Boat Size For Single Handle Sailing

[Lihuedooley77]

Selecting a sailing vessel , for someone brand new to sailing.

A WAG ( Wild Arse Guess ) might not be a good plan, and a possible waste of your treasure trove of gold and green. Especially, an old used boat, that generally is going to be a burden of labor and loot, big time.

There are many super great ideas on this forum, but also, the boat needs to fit you and you need to fit the boat. Can you handle the jib sheet winches, and lines , forward, or aft of the helm. What works for you ? .

Is there enough head room and leg room, down below, are the halyards and other lines easily accessible near the helm. How about an easy and efficient main sail reefing system from the cockpit. Thick comfortable berths, stowage areas, ease of getting into the engine room ( compartment ), etc.

Another suggestion.....and question. Is your training program with ASA associated with a sailing club. Are their instructors U.S.C.G Licensed, with real experience ?. THIS IS GOOD ! Why ? You will learn SEAMANSHIP .

Also, Many sailing clubs have many different makes and types of boats, and by sailing on these different vessels , especially for weekends or more, you will come to find what you like, that feels good to you, as well as what you do not like.

Another great fun learning and good time sailing adventure. The club will have bare boat charter sailing trips in the caribbean * BVI is a good start ", Tahiti, Australia, etc. You just share the cost with other club members, and your sailing dreams will be coming true. No huge outlay of cash.

We can list our favorite boats, but you absolutely need to dedicate yourself to your training and seamanship and coastal navigation classes.

And then get checked out and sail , and I mean SAIL as many different types of vessels that you think are what you are looking for.

I know, you are thinking small, because you are going to single hand. Well, here is another thought. You join this sailing club, sail their boats, go on their weekend party passages to other harbors, and meet new people. No large outlay of dabloons .

Now, the heavens open up, and you hook up with a great and wonderful partner, or buddies, or take family out , now you may need a larger than very small vessel.

If you do, the above, you will have fun, learn and get more experience, and be able to make a productive and informed decision as to what you NEED in a sailing vessel.

Yep, find that boat that is good and fits you .

One last thing, a lost art today, be able to sail that vessel, no matter the length, in and out of the docks, under sail. Why, because , engines, batteries, water pumps, fuel contamination, shreaded alternator belts, bent props, etc, will blindside you.

Same for picking up moorings, and anchoring.

We all began with those same dreams that you are filled with . And, now, just by reading the postings here, you can see how these skippers progressed from near zero knowledge, to sailing the world.

So can you !!!.

[Group9]

I singlehanded my Catalina 42 back from Georgetown, Bahamas to Orange Beach, AL one time, and it was not that much fun.

And, it was set up for single handing. I just don't like single handing, in any boat, on a passage.

[Coginchaug]

I ahve found that after 45 years and at age78, I can still comfortably singlehandedly sail, anchor, and dock my Gulfstar 41 center cockpit. Of course, it is no "greyhound of the seas", but neither am I. I have both a roller furling jib and a roller reefing main (yes, one of those) with full battens. Everything is accessable from the helm, including the sheet winches. The boat is stable, has nice wide decks and a big manual anchor windlass (45 lb CQR with 150' of 3/8 chain and 200' of 5/8" nylon rode). The rig is low aspect and forgiving in a blow. The center cockpit gives excellent visibility and, with a large dodger, is dry except in extreme conditions (which I now try to avoid). Although, because of its shallow draft (5+ feet) and wide spreaders, it's not particularly close winded and, increasingly as I get older, is a pretty good fake motorsailer. Frankly, it is easier to singlehand than my previous C&C 30.

[MarAzul]

Originally Posted by BrownBear

I am as new as they come to sailing with my ASA classes starting at 101 - 108 in November. I have a budget of 80K for a boat. I want something comfortable as I plan on living on it, but manageable for single handle sailing. Is there a certain manufacturer or features that I should look for in a boat? How big is too big, and how small is too small to be comfortable on passages? I am searching now, as I figured this gives me about a year to do my homework and settle on what I want.

