Sailing Alone

[Dkdoyle]

To the 16 year old. While i repect your dream you and i have no doubt you can accomplish it, you need to have goals and then a plan to get there. This is most importantly revealed in jessica watsons book. The point is based on you career choice can you afford your dream? If not and your not inheriting money then you might want to reconsider a. Your choice in boat or b. You choice of career.

[kaimusailing]

Back to Ellen MacArthur. She may still have some videos online of her solo sailing and a couple of them were very instructional. She's up the mast of that huge boat in nasty weather, seems foolhardy. Someone gave me a DVD of the '69 Round the World Race and Moitessier did some filming from the masthead while running downwind in the Roaring 40's. They must be crazy. They didn't start that way, it's like the dirt bike stunts, they learn easier stunts first, then eventually are doing crazy stuff. On boats you need to work your way up. It helps if you sail with experienced sailors and learn something, but there is no substitute for trying something, having it get out of hand, and then finding out how to bring it back. If you go to the academy, you will get plenty of opportunities to go out sailing, and get a lot of experienced advice.

[Dkdoyle]

Found one for you. Another remarkable person


Ellen MacArthur

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elb-c...e_gdata_player

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by Rakuflames

Well, you WILL get caught in storms, probably some of them quite bad, sailing around the world.


Agreed.

The guy next to me was in such a situation and decided to reef. He sailed WITH a really bad storm -- for 4 1/2 hours. When the storm finally collapsed and died away, he had traveled 100 miles on a boat that typically only does about 6 knots/hr on a good day.


I hear the alarm ringing... not to pick nits, mate, but averaging 22.5 knots in a 6 knot boat seems pretty unlikely. Perhaps you could enlighten us as to what sort of craft it is.

Cheers,

Jim

[deckofficer]

Lately, the girls have been showing us guys "how its done". Laura Dekker who at 14 took off on her solo circumnavigation has also climbed her mast under way. She has the uncanny ability to dial into any vessel she has sailed.

[zeta]

May want to contact this fellow, seems he is going to have a very interesting review of the Gemini 105.
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...-it-72119.html

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by Dkdoyle

To the 16 year old. While i repect your dream you and i have no doubt you can accomplish it, you need to have goals and then a plan to get there. This is most importantly revealed in jessica watsons book. The point is based on you career choice can you afford your dream? If not and your not inheriting money then you might want to reconsider a. Your choice in boat or b. You choice of career.

Well, this is all true. I found a boat to toodle around in while I learned to sail for $1,000 (outboard extra).

I found a boat to live on for $12K (new engine, needed, extra ...)

Unless this young man has assets he'd be smart not to reveal to total strangers on the Internet, he's going to be hard put to buy a boat that's up to the trip he's stated here.

But he might well be able to afford a boat that will teach him as much as my first boat taught me, which while not enough to sanely sail around the world, taught me a fair amount.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Cheers,

Jim

'
Originally Posted by Rakuflames
Well, you WILL get caught in storms, probably some of them quite bad, sailing around the world.


Agreed.

The guy next to me was in such a situation and decided to reef. He sailed WITH a really bad storm -- for 4 1/2 hours. When the storm finally collapsed and died away, he had traveled 100 miles on a boat that typically only does about 6 knots/hr on a good day.


I hear the alarm ringing... not to pick nits, mate, but averaging 22.5 knots in a 6 knot boat seems pretty unlikely. Perhaps you could enlighten us as to what sort of craft it is.

Cheers,

Jim"

Maybe the guy's a big fat liar, I don't know, but he doesn't come across as a BS artist. Believe it or not -- your choice, but the point of the story is that there are important choices to be made when caught in a storm, and it takes a bunch of storms to try them all out. that was the point of my story -- the fellow involved had several choices. Each of them had consequences.

If you reef, you sail with the storm. You stay with it.

If you anchor, the storm passes over you, but until it does, you have a pretty darned uncomfortable ride.

If you motor, you may be able to ease some of the discomfort of anchoring.

Anchors can drag in storms, motors can fail, and it may not be possible to sail away from trouble, such as shallow (and maybe rocky) shores ...

