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Originally Posted by Atlantic42  I believe 7-9 knots AVERAGE would be more realistic and perhaps even a tad optimistic for the 440 in cruising mode. |
That sounds pretty good to me. We are at about 17,000 miles now, and the more we sail/motor/motorsail/paddle/push our "little" 380 while cruising, the more we average somewhere between 6.8 to 7.0 as a complete, overall average.
We have had "good" days with 48 hours at over eight knots and never touched the sheets or the autopilot, and "bad" days when we clawed into seas and currents at less than four knots for over 24 hours.
It seems to me that the 440 is so much faster than us that they would average at least 8 and closer to 9 over several years and thousands of miles. When I said I could not keep up with one, I'm not kidding. That 440 would smoke me without a second thought. A Manta 42 or Lagoon 410 can't easily shake me and sometimes they even get an "all day" good look at my transoms if I pull the hook and get a mile jump on them!
Anyway, as we all know, there are many angles from which to look at things. Another ratio that's interesting is how many days per year you'll spend on ocean crossings and open water work, as opposed to being on the hook and just living.
I don't know of anybody who cruises by sailing long passages for months and months on end each year. Sure, a boat needs to be rated and designed for offshore use, and have a reasonable seaworthiness to hopefully withstand whatever kicks up weatherwise on some of the two and three week legs that must be made to circumnavigate, etc.
BUT, in normal cruising routines, those days and even weeks of passages are significantly, spectacularly outnumbered by the months and cumulative time of years of living on the hook and in safe harbors along the way.
I would really love to see some real stats on the number of days that people are underway truly offshore versus anchored/moored and how many underway days are on longer than 72 hour passages (where weather really becomes a wild card).
I would bet that the numbers would be VERY illuminating as to the small percentage of passagemaking time, even for long legged circumnavigators. Much more time is spent living on the boat as a platform in calm harbors, etc.
Focusing on the 440 from that perspective, it's a fabulous choice and certainly performs more than well enough under sail, all while getting you to the next location, be it across a bay or an ocean.
All the best,
Buddy