Well, it depends on you and the specific boat, not really the size. I singlehand the boat described in the link below. Now in my 80's, but I designed the boat for just that purpose. The MarAzul and Skipper will be heading for Baja near the end of September, taking our time down the California coast from Oregon.

I don't really day sail all that much, usually cruising, and I set the boat up for the coming voyage prior to leaving port. This is to minimize the effort I need to expend at sea. It has been working for me many years now with several boats.

https://sites.google.com/site/marazulles/home

[Hunterdog]

I live on my 50’ beneteau sense. It’s big. Broken lots of stuff. $$$.
But a got a super good deal on it in turkey. So, after I sail a while on it, it’ll make me my money back.

I’m an experienced sailor, and good at fixing most stuff. So, this is ok for me.
And these days, the weather predictions are so good, you know to the hour what’s going to happen days from now. So, you won’t get caught with the big sail up at the wrong moment.

But, I had a 41’ before, and that was plenty.

In the water
Duane
@grateful_travel. See me on Instagram...

[john manning]

My initial response to this question was similar to many others here. Its the preparation and setup of a yacht that makes it a single hander not the size.

I also think the best alternative in case of a breakdown is to do the maintenance before things break. I have sailed for over 9 months around the south west pacific (including New Zealand) without any equipment failure because of good preparation.

Then I read the response from Adelie which quoted Lynn and Larry Pardey. I doubt you will find better advice anywhere. So listen to them not me.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by Don C L

Just another thing to throw in the mix. The Maltese Falcon can be singlehanded I believe,
https://www.yachtcharterfleet.com/lu...ese-falcon.htm
but reliance on mechanical advantages in powered winches and windlasses, and roller furling, as reliable as they may be, put you at the mercy of these things too. If the boat is so big that you must rely on multiple mechanical or motorized advantages, it may too big to singlehand. Simpler things are generally safer. On top of that, the less you have to do, or get out of the cockpit for, makes things safer. So there will be a balance of trade-offs. I confess I hate going up to change headsails if its windy, but on the other hand since I am used to it, and it is a simple thing to do, I can deal with the higher level of insecurity. However, if a furler jams, which, granted, is rare in modern furlers, it can be a much bigger problem. So some may prefer furlers, others may not.
Given that, something like a Nonsuch 30, theoretically, might be the perfect choice. Small enough to haul up the anchor rode by hand if needed, and fairly easy to rig the halyard and reefing lines back to cockpit (though you do still have to go forward to tie off the reef lines)... no jib (either furled or hank on, to deal with) and I'd probably switch to tiller. Anyway, just a thought

So could the Club Med during one of the OSTARS, but that didn't make it a good idea for anything but a one-off passage.

[Kaimana]

Originally Posted by BrownBear

I am as new as they come to sailing with my ASA classes starting at 101 - 108 in November. I have a budget of 80K for a boat. ...........

I'd get a Searunner 37, or a Searunner 40, that was professionally built, and has passed a survey by a GOOD multihull surveyor. You know, the guy you don't want to survey your boat if you're selling it, but you do want to survey any boat you're thinking about buying.

They're unsinkable, which is good. I know of one that dragged onto the reef, made a hole big enough for the engine to fall out of, then sailed 60 miles with waist-deep water inside (rather slowly, of course) to the nearest harbor to haul out and do repairs.

The explanation of the disaster had nothing to do with the boat, its design, or the fact that it was a trimaran; the idiots who were sailing her didn't have a clue as to how to anchor on coral, and put down a SINKING nylon anchor line. Of course it caught on the coral as the boat swung, chafed through in the night, and put the boat on the reef. Completely avoidable.

They're FAST, which is good. After my first passage, I found out there is an ongoing, fairly friendly competition amongst sailors in any anchorage comparing their best day's runs during the passage there. They asked me The Question, and I said "221", meaning 221 miles in a day, or a little over 9 knots. It got quiet.

Then I thought a moment, and said: "Sorry, I got that number wrong; that was my daily average; my best day was 284 miles", or a little under 12 knots. The cockpit got really quiet for a moment. This was on a home-built boat with what the designer called the "short cruising rig".