[Seafarer24]

Hello to the OP. I've also wanted to sail solo around the world since I was 16. I'm 30 now and I still haven't done it! Here's where I went wrong:

I tried to get on a career path that would make me enough money to buy a nice catamaran. I wasted time in college, only earning an AA in photography, before learning that nothing I could take in college would help me sail around the world.

I tried to join the Coast Guard. That wasn't a waste of time and I really wished it had panned out. I did delayed entry to do basic training in the summer instead of winter and in the meantime got such an ear infection that I needed (a disqualifying) surgery.

I tried to become a Helicopter Flight Instructor but after 18 months of training I was half-way to my commercial license (only a few months to go, then a few more for flight-instructor) and the school went bankrupt. The bank still says I owe them $70k for that lack of an education.

Basically, I did ancillary things to my goal, and they all wasted my time. Here's how you do it by the time you graduate HS:

Step 1) Read Read Read Read Read.
20 Small sailboats to take you anywhere
20 Affordable Sailboats to take you anywhere
By the Grace of the Sea <-- Solo circumnavigation by Pat Henry, a lady who learns to paint along the way and thus funds her trip.
Treacherous Waters <-- Sailing aint always fun.
Project BlueSphere - A solo circumnavigation & video documentation of the globe Alex Dorsey's website. He started on a West Sail 28 and went from New England to Australia, then sold the boat and bought a 41' Cheoy Lee in FL, fixed it up, and is now in the San Blas.
http://www.artoffshore.com <-- Female live-aboard artist (painter) in the Keys, right now. Go talk to her, she'll likely be a great resource to you!

Step 2) Don't incur any debt!
Exception to this is if that debt is the boat itself. At 16 if you have a steady income you might find someone to owner-finance a boat to you. I did at 18 and paid it off in a year. It's not the boat I have now, though, which was also owner financed!

Step 3) Save money! As much as you can as fast as you can. It's a buyers market right now and if you've got cash in hand you would not believe the deals to be had. I've got a world-cruising capable boat that I paid a mere $9k for. It will likely take $10k in repairs and upgrades before I'm ready to go, but if I wasn't in "Pay off Debt" mode that would equal about one years worth of working on the boat! Sometimes you can buy a ready-to-go boat for that same $10k!

Step 4) Slight exception to Step 2- buy something small to learn on. If it's a catamaran, then 14' is perfect for a single-hander. Anything bigger and you can't right it yourself. A Hobie Wave with a jib would be great, a Trac 14 with a jib would be good as well. If it's a monohull you can look at a wider range of sizes, but I'd stick between 14' and 24'. Preferably a main-and-jib boat. In the 20-24' range you could even find boats to sail around the world on!

Step 5) Buy a bigger boat. This could still be 20-24' but something with the build quality to take going offshore. The Flika was already mentioned, the Aquarius Pilot Cutter (24') isn't as well known but is a fabulous little boat. I'm on the hunt for a Cal 20 or 25 to practice on while fixing up my larger boat, as these have similar handling characteristics. As you approach the 30' range your selection of able boats will grow immensely, as will the selection of unable boats. Weeding them out is a tough job.
Look at the old cruising trimarans. The Cross, Searunner, and Tristar boats are all very capable vessles if you find a well-built one. For single-handing I'd prefer the Searunner designs as the center-cockpit with mast stepped right in the cockpit means all the lines are already lead to the cockpit! The 34 is a fantastic boat! For monohulls, my ideal boat is a Freedom Cat-Ketch. The 28, 33, or 40. This is due to lower operating (maintenance) costs associated with a free-standing mast.

Step 5) Practice cruising. Crew on other peoples boats, take your own boat on week-long voyages. Head to the Bahamas, etc.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by Rakuflames

'
Originally Posted by Rakuflames
Well, you WILL get caught in storms, probably some of them quite bad, sailing around the world.


Agreed.

The guy next to me was in such a situation and decided to reef. He sailed WITH a really bad storm -- for 4 1/2 hours. When the storm finally collapsed and died away, he had traveled 100 miles on a boat that typically only does about 6 knots/hr on a good day.


