3 person 2 on 1 off watch system...

Iain C

Iain C

Well-Known Member
Joined
20 Oct 2009
Messages
2,366
Visit site
Right, off to the Scillies (hopefully!) from the Solent this summer on my mate's 42 footer and 3 of us are likely to sail it down pretty much as far as we can go, stopping in Cornwall to pick up SWMBOs.

Just thinking about the best system for 3 people to run watches with 2 on 1 off watch at any one time. Abilities are fairly level, I was thinking about a staggered system running 4 hour watches, for example someone is on 0000-0400 but the second person comes off watch at 0200 so you get to be on watch with different people. It would be good if an evening meal could be eat together and you got to swap the times around a bit in the way that "dog watches" allow.

I appreciate if it's Easterlies and the kite is up it could actually be a very fast passage that we just work out as we go along, however it could turn into an upwind slog of a good few days so we probably need a proper watch system in that case.

Before I drive myself mad with pen and paper, does anyone have a tried and tested way of doing this?
 
Iain C said:
Right, off to the Scillies (hopefully!) from the Solent this summer on my mate's 42 footer and 3 of us are likely to sail it down pretty much as far as we can go, stopping in Cornwall to pick up SWMBOs.

Just thinking about the best system for 3 people to run watches with 2 on 1 off watch at any one time. Abilities are fairly level, I was thinking about a staggered system running 4 hour watches, for example someone is on 0000-0400 but the second person comes off watch at 0200 so you get to be on watch with different people. It would be good if an evening meal could be eat together and you got to swap the times around a bit in the way that "dog watches" allow.

I appreciate if it's Easterlies and the kite is up it could actually be a very fast passage that we just work out as we go along, however it could turn into an upwind slog of a good few days so we probably need a proper watch system in that case.

Before I drive myself mad with pen and paper, does anyone have a tried and tested way of doing this?
Click to expand...

On the 500 miles to Scotland we did two hour watches.

We could always call the other blokes up - but it was never necessary

Two hours on - four off worked really well

do you need two blokes ready all the time?

D
 
Are you hand steering? If so, then 1 hour on 'standby', 1 hour steering and 1 hour off is about the only workable system.

However if you're not steering, I then find a single person on 'watch' is sufficient, with another dressed but snoozing and the third completely 'off'. During the day a one hour cycle is fine. But at night even pushing it to 90 minutes makes the 'sleep' phase significantly longer. Increase it to 2 hours and I think you get a good balance of rest and work.

When we're double handing, we don't go with short night watches at all. I stay on watch for as long as possible whilst the missus goes to sleep as she can do this 1 second after her head hits the pillow, even early in the evening. I'm more of a night owl and am happy to keep going until 1.30 or 2am. This way gives us at least 6 hours in bed each with more time to have another nap during the day.

There's so many way of doing this, but as always, having a reliable, effective self steering system effectively doubles the size of your crew.
 
I'm used to two on four off with three. Assuming all are competent, which I think you're saying.

The others have to be willing to come up to help if anything develops. A knock on the deck is usually sufficient to say you need help, but I did have one trip where the skipper refused to come up to do his watch so I had to go below and be firm with him, so it really depends on the people involved. I'm guessing you know and trust each other quite well.
 
Solent to Scillies is hardly long enough to need a full watch system - 2 days at most.

In general I don't think 8 hours on and 4 hours off is not sustainable. With three people how about 3 hours on , 3 hours off staggered in such a way that that the one person comes on watch for the last hour of the previous person's watch, then has one hour on watch alone, and another hour with a second person on watch.
 
3 hours on watch, 3 hours on standby, 3 hours off

In practice this is usually 3 on 6 off.

Overlapping watches a waste of good zzzzzzzzzzs...
 
With the proviso that the longest yacht passages I've done are around the 36 hour mark, but I have spent two or three weeks at sea in square-riggers...

