Singlehanded passage making, Best Practices

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by Paul Elliott

So how critical is it to upgrade if you already have a first-generation AIS-B transponder? When at sea the AIS channel congestion is minimal, and I've never actually seen that more transmit power or more frequent position updates (beyond what my old Class-B unit does) would really make much of a difference.

As for the navstat messages, how many people actually pay attention to these? I find them interesting, but frequently obviously wrong.

Never let perfection be the enemy of good. Upgrading to the newer class B devices should be a pretty low priority. If buying new, I'd try and wait till Vesper releases the 5w class B's.

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by conachair

How many sailing boats do you actually see on a 2 or 3 week passage? Couple maybe?

Think you over estimate. On the Northern Atlantic outside of coastal waters I'd say one in a month. I could be wrong as I've been there about three weeks all together but anyways never seen one on the open water (by sight or AIS)

Teddy

[John A]

Originally Posted by TeddyDiver

Think you over estimate. On the Northern Atlantic outside of coastal waters I'd say one in a month. I could be wrong as I've been there about three weeks all together but anyways never seen one on the open water (by sight or AIS)

Teddy

There are many more passages than just the North Atlantic, Just as there are many, many more boats in the ocean than sailboats.


Based on my observation, at this time of the year, there are approx. 5,000 sailboats in Trinidad and Granada from all over the world waiting out the Hurricane season. There will be over 300 boats in St. Barts for New Years Eve.
Starting on November 1st. over 500 sailboats sail down the West Coast of the US, every year.

The Panama Canal operates 3 lanes of chambers 24/7!


Heck, around 35 cruise ships depart Miami every week.


2 or 3 sailboats? Really?
a

[john61ct]

The topic is crossing oceans, getting from one continent to another, or at least between remote landfalls.

And doing so singlehanded, perhaps weeks without seeing anyone.

I would think rule #1 while en route, would be to stay away from any areas with many boats.

Coastal or Caribbean island hopping, and certainly going to Foxy's for NYE is certainly OT here.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by John A

There are many more passages than just the North Atlantic, Just as there are many, many more boats in the ocean than sailboats.


Based on my observation, at this time of the year, there are approx. 5,000 sailboats in Trinidad and Granada from all over the world waiting out the Hurricane season. There will be over 300 boats in St. Barts for New Years Eve.
Starting on November 1st. over 500 sailboats sail down the West Coast of the US, every year.

The Panama Canal operates 3 lanes of chambers 24/7!


Heck, around 35 cruise ships depart Miami every week.


2 or 3 sailboats? Really?
a

Yes, 2 or 3 if that. The post was about ocean passages, 2 or 3 weeks. Can't remember seeing any sailing boats in the south atlantic. Coastal passages obviously will be very different, get off the shelf the oceans are largely empty.
But not completely empty.......

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by John A

There are many more passages than just the North Atlantic, Just as there are many, many more boats in the ocean than sailboats.


Based on my observation, at this time of the year, there are approx. 5,000 sailboats in Trinidad and Granada from all over the world waiting out the Hurricane season. There will be over 300 boats in St. Barts for New Years Eve.
Starting on November 1st. over 500 sailboats sail down the West Coast of the US, every year.

The Panama Canal operates 3 lanes of chambers 24/7!


Heck, around 35 cruise ships depart Miami every week.


2 or 3 sailboats? Really?
a

Well, Atlantic has most sailboats crossing every year of all oceans. If I don't see any sailing on the open sea in the autumn to Canaries or spring from Azores to Ireland it means the sea is a big place. You could place about 200000 sailboats on the Northern Atlantic out of each others sight, compared the number of boat crossing simultanously might be around a couple of hundreds.

For me it's irrelevant how many are in the marinas but for the record most places where I've stopped were pretty much full of boats.
And I was talking only about sailboats. Saw one cruise ship coastal of Madeira (not of shore) and mebbe half a dozen freighters on open water, one without AIS on and a two fishing vessels (other one with only AIS).

I don't count most of the Caribbean as "passage making" in the sense we are talking about singlehanders here, merely island hopping which is not a problem, or is it?. Been there too..

