Single handing

[dfelsent]

Know the boat. Know her systems. Know how she handles. Autopilot is your friend ( or enemy it it fails.) midship chock and mooring line.
Boathook at the ready if you are on a mooring. Mizzen approaching a mooring (if you have one) is great for keeping the boat dead upwind and preventing the bow from falling off.
How is the anchor set up. Can you drop it and stop til you figure out the next move.
But above all, patience and planning. Think ahead.

What’s your execution plan.
What is your exit strategy. And your other exit strategy. And your nightmare hold everything bail out plan.

And even more patience.
And planning.

Moonbeam is 34000 pounds empty. Muscle does not work well. At all. Having no plan results in a mess. Planning and patience does far better.

I’ve learned that by screwing up. A lot.

Oh yes. Know the boat. Practice. Go out solo when it’s a great light wind forecast. Over and over. Slowly step it up. Nothing beats time underway.

And patience. Really. That helps. Schedule? Deadline? Those are big problems you don’t want when solo.
They are bad enough when fully crewed

[Dr. D]

Since this hasn't been mentioned: Hire an instructor to go out with you for a day.


That is what I did when we bought our current boat. Our boat is not as large as yours, but I had never sailed a twin rudder, saildrive boat before. Rather than reading endlessly and taking real small steps by myself, I hired an instructor.



Aboard the boat we talked about my intended goals and experience. He then guided me through a series of maneuvers. For the first couple of times he would talk me through the entire process. Then, he would stay silent unless I went far off the mark (though that didn't happen).



After that session I was not an expert, but I was sufficiently confident and I had enough knowledge to practice by myself. There is always more to learn.

[Renegde_Sailor]

I have single-handed hundreds of hours on my Spencer 42, what I can say is it is more about how you have the boat rigged than the boat it's self.

Auto pilot is a huge help.

I am still running old crappy drum winches with wire halyards and manage just fine.

If you are unsure I think the best thing you can do is get out with other people who single hand a lot and get them to show you how they do it.

[Suijin]

I single-hand my Valiant 40 almost exclusively and it is very similar to the Passport 40. These are good boats for single handing for a variety of reasons:

1. Big stable platform. The bigger the boat, the more stable it is offshore. Not as wet, not as much bouncing around. It's just physics.

2. Manageable sail plan. Cutter rigs give you smaller, more easily managed mainsails and more options through yankee and staysail.

3. Small cockpit. Everything is close at hand, the cockpit is secure, and lines can be run back to the cockpit if desired. Mine are and I prefer it at this point, although there are strong arguments for keeping stuff at the mast.

The flip side is that you're dealing with larger forces with respect to canvas. There is a lot more force on the sailplan of a 40' boat than even a 35' and you need to be fit and have your running rigging and leverage well sorted and be well versed in managing the sailplan when the wind and sea picks up.

The only time I'm given pause managing my boat is docking in difficult conditions. When it's just you it's generally much easier in a smaller boat.