Engine-less Cruising

[charliehows]

invoking Cook as some kind of support for engineless sailing is such an inversion of logic that it's scarcely worth the trouble to point out the error. Cook was the first sailor to successfully trial a reliable timepiece in order to accurately navigate a ship - the culmination of 3000 years of human technological endeavour. A more crystal clear example of an adopter of best available technology couldnt be found. If he was sailing today he'd have a nuclear reactor engine.

[thomm225]

I thought Cook was best known for spreading venereal disease throughout the south pacific. (actually his men not him per se)

That and shooting islanders for petty theft.

Actually, Cook was brought up earlier in this thread because one of the posters lives on or near Cook Inlet in Alaska where there is a 25' tide which can be a real pain to deal with without an engine I reckon if you plan on sailing against the tide.

[w32honu]

Originally Posted by charliehows

invoking Cook as some kind of support for engineless sailing is such an inversion of logic that it's scarcely worth the trouble to point out the error. Cook was the first sailor to successfully trial a reliable timepiece in order to accurately navigate a ship - the culmination of 3000 years of human technological endeavour. A more crystal clear example of an adopter of best available technology couldnt be found. If he was sailing today he'd have a nuclear reactor engine.

Then he would be steaming……. not sailing.

[captain58sailin]

Right, then I think that the whalers may have had something to do with the spread of VD in the islands. Capt, Cook's name was not being invoked as the patron saint of engineless sailors, only pointing up the challenges he faced doing so in Alaska. His other character flaws notwithstanding his navigation cannot be disputed.

[tbodine88]

An engine is like wealth, I've been rich and I've been poor. I've sailed with and without an engine.

I prefer wealth with an engine any day.

[Sailor954]

Originally Posted by Viking Sailor

+1

+2

I agree as well

[w32honu]

Originally Posted by Viking Sailor

+1

+3

...

[boatman61]

But wealth like engines.. is only any good if the ATM's work and the system has not crashed...
Always good to carry some cash in your wallet for emergencies... especially if your an RBS customer..
Can think of a few times the ability to cope without has been invaluable...

[ronniesimpson]

I have been cruising mostly engineless for a couple of years now and I find it to very practical and in many ways much more enjoyable than sailing on a boat with an engine.

in 2012, I raced an engineless Moore 24 solo to Hawaii and then sailed inter-island, crossing the Kauai channel 4 times, entering several harbors and anchoring in many places with no issues. It was hands down the best summer of sailing i've had. I know this is a light boat and more suited to being engineless.

My current boat is a Cal 2-27 where I have removed the diesel engine and equipped the boat with two 13-foot rowing oars for propulsion. MONGO and I have now cruised from Tacoma, WA to San Diego, CA, but only totally engineless since SF.

I find the Cal, which is 6,000+ pounds to be a very effective engineless cruising boat. The only tines that not having an engine has really been an issue is when it's blowing too hard and I can't get out of my downwind slip to go for a daysail. (im in a transiet slip, not always preferable for sailing in and out of). Sometimes you get becalmed and end up waiting for 2 or 6 or however many more hours, but the breeze always shows back up.

The Moore inspired the Cal, which i'm now happy with how it's set up. When you go engineless, you focus on sailing performance, paying close attention to where you anchor, tides at play, weather windows, tactics, etc. It makes sailing, for me at least, much more enjoyable. Things are always a bit more dodgy, a bit more exciting and a bit more difficult, but in the end I get a much much greater sense of fulfillment with each destination reached.

I will be taking off from San Diego for Hawaii shortly after March 1, eventually bound for Australia. I have been updating my old blog, Open Blue Horizon - Home again for some time now and chronicling the engineless cruise and refit thus far.

[Jammer Six]

I question how effective an engineless boat would be if one were confined to Puget Sound. We seem to spend about 50% of our time, overall, under power.

[mikereed100]

Originally Posted by ronniesimpson

When you go engineless, you focus on sailing performance, paying close attention to where you anchor, tides at play, weather windows, tactics, etc. It makes sailing, for me at least, much more enjoyable. Things are always a bit more dodgy, a bit more exciting and a bit more difficult, but in the end I get a much much greater sense of fulfillment with each destination reached.

Ronnie,

Your post got me thinking that sailing engineless may be one of the few challenges left to the tradewind sailor. Now that navigation has become more and more like watching a video game I find very little sense of accomplishment on making landfall. Doing it without an engine might restore that sense of accomplishment.
That said, I wouldn't want to cruise without an engine, but I think it's very cool that you are.

[Andrew Troup]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Roger that!

I must say old Capt Cook sure got around from the tropical islands to Alaska. That must have been an exciting voyage even at the slow pace they were cruising at.

I may have to find a good book about his voyage(s).

He also got closer to Antarctica than anyone had, on several occasions.

IIRC they got to within seventy or eighty miles - if the weather had been clement instead of unrelentingly putrid they would almost certainly have discovered the continent.

He had extraordinary talents for leadership, setting aside his prodigious skills and instincts as a seaman. Unfortunately towards the end of his life he progressively departed quite some distance from his own standards of good judgement, possibly through a combination of physical and mental health challenges...

But even at the end, he was still a titan by the standards of the day.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Andrew Troup

He also got closer to Antarctica than anyone had, on several occasions.



IIRC they got to within seventy or eighty miles - if the weather had been clement instead of unrelentingly putrid they would almost certainly have discovered the continent.



He had extraordinary talents for leadership, setting aside his prodigious skills and instincts as a seaman. Unfortunately towards the end of his life he progressively departed quite some distance from his own standards of good judgement, possibly through a combination of physical and mental health challenges...



But even at the end, he was still a titan by the standards of the day.

Personally I prefer the exploits of Louis Antoine de Bougainville, but cook wasn't bad either

Dave

[Andrew Troup]

I think I would not greatly miss an engine on ocean passages.

I would rather slop around in calms for a few days, knowing that I was in for one of the sweetest experiences life can offer, IMO, when the breeze finally returned -- than hammer along under power like a suburban commuter. However the people I sail with do not generally share my enthusiasm for such simple pleasures, so I rarely experience it.

Maybe that makes it all the sweeter...

(BTW there are LOTS of things which can be done to improve the experience of a calm, even with a swell. Occasionally, none of them work. That's life!)

On the other hand (and here I do have some experience) sailing engineless certainly keeps you on your mettle when cruising coastally. I've never enjoyed my sailing so much, speaking personally -- I love having to think ahead, and greatly enjoy the feeling of satisfaction on the occasions when it pans out to plan, and the huge amount of learning when it doesn't.

And I think it doesn't hurt to have to submit to a higher authority on occasions, for instance nature dictating that we forgo a destination or an arrival date we greatly desired: I feel that modern life tends to give us a bit too much control of our destiny.

Occasionally, though, and in some rock-bound, tideswept places, it's almost terminally scary.

[goboatingnow]

Lots of ports and fairway approaches will not let you sail in , hence you really need an engine.

Marinas are laid out on the assumption of power too.

Dave