Quote:
Originally Posted by Seawriter
Hello,
I am writing a story that involves sailing and I admit I know very little to nothing about it. My first question is to find a sailboat that could handle open water (ocean travel) with a main mast and backup outboard engine but that could be sailed by one person alone.
Does anyone have any links or comments to help me get started?
Thank you,
SW
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Yes, a friend has sailed from Plymouth UK to the
Caribbean in his Robert Ives Four-21, a 21 foot long
pocket cruiser that I located in Poole. The
shopping list included Hurley 22,
Jaguar 22 and a long list of similar boats but the spec was fin
keel and inboard
diesel up to £3000. The Ives was not on the list but it ticked all the boxes and the rest is
history. Note that several months were spent doing a
refit including an H frame,
solar panels, and
wind vane steering and the boat was given a good shakedown before the big trip. The
route was Isles-of-Scilly then a long run across the Bay of Biscay (during this run the boats all time daily best of 114nm was achieved) In northern
Spain jellyfish destroyed the impeller of the Petter Mini-6 seawater
pump. More jellyfish trouble caused an
engine fire (exhaust hose burnt through, silencer melted and
head gasket blown) and he had to put into Sines,
Portugal for
repairs. Upgrades to the filters were done and an engine overheat
alarm fitted. After this it was down to the Canary Islands. Main problem now was that the sea was over twenty five degrees C which can cause hurricanes. Once the sea temperature fell to 24 it was off to the
Cape Verde Islands for a few days at Mindelo. Two knockdowns occurred during the crossing of the Atlantic which took about 30 days. The problem is that with a boat that small the crossing takes longer than what they can predict with a long range
weather forecast, nevertheless the website "Magic Seaweed" can be extremely useful. The Ives is built like the proverbial brick outhouse and the fin
keel protects the
rudder and
propeller from damage. Spade hung rudders and props on P brackets might be OK for
racing but if they get bent and jammed in mid ocean you can lose the boat (note that sunfish weigh about one ton). The knockdowns caused some
rigging damage but nothing major. In the
Caribbean the chief problem is keeping the
beer cold as the Peltier diode coolbox that was OK in temperate climes just can't hack it any more so one either has to buy ice or pay £s£s£s for a tropically rated cooler. The other problem was worn
seals in the
Jabsco seawater
pump (the one that has got the wrong number that doesn't exist according to ****** Marines computer - duh you just can't get the right staff!) Viton rubber
seals with
stainless steel garter springs were sent out from
England (many thanks to Simply Bearings for being so efficient) so the pump should now be OK for a good few more years as wearing out all five might take a lifetime! The Ives is beamy and allegedly has more room inside than a Contessa 26 which is a very capable boat nevertheless. Drawbacks of the Mini-6
diesel are
head gasket problems as it is a mixed-metal engine but the gaskets are not very expensive and with practice the job can be done in an hour. The
Yanmar 1GM10 is taller than the Petter so isn't ideal however the Farrymann "Yellow River Star" would be absolutely perfect if one has the funds. One does of course need
GPS and an
Iridium phone on such a trip. Another extremely useful item is NASA
Marine AIS. This cost less than a
radar detector and does a better job. It also uses very little
power so one can sleep soundly. As to the
water situation a great solution is to use lots of 2 litre lemonade bottles as if the boats tank gets contaminated you are still OK and the empties might come in handy as buoyancy. Good Luck!
By the way
outboard motors are not very good in the ocean as the
propeller can keep coming out of the water. The
fuel efficiency is also rather poor.