If I had three people all of whom were competent to stand a watch, I would only have one of them on watch at any time. Anything else will mean spending more time on watch than you do off, which is not tenable. Whereas with three watches on the ships, we could keep going indefinitely without feeling especially tired. We had a few hours of quiet time in the afternoons when most people caught up on sleep, but otherwise we were all up and about during the day for training and other activities and our two sittings for each meal were back-to-back; translated to the yacht this would mean a reasonable amount of time in which you'll see each other :)

We used the traditional watch pattern, four hours apart from the dog watches, and my preference would be to do the same in a yacht except perhaps in bad weather. I know people often like to have shorter spells than that on deck, but in my opinion you really need the four hour periods below to get a useful amount of sleep and the trade-off is worth it. Plus every third day it's your turn for an uninterrupted eight hours, which is very nice :).

This is all assuming that the boat has a reliable autopilot (or a windvane). If not, make him fit one as a condition of you coming, or suggest he takes on extra crew :)

Pete
 
We had two experienced sailors and one inexperienced so the two sailors did 4 on & 4 off and the inexperienced on also did 4 on 4 off but staggered with the others. Worked quite well as the mixing every two hours stopped the watches feeling too long.
 
Two up, I have always used 3 on 3 off during the night and then 3 hours off for each crew during the day. The rest of the time during the day was unstructured.

With 3, then it has been 3 on 6 off. This is sustainable pretty much indefinitely. I had 4 for an Atlantic crossing and nominally did 4 on 8 off with some overlap at the watch change, for course changes and sail handling. Most of the time it was 3 on 9 off and very relaxed.

With a good autopilot, you don't really need 2 watch keepers, but an AIS will take off a lot of pressure.
 
Bobc said:
I would suggest 3 on 6 off during the day, and 2 on 4 off during the night.
Click to expand...

I would do that too. Takes a couple of days, generally, for people to get used to keeping odd hours and tend to sleep a lot off watch. For the trip planned, that routine would be good.
 
Sometimes Skippers prefer not to do any watches. It could be the 2 remaining crew do all the watches with the skipper on standby and refreshed if needed. This also allows the skipper to step in should one or both crew become a victim of sea sickness.
 
capnsensible said:
I would do that too. Takes a couple of days, generally, for people to get used to keeping odd hours and tend to sleep a lot off watch. For the trip planned, that routine would be good.
Click to expand...

My favourite watch system with short handed crew! People underestimate the danger of getting tired. Even with a novice crew, I will let them stand watch on condition that I get called at the slightest worry...

Talulah said:
Sometimes Skippers prefer not to do any watches. It could be the 2 remaining crew do all the watches with the skipper on standby and refreshed if needed. This also allows the skipper to step in should one or both crew become a victim of sea sickness.
Click to expand...

I've done that with larger crews. Sailing with 12 on board I had the luxury of three watches of three, two mates (They did 6 on 6 off, with the proviso that even when on they could doze if tired so long as the on watch crew knew which one to call!)

I was out of the watch bill but available at any time day or night.
 
Bobc said:
I would suggest 3 on 6 off during the day, and 2 on 4 off during the night.
Click to expand...

If experienced then I have done similar, but slightly longer at at 4 on, 8 off during the day, and 3 on 6 off at night, with the person coming off watch standby for the person who relieves them. That makes each watch a bit of a challenge but means that you get enough unbroken sleep to last as long as voyage takes. For two of us it tends to be 4 on, 4 off during the day and 3 on 3 off at night.

Again the big thing here is maximising sleep periods rather than worrying about the pressure of long watches, as they are fine to handle provided you are always well rested.
 
For a transat or the like I would say 3 on 6 off. Worked well for me, For a little overnighter to Cornwall 2 on 4 of is good. Should it turn into a lumpy beat tidal gates will get missed I which case a brief stop over gets back in synch with the tides and gives everyone some kip.
 
Actually, you're only talking about 1 night, so just stay up and enjoy the stars.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

M
Adding radar - on pole or arch?
2 3 4
Replies
74
Views
2K
Marsali_1
M
davethedog
Raymarine AP No drive detected and invlaid command errors
Replies
4
Views
220
davethedog
davethedog
ianc1200
Sureseal shaft seal.
2
Replies
20
Views
516
ianc1200
ianc1200

Share this page

Top