3 person 2 on 1 off watch system...

[lw395]

Check weather.
Leave port.
Turn right.
Either take turns to have a kip, or stop somewhere.
You can adjust your plans as you go along.
The longest bit with no option to stop is barely 6 hours.

You can over-plan these things.

 

[prv]

Do get the damn autopilot fixed though

Pete

 

[lw395]

Do get the damn autopilot fixed though

Pete

I wouldn't stress about it, I rarely use one and I'm often two up and on a solo watch.
You'll be wanting a cleat on the mainsheet next!

 

[bobgarrett]

Much depends on the experience of the crew and the weather. However, with a well equipped boat and autohelm available even if not used all the time then there should be little need for more than one person on watch at a time unless doing some complex navigation where cross-checking is valid. We found a rota of one on watch and on deck (clipped on always), one down below ready to come up quickly on request but probably napping, with other(s) asleep worked well.
Three hours watches we favour.

 

[Iain C]

All fine, though nothing you have said counters my suggestions. I have done 11 transats and a circumnav and lots on this thread have a load more experience on boats than me ... and i/we can guarantee that most crews if not ALL crews have been able to talk without eye contact (difficult in moonless ocean anyways...) AND have a curry too!

I am trying to impart some experience that you have asked for, and need, and it seems you are now trying to dodge it. Oh yes you are!! You aren't alone. It's called "fake safety" like doing VHF checks every morning as if that makes everything fine. It doesn't.

You are in danger of "going through the motions" of "pseudo preparing" for the trip (like asking for advice here - good) ... but then being selective about what you listen to from what comes back (not so good at all) like naysaying me here and also hoho dodging any agreed/written watch system at all. And accepting the broken autopilot as a "given".

Your ability to have a curry with your crew is nice - but there have been lots of problems with boats and crew, ALL of whom have easily been able to have a curry together, even a vindaloo, before setting off. All crews can have a curry, ok? That's not a great or indeed any test of a "crew".

Actually, if you think about it ... it might be a better crew if one of you didn't like curry at all, could;t stand the stuff ... and if at least one (other) of you didn't have any beers with the curry too! But i am betting that didn't happen, right? You all had the curry, and you all had the beers, I think? I wonder if you can see how this isn't a good sign? I mean, it would be better if perhaps one of you was an electronics nerd who hated curry and alcohol, and so regardless of the cajoings of the other two, he said no, i'll stay here and fix the a/p, see? Not as much fun, but a load better crew, really? But whatever, there's only three of you, no matter....

Anyway, never mind the lack of nerd (actually should read as "intelligent tech-minded sailing type"...) ....

... You'll have a great day at sea, then dinner ...and then two out of three of you wil stay up whie the third ho-hum has to go try get some sleep, bah... short straw, leaving the party .... and probably he slightly fails to sleep cos he can hear the ongoing jokes ahahaha (are they talking about me?) and another had to go to the loo as you said and shhhh!!! haha .... so that in time nobody will have had much sleep at all for a while ... cos unlike normal "bedtime" like yerknow in a house - the fun and "action" is all in right there in the cockpit innit? Hvae you ever gone to bed/sleep when 2/3rds of the party is still going? Me neither...

My suggestions are aimed at you all having a great time, but with the accent on getting some sleep and be ready for stuff the next day, rather than the focus being on a full-time 66.7% of the crew having a cockpit party - and possibly a few beers, as you said. Save them for when you get ashore?

Or - much better - drop the anchor for a few hours since you are coastal, ALL go to sleep and get going again 3 hours later?? Someone above suggested this before me. Or 4-5 hours later after the tide has turned - cos as you said ... it's a holiday??


PS It's a really rubbish idea having a few beers. Or at least, if you are PLANNING the beers before yerv even set off, hummmm. How bout planing to have no beers during the passage? Is that possible?

PPS if the owner is planning on setting off and the friggin a/p doesn't work, that's a bit rubbish too, as the sensible Capn alludes to above, and others. The a/p is a solid spare pair of hands to hold the tiller/wheel while the person on watch does this or checks that, goes to the loo, all that. Before setting off get someone to fix the a/p, instead of going to the off licence? And/or... if the ap is "known broken" ... what else is there that you/he *does't* know about? That a/p was the spare crew if needed, (curry remember?) but you're gonna set off without it. Have you checked over other things like the engine or medical kit or other mechanicals? ... or were such concerns laughed away "oh you're such a fusspot! !!" - again - it's GOOD if one crew is a massive fusspot (it isn't you, sorry...) and another is a social fixer (you, possibly) another is manic ace sailor. By contrast ... you all liking curry, and all liking talking bout sailing, and all fancying a beer, and all being ok about the broken a/p .. is not a good sigm...

