Cruising on $500 per Month . . .

[callmecrazy]

I guess I'm abnormal because, the only thing I find hard to grasp is white middle class america

[pressuredrop]

just finished reading Hal Roths' "Two on a Big Ocean" (his story of the pacific loop)
from the appendix:

"I have talked enough, if you have the urge to go you will in spite of what i say. If your heart isnt in the sea you will never leave the saftey of the land, a pity perhaps, but not many people have the fire of adventure in their bones. But if you want to go do not wait until everything is perfect or you will never get away. most adventuring is done on a show string. perhaps thats part of the fun, if you have all the money you need, you lose the adventure, says my friend Bobby Uriburu"

i have greatly repriortized....

[joey69]

Exactly why I am trying to find a cheap boat and goooooo.

[w1651]

Originally Posted by joey69

Exactly why I am trying to find a cheap boat and goooooo.

I'll give you a big ditto on that.

[goprisko]

Earlier, I used the Southern Cross 31 as our example boat. There are several reasons for this. Most important to the current post is her cutter rig. In boats of the size discussed here, 28-34 ft, there is no justification for the complexity of the yawl or ketch rig, nor for their reduced performance. I will not discuss them.

I have over 20 years experience with the Cutter rig. It has carried me across the Pacific, up and down the island chain, through the Bahamas, up and down the Great Lakes, in short everywhere I ever wanted to go. It has proven to be reliable, and repairable.

The only other rig I'd consider for a cruising boat would be a Cat Schooner, with Chinese Lug sails or Fully Battened radial headed sails. The Cat Schooner is the favorite of Annie Hill and Tom Colvin. It is a free standing rig with no standing rigging whatever.

I'd welcome a post on the Cat Schooner from a person with personal experience with it.

For now, we will discuss the cutter rig.

I suggest that you visit the SC 31 website and familiarize yourself with this rig. The summer maximum sail area is 620 sq ft, and is divided across three sails:
Full 5 oz Main 230 sq ft
110% 6 oz #1 Staysail 185 sq ft
#1 4 oz Yankee 200 sq ft
TOTAL 620 sq ft


The Winter rig is:
8 oz Main with single reef 200 sq ft
90% 8oz #2 Staysail 144 sq ft
7oz #2 yankee 166 sq ft
TOTAL 540 sq ft.

Why a winter rig?..... Any boat benefits from a winter rig because winds are generally stronger in winter. Stronger winds call for sails with less draft, or camber, and for heavier weight sail cloth.

The cutter rig points nearly as well as a sloop, with the advantage that the sailplan is divided across three sails, as shown above. On the SC 31 no sail is larger than 230 sq ft, and the fore triangle is divided across the staysail and the yankee, giving headsails of managable size, even for a petit woman.

Given the onset of a sudden squall, the cutter rig comes into its own. Sail area can be quickly reduced by handing the yankee. Should a gale be encountered the main can be reefed twice and the yankee handed.

Gale conditions:

Main, two reefs 135 sq ft
#2 Staysail 144 sq ft.

TOTAL 280 sq ft.

The boat will point well with this reduced area, will be balanced and will sail upright in winds of ~ 35 knots.

Storm conditions:
Main 3 reefs 100 sq ft
#3 staysail 95 sq ft

TOTAL 195 sq ft

Under this rig the boat will point reasonably, given the sea state, will be balanced and will sail upright in winds of ~ 50 knots.

In winds of 5 - 10 knots, and down wind, the SC 31 will benefit from a high clewed reacher sheeted to the same place as the yankee, and poled out when broad reaching to running. The reacher should be made of 1.8 oz nylon, may be of tri-radial construction, though I have had good service from crosscut reachers too. Being of nylon, the sail stuffs into a small sack, and is easily handled.

