Another 'Bluewater Boat' Poll to Really Tee You Off!!

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by DMF Sailing

Loving the direction this thread has drifted to.

Boatman, that was downright poetic. Ever consider writing a book?

(I looked up "Boatman61" in the Library of Congress and no one has ever authored a book under that name.)

Hahaha ha... it would be top of the Worst Sellers List..
But thank you..

[DMF Sailing]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Hahaha ha... it would be top of the Worst Sellers List..
But thank you..

Those sell. People read 'em with morbid fascination.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by boatman61

I have never suffered from this.. there's a lot to look at if you bother to look..
My longest solo passage was 47 days, I looked at the sky and cloud shapes, birds of paradise and terns that came to visit, kittiwakes following my wake and changing pairs as they reached their boundaries, dolphin's, porpoises, whales of various types, Orca, turtles, sunfish and the occasional shark. On calm windless days I would lie on the side deck staring into the depths at the tiny creatures of red, blue, gold and green as they danced beneath the surface, water spiders scurrying around on the surface..
When the winds kicked up I would gaze in admiration at the storm petrels and albatross effortlessly skimming the waves and dolphin's surfing..
The only way there is nothing at sea is if you sail with eyes closed wide open.

Just hearing the water lap against the hull is like white sound. In fact they market it as white sound or rain on the cabin top. And the solitude.

[belizesailor]

Geez...another "Bluewater" thread!

I think the term "Bluewater..." was coined by brokers to sell boats to naive cruiser wannabes who will likley never doing anything but what is in fact coastal cruising.

[Indolent58]

Bluewater. Bluewater bluewater bluewater. Blue. Water.

Thanks for listening to my TED talk,

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Cadence

Just hearing the water lap against the hull is like white sound. In fact they market it as white sound or rain on the cabin top. And the solitude.

I love the sound of a huge gale blowing through ,,,

lying in my bunk in a nice marina !!!

[DMF Sailing]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

Geez...another "Bluewater" thread!

I think the term "Bluewater..." was coined by brokers to sell boats to naive cruiser wannabes who will likley never doing anything but what is in fact coastal cruising.

I think I've met my own definition of trolling.

[Rick Williams]

I got the bug when I was very young, I grew up in the Northeast so my 1st sailing was on ice boats and "dirt boats." I wrote to every dude boat and offered by services for the summer free of charge; room and board. I finally landed a birth when I was 15 and worked summers after that on any boat that would have me.
I started with a 17 foot day sailor which I took out in much too much wind and sea, then a 21 footer and a 25 footer and I am now rebuilding my 38 foot ketch which hopefully will take me to the far horizons.
At one point I realized that I accumulated enough sea hours to apply for a coast guard license so I now have 100 ton master with sailing and towing add-ons which, as my old man would say, with a buck would get you a cup of coffee but it feels like a lifetime achievement award I gave myself.
I'm in the category that I was bitten with the sailing bug young and never gave it up and hope I'll still be doing it until I can't make a fist anymore.
Sailing is like everything else, you actually have to (stop talking about it and) get out and do it in whatever form you can manage if you want to be a sailor.

[Flagfish]

Yes, definitely. Bought the Albin Vega in the spring and learned how to sail that summer by going out all the time, refit over the winter, then left on the Hawaii round trip in the spring. Fantastic.

[CaptainMarkS]

Serenity (Antares 44i) is the first bluewater boat I purchased in 2020, though I had some experience on others and did significant training. With several thousand miles under our keel since, I think timing (e.g. jumping in) is not the issue. Doing so without adequate training / experience is. It's the folks who never had experience and decide to immediately cross oceans that scare me.

[sck5]

If you are far enough out that nobody can come to rescue you, then you need to be ready for whatever happens and to deal with it on your own. Having said that, boats FAR more often sink because of the rocks and coral around the edges of the ocean than in the middle of it where there is nothing to bump into. FWIW, the insurance cos. say the most common scenario for sinkings is at the dock.

For ex. if you recall the movie "The Perfect Storm" there was a sailboat that the people got rescued from. 3 weeks later the boat was found floating around, rather beat up, but still afloat. It is the people who are the limit when offshore, not the boat (usually) because the boats are designed to be on the ocean. People arent.

[capn_billl]

I took a sailing class, played with a smaller boat a few times, then bought my dream boat, and went for it.

If it's going to happen, it'll happen out there anyway.

