Essential gear for circumnavigation

[AiniA]

Originally Posted by sailor4life7777

Thanks for the reply!

Woods flica 34', 3 person crew, and destination: south pacific (from north america)

My next question would be what will you do next after you have spent whatever amount of time you have in the South Pacific. Getting there is much easier than getting back. If you don't have it a copy of Cornell's ocean routes book would make sense.

[AiniA]

We had both a Monitor and a CPT autopilot (little known old-fashioned tech, it does not interface with anything, but strong). We used the Monitor for about 99% of the time. The CPT was nice when we used it, generally when there was no wind, but we could have survived without it.

[SailingPNW]

[QUOTE=sailor4life7777;3294912]

Could you get away with having a windvane autopilot as opposed to an electronic autopilot?



I plan to have a laptop and tablet, would a dedicated marine chartplotter and GPS navigation system be advisable as well?



Also what tools would you bring? Would you bring a jigsaw, circular saw, router?

QUOTE]


To respond to those three questions, can you have a wind vane vs just an autopilot? The easy answer is yes, however a more complete answer is it depends. How big is your crew? How experienced is your crew, and have the clocked hours at night sailing in dense fog hand steering in rough and challenging conditions? If your going to be short handed at all, the autopilot or wind vane is one of those items I would consider wanting a backup of, and certainly would consider both. Some wind canes aren't as good when motoring also, so how does this impact your plans?

Do you need a real chartplotter? Again you can get by with anything, but I find my chartplotter much nicer to use both in heavy sun and when things are nasty outside. I find laptops aren't great, they draw quite a bit of power, their screens can be hard to see in the sun sometimes also, not what you want if your navigating a narrow channel.

Power Tools, these depend on what your comfortable using and what you can do without and what kinds of repairs and projects your working on. If your stepping onto your first boat this question is a bit more challenging, I would say the minimum for me would be drill, random orbital sander, multitool, and vacuum that the sander can hook up-to. I would recommend battery powered, for convenience. My tools are based on no huge reconstruction but with the need to refinish some exterior teak and work on projects within a lot of construction, like electrical projects. Also the multitool can be used as a cutting device if needed. The bulk of my tools are manual tools however, get good quality tools, ocean air is harsh and destroys cheap steel quickly, don't discount older tools, many of those were made with superior steel and will last far longer.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Fi2010

Approximately 100 para-anchors sold for US Coast Guard and US Navy use this year. Compare this to approximately zero JSD units supplied to our naval forces. This includes the new sentinel class cutters.

Consider mentioning all of the drag devices instead of promoting only one. There are several methods to choose from in slowing or stopping a boat in stormy seas. Including sail trim and heaving-to.

Yes. If few sailboats are like a navy ship. The preference may be different then.



Hence (as you said) one needs to look at all the devices, then decide which one to carry onboard.



Some sailors will forego special devices and use a number of car tires tied in a string. The whole thing then gets towed behind the boat.


It is 100% well said some kind of device is very desired in any extended offshore adventure.


b.

[kazo]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

Best quote of the thread was from tarian: "Too much money and low risk aversion and reading forums will set you years back"

You need a philosophy and an approach first before you need a list.

You can start with a vision of the most perfectly equipped boat with every imaginable gizmo, complete with redundancy and spares and tools to maintain. From there, scale back to accommodate budget and storage constraints. Do you really need a dedicated freezer? Generator? A/C? Issue is it becomes a rabbit hole - one decision begets a bunch more. Autopilot vs wind vane choice is really more about power generation and storage than reliability - an A/P can easily consume 75 AH per day.

The other paradigm is starting at bare bones end of spectrum and adding stuff you can't/won't live without. Below is a YouTube documentary of the Hiscocks circumnavigation in the 1950s. It's the bare minimum needed because that's all there was available. No engine. No electricity. Wind vane had not been invented yet so they hand steered or set balanced sails. The collected rain water, navigated by celestial navigation, and rowed their dinghy to shore when needed. If guess their supply of tools and spares was pretty manageable as a result. I'm not advocating a spartan existence - that's a personal decision that is often the result of financial austerity but doesn't have to be.

Theoretically, either approach should arrive in the same place. But practically, you will find your boat with more "wants" vs "needs" if you start with top-down vs the Hiscock approach. You need a capable boat, a means of propulsion, self steering, navigation capabilities, ability to store provisions, and that's about it. How robust and complicated you get for each of those will dictate equipment, soares, tools, and skills. At one end you've got canned food and dried beans and rice. At the other end you've got refrigeration, dedicated freezer, plus generator and batteries and all the stuff to support. It's a choice, not a requirement. Tradeoff is you could spend a lot of time doing maintenance and repairs. That certainly seems to be the universal experience of cruisers.

https://youtu.be/g_RHHIV4u1k

what a lovely movie, thanks

[Fi2010]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Yes. If few sailboats are like a navy ship. The preference may be different then.

Hence (as you said) one needs to look at all the devices, then decide which one to carry onboard.

Some sailors will forego special devices and use a number of car tires tied in a string. The whole thing then gets towed behind the boat.

It is 100% well said some kind of device is very desired in any extended offshore adventure.
b.

Our navies also have sail boats.

Para-anchors and storm drogues are deployed more frequently by power than sail boats. Intended results and use are the same. Although, drift fishing with a para-anchor is more common for power over sail.

Yes, car tires are effective drag devices. We’ve published photos showing how the commercial fishing boats from the 1940s used car tires as fenders and storm drogues.

[Topspin]

Most important to maintain proper function of Captain (and crew):