Circumnav prep - 2027

[Donnybrook]

Some other course suggestions: First aid, US Sailing Safety at Sea (https://www.ussailing.org/education/...t-sea-courses/) and a training passage such as https://johnkretschmersailing.com/offshore/. Look for classes or charters in places more challenging than the Caribbean.

Look into crew opportunities on the ARC, long distance races or deliveries. You'll learn different techniques from different boats and experience away from land. It sounds like you and your wife each offer quite a lot of experience for someone who needs crew. I bet as you get closer to retirement you'll find a way to take more than a week off at a time.

Consider splitting your training time. You could crew while your wife takes a class. You might be a stronger team with combined academic and real world experience.

A fall-back Plan might be to find crew help you cross the ocean and meet your wife at the destination for local cruising.

My frame of reference: Own a Catalina 34 (nearly 20 years) on Lake Michigan and dream of crossing oceans. Plan to retire in about 10 years and thinking about how sailing fits in with family and other travel. Wife doesn't have a desire to cross an ocean. If significant sailing is in the cards and I don't already have the perfect boat, I plan a year or two to find her then two to three seasons to make her "perfect". In the mean time I'm gaining as much practical experience as i can and learning the limitations of what I already have.

[shimari]

There's also OPO to get some bluewater time

https://www.sailopo.com/Swan_Program.aspx

[TheOffice]

Do a passage with John Kretchmer or Andy Schell.
Until you've been offshore in a storm, you haven't prepped for your trip.

[DeValency]

Originally Posted by TheOffice

Do a passage with John Kretchmer or Andy Schell.
Until you've been offshore in a storm, you haven't prepped for your trip.

A great advice. Even after 40+ years of sailing/racing/cruising I would love to have the time to take a passage with these great guys (and quite few others, less known)

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by kgriffithg

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-Eventually take marine diesel repair,...
-Eventually buy a center cockpit blue water cruiser in the 44-49 foot range, like a Hylas 46 or 49.

....
....

KG,


The ONLY diesel engine you need to know about is the one in YOUR boat. I have a Universal engine, so taking a class about Yanmars or Volvos would be essentially useless to me.


You can learn how a diesel engine works by reading any of Calder's books.


If you can find out what engine your prospective boat has, then take a course with that engine.


If not, wait until you actually get the boat of your dreams and, if you still feel it necessary, then take the course.


Good luck - nice plans.


Of course, the "first boat, last boat vs. starter boat" approach options still exist for you.

[Apollo366]

One of my crew on the trip down the East Coast of US had taken the RYA on-board instruction for the advanced skippering of sailboats, can't remember the exact title, but it was according to him the best way to learn sailboat handling including Med Mooring, cross wind docking, passage making and storm tactics.

Although pricey he felt is was just what he needed to go from casual cruising to serious cruising. It also gave him a lot of confidence to basically sail anywhere in the world.

https://www.rya.org.uk/training/cour...ing-course-dss

This may be the course, but I thought it was more advanced.

Also check https://www.theyachtacademy.com/zero-to-hero/ this sounds more like it.

As noted above, race crewing & delivery runs are great teachers & confidence & seamanship builders, heck just hanging around these guys is very enlightening.

Apollo Wayne
S/V Apollo

[Auklet]

Originally Posted by TheOffice

Do a passage with John Kretchmer or Andy Schell.
Until you've been offshore in a storm, you haven't prepped for your trip.

Yeah. You can do this right after flying to the moon or after your audience with the Queen. If you want to read one story about it pick up a copy of Kretschmer's book Sailing to the Edge of Time, Ch. Two, "Situational Awareness." He has other good reads as well, a sailing celebrity.

[Auklet]

Originally Posted by Auklet

I think the greatest “offshore” passage we’ve done together has been Tierra Verde to the Dry Tortugas; only 180 n.mi. But it can be rugged.

Wind from the East. Leaving the shelter of Dry Tortugas National Park. The companion boat, same size and model as ours that day.

[Declanyates]

It should be a very serious preparation; you are heading towards a significant goal, I must say. I would not forget about such aspects as international insurance for expatriates or long-term travelers. Also, considering the nature of circumnavigation, it is wise to be prepared for challenging weather conditions. I was inspired by my mother for similar endeavors. I think everything will work out for you; the main thing is to pursue your goal and approach its implementation wisely. I would also like to advise you to keep an eye on the latest navigation technologies, including electronic charts, AIS, and satellite communication.

[donradcliffe]

All good advice. I learned the hard way never to leave port in a storm. The latest game changers for cruisers are Starlink and LifePo4 batteries. I would recommend living on the boat for a year of coastal shakedown passages before heading offshore.

I would recommend that you and your wife do one offshore passage on another boat this next year, preferably not on the same passage/boat. She will become more confidant if you are not there when to lean on when things go south. I also have seen newbie couples where the dominant sailor gets nervous and uptight on the first passage because he/she has never experienced it before. There is a lot of unnecessary yelling, which makes the other person rather nervous and unhappy. I remember one newbie wife yelling "aren't you scared?" at us when we were departing Panama for the South Pacific. I responded that I was afraid there would be no wind before the Galapagos.

Before I did any offshore work on my own, I raced to Hawaii as watch captain and navigator 4 times, plus numerous coastal races to Mexico. Still, I over prepped a bit, screwing all the floorboards down before we left Beaufort for the Virgin Islands. After experiencing a bomb storm on that passage with winds over 50 knots, all of the screws went back in the jar and stayed there.

