Small Boats & Atlantic Crossing

[cooper1991]

I'm following youtube episodes of a single handed crossing of Atlantic by a guy with a 26ft Contessa with a 5HP outboard.

Is this an exceptional sailor, exceptional boat of exceptional luck?

I know 26ft means no comfort and getting wet, but how small can you go to stay dry(ish) and have low/medium comfort?

[Flagman101]

I know a guy who sailed from Halifax NS across to Azores, then down to Capo Verde and all the way down to south Africa then back North to Canada. Called a big 8.
He did it on a 28 ft sailboat without a motor.
It takes a special type of person to put yourself into that much disconfort. But some do it.

[Flagman101]

I have sailded fron NJ to Antigua on a 38ft Beneteau. Was wet none the less.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by cooper1991

I'm following youtube episodes of a single handed crossing of Atlantic by a guy with a 26ft Contessa with a 5HP outboard.

Is this an exceptional sailor, exceptional boat of exceptional luck?

I know 26ft means no comfort and getting wet, but how small can you go to stay dry(ish) and have low/medium comfort?

Several Contessa 26's have completed circumnavigations.

18 year old Tania Aebi comes to mind first as she was 18 when she started her circumnavigation. She had a diesel on her boat but it rarely worked so she may as well have gone engineless

https://www.google.com/books/edition...sec=frontcover

This in the 1980's.

The motor type or size really has nothing to do with it as many of these folks ride the trades all the way across.

And btw, the Contessa 26 is a tiny boat but is on the Mahina Offshore boat listing

https://www.mahina.com/cruise.html

Examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuFK-uzwjRU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r3mno5oo7s

[thomm225]

The Contessa 26 is a beautiful boat though if you are like me and like the old school blue water cruising boats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3pcXWUZ5Pk

[boatman61]

It's been done by a few bilge keel Centaur 26's, I believe it has also been done on an Achilles 24..
Ann Davidson became the first woman to solo across the Atlantic in 1952 aboard the 23ft Felicity Ann..
Back then it was an exception and took a lot of skills.. no GPS or electronic charts.

[thomm225]

They have restored Ann Davidson's wooden boat Felicity Ann.

http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthre...g-Felicity-Ann

[LittleWing77]

Robin Graham did a circ on Dove, which was a 24-foot sailboat.

Dove by Robin Lee Graham
https://bookoutlet.ca/Store/Details/...SABEgL-6_D_BwE

[robert sailor]

Look up the boat Webb Chiles used for his last circumnavigation. Crossing the Atlantic during favorable times is usually a reasonably easy sail but small boats up the discomfort levels but youth can more than make up for it. If your in Webb Chiles league then even age has no bearing. If you don't know who this fellow is, look him up.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by LittleWing77

Robin Graham did a circ on Dove, which was a 24-foot sailboat.

Dove by Robin Lee Graham
https://bookoutlet.ca/Store/Details/...SABEgL-6_D_BwE

Yep, he did 3/4 the way around on his Lapworth 24 and sailed the rest from the Leeward Islands through the Canal and back to LA on a Luders 33.

He didn't want to complete the circ but his Dad wouldn't hear of it. Robin wanted to just run off with Patti.

The book he wrote about his experiences after his circumnavigation is really good. He had been gone for 5 years sine age 16 and had a hard time adjusting. He wrecked the car he was given and the dropped out of college and used the last of his money to buy some land in Montana where he and Patti moved to

https://flatheadliving.com/2019/07/06/sailor-home/

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

Look up the boat Webb Chiles used for his last circumnavigation. Crossing the Atlantic during favorable times is usually a reasonably easy sail but small boats up the discomfort levels but youth can more than make up for it. If your in Webb Chiles league then even age has no bearing. If you don't know who this fellow is, look him up.

Yep, he used a very light weight (2,000 lb disp) racing boat, a Moore 24.

https://www.yachtingworld.com/voyage...-gannet-126337

https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/moore-24

Among his other feats were his 6 wives many of whom helped finance his trips.

https://www.inthepresentsea.com/the_...roduction.html

[Tupaia]

Mini Transat boats race across the Atlantic every year 6.5m (21ft).


Yes, they are very wet.


A friend who circumnavigated with his girl friend in the 1970's in a 24ft boat who to this day he can no longer eat pasta.

[Rennsail]

Originally Posted by LittleWing77

Robin Graham did a circ on Dove, which was a 24-foot sailboat.

Dove by Robin Lee Graham
https://bookoutlet.ca/Store/Details/...SABEgL-6_D_BwE

ALMOST did a circumnavy. I think he switched boats near the end of it. Somewhere in the Caribbean to a slightly larger boat. The original Dove was demasted a few times along the way.

[CaptainGrey]

Remember Robert Manry's TINKERBELLE. 13 feet, little comfort. Depends on your goals, I suppose!

[Stewie12]

We thought we were doing well in a 36 footer, but the yacht behind us was a 17 foot folk boat. Do remember that the Atlantic has been sailed in a barrel.