Watchkeeping Scheduling on Longer Passages

[SkiprJohn]

For a crew of 3. 3 on and 6 off works the best (in my opinion) if you have windvane or autopilot steering. 2 on 4 off for hand steering. After about 24 hours of that you'll have no trouble sleeping.

Yes, I've had 12 on 12 off for a year in Vietnam while working in a compound in Saigon when I wan't in the field. Gets old 7 days a week.

I set my clocks at zulu when making a long passage. Easier for me to do navigation.

regards,

JohnL

[MarkJ]

Aussiesuede that looks incredible complicated!

We love ours as its simple and we each get looooooooooong sleeps each 24 hours


This might not be for all but works for us

0000-0400 4 hours
0400-0800 4 hours
0800-1300 5 Hours
1300-1900 6 hours
1900-0000 5 hours

Person ON watch cooks! IE 0400-0800 cooks breaky to be eaten at 8am and also does dinner as they do 1300-1900 that day.

Every second day you get an extra watch, but you only cook 1 meal that day

You get at least 5 hours sleepable each day and 6 hours every second day. Yippeeeeeeeeeee!

I 'ate 3 hour watches as a sailing boat moves at a speed that you 'need' 4 hours to get anywhere and/or go through a weather pattern.

5 hour watches in the day time and till midnight are fine!

LOVE those 4 hours off-watch midnight till dawn


Mark

[Bash]

Originally Posted by Lodesman

You know they invented something for this - it's called an "alarm clock". Or you could arrange for a shake, since that is what you're using anyway.

I've certainly heard of this invention, and I'm happy to report that I don't own one; I would certainly not want such a machine on my boat. The whole point of cruising, it seems to me, is not to have one of those devices bossing me around. That goes equally underway as it does lying at anchor.

I used to spend a lot of time helping friends deliver boats, especially between one race venue and the next. Were I faced with the choice of crewing on a boat with a watch schedule such as Aussiesuede suggests, or crewing on a boat run the way Maxingout runs the watches, I'd elect to crew for the later every day.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Bash

The whole point of cruising, it seems to me, is not to have one of those devices bossing me around.

Hallelujah brother! Could I toss every clock and timer etc overboard!

I prefer timed and set watches because I just do Great reasoning!

But the point is, everyone has a differnt stysem and different body mechanism / body clock... and we don't have a commercial reality either. So I think every couple we have met has a differnt watch system! And everyone loves their own! Or is activly seaking the the Holy Grail of 24 hours of restful sailing per day


Mark

[Chief Engineer]

crew of 3......4 on eight off

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Chief Engineer

crew of 3......4 on eight off

Bliss

[Hud3]

I've always sailed with four crew (including myself) on offshore passages. We've tried several watch schemes. My crew has mostly favored a 2 on, 6 off schedule, beginning at midnight. On our last passage of 10-1/2 days we did the 2/6 schedule, but varied it by adding an hour to the watch nearest to noon. That rotated the schedule so that no one got stuck with being on watch during a particular meal every day of the trip.

My personal favorite is 2 on from 2000 hours to 0600, and 4 on from 0600 to 2000. That results in a 6 hour off-watch period at night, and a luxurious 12 hours off during the day.

[GeoPowers]

Interesting to see what works for everyone. I would have thought most would have preferred the classic "five and dimes" for a 3 crew, six and sixes for a two crew, but with most going for a less regimented schedule during non-sleep hours. Anyway, good fun seeing what everyone does.

[dtrickey]

Can anyone recommend a decent watch alarm? I know a kitchen timer will work, but I would prefer to be able to set it once to keep going off every 15 minutes, and not have to keep resetting it. I would love to have a pretty loud sound and vibration for the helmsman, but not so loud that it wakes the weary Captain down below on a 35 footer if possible.

[goboatingnow]

I like overlapping watches. I schedule the crew over 3-4 hours 1 on, 2 on , 1 on , so there's. Company on the night watches particulary

Dave


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[JPA Cate]

dtrikckey,

Check out the GymBoss, it vibrates as well as sounds a quiet tone. Countdown timer sort of deal, so re-ups itself for the next pre-set interval. Will not wake the offwatch then used in vibrate mode.

Ann

[Gerrycooper56]

I wonder how many cruisers actually have more than 2 people on board for long passages. Don't know if it's a male/female thing but I get up early and sleep early while wife is opposite. We then had 3 hour watches thru the night starting at 7. During the day we were both trying to sleep as much as possible - nothing fixed. We managed the 21 days to the Marquesas with little ill effect - nothing that a 12 hour sleep didn't fix.