Had a few adventures, and got into, and out of a few tight spots.

A 44ft Catamaran is a lot of boat to handle, but it practically sails itself.

Just remember reef early, and often.

I've got half a football field of sail up there, it can get really scary in high winds.

[AJ_n_Audrey]

Okay, I'll bite. Largest boat I had ever sailed was my dad's Catalina 27, in a bay. No ocean experience, but a LOT of dinghy sailing and Catalina 27 sailing. I did a good bit of research before buying the current boat, but I did not really know what I was getting into. Bought a good strong boat that needed work. Have done a lot of work on the boat in seven years, and have done a fair amount of ocean sailing and two trips to the Abacos. If I had it to do over, I'd buy a 42 footer or so, but I'm happy with what I have, and unless I hit the lottery, I'm not likely to change. I'll soon retire and start doing long trips.

[PirateBarnabus]

Originally Posted by DMF Sailing

Forumers.

Can we be real with each other for a moment?

Folks come on here all the time looking for the perfect "bluewater" boat.

It kind of blows my mind, really, because, having lived most of my life either at the helm of a monohull, or dreaming of being at the helm of a monohull, I cannot conceive of going straight from the dock to the mid-Atlantic without first going through the brown, gray, green, blue-ish, green-breaking-over-your-bow, GREEN-REALLY-IN-YOUR-GRILL-AND-WILL-I-SURVIVE-THIS-NIGHT-water.

And this from a guy who has only ever skippered a boat that was 30 miles from the shore.

So.

How many of you have actually gone from new-to-sailing to ocean passages?

And if not, what was your progression?

Although I'd owned my boat for a few years (a Van de Stadt 36 foot seal) I'd spent a lot of time doing upgrades and had never sailed more than 10 miles offshore or less.OR at night. My partner and I had limited sailing experience and we had beetled up and down the iberian peninsular a bit. I had a day skipper certificate and yacht master theory. Additionally, I had a reasonable amount of experience flying small planes about.

When we left Gibraltar in November 2015, it was very windy and rough in the straits with force 8 at the western end.
However, we knew that there would be calm conditions on the way south.
We sailed out with 3 reefs and a little genoa to about 120 miles out before turning south for the canaries.
This I determined would keep us well away from the Moroccan coast for most of the passage.
It soon got dark. :-/

On the way down to the canaries, we found ourselves sandwiched between 2 container ships at night (of course) that were sailing less than a mile apart for some unknown reason.
I made DSC calls to each vessel which did not elicit a response.
After donning life jackets, turning on all the lights and engine. One of them finally responded to a call on channel 16. He altered course by 20 degrees to widen the gap.

The first thing I did on arrival in the canaries was to fit a transponder to the ais. I suggest that you do the same!

On arrival at Lanzarote around 8 days later, again it was late and Dark. I spotted a larger yacht on the ais that was Hove to, probably awaiting lower winds. However, he was already in the acceleration zone and so we pressed on. Carefully watching the radar to ensure we stayed equidistant from the" rock and a hard place "
(Lanzarote and a large rock to the east.)

Arricife has a new Marina which is very nice and we found no problem arriving at night, despite what it says in the book. Its well buoyed with lights.
We stayed for Xmas and then set off alone for the big voyage. We didn't take part in any of the rallies.

Anyway, plenty of stories on this trip including losing all autopilots and wind vane by mid Atlantic which resulted in our crew of 2 hand steering all the way to Barbados.

I have to say though, that the boat performed exceptionally well in all conditions and we never felt unsafe.
We've been in the Caribbean since then and Brexit has put us off returning to the Med area. So we might sell her here where she's happy.
Yes the boat is important for this type of sailing, but so is the extreme amount of preparation prior to the trip.

I'll stop at that, but it was an eventful trip!

[ktbaker]

I started with a homebuilt leaky wooden punt with a 3 horse Johnson while still in middle school and moved up to a 73 Westerly Pentland sailing on the Chesapeake bay and longIsland sound. Short ketch rig and very overbuilt boat. It was the perfect boat to learn on as it was slow and bullet proof. Best Day sail I ever has was a force 8 nor'easter in the middle of the bay 2 reefs in the main and the small aft rig up. it was starboard rail in the water green water over the bow Sheets of Ice flinging everywhere every time the wind backed. Me at the helm cackling like a mad man. I loved every second.