Typical Atlantic crossing times

[StuM]

Oops, my previous calculations didn't take into account the 1.5 motoring penalty.
Since one did 61 hours motoring and the other did 95 hours, they will have been penalised by about 30 and 45 hours. So you can take 1 - 1.5 days off the above times.

That would make it about 22 days for the actual crossing: 120 NM per day, 5 knots.

[Symphony]

instead of working on boat speed -- you're going to make somewhere between 110-180 miles per day depending - consider your sat comms. real sat internet with UU or XGate compression can probably be rented for $3000 for three weeks. satellitephonestore.com was nice to me once, there are others.
the better idea I had was to get a Delorme Inreach SE and pair it with my iPhone and iPad. $70 per month you get unlimited text messages. if you just need to communicate and aren't sending graphics then this is the way to go. works for me. I had TX and RX of a couple thousand messages per week this way while on blue water.
Defender has the Inreach on sale now.

[Nadezhda]

My 40 foot 16 ton monohull double-ender will travel at around a thousand miles a week in good trade winds. A Cat will do much better than that.

[YesIsail]

We did our 2 crossings, and they were a total joy, day after day, we were a bit slow because I believe its always better to not push the limits of the boat. Count on around 3 weeks for each way.

here are the videos, enjoy:
https://vimeo.com/70730129
https://vimeo.com/81493141

Originally Posted by Foozinator

I know that there can be a big variation between Atlantic crossings, especially with variable weather. I just want to see what a typical crossing could be with your typical 40-43 foot cat.

The main reason I'm interested is that I'm planning on working from the boat, and satellite internet isn't really practical (yet).

I've seen crossings in the 18-21 day range, which would mean a leave of absence. That said, am I reading these 2011 ARC results correctly? Down in the multihull section is a pair of Lagoon 420s that made the crossing in 9 1/2 days.

Maybe I'm reading it wrong or maybe the winds were crazy in 2011. My question is: is a sub 2-week crossing possible, assuming you pick a good time of the season (and the winds are in your favor)?

[meirriba]

Originally Posted by Foozinator

I know that there can be a big variation between Atlantic crossings, especially with variable weather. I just want to see what a typical crossing could be with your typical 40-43 foot cat.

The main reason I'm interested is that I'm planning on working from the boat, and satellite internet isn't really practical (yet).

I've seen crossings in the 18-21 day range, which would mean a leave of absence. That said, am I reading these 2011 ARC results correctly? Down in the multihull section is a pair of Lagoon 420s that made the crossing in 9 1/2 days.

Maybe I'm reading it wrong or maybe the winds were crazy in 2011. My question is: is a sub 2-week crossing possible, assuming you pick a good time of the season (and the winds are in your favor)?

Many answers...
Typical 40-43 cat will make about 150 nm per day, i.e. 280/150= ~ 19 days. This from Canaries to St. Lucia.
To get to the Canaries from Gibraltar - another 5-6 days.
If you partcipate in the preparation of the boat for the crossing - add extra time before setting out.

[boatman61]

St Martin, FWI to Salcombe, UK nonstop.. 47days.. 31ft mono. solo..
St Martin, FWI to Portimao, Portugal via Azores.. 30days.. 34ft mono. solo..
Beaufort, NC, USA to Poole, UK via Azores.. 70days.. 37ft mono. solo..
St Martin, FWI to Almerimar, E Spain via Azores.. 27days.. 64ft mono. +1 crew..
Ft Lauderdale, USA to Almerimar, E Spain.. 30days.. Lagoon 440 Cat. +1 crew..

All the above are days at sea and do not include time spent in marina's en-route.
Gear failure, gales and calms were the cause of some of the longer periods at sea..

For those in the Med to the Canaries..
Almerimar, E Spain to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria.. 7days.. Lagoon380. +1crew..
Gibraltar to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria.. 6days.. 35ft mono. solo..
Mallorca to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria.. 11days.. 36ft mono.. +1crew.

[django37]

Averaged 7.8 knots in the ARC+ 2015 from Mindelo to St.Lucia in a Lagoon 380

[JMR]

It really depends on the wind. If you can predict the winds accurately now, of when you intend to sail in the future, then you could answer the "how long" question. Otherwise, hind-sights are the only indicators you can use to guess - it's part of the adventure, and fun.

[Mrfish]

Originally Posted by Eder

Hmmm..did you buddy with another Lagoon?...I think I saw you at Isla San Fransisco & at Ensanada Grande

I cannot deny that sighting. The boats may have been slow for Cats, but we still enjoyed a very wonderful trip.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by django37

Averaged 7.8 knots in the ARC+ 2015 from Mindelo to St.Lucia in a Lagoon 380

Trip meters are a trap

The distance shown is a lot less than the actual GC distance between Mindelo and St Lucia.

Is that STW , SOG or VMG?

How many "miles good" did you make over that period?

Edit: I just noticed that tick box. Does that tell the trip meter to ignore any time/distance where you are making less than 3 knots?

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by StuM

Trip meters are a trap

The distance shown is a lot less than the actual GC distance between Mindelo and St Lucia.

Is that STW , SOG or VMG?

How many "miles good" did you make over that period?

Edit: I just noticed that tick box. Does that tell the trip meter to ignore any time/distance where you are making less than 3 knots?

A GPS trip meter is a trap? How?

[StuM]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

A GPS trip meter is a trap? How?

Is that a GPS tripmeter of is it transducer (speedwheel log) based?
That's why I asked whether it is STW or SOG.

Neither type generally give you what you generally want to know: VMG either to destination or to waypoints but many people don't think about that and use the speed/distance figures from the log as though they were an indication of VMG and not just track related.

Django37's post is a good example. Neither track based SOG nor STW are a very good indication of the answer sought in the this thread i.e. how long it actually took him to make the crossing.

[markpierce]

Five to ten days by passenger ship averaging about 20 knots, depending on itinerary.

[chuckr]

We do not do rallies. We crossed from Antigua to Horta in 2013. It took us 21 days and we used about 15 gallons of diesel - ie we sailed. We made a bunch of mistakes the worst was not realizing we were running a marathon and thought we were running an easy 5k. We had to heave to as we got overly tired and hungry. After a 6 hour sleep and a big meal we reset our thought process and set out again with a new determination and had a great crossing. We had 3 days of 30-35k winds and slowed to boat to keep down the pounding as she wanted to run but we did not want to damage the boat so we slowed to 5+k - 5.0-5.5k then we had another 2 days of 25-28k winds and did the same.
If we had the mindset in the first place we probably would have missed the 30-35k winds as it was moving nne and we caught the edge of it along with the other winds and it would have taken us 18-19 days.
We sail a Jeanneau DS40 and she can be a quite fast boat if she had good sailors on board but we are not great sailors but we get there. AND we put the boat first so we will slow down to protect the boat while others may push theirs.

[django37]

Originally Posted by StuM

Trip meters are a trap

The distance shown is a lot less than the actual GC distance between Mindelo and St Lucia.

Is that STW , SOG or VMG?

How many "miles good" did you make over that period?

Edit: I just noticed that tick box. Does that tell the trip meter to ignore any time/distance where you are making less than 3 knots?

We had to reset the plotter 2 days out of Mindelo. The distance is 2085 nm, which we did in 11 days, with no motoring at all.
To Edit: Yes and we never came under 5 knots.