Crew size

It depends what one wants to do; she could be singlehanded as long as there was time to do everything.

In his rather good book ' Down Channel ' the Victorian father of leisure sailing RT McMullen relates how he sacked his two lazy professional crew and sailed his large gaffer himself, at the time people thought it impossible.
 
Sail her for how long and in what conditions? Three or four would be 'adequate' depending on how knowledgable / strong they were.

But the big drawback with that boat is going to be her composite construction. Her deck landings and beam sockets might be in stainless steel, but the history of wooden decks on steels hulls has not been a happy one. Will this one last long term? Will it be easy to fix if it starts to leak? No one knows as it's a 'one - off'.

Given the fact that steel isn't entirely maintenance free (by a long way), and there is so much other traditional maintenance in the deck and rig, it doesn't seem a huge step to opt for a homogeneous, all wood traditionally constructed vessel which will be more of a known quantity.

http://www.woodenships.co.uk/sailing-yachts/47-murray-peterson-schooner

But if you do want the steel boat, make sure the price is heavily discounted to account for its 'bar-stard' construction.
The asking price doesn't do this by a long way.
 
With a beauty like that crew will be easy to find. Im green with envy.
The key to crew sise is winches.
looks like she has winches. what about the halyards those sails aint going to be easy for one to hoist with out a winch.
although some times a double halyard with tackels was used traditionaly.
 
Uricanejack said:
what about the halyards those sails aint going to be easy for one to hoist with out a winch.
although some times a double halyard with tackels was used traditionaly.
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Well, the foresail's dead easy. Just let off the brails and there it is :)

The mainsail isn't all that big - the same boat rigged as a cutter would have it almost twice the size. The gaff is short, again reducing weight. Two people should be plenty for that sail, assuming it's rigged sensibly. One might be able to - the biggest problem would be handling the throat and peak halyards at the same time. Alone on KS I haul them alternately, but that's a lot easier when you have modern clutches instead of belaying pins.

I'd like to sail on this boat, but I don't think I'd like to own it :)

Pete
 
I know the owner and his wife sail her themselves at times...

And in response to other comments, a steel hull is definitely a much lesser maintenance commitment than a traditional wooden carvel hull, unless perhaps it was built of all-teak, in which case the cost would be astronomical, if you could find the right quality teak.

More details are at our website at http://www.yachtsnet.co.uk/boats/e82712/e82712.htm - this has more photos than the OP's link which only goes to some selected large photos.
 
Looks great outside, but inside what a botch job! This was build in 2000 and the designer got totally confused about what he wanted to do with her.
 
She's be easy enough to sail with two who knew the boat. You'd be kept busy though, at least when leaving and arriving. Going offshore you'd want four, but only to make life easy. If she's got an auto pilot there's no reason she couldn't be single handed.
 
KellysEye said:
We've seen a singlehander in the BVI's with a boat similar to that, he would put the sails up while at anchor
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?? We used to do that all the time, sailing off and onto a mooring. Does that mean most have lost the art?

I actually quite like the boat - obviously things are done for function: it has self tailers, a tiller extension and other small improvements that are sensible and reversible updates (in the best ethos of historic conservation). The inside wood is knotty and adds character where structural issues aren't to the forefront. I think it's an honest boat with a few rough edges, and quite pretty too.
 
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armchairsailor said:
?? We used to do that all the time, sailing off and onto a mooring. Does that mean most have lost the art?
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I was going to make the same indignant post, as I often sailed Kindred Spirit away from a mooring, and quite often her anchor too. I would have the main scandalised while raising the anchor, and in the case of a mooring I would also use the backed jib to throw the bow off to the side I wanted to go.

Then I realised that Kellyseye wasn't making this point - he just meant that the guy raised the sails at anchor while the boat wasn't going anywhere, because that's easier than trying to hoist them while under way under power and having to also steer a course and keep a lookout.

armchairsailor said:
I think it's an honest boat with a few rough edges, and quite pretty too.
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I agree. As I said, I'd quite like to sail on her. But the maintenance would be a bit much to want to own her. Maybe if I lived aboard and didn't have to work for a living...

Pete
 
jwilson said:
I know the owner and his wife sail her themselves at times...
Click to expand...
Really? Have you seen that with your own eyes?
I am not saying it is impossible, but it would be so difficult that anyone with any sense would only do it to win a substantial bet.
Woodlouse said:
She's be easy enough to sail with two who knew the boat. You'd be kept busy though, at least when leaving and arriving. Going offshore you'd want four, but only to make life easy. If she's got an auto pilot there's no reason she couldn't be single handed.
Click to expand...

I do not see any winches on the main mast to help make sail, so to raise that gaff sail would need four to work both halyards at once, to raise the sail in any reasonable time. A couple more to do minor tweaking and untangling would be nice.

Getting the anchor up with the manual winch would not be my favourite job.

To extend or house the running bowsprit would take a lot of skill and strength. To do it in any seaway would take daring as well.

Having four offshore might make it "less difficult" rather than "easy".

One of the photos shows only 2 crew visible. The rest are down below knackered, after getting her underway and all sail set.

In my opinion, impractical with less than four. I would love to be one of them.
 
BobPrell said:
I do not see any winches on the main mast to help make sail, so to raise that gaff sail would need four to work both halyards at once
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I disagree. The sail is very narrow for a gaff sail, so it weighs half what the mainsail on a cutter the same size would. Imagine lifting it as a rolled up bundle coming back from the sailmakers - surely two people would be enough for that? The halyards will have a 2:1 purchase built into them, and another purchase on the standing end for final tensioning. The mast hoop / parrel arrangements look good, should be little friction there. Certainly four people (two sweating, two tailing) would be nice for ergonomics, but not necessary for the loads.

Agree about the manual anchor windlass though. At first I thought it must be powered, possibly hydraulic, but according to the spec list it is not. A mistake in my opinion, it must take forever to raise.

I assume the bowsprit is only housed and extended in harbour. It looks like they use the jib halyard to support the inboard end, and some other tackle to control it, so the effort involved in bringing it inboard shouldn't be too great. Not sure how they extend it again; there must be some other tackle that gets rigged.

Pete
 
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