BR Teddy

[John A]

This is the current AIS traffic world wide.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais...ry:28.6/zoom:2

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by john61ct

The topic is crossing oceans, getting from one continent to another, or at least between remote landfalls.

And doing so singlehanded, perhaps weeks without seeing anyone.

I would think rule #1 while en route, would be to stay away from any areas with many boats.

Coastal or Caribbean island hopping, and certainly going to Foxy's for NYE is certainly OT here.

Single handers do not take routes different from other cruisers. The passage routes are used because they are the best route to get from a to b.

Since overall risk of a collision on passage is so low, I don't think it matters if there are 2 other boats or 12 other boats on a similar route.

[swordds]

I fly this pennant when singlehanded sailing. If you see another vessel flying one of these you should stand clear or give way as the vessel is either “not under command or is limited in its ability to maneuver. The COLREGS should adopt this as an official daytime signal.

[Foolish]

Swordds: The number 1 flag (red dot on a white background) is the universally unknown mark for a singlehanded sailor. See the photo below A lot easier to buy a Number 1 flag than a hand flag.

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by Paul L

Single handers do not take routes different from other cruisers. The passage routes are used because they are the best route to get from a to b.

Since overall risk of a collision on passage is so low, I don't think it matters if there are 2 other boats or 12 other boats on a similar route.

Even on our races to Hawaii, where there may be 50 or 60 boats participating, it's a fairly big deal when we can see another sailboat on the route. Certainly as we leave San Francisco we see a bunch of boats, but within a day we are generally by ourselves. As we approach Oahu we do start so see other boats more often, but not many.

On the return trips, I can recall just one time when we saw another sailboat on the open ocean. It was a singlehander (plus his dog), sailing the "over the top of the Pacific High" route to San Francisco, just like us. We chatted on the radio.

We may see a handful of big ships at sea during the entire 5000-mile round-trip. They have always been considerate, and seem to appreciate seeing our AIS transponder.

As we approach the coast, and even at sea, we do encounter large fishing boats. These guys aren't always so polite, but they have gear in the water and we do our best to give them plenty of room. Radar is useful when it's foggy, since they don't often have AIS transmitting.

[grantmc]

Originally Posted by swordds

I fly this pennant when singlehanded sailing. If you see another vessel flying one of these you should stand clear or give way as the vessel is either “not under command or is limited in its ability to maneuver. The COLREGS should adopt this as an official daytime signal.

I disagree.
Being single handed does not qualify under the ColRegs as suggested:

A ‘vessel not under command’ means a vessel which through some exceptional circumstances is unable to manoeuvre as required ...

A vessel restricted in its ability to manoeuvre means a vessel from which the nature of its work is restricted. The colregs then list a variety of works that qualify.

I don’t see how going below for a few Zs qualifies on either.

As for the hand job flag, whilst I think that it is completely ridiculous it is very very funny. I assume you meant it as a joke swords and it certainly caused a chuckle or two here.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by grantmc

I disagree.
Being single handed does not qualify under the ColRegs as suggested:

A ‘vessel not under command’ means a vessel which through some exceptional circumstances is unable to manoeuvre as required ...

A vessel restricted in its ability to manoeuvre means a vessel from which the nature of its work is restricted. The colregs then list a variety of works that qualify.

I don’t see how going below for a few Zs qualifies on either.

As for the hand job flag, whilst I think that it is completely ridiculous it is very very funny. I assume you meant it as a joke swords and it certainly caused a chuckle or two here.

Agree with your disagree

If we go out there on our own then it's down to us to run the boat in a professional manner. As far as the behavior of the boat goes, no one should really know it's single handed. Definitely we should never expect any special treatment from other vessels.

[John A]

Crewed boating= proper watch keeping.

Nine survive boat collision in Chesapeake Bay - Capital Gazette

[conachair]

Originally Posted by John A

Crewed boating= proper watch keeping.

Nine survive boat collision in Chesapeake Bay - Capital Gazette

Yes, inshore and coastal absolutely no excuse.

Offshore with technology nearly all the time where we go you can get to close to the same result. IMHO a well set up single handed boat will actually be keeping a better watch then many crewed boats running with no radar and a sleepy crew on watch at night 2 weeks into a passage. Crewed boat does not necessarily mean proper watch keeping.