High clewed nylon reacher.
1.8 oz nylon 350 sq ft

Given a sail inventory as follows:

230 sq ft Summer Main 5 oz dacron
230 sq ft Winter Main 8 oz dacron
#1 Yankee 200 sqft 4 oz dacron
#2 Yankee 166 sq ft 7 oz dacron
#1 Staysail 185 sq ft 6 oz dacron
#2 Staysail 144 sq ft 8 oz dacron
#3 Staysail 95 sq ft 8 oz dacron
Reacher 350 sq ft 1.8 oz nylon

a micro-budget cruiser has everything he needs to sail his boat where he wants to go, under wind regimes from 5 - 55 knots.

How is this managed....................

Getting underway from anchor or mooring........

Short stay the anchor or prepare the mooring for slipping
Set the desired course into the wind vane or autopilot
Set main with 3 reefs and staysail. If conditions are windy, set only the staysail.
Short tack up to the anchor pulling chain as you go, or use the windlass to pull in the chain.
When aweigh, backwind the staysail to fall off on the desired bearing, then pull in the remaining cable until the anchor is in the roller.

Once you have suficient sea room, set the main, or shake out the reefs in the main, and set the yankee or reacher as desired.

Sailing up to anchor or mooring...........

Hand the yankee or reacher.
Reef the main as necessary to slow the boat to 3 knots or so...
Unlash the anchor and prepare for dropping, or rig boathook and bridle for mooring.
Tack through the anchorage so as to be able to reach across to the desired spot.
Turn the boat directly into the wind and coast up to the desired spot.
Drop the anchor or fish the mooring.
Once secured, drop the staysail, then the main.

A variant of the above may be used to sail into a slip.

INDY

[goprisko]

Early on I specified that the micro-budget cruiser must choose an appropriate
boat. I gave several examples of suitable boats that are readily available.

If you forgot, or never read that info, go back to pages 28-36 and look for it.

In summary, I proposed the following:
Southern Cross 31
Oday 34
NorthEaster 32
Pearson Vanguard

These boats are available in good condition for less than $ 20,000 USD.

These boats are less than 12 meters long. Under COLREGS, navigation lights for these boats fall into the 1 mile or 2 mile category.

What is a 1 mile light..... it has the power of one candle, that's right one candle. This strength is required for the red/green sidelights. It is easily met by an oil lamp of modest size, by a 5 watt incandescent bulb, and by an LED consuming 0.5 watt.

A 2 mile light has the power of 4 candles This strength is easily met by a medium sized oil lamp, by a 10 watt incandescent bulb, and by an LED consuming 1 watt.

These figures are from the USCG Navigation Rules.

See the attached photo for location and nomenclature of navigation lights.

Today, LED replacement bulbs in these power ranges are available for less than $20 each. They last 50,000 hours, or about 40 years of nightly use, every night. If a tricolor masthead light is used, one 1 watt LED bulb is all that is necessary, and 12 hours of use amounts to 12 watt hours or 1 amp-hr. This is easily met by a very small solar panel of say 5 watts.

Today, solar powered garden lights are available with sufficient power to qualify as an anchor light. They come complete with battery, solar panel, LED lamp, and photo diode to automatically turn them on at sunset and off at sunrise. Such lamps can be found in Home Depot for less than $30. Just hang it from the jib stay, and forget it.

Given the presence of LEDs, there is no longer reason to install oil lamps. Two or at most four 3 watt LED PAR-24 lamps give excellent light for reading, and lighting the cabin in a boat of this size. Were all the lamps used a total of 6 hours nightly, they would consume 24 watt-hours or 2 amp-hours, well within the capability of a 10 watt solar panel.

So, when refitting your boat for micro-budget cruising, give thoght to using LED navigation lamps, and cabin lamps. Power them with a Group 27 deep cycle battery, and recharge the battery with a 60 watt PV panel mounted on the forehatch. This panel will also run a 45 qt Engle Fridge, consuming 2.5 amps 40% of the time, or 25 amp-hr per day, eliminating the need for ice.

INDY

[joey69]

You can get LED lights now that are solar powered.I have some that I use camping and they will run all night.They could easily be adapted for use on a boat.

[SuddenVibe]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Thats 13 years ago, Eric... and thats probably the book publishing date so the actual meetings may have been 2 years before... 15 years ago.

