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Old 10-03-2016, 15:53   #61
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Re: Solo cruising vs crew cruising

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Originally Posted by Deep Blue Blues View Post
I'm a loner but I love people. Or rather, meeting people. Im a do it myself type. I want to be free from people and their issues after too long and experience a need to get back to nature. Trying to find a boat that will help me escape rather than tie me down to human necessity.

Are there particular designs for monohulls that make cruising the deep blue more reasonable with less crew or no crew? Something that's strong in high seas. If you could just share the terminology to search for, that would be greatly appreciated.
I'm thinking singlehanded sailing experience is the key for you. Get good at handling a boat by yourself in all conditions as best you can near shore first. Racing helps.

Then it probably doesn't matter too much which blue water boat you choose as long as it has a full keel and the weather cooperates

My thinking is this design is best for a solo sailor that is cruising. It's heavy and holds it's line

Some cruisers are clueless when it comes to sailing without an engine. Your first boat should not have one.
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Old 10-03-2016, 17:00   #62
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Re: Solo cruising vs crew cruising

The solo draw I have is to remind me of my place in the universe. Without distraction. When I'm comfortable with that ill entertain others. I fall in and out of hermit mode.

Lizzy Belle, you look very contempt and happy. I admire you. But what does the olshon look like and what's her name?
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Old 10-03-2016, 17:11   #63
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Re: Solo cruising vs crew cruising

Thomm that's good advice.

I grew up sailing a small 14 ft on a lake in Georgia. I can sail it by leaning, dragging or by kite. One sail, two sail. Three sail. I learned from my father who was a technical guy and his best friend an old salty dog navy vet. We've put in 5000nm or so throughout the Bahamas and the Florida coast. A Long trip through the Bering sea put us to the test 10 years ago. I can handle anything but a tidal wave as far as I know.

Knock on wood.

I want a boat with a flush deck and some weight and a deep draw to slice through the big waves that try to test me next. The endeavor 52 I skippered was getting pounded even though I was on the wheel the entire time. The hull moaned everytime we topped the waves in the giant seas. Couldn't help but think it was going to break in half in 25ft swells.

I'm eager to ride those waves again.
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Old 10-03-2016, 17:13   #64
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Re: Solo cruising vs crew cruising

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Lizzy Belle, you look very contempt and happy. I admire you. But what does the olshon look like and what's her name?
Thanks for your kind words
The glasses on that pic were a joke by the way - I was blind as a bat with those, haha.

I posted a few pics from just after I bought her here: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...lbums4479.html

She's changed a little since then
Inside isn't a dark cave anymore and hull is next (crap paint job, needs to be redone and will be in off-white).

Her name is Lizzy Belle, not mine, tho I am often called Lizzy as liveaboards often call people by their boats name
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Old 10-03-2016, 17:26   #65
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Re: Solo cruising vs crew cruising

Link was busted Lizzy. The glasses were a nice touch.
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Old 10-03-2016, 17:43   #66
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Re: Solo cruising vs crew cruising

Oh, it opens to the album when I click it

The round about way:

Click on my profile name, and on member page there's a menu called "albums" on the right side of the page, about half way down. I only have one album, so that's the one to click
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Old 10-03-2016, 17:47   #67
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Re: Solo cruising vs crew cruising

Just a thought and no I am not trying to be the fun police here.
Having spent a large amount of my life as a professional Mariner.
And a few very near misses of small yachts of the years.
On a commercial ship relying on electronic means only to wake and prevent a collision would be seen as neglect of you responsibilities.
How do solo sailors manage this ruling? Just ignore and carry on?
Some boats do not show up well on radar till quite close and in a swell their nav light are often difficult to see.
Turning large vessels at 20 plus kts (approx=4 miles every 10 mins) to avoid small boats at night is a risk to the solo sailor.
Maybe at least a siren? on their AIS to be sure they wake in time?
Legality / Non-compliance
The International Maritime Organization navigation rules require that "Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision."[19] Single-handed sailors can only keep a sporadic lookout, due to the need to sleep, tend to navigation, etc., raising the possibility of a collision.[20] The non-compliance with the navigation rules has brought some controversy to the sport of single-handed sailing.
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Old 10-03-2016, 18:08   #68
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Re: Solo cruising vs crew cruising

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I want a boat with a flush deck and some weight and a deep draw to slice through the big waves that try to test me next.
Nice post. Did you see the flush deck discussion?

Foolish: thanks for posting your book, great resource, fun read, well done and thanks again for making it available to us all.
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Old 10-03-2016, 18:35   #69
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Re: Solo cruising vs crew cruising

Poppyduc I see what your saying but what do you say when rough seas block your view of the end of your own boat? You have to depend on radar, Neptune or God at some point.

In my own experience, I was down below looking for possible safe anchorages on the charts when I see what looked like a giant black squid or octopus, black arms reaching into the air not 80 yards to starboard. I run up to deck to see the huge 200 ft long tree with complete root system plowing through the surf like a barge.

