable without knowing more about you although your question indicates a certain lack of experience so this needs to be factored into any advice.
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I have a Hunter.
I love my Hunter.
I am also a new enough of a sailor to recognize the need for the combination of
boat and skills.
IMO the Hunters I am familiar with are not designed for the worst that
blue water can bring. However, Cape Horn can provide the worst that
blue water can bring.
To me this is a potentially very dangerous situation. NO, critics -- SIT DOWN and clamp your hands over your mouths!!! -- I haven't been there. And no matter how good the sailor was I would not do it as crew *on a Hunter.* Even with the best
weather window in the world.
Because I know that at least smaller Hunters (and 33' is small, for a Hunter, for this purpose), unless expertly managed, can magnify the problems that
wind and rough seas can bring, and I haven't been in anything resembling the worst that Cape Horn can offer.
I think sailing around the world is an admirable dream, but am firmly opposed to doing it dangerously.
And by "dangerously," I mean "more dangerously than it needs to be." One of the things that would make it more dangerous than it needs to be would be having the wrong boat. It's going to be dangerous anyway -- isn't that part of the appeal, matching wits against so many real problems?
I suppose it is *possible* to make any decent-sized boat up to the task, but you still have a fin
keel and an exposed
rudder.
My boat is great for what I do, a happy compromise between
live-aboard comfort and ability to leave the
dock with the expectation that I will return alive.
But when the you-know-what hits the fan, you want a boat that can cooperate with your efforts -- not fight you.
I'm not going to opine on "what's the right boat" (and I will cheerfully ignore any aggressive or hostile responses to this post) -- but I'm right about this -- a Hunter isn't the boat for this trip for the great majority of sailors. And PLEASE -- read the story about the boat that went down on the rocks at Kinsale, in conditions that weren't nearly as bad as what one might encounter rounding either
Africa or
South America (just for starters).
Engine failure was an important part of that
accident and that had to be a hair-raising
rescue for those young students.