But I know what you mean

HEAR ME????????????????????

This Dorado was talking to me!!!!!!!!!

Becalmed for a week off the coast of India we were HARASSED for 3 days by these 3 Doarado. They would look at all 57,000 fishing lines I had out and just snigger! the boat was a friggin lure making factory! I tried everything.

Lmao

San Diego, CA

[Blue Crab]

15 years ago. About the time this thread began?

It's been pedantic many times but good reading nonetheless.

[goprisko]

Originally Posted by tgzzzz

15 years ago. About the time this thread began?

It's been pedantic many times but good reading nonetheless.

How about a para or two regarding cruising the Outer Banks?

I for one am interested in this historic area.

So.....

Share a little !!

INDY

[Hannah on 'Rita T']

Only beach cats can cruise the outerbanks, depths of 1 and 2 feet in places.

[Brent Swain]

I was just talking to a friend who works for a ship swindlery. He said "Man do people ever get suckered into buying a lot of usless marine junk, so much so that the majority of their cruising dreams are eventually lost in piles of "Must Have " usleless marine junk, and they never do make it out cruising. " Another friend bought a beatutiful Alberg 35 ,loaded with every toy ever invented. The owner kept buying and dreaming until health problems killed his lifelong dream, before he ever left the dock. Sad, but all too common story .
Start cruising with what you have . As you gain enough experience to know what you really need, then you can add the toys, as needed and as affordable , while cruising.
When northern boats get to San Diego , on their first offshore passage , they have been made a little nervouse by the Oregon coast. The ship swindlers there see them coming and are super nice to them, while coning them out of their cruising funds. When they get to Mexico they ask themselves 'Where did all my money go, and what am I doing with all this junk?"
A $100 GPS and a $100 depth sounder, and a cheap,$30 shortwave receiver, are all the electronics you need, far more than we ever dreamed of in the 70s

[atoll]

brent there is a new breed out there,with disposable income,people like you and i are now seen as dinosaurs,cluttering up the place,with fewer and fewer free anchourages left the era of the "check book" sailor has arrived.
a lot doing a planned for 21-36-48 month circumnavigation as one more box to tick off.

though the indian ocean is still wide open,the last frontier,where angels fear to tread

[boatman61]

Brent, Atoll.... so true... one of my best seagoing mate's has a Jungert 17metre that has the works... press button selftail winches, triple headsails, press button drop keel, jaccuzi, washer/dryer, 3 staterooms, etc, etc.... standing behind the wheel was like the bridgedeck of the Starship Enterprise.... 2 harley Davidsons in the garage in the stern.... hard to believe he competed for Germany in the Olympics in the 70's....
But in spite of that... he's still a damn nice guy...

[w1651]

Originally Posted by Brent Swain

I was just talking to a friend who works for a ship swindlery. He said "Man do people ever get suckered into buying a lot of usless marine junk, so much so that the majority of their cruising dreams are eventually lost in piles of "Must Have " usleless marine junk, and they never do make it out cruising. " Another friend bought a beatutiful Alberg 35 ,loaded with every toy ever invented. The owner kept buying and dreaming until health problems killed his lifelong dream, before he ever left the dock. Sad, but all too common story .
Start cruising with what you have . As you gain enough experience to know what you really need, then you can add the toys, as needed and as affordable , while cruising.
When northern boats get to San Diego , on their first offshore passage , they have been made a little nervouse by the Oregon coast. The ship swindlers there see them coming and are super nice to them, while coning them out of their cruising funds. When they get to Mexico they ask themselves 'Where did all my money go, and what am I doing with all this junk?"
A $100 GPS and a $100 depth sounder, and a cheap,$30 shortwave receiver, are all the electronics you need, far more than we ever dreamed of in the 70s

And here I am wondering where to buy sheets and halyards for the 33 I just looked at yesterday.
I was thinking all I need is a good chart, a plastic sextant, a VHF radio, and a good set of sails.
I feel dirty. And not the kind that washes off either.