Atlantic crossing from Mediterranean Spain

[David Ess]

Originally Posted by jmh2002

@Dockhead I for one am interested to hear some details about this new boat that you have alluded to in various posts

I remember your thoughts on what you would prefer as a future boat to meet your particular use case and I'm wondering how this one stacks up?

In any case 250nm days sound good

Dockhead, yes...please tell us.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by David Ess

Dockhead, yes...please tell us.

Unfortunately (or maybe not unfortunately) it's not my boat. My long time sailing buddy bought a Discovery 67.

[MoodyS]

You could also let the weather decide, routing close enough to the Canaries to wait there for the passing of the occasional lows that can create confused seas and spoil a comfortable passage at that time of year.

[jmh2002]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Unfortunately (or maybe not unfortunately) it's not my boat. My long time sailing buddy bought a Discovery 67.

Oh ok. Is that a 250nm per day boat fully loaded on an ocean passage? So averaging 10.5kn, sailing in the low teens, 11, 12, 13kn, most of the time? Or will you have a gun crew to push the boat?

What rig does it have? In mast furling, or?

I guess that's what confused me I thought maybe you had finally upgraded to a high performance boat (I remember that you are a fan of a Beowulf type of boat).

[donradcliffe]

My two cents--if you wait until after mid October to go to the Canaries, you can get beat up on the trip down from Spain. Take a peaceful trip down to Lanzarote (or anywhere but the ARC madness in Grand Canaria), then enjoy the Canaries until hurricane season ends.

[MicHughV]

Are you planning to stop in the Canaries just for a break in the passage and maybe to stock up on supplies ????
Or....are you stopping for a while to see the place ??
That's the real question.

[Joli]

It's pretty tough to sail 200 mile days in the direction you want to go, hell it's tough to sail 200 mile days in any direction. Unless it's a really big boat with really big engines and really big fuel tanks. But it sure sounds like a fun trip!

[jmh2002]

Originally Posted by Joli

It's pretty tough to sail 200 mile days in the direction you want to go, hell it's tough to sail 200 mile days in any direction. Unless it's a really big boat with really big engines and really big fuel tanks. But it sure sounds like a fun trip!

Yeah, that's what made me think that Dockhead had finally upgraded to a Dashew 80 Beowulf type of boat design, to be able to pull those kinds of daily runs consistently in a monohull that is fully loaded on an ocean passage

200s are definely more doable than 250s in a 67 foot monohull, but even so, that still means seeing close to 10kn of boatspeed a lot of the time (8.3kn average).

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by jmh2002

Yeah, that's what made me think that Dockhead had finally upgraded to a Dashew 80 Beowulf type of boat design, to be able to pull those kinds of daily runs consistently in a monohull that is fully loaded on an ocean passage

200s are definely more doable than 250s in a 67 foot monohull, but even so, that still means seeing close to 10kn of boatspeed a lot of the time (8.3kn average).

Well, I have the logs from this boat's circumnav, and they AVERAGED 200 mile days for long periods in the trades. It's a big boat with a lot of sail area and pretty low D/L and long waterline.


The rig is solent with blade jib on one forestay and a big light genoa on the other, then a medium weight A2 with a long carbon pole. Mainsail is inmast furling with laminate sail with roach and full length battens.



I've done a fair few 200 mile days on my own boat, with 218 as my all time best, and typically average 180 miles a day in decent conditions. Waterline length is what makes this possible. The new boat has more than 10 feet more waterline than my boat does. From a limited amount of sailing on the new boat, she feels like about a knot faster than mine under most conditions, and she has the advantage over mine of having instantly deployable big light genoa (changing out headsails on my boat is a big job).

[Joli]

We consider passage times to be from anchor up to anchor down and course length not miles sailed. Yesterday we sailed Newport to Cape Henlopen, 242 nautical miles. It took 32 hours for an average of 7.6 knots. The problem was midnight till 3am, we had very light winds and our speed was down to 4 knots (of course at 3am we're smacked with 35 knots) but the damage of 3 hours of light winds had already ruined the average. If you have days and days of consistent winds from the right direction I'm sure a Discovery 67 can make 200 mile days, we just never seen to have those conditions.
Our personal best over the past two years was 254 miles in the Gulf Stream with 20-30 from the East North East close reaching, very fast and very rough. Anyway, I'm sure you're going to have a great time crossing and if you come to Antigua let me know, it would be fun to meet!

[Nicholson58]

Is the Caribbean destination set? Antigua is friendly to incoming yachts regarding COVID. Decent yacht services available and many nice harbors. Say hi to Roxy

Most if not all Caribbean countries require vaccination for favored treatment.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Joli

We consider passage times to be from anchor up to anchor down and course length not miles sailed. Yesterday we sailed Newport to Cape Henlopen, 242 nautical miles. It took 32 hours for an average of 7.6 knots. The problem was midnight till 3am, we had very light winds and our speed was down to 4 knots (of course at 3am we're smacked with 35 knots) but the damage of 3 hours of light winds had already ruined the average. If you have days and days of consistent winds from the right direction I'm sure a Discovery 67 can make 200 mile days, we just never seen to have those conditions.
Our personal best over the past two years was 254 miles in the Gulf Stream with 20-30 from the East North East close reaching, very fast and very rough. Anyway, I'm sure you're going to have a great time crossing and if you come to Antigua let me know, it would be fun to meet!

Antiqua is currently our planned destination, and would be glad to have you over for sundowners if you're there when we get there!

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

Is the Caribbean destination set? Antigua is friendly to incoming yachts regarding COVID. Decent yacht services available and many nice harbors. Say hi to Roxy

Most if not all Caribbean countries require vaccination for favored treatment.

That's what we heard.


We will be a 100% vaccinated crew.


One person however might have had Sputnik V which is not recognized in most European countries -- how about the Caribbean?

[Joli]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

Is the Caribbean destination set? Antigua is friendly to incoming yachts regarding COVID. Decent yacht services available and many nice harbors. Say hi to Roxy

Most if not all Caribbean countries require vaccination for favored treatment.

The Salty Dawg destination is Antigua and the Bahamas, we're sailing with them but will be stopping in Bermuda on the way down to Antigua. This will be our second trip to Antigua, last year we sailed to the USVI's instead. From what we've heard the islands are open to cruisers who are vaccinated and have a negative PCR test result prior to departure.

The Salty Dawgs will have a zoom meeting tonight discuss arrivals in Antigua, preliminary information sounds good.

[Joli]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

Is the Caribbean destination set? Antigua is friendly to incoming yachts regarding COVID. Decent yacht services available and many nice harbors. Say hi to Roxy

Most if not all Caribbean countries require vaccination for favored treatment.

Are you in Antigua? We would love to catch up if you are going to be there Nov/Dec.

[Joli]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Antiqua is currently our planned destination, and would be glad to have you over for sundowners if you're there when we get there!

It would be great to meet up, it's always fun to talk boats with someone who is passionate about them. And of course you are welcome to visit us on Joli for a rum punch or few.

As an aside, we considered buying a Moody 64 (beautiful boat) but decided not to because Joli sails so well and that's a big part of cruising for us. By year end we'll have sailed about 20,000 miles over the past two years and being on a boat that sails well is, for us, a big part of cruising.