Newbie.

[Unsafebutton]

Hello, I am a first time visitor to the site, I think it will be a great help in finding out some of the things about sailing that I will need to know in the next 6 years. To start out with im 19 years old, me and 4 others have a plan to sail the world for at least 2 years after we finish college, me being a travel tourism major, and a couple of the other being in film school...it just makes sence to attepmt to make some such adventure a reality. Two of the 4 people I mentioned have plently of experiance on sailboats, one of them growing up in maine and sailing his grandfathers boat up and down the east coast for years, the other, and myself have spent enough time fishing in the bering sea to know that being on the ocean is definitly for us. My qustions are...
1. How big of a boat is recomended for offshore cruiseing with say 5-6 person crew.
2. Rough estimate of cost of circumnavigating, figureing time spent in ports every so often.
3. What kind of cerifications/lisenceing is truely needed.
4. Is such a thing even heard of? do people do this at our age?

Ive been reading about sailing for years now, but never having actually sailed a boat makes this dream seem slightly out of place, I have gotten answers from others on the qustions I have ask, Im now just looking for diversity, please, anything you can tell me would be a great help.

Thank you.

[skipmac]

First, around the world sailing has been done by younger sailers. Tania Aebi started her solo circumnavigation at 18. I believe a 16 year old made a solo transatlantic sail. So age is not necessarily an issue as long as the sailers have the maturity, judgement and skills to make the trip.

Regarding size I would say the largest, well made boat you can afford for 5-6 (which by the way is a sizeable crew for the trip). I met 4 people that lived on board a 24 foot boat but I imagine they had to be very good friends. For new sailors think anything over 40' might be a hand full.

Regarding costs, if you search the forums you will see lots of threads on costs for cruising. In short that is something that to some degree is variable. Do you want to spend time in fancy marinas with showers and maid service or will you anchor out and wash clothes in a bucket? Also can vary a lot with luck. If your engine blows up you can be looking at a one time cost of $5,000-$25,000 (depending on boat size, new, used or rebuilt engine, yard install or DIY). Hard to plan for that expense.

Good luck. Do some more research and ask some more questions.

[Unsafebutton]

Thanks for the help, there is 5 of us and we've all known/worked with each other for a long time, weve been looking at a 36 foot boat right now, its a Watkins W36C...not that we'll be buying for at least 2 years, but just trying to get a good idea of priceing and what not, and as far as nice marinas and what not is concerned...our job requires us to stay out in the middle of no where for 2-3 weeks at a time, sometimes without anything but a creek to clean off in...so i think we can handle that aspect of the trip lol

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by skipmac

her solo circumnavigation at 18. I believe a 16 year old made a solo transatlantic sail. .

You guys are far too old. Its like those US pilots a decade ago or so where they were all trying to get younger and younger till a 7 (SEVEN) year old crashed her plane over the USA killing herself, father and an instructor.

In Australia some fool parents are just thrusting their 15 year old girl out to a few months of misery, and maybe death, in the Southern Ocean.

If your film making friends think they can make money out of it then they will have another think coming. Video shot from moving boats is unusable in a commercial sense, fine for news, but not to sell as a doco. Also the level of kit needed to film underwater is mind blowingly expensive. Plus you need a second stable boat to shoot from because one pov ain't enough and their just isn't enough camera angles on a boat.

So unless someone’s daddy's filthy rich... and I mean filthy, then its just fun talk over a few beers



Mark

[slomotion]

Well, no matter how Spartan you are prepared to be about it, 5 adults and their stuff on a 36 foot boat for an extended period of time is too much. Provided you can carry enough provisions without being overloaded, it would probably be OK for an ocean passage where you’re keeping watch, eating beans and rice, or sleeping in a sea bunk most of the time. But, you’re not going to do that for 2 years. The whole point of cruising, especially for film and travel majors, is to go to exotic places and maybe stay for awhile. A roomier platform will make this a lot more fun. My take: great idea! - but, get a bigger boat; and if you’re going to circumnavigate, take more than 2 years.

[gak222]

Speaking of younger sailors, check out
Mike Perham SailMike - Mike Perham - World Challenge
Zac Sunderland Zac Sunderland
They are out there as we type.

[MarkJ]

HOBART, Australia (AP) — A 17-year-old British sailor who is attempting to become the youngest person to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe docked at an Australian port Saturday for his fourth repair stop about halfway through his trouble-plagued voyage.
Mike Perham, of Potters Bar in Hertsfordshire, England, said he sailed his 50-foot (15-meter) yacht into Australia's most southerly city, Hobart, for precautionary repairs to a rudder, battery recharger and ballast pump.
The recharger had been defective since a large wave tipped the yacht over in the Antarctic Ocean just over a week before reaching Hobart.
Since he set sail from Portsmouth, England, on Nov. 15 for what was to be a nonstop four-and-a-half month journey, Perham has been forced to dock for repairs in Lisbon, Canary Islands and Cape Town in South Africa.

