Is Singlehanding >24 Hrs. Morally Wrong?

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

What are you disagreeing with -- the heaving-to bit?

I think wise men may disagree about that. I tend to think that heaving to is, in most cases, better than keeping way on, for these reasons:

1. You are easier to avoid.

2. Other vessel will have more time to detect and deal with you.

3. Less likelihood of another vessel thinking you are going to maneuver.

4. Less likelihood of hitting something floating in the water.

5. Less risk that a wind shift or change in wind speed or sudden squall will cause problems.


HOWEVER, that does not mean that I might not just keep on sailing, if I were far out to sea with no traffic at all, and the weather was really good. Of course I agree with you that heaving to means losing time and extending the duration of the passage.

Yes, disagree with heaving to. After must be about 15,000 miles offshore solo so not based on thinking what might be a good idea but what works..

1. Too late if it's visual avoidance, why isn't your radar return strong enough? no AIS transponder? Ships take avoiding action offshore before you see them. Chances of another sailing boat or small vessel are tiny in most ocean passage routes. If it's El Pings Peruvian boats then tough, stay awake at night and short day cat naps til clear. I've had similar down off Senegal, 30+' pirogues well offshore with an occasional bic lighter flash. Deal with it, if you can't physically cope with those hours then better off staying at home.

2, 3 - same. MUCH more chance of a tanker coming to see you're OK if dead in the water. You don't want that.
4. Forget that, choppy moonless night if it's got your name on it you won't see it til you hit it, crewed or not. Don't kid yourself.
5. No problem, the radar alarm goes off for squalls (get the shampoo out ), windshift - who cares? Windvane keeps the boat happy & if it does pipe up you'll wake up.

All that works for me anyway, just makes no sense stopping - you'll be out there twice as long.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by conachair

Yes, disagree with heaving to. After must be about 15,000 miles offshore solo so not based on thinking what might be a good idea but what works..

1. Too late if it's visual avoidance, why isn't your radar return strong enough? no AIS transponder? Ships take avoiding action offshore before you see them. Chances of another sailing boat or small vessel are tiny in most ocean passage routes. If it's El Pings Peruvian boats then tough, stay awake at night and short day cat naps til clear. I've had similar down off Senegal, 30+' pirogues well offshore with an occasional bic lighter flash. Deal with it, if you can't physically cope with those hours then better off staying at home.

2, 3 - same. MUCH more chance of a tanker coming to see you're OK if dead in the water. You don't want that.
4. Forget that, choppy moonless night if it's got your name on it you won't see it til you hit it, crewed or not. Don't kid yourself.
5. No problem, the radar alarm goes off for squalls (get the shampoo out ), windshift - who cares? Windvane keeps the boat happy & if it does pipe up you'll wake up.

All that works for me anyway, just makes no sense stopping - you'll be out there twice as long.

OK, noted. Valuable first hand experience and data point.

[Viking Sailor]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

You don't need a list -- the Rule itself is pretty straightforward:

"The term 'vessel not under command' means a vessel which through some exceptional circumstance is unable to manoeuvre as required by these Rules and is therefore unable to keep out of the way of another vessel."

An "exceptional circumstance" cannot be something routine or planned -- needing to sleep is just about the opposite of an "exceptional circumstance" -- a human being needing to sleep is about as ordinary and predictable and unexceptional as it gets. Courts have held consistently that an "exceptional circumstance" cannot be anything voluntary. So to be NUC, under the letter of the Rule, it needs to be an immobilizing mechanical breakdown, whole crew with severe food poisoning -- things like that.

I concur. There also seem to be an implied request for assistance. A passing vessel seeing NUC lights should determine if they can render assistance.

At one time I was in the NUC singlehander camp. But over the years I have come to believe that displaying an anchor light is a better choice.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Viking Sailor

Stu,

Sorry, I disagree with your interpretation of Rule 3(i) (General Definition -- The word "underway" means a vessel is not at anchor, or made fast to the shore, or aground.) Based upon your interpretation a vessel would be underway if tried to a floating dock, mooring buoy, or a sea anchor. So, since all of the above restrict a vessel's underway maneuvering in a similar way they are functionally equivalent.

I also have to disagree that Rule 35(b) (Sound Signals in Restricted Visibility -- A power-driven vessel underway but stopped and making no way through the water,) applies to a vessel that the captain has configured for all practical purposes to be functionally at anchor by deploying a sea anchor. The rules that apply to most cruising boats during times of restricted visibility are Rule 35(i)(j). These are the sound signals for vessel less then 20m and 12m respectively.

That's not my interpretation.

That is a straight quotation from "A Guide to the Collision Avoidance Rules" by Cockcroft and Lameijer (commonly know as "Cockcroft"). It is the seminal work on interpreting COLREGs with copious case historiesn of Admiralty Court decisions. Anyone who really wants to understand COLREGs should have a copy. I will take his interpretation over yours any day

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

OK, noted. Valuable first hand experience and data point.

