Are sailors with smaller boats better yachtsmen

chinita said:
How do we know Moitessier was a good sailor?

Nobody ever saw him did they? It wasn't like he was marina hopping around the Med.

How many people have seen Moitessier cock up reversing on to a marina pontoon?

How many times has Moitessier motored off with his shoreline still connected?

How many times has he left his mobile phone on board after locking up the boat?


He was probably as bad as the rest of us. :)
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Well he did wreck every boat he ever owned.
 
Woodlouse said:
Well he did wreck every boat he ever owned.
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Woodlouse,

I feel that is completely unfair.

Bernard Motessier was / forever will be a real sailor who had an empathy for his boats.

Joshua was semi-wrecked on a beach under later ownership ( ? ) , but as I understand it subsequently restored.
 
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Joshua I believe ended up on a beach under his ownership. He then abandoned her. The boat was subsequently restored though and I believe now belongs to a sailing school in southern Brittany.
 
Seajet said:
Joshua was semi-wrecked on a beach under later ownership ( ? )
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Semi-wrecked on the beach at Cabo San Lucas with Moitessier and Klaus Kinski on board. I'm sure the forum has an opinion on whether things might have been different if he hadn't been using a couple of CQRs
 
FWIW Moitessier spec-ed his next boat, Tamata, at 33'.

From A Sea Vagabond's World:
If Joshua were 32 feet long and well laid out, she would be plenty of boat for two people, plenty to set out to sea on, and would require less time and money to maintain and outfit
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I enjoy sailing my 17.5 foot Newbridge Topaz and have no ambitions to sail round the UK. The thing I most miss from a previous slightly larger boat, 22ft Itchen ferry is the ability to use the autohelm as I found a great asset as I normally sail single handed. ( I should add I havn't tried as I havent as yet put a 12 volt system in the boat.) However I suspect as it handles much like a dinghy it wouldn't be suited to an AH.
 
I have an autohelm on my 18ft boat, so I see no reason why you can't have one on your Newbridge.

But you will need a 12V system though.

I just have a 12V battery charged from a solar panel. That seems to power the GPS, VHF, depth sounder, and occasionally the autohelm, without ever needing to bring the battery home to charge it.
 
ProDave said:
I have an autohelm on my 18ft boat, so I see no reason why you can't have one on your Newbridge.

But you will need a 12V system though.

I just have a 12V battery charged from a solar panel. That seems to power the GPS, VHF, depth sounder, and occasionally the autohelm, without ever needing to bring the battery home to charge it.
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+1, my solar panel ( a 30 watt job ) keeps the battery topped up nicely with various lights, 2 depth sounders, an autohelm and a radar used in short bursts, a battery monitor keeps me notified in case things are going pear shaped but that hasn't happened yet.

An autohelm 2000 model might suit you best, it has a quicker reaction time and more elbow power than the 1000 series.
 
ProDave said:
I only use the AH800 on my boat, and it's perfectly adequate.

I don't use it all the time. Mainly to keep the boat motoring into the wind for raising and lowering the sails, and for whenever I need to leave the cockpit for any reason.
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Thanks Dave youve convinced me it may be worth a try.
 
Seajet said:
+1, my solar panel ( a 30 watt job ) keeps the battery topped up nicely with various lights, 2 depth sounders, an autohelm and a radar used in short bursts, a battery monitor keeps me notified in case things are going pear shaped but that hasn't happened yet.

An autohelm 2000 model might suit you best, it has a quicker reaction time and more elbow power than the 1000 series.
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You've got all that kit onboard + 3 people & can do an 'average' 7 knts, which means that you must be achieving speeds well over that. All that in a 22'er

Pull the other one seajet.
 
alant said:
You've got all that kit onboard + 3 people & can do an 'average' 7 knts, which means that you must be achieving speeds well over that. All that in a 22'er

Pull the other one seajet.
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alant,

I'm not pulling anything and have already offered you to come along for a spin.

As I mentioned my boat is not as much of a speed machine as say an E-Boat in lighter winds, Oliver Lee made seaworthiness a priority; she once beat a Rival 34 beating into a solid F6 + from Bucklers Hard to Chichester, that was with 4 adults aboard the Anderson.

The Rival was new and in good condition, sailed by an ex--National Champion on the Enterprise class so he knew what he was doing; for ever afterwards he met me saying " I hate your boat ! ".

Yes she did average 7 knots across the Channel, it's quite normal for the trail log to go off the stops at 10 knots + if surfing down waves.

I expect a lot of boats can average speeds a lot higher than the theoretical ' 1.4 X square root of wetted length '.

The A22's waterline length is 19'3" but I think that's completely irrelevant.

She doesn't plane by the way, I'm used to that in racing dinghies.
 
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