age and living aboard and cruising on a sailboat

[Saleen411]

CassidyNZ;2961411]My only real question is why would anyone want to do long-distance voyaging alone?

I agree 100%.....even started a thread on this subject years ago. Boy did I ever get a bunch of $**t for doing so.

Must have been my presentation.

[CassidyNZ]

Originally Posted by sailorxyz

Single handing is something you either love or you don't. I love it and much prefer it to having others on board.

Are you talking about port to port coastal sailing or passagemaking? Because there is a substantial difference.

[daga]

For a car you look at the distance it's travelled; for a diesel engine in a boat, how many hours it's run; and if you're thinking of buying a car or a boat then how well was it built, is the design suitable, has it been maintained? Why are we so concerned about how many times a human body has travelled around the sun?

For the record I have seen 66 rotations and am expecting to see many more. When will I know to stop? When I become a burden or a danger to others.

[charliehows]

living on a boat is like living on a bloody junglegym; it will keep you fit but it's a nietzschian situation (that which does not kill you makes you stronger); I'm finding it quite challenging having to significantly divide my time between land and sea, after a few days off the boat returning is quite physically challenging. As Big Mal said (probably from a leather armchair over a 50 yr old scotch)"life wasnt meant to be easy..."

[twizzr]

I just bought a First 45 and sailed down from Monfalcone Italy to Athens Greece about 1200 miles in three weeks.single handed age 70 next birthday. also try to find a woman about 15 years younger ...it keeps you young as well.

[sondra elliott]

Right now I'm sailing a 29' Paceship. She sails wonderfully, but would need a different boat for big water. I've been told a 40' is needed to do big water sailing. Sounds like a lot to handle on one's own. I would think the heavier lines would be a challenge.

Any thoughts?

sondra

[SailMoonShadow]

Originally Posted by sondra elliott

Right now I'm sailing a 29' Paceship. She sails wonderfully, but would need a different boat for big water. I've been told a 40' is needed to do big water sailing. Sounds like a lot to handle on one's own. I would think the heavier lines would be a challenge.

Any thoughts?

sondra

I'm not sure that needing a big boat for big water is necessarily true. I know a guy that circumnavigated in 22 footer! Like you say a big boat is (generally) heavier to handle unless you have electric everything (which comes with its own set of problems!). Personally I think mid-thirties is a good compromise. I would recommend reading "get real, get gone" (search Amazon) for some sage advice on boats for voyaging.

[TrentePieds]

Sondra:

You say: "I've been told a 40' is needed to do big water sailing."

Don't believe everything you hear - even here ;-)! As for "needed" size: There is no such metric for the simple reason that it is the ENTITY formed by boat AND skipper that must be considered. All manner of passages have been made successfully by boats smaller that 40 feet, because AS AN ENTITY the boat and the skipper had what it takes.

You say: "I would think the heavier lines would be a challenge"

What do you mean by "heavier"? Do you mean "of bigger diameter"? Or do you mean "weighing more"? Probably not. I think you mean "requiring more strength to handle because what they are attached to is heavier".

But remember that for many hundreds of years man has used rope to handle heavy things - and not just aboard ship - because that makes many jobs safer, easier, and less demanding of physical strength. In fact, what we sailormen call a "tackle" (of which there are many specific kinds intended for specific jobs), was evolved as the solution to this particular problem. Remember the Greek geezer who said: "Give me a lever and a fulcrum and I'll move the Earth". Just so with the tackle. Hoisting the main, say, on a 60-footer is no trick at all if the rigging is set up correctly. In my callow youth when I weighed no more than women commonly do, say 140lbs, I did it regularly. Without winches, let alone electric ones. So have no worries on that score. Whether you can handle a "big boat" depends on how it is rigged, and on what YOU KNOW. Not on how big the boat is. So now we come to the boat you sail :-)

As you say, she sails wonderfully. She does. On a race course. As a cruiser - not so much! IMO - take it as you will - she is pretty problematic as a cruiser for reasons that have to do with the fact that Cuthbertson and Cassian ("C&C"), the designers, came from an aeronautics background. They were NOT sailormen to start with. All the stuff you learn designing aeroplanes have parallels in yacht design if your objective is to make a boat go fast - i.e if you want it to win races. C&C boats do that wonderfully. But that's all they do. Because that's what they were brilliantly designed to do. Among other things, that means that you have to sail them every inch of the way. That is NOT what a cruiser wants to do. Therefore a competent cruising boat must designed with different fundamental parameters. And that was not what C&C were interested in doing, so AFAIK C&C never designed a good cruising boat. That means IMO that you are dead right: For serious cruising you need a different boat :-)

Enuff for now. If you want to discuss what the desirable traits in cruising boats are, or how to set up the rigging so a woman (or a small man with no aspirations to being a "deck gorilla") can handle it easily, I think we should start another thread specifically for that purpose :-)

All the best

TrentePieds

[David2.0]

Along the same line of questioning, how often do you find yourself sailing and living on a boat alone because you’re no longer part of a couple?

[conchaway]

Someone said (I would NEVER suggest it on this site) that women are so easy today that for a meal and a little sweet talk, you can have a "travelling" companion, If you are not overly picky.( I'm sure he was a male chauvinist pig!)

[twizzr]

Originally Posted by David2.0

Along the same line of questioning, how often do you find yourself sailing and living on a boat alone because you’re no longer part of a couple?

I think you will find, more people living alone on the land. There's plenty of ways to find company as long as you are not a grumpy old sod.

[double u]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Typically, sailing is what keeps you healthy as you age. Plenty of fresh air and exercise.

The causality is the other way round: the healthy can keep sailing, & the decrepit have to quit

[Superseapig]

Glad to see this thread. We are 46 and 55, and just getting started. It doesn’t look like we’ve left it too late