I cussed my first mate and thanked Neptune. Radar never had a chance.
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Old 10-03-2016, 18:36   #70
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Re: Solo cruising vs crew cruising

And you're welcome stu. I've learned alot in this discussion. Thanks for your patience.
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Old 10-03-2016, 19:06   #71
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Re: Solo cruising vs crew cruising

Thanks for all your comments everyone. I'm glad that you are enjoying my free book. I really did write it as a way to learn more about singlehanding myself. I find that if I want to take a disciplined approach to learning, it is not enough to just do something; I have to do it with sufficient rigor to be able to write about it. (In case you are interested I wrote a sextant users guide several years ago. You can find it at: Astro Navigation: All you need to navigate by the Sun; Almanac, Sight Reduction Tables. )

Poppyduk: The issue you raise has been discussed over and over and over and over in dozens of sailing forums. The short answer is that yes, it is probably not quite legal, but we do it anyway. There has never been a case of a singlehander running into a ship where it was the ship that was damaged.
I specifically discuss this issue in the published version of my book. In particular I took a close look at Jessica Watson's running into a ship before she started her circumnavigation. The Australian Transportation Safety Bureau wrote a complete report on the incident. (http://atsb.gov.au/media/1539485/mo-2009-008.pdf)

I see from the ATSB website that there was another collision, this time with a doublehanded boat. You can read that report at: http://atsb.gov.au/media/5320233/mo2014006_final.pdf
In this case neither the boat nor the ship had maintained a lookout.
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Old 10-03-2016, 19:36   #72
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Re: Solo cruising vs crew cruising

[QUOTE=Deep Blue Blues;2069110]Poppyduc I see what your saying but what do you say when rough seas block your view of the end of your own boat? You have to depend on radar, Neptune or God at some point.

Yes you are pointing out the deficiencies of our systems and you are so right in dealing with smaller vessels nearby in night and bad weather good luck is a necessity sometimes more than good management.
A bump in the night could ruin your whole next day for both parties.
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Old 11-03-2016, 05:40   #73
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Re: Solo cruising vs crew cruising

Quote:
Originally Posted by poppyduc View Post
Just a thought and no I am not trying to be the fun police here.
Having spent a large amount of my life as a professional Mariner.
And a few very near misses of small yachts of the years.
On a commercial ship relying on electronic means only to wake and prevent a collision would be seen as neglect of you responsibilities.
How do solo sailors manage this ruling? Just ignore and carry on?
Some boats do not show up well on radar till quite close and in a swell their nav light are often difficult to see.
Turning large vessels at 20 plus kts (approx=4 miles every 10 mins) to avoid small boats at night is a risk to the solo sailor.
Maybe at least a siren? on their AIS to be sure they wake in time?
Legality / Non-compliance
The International Maritime Organization navigation rules require that "Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision."[19] Single-handed sailors can only keep a sporadic lookout, due to the need to sleep, tend to navigation, etc., raising the possibility of a collision.[20] The non-compliance with the navigation rules has brought some controversy to the sport of single-handed sailing.
Search the archives. This question has been discussed to death and you can find every possible opinion you might be interested in.

The short answer is that COLREGS require a continuous visual watch, and you can't do that while sleeping, so single handing long distances is surely a violation. Some people argue with this, but I think the COLREGS are quite clear about this.

However, single handing is tolerated by every authority I've ever heard of, and I don't think it's particularly dangerous if done well.

Some people just go below and sleep and don't worry about it -- taking the "calculated risk". I think that's wrong and unseamanlike.

Some people nap in the cockpit with an egg timer -- better.

But best of all is to have good electronics, set radar guard zones, AIS alarms, and keep the radio on, and make sure you will wake up if something goes off. Also, do this only well out of shipping lanes.

In that case, I don't personally see anything wrong with this. I reckon the effectiveness of watchkeeping done this way is better, probably a lot better, than it is on the typical crewed yacht sailing offshore, where people more often than don't do not set appropriate alarms, do not spend that much time scanning the horizon, sleep in the cockpit, etc.
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Old 11-03-2016, 10:48   #74
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Re: Solo cruising vs crew cruising

Interestingly some of us will propose the long(-ish) keel is the better way. Others will state cruising is quite a hard work. Still others say that boat better be bigger. I started wondering if the three things collate.

Thinking of it because we sailed a 26'er of a full length keel design and very moderate displacement and we never found this particular keel better than other keels nor did we see our sailing (and much more limited cruising) a hard work. Quite contrary: most of our friends sailed fin keel boats, much bigger than ours and we all seemed to have 99% fun with maybe 1% hard work: repairs and maintenance, chucked in now and then.

Perhaps a big, heavy, full keel is what makes it so hard?

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Old 11-03-2016, 12:27   #75
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Re: Solo cruising vs crew cruising

I think you're on to something. Smaller is certainly less work but perhaps a little less trust worthy in the rough? I'm torn between 26 - 37ft. How does one choose?!
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