All those miles were done on the self-steering that Jim Brown designed for the boat; this self-steering is better than anything I've ever seen in the monohull world except for an autopilot. Mine would steer dead downwind when the telltales were hanging straight down; and when steering in 45-55 knots, surfing in 25-35 foot swells (another story on this forum), she avoided broaches better than the human helmsman (me).

It's big enough to have comfortable bunks, good-sized galley, real bathroom with toilet and shower, and enough carrying capacity to do long cruises without having to stop every two weeks and re-stock.

I sailed mine everywhere singlehanded, and on two 3,000-mile passages, and if properly laid out (which is easy), they're easy to single-hand.

Some of the answers here recommend a 26-28 foot boat, which is great if you're wanting to spend six months or so learning how to sail in protected bays and sounds. But. The only people who take 28-footers to sea are poor people who can't afford bigger boats; they don't do it because 28-footers are fun or safe to take to sea.

The bigger boat will not be as tiring to sail. The bigger boat can outrun a hurricane a lot better, if one's headed your way. The bigger boat will get you upwind faster, when you have to beat, so you don't spend any more time doing that than absolutely necessary. The bigger boat will have room, and carrying capacity, for spares for everything, spare sails, a good medical kit, and lots more. And sailing her won't exhaust you, the way sailing a small boat does.

This is because she has less motion when underway, and when beating into a chop or swell. She won't throw you around the way the smaller boats will. This is extremely tiring, and unless you've sailed a 25-footer and a 37-footer in the same conditions (I have), you may be unaware of this difference-de-la-difference.

Having said all this, be careful! You'll find rough, poorly-built 37 's in the $20,000 range, with no pulpits, lifelines, minimal equipment, and no liferaft. You'll find professionally-built, nicely-finished and painted, fully-equipped 37's, with lifelines, liferaft, SSB radio, nice diesel engine, finely-finished interiors, cushions, navigation electronics, etc, in the $60,000 range. Shop carefully!

Last word: The party is always held on the boat in the anchorage with the most shaded area, not necessarily the biggest boat! I had a lot of parties land on my boat because of this, even when there were 50-footers in the anchorage. Here:

And here:

So if you get a SeaRunner, get ready to party! JMHO.

With Warm Aloha, Tim

[Icarus]

Take into consideration your own body size, I am 6'3" and 180lb, I find it really annoying trying to move in restricted places like on a 32 something boat.
The decks are narrow, bunks are too short, headroom is a problem, on a beam of under 11' space down below is getting tight.
My last yacht was a light displacement 46ft aft cockpit sloop...easy and safe to move about, no drama changing head sails ( no furler ) or reefing the mainsail, I mounted a partial safety rail at the mast.
My present yacht is a 40 ft ketch and has a 13'6" beam, 6'7 head room, great deck space so handling the boat is a lot easier then doing the same on a small boat.
It came with a jib furler which in some respect makes things easier, however hanked on sails are foolproof and a torn jib is easely replaced.
I guess every sailor has his own priorities.

[scareygary]

I am not a LONG distance cruiser, but have lots of coastal miles on 30'ers, going from S. Oregon into Canada. For one person, I can't imagine you wouldn't have ample room on a good 30 footer. I am a sucker for the old, tested S and S. designs, frankly. I've had both Yankee 30s and a Tartan 30, either of which could take you anywhere safely. Not slow. I did many races (one in a 40 knot gale) and beat many 32-36' ers boat for boat. There are 30 footers that should never leave protected waters, certainly, but there's a lot more to this than SIZE. One fact is that smaller boats have less expensive gear, sails, moorage, etc. If you want to USE the boat, stay smaller. If you want to spend money on it, go bigger! My humble opinion. That'll be 2 cents, please....

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Leighpilot

Please don’t buy a boat until you have at least a few years sailing experience. Apart from not knowing what you need , you don’t know what you like and that’s important too. A boat might be quite capable of doing what you need but might be too slow, too fast , or just not suit your tastes. Maybe you prefer multihulls, maybe monohulls, maybe shallow draft for exploring , maybe deep draft for ocean crossing , maybe modern lines, maybe more traditional styling. You won’t know that for quite a while. So please don’t rush into buying a boat for a while. Odds on it’ll be the wrong boat for you.