This kiddy just turned 17 on March 16th.
The parents should be locked up. How dare they push him out to sea on a 50 footer.
Look at all the damage and repairs the voyage has needed.

Some people are cretins. and these parents should be jailed for being cretins.

[Unsafebutton]

Thanks for the help, and as far as the film school guys go...the last thing anyone has on their mind for this trip is to be making money from movies, I think they more or less want to meet contacts around the world for future reference...and what better way then to do it by boat, not to say that filming wont be happening...but im fairly certain no one wants to become famous. About taking more then 2 years, yeah were going to try and take as much time as we can...we were kinda just figureing at least 2 years. can anyone tell me anything about the types of certs and liscenses that would be needed to do such a trip?

[Hud3]

Welcome to the Forum, Unsafebutton.

What you're thinking about doing can be a really rewarding adventure if you approach it in the right way. Luckily, there's not just one way to do it, as the many circumnavigations by all sorts of sailors in all sorts of boats have shown. There are some general principles that make chances for success greater, however. Most of those revolve around thorough preparation and knowing your boat and it's systems inside out. There's a thread here about a young man who headed off on a solo circumnavigation last year, planning to make a commercial film about his adventures. Unfortunately, it didn't work out for him, but probably could have if he'd had a more realistic understanding of what he was facing. http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ice-20095.html

You can find a lot of other good info in our archives by using the Google search function in the small "Search" pull-down menu up top.

[Sam Plan B]

I would say, look for an older GRP boat 40 feet or more. Say, a Morgan 41 that has been on the hardstand for a few years. The cost will be about $35k, more or less to start. You and your friends should first put 6 months into fixing what will be a lengthly survey list. In the process of that you will learn every system on the boat and how to fix it. You will also learn how to do fiber glass repairs and make the result look like original factory work. By the time you are ready to go to sea you will have a boat in which you have confidence. You will likely have spent another $20k minimum.

D not buy a wood boat. Do not buy a steel or aluminum hull. Do not think about ferro. No good can come of that.

Next learn to sail the boat. Take a summer to sail the Chesapeake, if that's where you are. Finish up with a round trip to Bermuda. When you are 100 miles past the sea bouy you may find that your crew are not the people you thought they were. And you may find that you are not the person you thought you were either. If all goes well, plan for your trip starting the next season. Read everything you can find about cruising, navigation, provisioning and seamanship.

You will need to have your boat documented by the USCG so that you can take it to foreign ports. You will need a passport, a crew manafest and if possible, insurance. I am sure there is more but I can't think of it right now.

So, you see, there is quite a lot to it.

[Unsafebutton]

That is what im looking for sam and hud, thank you very much. We are planning realisticly for about a 100k budget...as there is 5 of us we figured 20k-30k each is a reasonably easy sum of money to come into given our circumstances. We are willing to put everything on the line, let me get that out there, if i have to eat top ramen and live in a studio apartment for the rest of my life to finance this trip for as long as possible, Ill do it. As far as having a passport already that far haha, and as far as being out at sea, 3 of the 5 including myself have plently of experiance being on boats and 1 of us has a lot of exeriance with sail boats in particular, having spent a few seasons being battered on the bering starting at 16 and going out on other fishing boats here around Oregon, 2 of us together actually took a diesel boat from cali to Wrangel, AK 2 summers ago I think its safe to say that at least the 3 of us know what were getting into as far as being out and weather and what not like that, dont get me wrong im sure there are plently of things out there we havnt yet encountered, but judgeing by the character of the people ill be with and have known since i was in preschool, I think we can handle it. Ive been considering taking some sailing courses here in Oregon but is there an easier way? It seems to me that the best experiance I could get pre-trip would be just meeting someone who already sails and what not, but im not sure thats as easy as it sounds. I am glad to have stumbled onto this site however, all of you have been VERY helpful to me, and I am very thankful.

[Hudson Force]

Your opportunity to manage this kind of risk probably won't come by again until you're in your sixties. Children, family, job committments are not going to provide this freedom often in life. For sure do it...be wise...be safe.....adapt to your hurdles. 'take care and joy, Aythya crew

[Unsafebutton]

Yeah that was kinda of the reasoning behind the idea, finish the next to years of college, while saving around 20-30k, Take 2-3 years to sail and see thing before there are really no restaints on what we can do..no children, no career, nothing but thousands of miles of water standing between us and anywhere. Then once Im satisfied with that, get into to my career and spend the next 25-30 years trying to figure out how to do it again People always tell you to listen to your elders, and a lot of my elders tell me to live life now while you can, or they tell me something they've always wanted to do but never could because of this or that, when im 60 years old I dont want to have to ask myself What if I would have done this? I believe in doing, not dreaming.