I think your boat needs fixing, and perhaps your collective ideas of a "crew" too. "Sameness" isn't a good thing - EXCEPT with regards to all having a very fab and enjoyable evening in the curry house, exactly as you described. BUT ... One out of three (at least...) should be clamouring for a fixed a/p. Like on this thread, see? Next thing is the swmbo's will be waiting so you won't drop the anchor for a snooze on a coastal holiday trip, cos you think there's no crab pots 25miles offshore even though there are ... and with no a/p and holiday crew, that snooze would be a really good idea ...

Hey look, I've always started any overnight or longer trip with the intention of few if any beers , and a working a/p/ But once or twice someone sneaked in the beers or er whatever... and once or twice the a/p went awol too, arg. But never both together.

This means that my "worst case scenario" of either (limited) beer OR broken a/p - but never both together ... is better that your *starting* position - with your "beer + broken a/p" combination right from the start. Plus your cockpit party idea comprising 2/3rds of the crew, all the time.

Change something? Fix something?

All meant well.

Blimey. OK so taken in the slightly tongue in cheek way in which it was written. Some good advice no doubt, and no I've not done as much as you but I've been sailing for every one of my forty one years and you are making many, many incorrect assumptions here.

No-one said anything about a "cockpit party" and stand up comedy session and enormous p1ss-up. Putting the world to right means chatting about nothing in particular. Enjoying being on watch with someone means "wow look at that moon mate" not "why did the lion get lost...because the jungle is massive...geddit?" hilarity. The curry I mentioned was in a curry house, not a boat, and a couple of beers on passage is hardly unheard of is it? We're all grown up sensible people who know the risks and how to sail. We're also there to sail, not get hammered, otherwise we'd just drop the hook in Studland Bay and spend most of the fortnight in the pub. Or not even bother with the boat in the first place.

The boat is proven. She has done a circumnavigation. No, the A/P doesn'nt currently work. It may get fixed in time, it might not. It might get fixed and then pack up after the first hour, so surely better to plan for a worst case scenario. Besides, the prospect of hand-steering a fastish boat on a long passage actually appeals...we're all dinghy racers too so sailing anything less than very efficiently grates a bit. Trust me, I know from personal experience that a sophisticated wind-aware pilot can drive an Open60 faster than I can drive it. I can also say that any of us can steer a 42' cruiser faster than a 20 year year old fluxgate heading only wheelpilot. And as an aside, as my own lowly tiller autopilot on my own boat is next to useless in anything more than a F3 I tend to just assume I won't be able to use it, and I've done many thousands of miles like that hand steering perfectly succesfully. If the AP is fixed in time, and works, that's a bonus. We don't want the wheels falling off the plan because suddenly we find the AP doesn't work and the perfect watchkeeping plan that didn'nt need anyone steering suddenly goes in the bin.

I do appreciate the insight and time taken to reply, genuinely, thank-you, however the question was "out of interest does anyone have a 3 person 2 on 1 off watch system that works well". I'd not really asked for judgement on whether moderate consumption of alcohol on passage is acceptable, whether talking to someone on deck is OK, what mechanical/systems checks should we do and whether it is responsible to (perish the thought) set off on a few days coastal passage sailing...crewed...in a big boat...without an autopilot.

Sorry I don't match your "massive fusspot" criteria. I'll bow down to your superior ocean experience here. My own little 27 footer started off in my ownership pretty much as a bare shell, she now has DSC VHF, AIS, Plotter + 3 backups, Navtex, flares, bungs, emergency VHF aerial, 2 x HH VHF, autopilot linked to plotter, repeaters, wind instruments, liferaft, FAKs, emergency tiller, a very well maintained engine, a rudder that's been off, split and rewelded/relaminated, substantial structural strengthening to the original structure around the shrouds (and I'm talking s/s bracing welded up and laminated in), better lights, fire/gas/bubble/carbon monoxide alarms and a load of other kit to make sailing safer, more comfortbale and more enjoyable such as cockpit reefing and better winches etc. So actually, yeah, I am a bit of a fusspot when it comes to boat, although no doubt my lack of very powerful autopilot and shock horror a Waeco fridge that often has chilled beer in it will surely count against me here. If my mate says "let's go the Scillies" I'm not going to say "thanks, but not without an autopilot" when I know we've done more important jobs like drop the rudder and replace the bearings and replace every single skin fitting on board. Oh, and the engine has done a couple of hundred hours maximum if that makes you sleep any better