[Auklet]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

Still, I over prepped a bit, screwing all the floorboards down before we left Beaufort for the Virgin Islands. After experiencing a bomb storm on that passage with winds over 50 knots, all of the screws went back in the jar and stayed there.

Screwed down the floor boards in prep for rolling over? What about all the other structures that might open and spill their contents? Lock down the nav station desk top, and so forth? They could be many. So, you no longer secure for a roll over?

[ChrisJHC]

Originally Posted by Apollo366

One of my crew on the trip down the East Coast of US had taken the RYA on-board instruction for the advanced skippering of sailboats, can't remember the exact title, but it was according to him the best way to learn sailboat handling including Med Mooring, cross wind docking, passage making and storm tactics.

Although pricey he felt is was just what he needed to go from casual cruising to serious cruising. It also gave him a lot of confidence to basically sail anywhere in the world.

https://www.rya.org.uk/training/cour...ing-course-dss

This may be the course, but I thought it was more advanced.

Snip

The link is to the Day Skipper course which is too low-level for the OP.
You should be looking at Yachtmaster Offshore if going the RYA route.
You would normally pick up the Day Skipper along the way.

[wholybee]

I got on a sailboat for the first time in 2014. Fast Tracked a bunch of ASA courses, bought a boat in 2016, and left for a circumnavigation in 2018, completed in 2022. So I think my experience is directly relevant.

You seem to have enough sailing experience. The experience everyone talks about you "needing" the only way to get is to leave and get it. ASA105 and 106 are worth it. I took them as a week long course together. 105 was a good dive into paper chart navigation (which you will never use but I think makes your navigation with chart plotters more effective) and 106 was mostly reinforcement of what you already learned with only a few new sailing skills, along with how to provision and other "non-sailing" skills. You can probably skip offshore passage making.

After a passage, have a drink with other sailors and discuss any issues you had. You will learn more that way than in any class.

Someone else recommended the US sailing Safety at Sea course. I took that in 2017 and I consider it essential. You want to take the course that is hands on in person, not the online version. It may be the only opportunity you have to practice deploying a liferaft, swim to it in your weather gear">foul weather gear, and climb in. Then you get to inspect and repack your pfd. Setting off flares, practice cutting rigging, etc. Good stuff.

The most important factor in being successful is being able to do of your own boat maintenance. If you know your boat well enough to fix anything that might break, you will recognize problems before they are a problem. And most catastrophes are the result of several things going wrong at once. If a couple of those things are broken systems you are waiting to fix until you get to a port with someone that knows how to fix it, well, that just compounds an emergency situation.

If you were the guy that built a hotrod in your younger years, or rebuilt an engine in the living room at some point in your life, you have a great start. If you are a HAM with your extra class license or have a background in electronics, that will help too. But even without those, you can still learn what you need. I would suggest buying a boat in good condition, but not sail away ready. That way you have some work to do to learn. There are many good books on boat maintenance.

One thing you really need to learn is rigging. I replaced all my standing rigging before leaving, because one of my biggest fears was a rigging failure offshore. I used the most highly recommended rigger in the area. And I had to replace a shroud and my forestay along the way. Both of those replacements I did myself. Frequent inspections found issues before they completely failed. But what really surprised me was how many other boats had failures as well. Rigging age didn't matter. Brand new rigging, 10 year old rigging, they all seemed to have issues. Of the sailors I met along the way and kept in touch with, probably 75% had some sort of rigging issue to resolve during the circumnavigation. That shocked me.

Sailing in the ocean is not hard, as long as you don't leave at the wrong time. There are many tools available to help you with your departure. You will meet other sailors, and often leave in a group. So the deciding factor is often maintenance and repairs. Something breaks mid ocean. Or you miss a weather window waiting for parts to arrive, then leave at a bad time.

Lastly, probably the best resource I had when I was preparing was Beth Leonard's book, The Voyager's Handbook. I highly recommend you pick up a copy.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0071437657...language=en_US

[Declanyates]

Originally Posted by Declanyates

It should be a very serious preparation; you are heading towards a significant goal, I must say. I would not forget about such aspects as international insurance for expatriates or long-term travelers. Also, considering the nature of circumnavigation, it is wise to be prepared for challenging weather conditions, my inspiration is my mother for similar endeavors. I think everything will work out for you; the main thing is to pursue your goal and approach its implementation wisely. I would also like to advise you to keep an eye on the latest navigation technologies, including electronic charts, AIS, and satellite communication.

It would be interesting to hear about the author's preparation for the topic.

[mvweebles]

Wonder if OP will update this 2021 thread?

While not circumnavigation speciific, I don't think sailing skills make or break a cruising dream. Seamanship skills can be learned fairly quickly. Biggest seamanship shortcomings I've noted are weather routing abilities, anchoring, and close quarter maneuvers.

Lack of money and, relatedly, lack of mechanical prowess kill more cruising dreams than lack of sailing skills. Being able to keep a full-time underway/anchored boat lit with electricity is challenging, especially in low latitudes where refrigeration saps watts at an alarming rate. Everyone starts thinking they'll anchor 99% of the time but there is no way to tell if that's realistic for your style until you do it long-term - anchoring full time for a week long BVI bcharter is idyllic. Reality is transient slips in many places approach $70/night for a 45-foot boat (with overhang plus water snd electricity).

There is a long list of practical prep that folks miss when taking classes or watching YouTubers. A lot of it can't be learned without school of hard knocks experience. In my opinion, the sailing part is over emphasized.