Another thought - had a beer with a guy a few weeks ago had met Moitessier. he said he was arrogant in the extreme but all that fell aside when Moitessier hunted down a skipper he wanted advice from at the gathering who had spent a lot time in an area Moitessier was headed. Point being solo offshore it helps to have humility for the sea, admit your weaknesses and find out everything you can .

Great out there.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by JohnHutchins

I think talk of rights is precisely the wrong way to look at it. The regs don't confer rights, they create obligations. It's more correct to say that displaying anchoring lights does not dispense with any of the obligations to give way that a vessel under way has. This isn't quite academic.

This!

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

What are you disagreeing with -- the heaving-to bit?

I think wise men may disagree about that. I tend to think that heaving to is, in most cases, more seamanlike than keeping way on, for these reasons:

1. You are easier to avoid.

2. Other vessel will have more time to detect and deal with you.

3. Less likelihood of another vessel thinking you are going to maneuver.

4. Less likelihood of hitting something floating in the water.

5. Less risk that a wind shift or change in wind speed or sudden squall will cause problems.


HOWEVER, that does not mean that I might not just keep on sailing, if I were far out to sea with no traffic at all, and the weather was really good. Of course I agree with you that heaving to means losing time and extending the duration of the passage.


To put all this in perspective, though -- how hard is it to actually be properly crewed? I don't at all and not by any means condemn single-handers -- I know some people get an almost mystical experience from single-handing a long passage, and my hat's off to them. But other than for the sake of the mystical experience, why? I personally enjoy very much, on a long passage, the experience of working in a full crew, the boat is humming, people are working together, sharing the experience, we cook for each other, entertain each other, everyone gets enough rest. YMMV of course.

And some of us just want to escape all that 'Bonhomme' ********.. listening to someone rabbit on and talking just for the sake of it.. get enough of that at work and home.. why should I take it on the boat.
Re heaving to.. The only time I heave to is bad weather or if injured and need recovery time.
Otherwise its reef the main at sunset and set the jib at what is suitable for conditions and comfort before sleeping.. normal nav lights.
Oh.. should admit have hove to to sleep.. when my crap Simrad (new)AP failed on transat and I did a lot of manual steering..

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by conachair

Another thought - had a beer with a guy a few weeks ago had met Moitessier. he said he was arrogant in the extreme but all that fell aside when Moitessier hunted down a skipper he wanted advice from at the gathering who had spent a lot time in an area Moitessier was headed. Point being solo offshore it helps to have humility for the sea, admit your weaknesses and find out everything you can .

Great out there.

Oh, yeah

But not just solo!!!

Those are truly words to live by.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by boatman61

And some of us just want to escape all that 'Bonhomme' ********.. listening to someone rabbit on and talking just for the sake of it.. get enough of that at work and home.. why should I take it on the boat.. .

Some people are more social than others

[Viking Sailor]

Originally Posted by StuM

That's not my interpretation.

I will take his interpretation over yours any day

Stu, you are very fortunate to have found someone to do your thinking for you. However, you might want to try interpreting some things for yourself. It can be fun to form your own ideas about things.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Viking Sailor

Stu, you are very fortunate to have found someone to do your thinking for you. However, you might want to try interpreting some things for yourself. It can be fun to form your own ideas about things.

Touche Ole..!!!

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Some people are more social than others

Therein lies the answer to your question..
Why Solo..

[conachair]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Why Solo..

If you have to ask, you'll never know why anyone would want to head offshore alone on a little boat

Though I'm starting to feel a little selfish not sharing the joy a bit more, maybe couchsurfing rather than the crew share places though. Show some people what's it's like who would be unlikely to get the chance otherwise.

Maybe one day...

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Viking Sailor

I concur. There also seem to be an implied request for assistance. A passing vessel seeing NUC lights should determine if they can render assistance.

At one time I was in the NUC singlehander camp. But over the years I have come to believe that displaying an anchor light is a better choice.

I don't think NUC implies a request for assistance, but I do believe that there is as risk that a vessel seeing NUC signals might divert to see if assistance is required. You don't want that for a host of reasons, including risks from a approach by a large vessel, and also you just don't want to inconvenience another vessel unnecessarily.

But I would NEVER use an anchor light. Showing an anchor light offshore would be, I think, like hanging the ensign upside down -- it's so wrong, that someone might think there was a hijacking going on. As Stu explained, you are not "anchored" just because you're not making way or lying to a sea anchor. You are most definitely "under way", for purposes of the Rules.

"The word 'underway' means that a vessel is not at anchor, or made fast to the shore, or aground."


Stu has shown what "at anchor" means. It doesn't include a sea anchor, hove-to, etc. And even if the anchor is down, but not holding, doesn't mean you're "at anchor" -- that's NUC.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Therein lies the answer to your question..
Why Solo..

Yes, I understood you


I single hand quite a bit -- did a short single-hand trip just yesterday, in fact. But I don't have any desire to do longer passages single-handed. To each his own!

I don't even like single-handing a house. I grew up in a house with domestic help, and I would rather live in a hotel than live all alone in a house with no staff. I simply like having people around, even if they are not friends or relatives. To each his own!