Next step?

[Jim Cate]

bareboat chartering is the closest thing a person with cruising intentions is going to get

Frankly, I don't think BBC is very good at simulating the real nuts and bolts of cruising on one's own boat. Charters are usually in the nicest of places, all the difficult stuff about cruising is done for you and most charterers seem to spend lots of time in tiki bars and shoreside restaurants, all whilst tied to a mooring. Most of the difficult decisions are made by management, night sailing is forbidden, anchoring discourage (in some venues and for various reasons), provisioning is done for you, blocked toilets are cleared by staff. The boats are minimally equipped, the sails are often very basic and in bad shape so evaluating the sailing performance of a design is difficult if that is the purpose of the charter.

A charter could be a pleasant vacation but IMO is a very expensive way to get very little useful experience. YMMV!

Jim

[LittleWing77]

Originally Posted by Lucky Luke 1

I'd like to thank everyone for their contribution to this thread. Its amazing how much a little encouragement can help and tips and tricks are worth their weight in gold.

For any new to sailing people who read this just be aware you can make it happen.

285 Nautical miles. We started at Beauty Point Tas at 9:20 AM on the 27th and finished at Constitution dock in Hobart at 9ish PM on the 29th. What a roller coaster ride! Lots of things broke including a ripped jib rounding Tasman Island along with a jammed furler.

Being onboard a 38ft washing machine surrounded by sharks along with 7 other people and living life in 4 hr on and off shifts takes some describing, as does the smell, but I did see lots of Dolphins.. Ocean racers are certainly a breed apart.

Luke!

So glad you got a solid taste of it! It's fun, isn't it? Exhilirating, incomparable and nothing like ordinary life as we know it!

I was following the race, as I discovered an old mate's name on the Pretty Woman crew list, as well as another Forum Member still finishing on Gun Runner, the Royal Army boat.

Guess you weren't anywhere near that foul weather for the first 24 hours of the race? Glad you missed that; I was afraid it might put you off altogether and I do NOT want that to happen.

Now just for you to connect with Ann & Jim Cate, GiLow (Matt) and ChrisJHC! (Who are all in Hobart now or are soon-to-be?)

Any Other Forum Members Doing the Hobart?
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...rt-259229.html

Next year - Pittwater to Coff's! (It's warmer.)

Fair winds, congrats AND, most of all...
Happy New Year!
LittleWing77

[Jim Cate]

Now just for you to connect with Ann & Jim Cate, GiLow (Matt) and ChrisJHC! (Who are all in Hobart now or are soon-to-be?)

Well, almost... except that we are not in Hobart (we studiously avoid Hobart at this time of year, exacerbated by the upswing in Omicron events) but some 8 hours sailing away in Port Cygnet. Matt (GILow) is in SA just now, having left Tasmania some months ago, and I'm not sure about Chris's location.

But we'd be happy to catch up with Luke!

Jim

[GILow]

Yep, I’ve left Tassie.

A bit sad about that TBH.

[Lucky Luke 1]

Originally Posted by LittleWing77

Luke!

So glad you got a solid taste of it! It's fun, isn't it? Exhilirating, incomparable and nothing like ordinary life as we know it!

I was following the race, as I discovered an old mate's name on the Pretty Woman crew list, as well as another Forum Member still finishing on Gun Runner, the Royal Army boat.

Guess you weren't anywhere near that foul weather for the first 24 hours of the race? Glad you missed that; I was afraid it might put you off altogether and I do NOT want that to happen.

Now just for you to connect with Ann & Jim Cate, GiLow (Matt) and ChrisJHC! (Who are all in Hobart now or are soon-to-be?)

Any Other Forum Members Doing the Hobart?
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...rt-259229.html

Next year - Pittwater to Coff's! (It's warmer.)

Fair winds, congrats AND, most of all...
Happy New Year!
LittleWing77

The Launceston to Hobart missed the rough start the Sydney to Hobart fleet had.
It was a great introduction to life on a boat and sailing for an extended time. But Ocean racing is not for me. To many people on the boat and sailing past beautiful ports and bays..... All the better for the experience though.

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by Lucky Luke 1

I'd like to thank everyone for their contribution to this thread. Its amazing how much a little encouragement can help and tips and tricks are worth their weight in gold.

For any new to sailing people who read this just be aware you can make it happen.

