30' Royal Cape One

[robrob]

is the 30' Royal Cape One an ocean going vessel?

[Banjo]

Good evening,

Yep, it is.
It will be spartan living, but if the boat is still sound, it will take whatever the ocean throws at you.
Most recently Reaction sailed the 1 800 mile Governors Cup, Simonstown to St Helena. The skipper sailed with his two teenage sons and a friend. They did three days in a row averaging more than 200 miles p/day.
A few years ago Suidoos 11 did two Cape to Rio races.
In the 1960's they were often raced long distance along the South African coast and they survived weather far worse than you will encounter anywhere else along the normal sailing routes.

Do you habve one? Where about are you from?
I notice there are two glass boats for sale at the moment. The glass boats are quite scarce, only about 4 or 5 glass boats were built.

Regards,
Banjo.

[robrob]

thanks for the reply. i'm from the cape and i'm contemplating buying one of the glass fiber boats because i have this mad idea of wanting to travel the world in it. do you know if it is difficult to fit with some form of autohelm?

[Wotname]

No it is not difficult although you probably would want to fit wind vane steering if you anticipate a lot of ocean sailing.

[Banjo]

Good evening,

A standard autopilot (tillerpilot) will be quick and easy to fit.

As said above, a windvane selfsteering will pay for itself too. These boats are skinny and will sail well on a windvane selfsteering. I see in Sailing magazine that the one chap selling his glass boat in Durban is also selling a Platimo Navik windvane seperately. There you go!

Keep in mind that on a RCOD charging batteries will probably be done via solar panels only and that the autopilot will be the biggest drain (and nav lights) so fitting a winvane might be a necesity.
Navlights will have to be LED, ditto cabin lights. Don't worry about fancy gadgets and keep everything as simple as possible.

Good luck,
Banjo.

[alan_za]

Originally Posted by robrob

is the 30' Royal Cape One an ocean going vessel?

It's considered capable of crossing oceans and weathering heavy seas, but I wouldn't consider it a capable cruising vessel. The very, very narrow beam makes the boat tiny inside. It's like a thoroughbred racehourse (albeit one that is probably way past it's prime), fast but not comfortable.

There is a reason that the Miura sells for 4x the price