The above is probably the best answer to the right size boat for a single hander with zero experience.

NO BOAT unless it's a small 12'-16' sailboat you can use to learn on in protected waters.

Also, if you plan to cruise with little experience, here are some more good points to think about.

https://www.atomvoyages.com/planning...ing-q-a-a.html

[NormanMartin]

Wow. A lot of responses in a short time. Good topics, BrownBear

A couple references. Annie Dike's blog, havewindwilltravel.com and her books. She has gone from zero to boat show speaker in short order. A couple of YouTube chennels are starters, Wind Hippie Sailing and How To Sail Oceans. Of course there arethousands of sailing channels and books.

I have been an ASA instructor since 1985 and I have participated in this conversation in hundreds if not thousands of cruising course cockpits. Some go over the horizon, some don't. A few drop out. Have fun. As for the question: if I were a single guy, what kind of home should I have? There is no answer.

[Erik de Jong]

Originally Posted by martin.purser

The normal criteria to consider for single handing is sail size. For decades its been the normal criteria that a sail of no more than 300sq ft is the max size a single hander can comfortably handle alone.

Bagheera has a jib of 900sqft and a main of 700sqft, the first few years I had the jib as a hank-on. These sail sizes never bother me when single handing and I'm not a particularly big or strong guy. Since a few years I installed a furler for the jib, that does make it easier.

With proper furlers and proper winches the sail size does not really matter anymore.

[Sailor_Jeff]

I'm certain many will disagree with me, but this is true. The most important thing is to just get a boat and go. Buy a used older boat and put the excess money in the bank and use it for repairs and operating expenses.

There is no perfect boat but the main problem is there are no perfect sailors. Your abilities and wants are different than every other sailor, so their advice is of limited value. Throw in age and there is a new problem. And every day you delay you are another day older means health care is slightly more of a concern.

You will learn as you go. The hunter 28.5 is one of the toughest boats ever made and has crossed the pacific to Hawaii many times. As have even smaller boats. Shorter the boat the stronger hull is but the more pitchy it is. Longer boats are a little smoother but have a greater risk of structural damage in storms.

Many male sailors are obsessed with length. It's been said that some sailors have boat length envy and think if they have a longEr boat people won't know they have other short comings. I don't know about that.

Single person Sailors who actually sail, seem to like 22 to 30 and they are usually happy. 2 people 30 to 34 and more than 4 crew members means 40 and up otherwise it's just too crowded. Short boats are just stronger, easier, cheeper, and don't get in the way of having a good time. If your wanting to impress your friends and distract them for seeing that you have "short comings" then get a long boat and keep it in the harbor. No need to actually sail it.

For every foot over 28 foot add about a thousand dollars in costs per year (either in cash or work while missing out on actually seeing the world). If the boat is above 40 foot add 2 thousand dollars in costs for every foot above 30 foot each year on crossings. And from marine banks who monitor such things, Above 50 foot add 8 thousand dollars per foot above the 40 foot per year to just operate it. Either in cash or in a combination of cash and labor. Don't know why but it seems true. Unless your operating a scow. Why bother ever leaving shore if you are so burdened with work you don't enjoy the places you go?

Originally Posted by BrownBear

I am as new as they come to sailing with my ASA classes starting at 101 - 108 in November. I have a budget of 80K for a boat. I want something comfortable as I plan on living on it, but manageable for single handle sailing. Is there a certain manufacturer or features that I should look for in a boat? How big is too big, and how small is too small to be comfortable on passages? I am searching now, as I figured this gives me about a year to do my homework and settle on what I want.

[EmeraldCoastSailor]

Biggest issue IMHO is how often will you be in a slip? If often then I'd not go bigger than 36'. If you won't be daysailing returning to a slip often and you are staying out for weeks on end, then I'd go 38' or 40'.

I am very happy with my 35' production Beneteau in terms of cost (purchase and maintenance) and ease of single handing. Given your budget and that it is your first boat, I'd get the youngest production boat available. You can always upgrade once you learn your habits, enhance your skills, etc.