285 Nautical miles. We started at Beauty Point Tas at 9:20 AM on the 27th and finished at Constitution dock in Hobart at 9ish PM on the 29th. What a roller coaster ride! Lots of things broke including a ripped jib rounding Tasman Island along with a jammed fuler it was on.
Being onboard a 38ft washing machine surrounded by sharks along with 7 other people and living life in 4 hr on and off shifts takes some describing, as does the smell, but I did see lots of Dolphins.. Ocean racers are certainly a breed apart.


Tasman island and its light house.

Great photo of Tasman Island. Here’s the one we took after rounding on the 28th and heading for Port Arthur. The conditions approaching from the north and rounding were atrocious - very steep seas directly on the nose on starboard tack in 20 knots of SW winds.



A couple days later we sailed to Hobart; here’s Cape Raoul in more benign conditions.



We’re anchored at Sandy Point and had a great view of the New Years Eve fireworks. If you’re around and on the water come by and say ‘hi’.

[TrentePieds]

Luke said: "But Ocean racing is not for me. To many people on the boat and sailing past beautiful ports and bays"

And therein, Luke, you find an EXTREMELY important lesson for the novice cruising man :-)! Racing and cruising have very, very little in common other than the fact that both require a boat - a SUITABLE, PURPOSE SPECIFIC boat.

In your posts you have made reference to two boats: The Farr38 and the Beneteau31. Here is SailboatData's spec sheet for each one of them:

https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/farr-38-116

https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/first-317-beneteau

These boats are in the “racer” rubric, and do not, IMO, make good cruising boats.

Having read your posts, I have concluded that you are given to systematic thinking and to analysis. I salute you for that :-)! You are therefore now at the point where you must take a MOST significant next step: You must think about, and you must analyse, what your desiderata are for a cruising life, and you must think about, and analyse, what boats can satisfy those desiderata. As a way into that problem I cite one of my own favourites:

https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/fast-passage-39

She is fast, she is weatherly, she is proven “where the scattered waters rave and the winds their revels keep”, and for man and maid spending some weeks, let alone some months, continuously aboard, she has a far better layout than the former two. Developing that line of argumentation further, I cite the Morgan Out Island 41:

https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/morgan-out-island-41

We are now moving into territory where long term “living aboard” by man and maid becomes feasible.

You will have clued into my argument already: Your NEXT STEP is to cogitate long enough on the Gestalt of various boats to become discerning about their varying characteristics, and to define what particular characteristics your eventual boat must have to keep you AND YOUR WIFE happy during long periods of isolation. That includes a consideration of basic yacht design.

“Social Media” is not, IMO, the best means of evolving a systematic discussion of such things, but fortunately one Arthur Beiser did that job for us a half century ago. Get a copy of his The Proper Yacht. You will find there quite a lot of the sage advice you are in search of :-)! The book is laid out in a wonderfully systematic way with apposite discussions of particular cruising boats, and with profile and arrangement drawings of them - boats from the very small to the quite large.

Beiser's own yacht was an Alden design called Minot's Light. Here is a profile and arrangement drawing of a further development of that 58-footer:

https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/bo...explorer-alden

Once you gone that far, you can begin to work on developing the skills the skipper of a cruising boat must have. They go far beyond the skills required of an able-bodied crew member, and a lot of the knowledge required comes through "book learning" - navigation and meteorology most notably:-)!

All the best to you and your wife :-)

TrentePieds.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Frankly, I don't think BBC is very good at simulating the real nuts and bolts of cruising on one's own boat. Charters are usually in the nicest of places, all the difficult stuff about cruising is done for you and most charterers seem to spend lots of time in tiki bars and shoreside restaurants, all whilst tied to a mooring. Most of the difficult decisions are made by management, night sailing is forbidden, anchoring discourage (in some venues and for various reasons), provisioning is done Gofor you, blocked toilets are cleared by staff. The boats are minimally equipped, the sails are often very basic and in bad shape so evaluating the sailing performance of a design is difficult if that is the purpose of the charter.

A charter could be a pleasant vacation but IMO is a very expensive way to get very little useful experience. YMMV!

Jim

A Bareboat charter will allow night sailing depending on where it is and your experience. If you want weather and big seas try Ireland or Scotland on a charter. The image of partying and everyone done for you is only if you want thatsort of thing ,most people want to cruise in " the nicest of places " and it's invaluable to judge if your partner is as enthusiastic as you are. I know several couples that went from regular BBC to their own boat and I know two couples that preferred to continue to charter ( they take a boat for a month and yes they unblock their own heads ) .

Nothing is like owning your own boat. But chartering is better then racing or
Delivery crewing in at !east giving you a flavour of the cruising lifestyle. Can you live together on a boat manage to sail it etc.