I hear the alarm ringing... not to pick nits, mate, but averaging 22.5 knots in a 6 knot boat seems pretty unlikely. Perhaps you could enlighten us as to what sort of craft it is.

Cheers,

Jim"

Maybe the guy's a big fat liar, I don't know, but he doesn't come across as a BS artist. Believe it or not -- your choice, but the point of the story is that there are important choices to be made when caught in a storm, and it takes a bunch of storms to try them all out. that was the point of my story -- the fellow involved had several choices. Each of them had consequences.

If you reef, you sail with the storm. You stay with it.

If you anchor, the storm passes over you, but until it does, you have a pretty darned uncomfortable ride.

If you motor, you may be able to ease some of the discomfort of anchoring.

Anchors can drag in storms, motors can fail, and it may not be possible to sail away from trouble, such as shallow (and maybe rocky) shores ...

Well, IMO using a story that is implausible to support a theory of storm management is counter productive... that's why I was contesting his remarkable statement.

As to your choices, consider that the surface winds that you experience don't always go in the direction that the storm is moving, so running off may not be such an extender of exposure time as you think.

If you are at sea, anchoring is not often an option, while heaving to may well be ok. This practice can make you nearly stationary, allowing the storm to move on away as you describe. Many modern boats don't heave to well, but unless the winds are really fierce, fore reaching at minimum speed is a reasonable approach, and may get you through the storm cell faster than just sitting.

Motoring?? Don't see what that has to attract you. If you motor into the wind and seas it will be pretty uncomfortable rather than easing things as you describe. If you motor downwind you might as well be sailing.

Finally, striking all your sails will leave you rolling your guts out. Not a good choice for most folks.

Cheers,

Jim

[webejammin]

Check out this guy's solo sailing journey www.solotheamericas.org he's sailed out of Annapilous up north thru the North West Passage and is now headed south in the Pacific about parallel with Peru. His power is limited due to lots of moisture going thru the artic so he's not posting as much as he used to but the web site shows his location and speed. He is not putting down an anchor just hoveto and sea anchors.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by Seafarer24

Step 4) Slight exception to Step 2- buy something small to learn on. If it's a catamaran, then 14' is perfect for a single-hander. Anything bigger and you can't right it yourself. A Hobie Wave with a jib would be great, a Trac 14 with a jib would be good as well. If it's a monohull you can look at a wider range of sizes, but I'd stick between 14' and 24'. Preferably a main-and-jib boat. In the 20-24' range you could even find boats to sail around the world on!

+1

Books and studying will only get you so far. Sitting onboard and it's "you" in the hot seat is experiance that can't simply be bought or taught.

Skills OP learns on a small starter boat will last a lifetime

Depending on how handy he is - could even build a Sailing Dink, a squillion designs out there..........

[Ex-Calif]

[QUOTE="Jim Cate"]

Well, IMO using a story that is implausible to support a theory of storm management is counter productive... that's why I was contesting his remarkable statement.

As to your choices, consider that the surface winds that you experience don't always go in the direction that the storm is moving, so running off may not be%

[hillsi6]

another good read is The Dove by Robin GRam he sailed around the world leave Los Angels when he was 16 Kings Point is a great school

[Tim Schaaf]

Without underestimating the magnitude of the OP's goals, to the naysayers I would say "rubbish!".

Most folks who have sailed around the world on sailboats learned how to do it by sailing around the world on sailboats, paying close attention as they went along. John Neal, of Mahina fame, left on his first trip from the Northwest to Hawaii without knowing how to do his celestial navigation, but learned along the way. Tania Aebi did the same.

With regard to goals at which only one in a thousand seem to succeed, usually only five really try, so the odds aren't as bad as they seem at first.

It is wonderful to have a clear goal. There are people who say, " I am going to do such and such", and actually do it. Then, there are those who never do, and measure others the same way.

The most dangerous thing any of us does is to drive a lump of metal at eighty miles per hour, three feet away from someone else whom we do not know, who is doing the same thing.

Keep your eye on the prize, experiment and learn from your experiences, and may you have the best of luck. Kings Point will be a great prep.....good choice made, already.

Cheers,
Tim