It's as good an option and better then most in gaining some direct insight.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

A Bareboat charter will allow night sailing depending on where it is and your experience. If you want weather and big seas try Ireland or Scotland on a charter. The image of partying and everyone done for you is only if you want thatsort of thing ,most people want to cruise in " the nicest of places " and it's invaluable to judge if your partner is as enthusiastic as you are. I know several couples that went from regular BBC to their own boat and I know two couples that preferred to continue to charter ( they take a boat for a month and yes they unblock their own heads ) .

Nothing is like owning your own boat. But chartering is better then racing or
Delivery crewing in at !east giving you a flavour of the cruising lifestyle. Can you live together on a boat manage to sail it etc.

It's as good an option and better then most in gaining some direct insight.

Well, Dave, a month long charter in the Irish Sea with no staff support would indeed be an educational experience. However, I don't think that is what most charters are like, and not what folks who keep recommending chartering as an experience building process are envisioning. And this sort of chartering certainly isn't what we have observed when we have been cruising in the charter areas in the South Pacific.

So it seems that our opinions on the subject differ, and that's all right. Advice from folks with a wide range of experience and differing opinions is one of the good aspects of CF. It is up to the questioner to decide which applies to their situations and preferences.

Jim

[DMF Sailing]

What I really want to know, Luke, is how you handled that torn headsail and jammed furler whilst in the shhht (sorry mods there is no other word!!)

[Lucky Luke 1]

Originally Posted by DMF Sailing

What I really want to know, Luke, is how you handled that torn headsail and jammed furler whilst in the shhht (sorry mods there is no other word!!)

As were not officially in the race we started the engine to stop the horrible wallowing (we had the odd wave coming over the front and into the cockpit- Not big huge waves but we were getting wet), cut the remains that were hanging down the leeward side and motor sailed for about an hr closer into Storm Bay. The engine died of cause but the wind had died a bit and the swells were less and they put a Kite up. I went off watch so went for a quick lie down so not sure what they did (I'm a novice and trying to keep up with what's happening and why and how is still beyond me) but when i got back on deck we were in site of Hobart and the whole furler was in the V berth.

I didn't like the wallowing but it was cool to feel the boats power just stop when she ripped. Helped me understand how the sails work a bit better.

[Lucky Luke 1]

So much for saying Ocean racing is not for me and thats true im more the mentality and of a cruiser mindset but I've agreed to more off shore racing..im a sucker for punishment it seems.

Thinking i shall also enroll in some courses in Hobart, Bellerive yacht club do a short Crew course and a short helming cause.

[Lucky Luke 1]

Originally Posted by fxykty

Great photo of Tasman Island. Here’s the one we took after rounding on the 28th and heading for Port Arthur. The conditions approaching from the north and rounding were atrocious - very steep seas directly on the nose on starboard tack in 20 knots of SW winds.

Attachment 250608

A couple days later we sailed to Hobart; here’s Cape Raoul in more benign conditions.

Attachment 250609

We’re anchored at Sandy Point and had a great view of the New Years Eve fireworks. If you’re around and on the water come by and say ‘hi’.

Thank you for the offer, I'm back in Devonport. if you are up this way and need a shopping run etc please let me know, happy to help

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by Lucky Luke 1

...
Looking forward id like us to be cruising in 5 or so years which is the whole point of learning to sail.

Not looking to hire boats or work on other peoples....

You didn't provide much background on your skill set, but there's a world of difference between cruising and sailing.

If you aren't very handy with a wrench, understand things like engines, electrical and so on, and aren't comfortable whipping off a pump, diagnosing things with a DVM, putting an eye splice in some double braid, and so on, helping out on some other peoples projects would be a good way to learn (and to meet some people who might help you out later).

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by LittleWing77

Luke!

Great kit! I love that tether and harness as well. You can walk it along your jackstays like you're walking a dog behind you - really easy.

Yes to Chris above, too. I'm sorta ashamed to be recommending baby wipes since they don't biodegrade and only add to our landfills, it's just we all know how tired we are when coming off-watch, especially in the middle of the night. The last thing you'd think about is washing your face. Which is why I developed my own practise of giving my face a swipe then diving into sleep.

Luke, if your eyesight is such that you can't see without your glasses, get a pair of croakies to keep them on your head and bring a spare-pair....

As the countdown begins...!
(Four more sleeps)
LW77

I keep a small microfiber washcloth in a ziplock back with half a cup of fresh water. Works just as well and is not (as) disposable.