First Time Atlantic Crossing - Advice Please!

[cjfield]

Hi everyone,

Wow - what a response. Many thanks for all your ideas and I now know that the YBW 'subscribe to thread with email' doesn't work. I'll check more often.

Favourite quote:

First issue is you. Are you three arty media graduates or three engineering graduates.

We are, in fact, three Engineering grads and I'm starting to think that buying our own boat is not something we should so daunted by. We've discussed this over and over again - maybe it is more approachable than we think and is probably quite cost-effective if we can sail her back or get a delivery for the return leg. That said, kitting out and maintenance is going to take time, money and uncertainty. The reason I think this option is daunting is because we all have quite promising jobs and, while taking 3 months out to sail across probably wouldn't be too damaging, taking 6 months out plus myriad weekends of fettling might be more risky. Thoughts please.

Option 5 always exists and remains as our backup if none of the other 4 are sensible or work. So we can leave that one on a back burner for now.

Thanks also for your thoughts on the ARC. Personally, it quite appeals to me and I think my mates feel similar. There must be an element of camaraderie and tell me that at least you keep in touch over VHF... But again, the pros and cons need weighing up.

Colin

 

[Neil_Y]

I've sailed in company and in a race and within a day or two you are out of range by vhf with most (all) other boats, especially if you're at the smaller end. I think the ARC has a smallest boat size of something like 30' so that restricts choice and increases costs quite a bit.

You can do it very safely with quite a siimple boat set up and as you are engineers you'll be good at evaluating what needs to be sorted or fixing stuff if it breaks.

I've prepared a cruiser in a couple of weeks, new rudder bearings (removal check system) new standing rigging (just £ notes to a rigging supplier) One new sail a good storm sail, couple of halyards and one new skin fitting. I also coded mine at the same time which needed hatches rotated, anti syphon loops, more D rings for harness attatchments. I bougt a target HF3 SSB receiver £200 and that gave me weather fax with a laptop, I also invetsed in a towed generator so never needed to run the engine for power. But with three people you don't need autohelm (although it's nice)

One important thing is to realise you are very much on your own and have to think that way to prepare your selves and the boat. Once in the trades (20-25knts and 3-4m swell) it is not easy to turn round and go upwind, so if you need help the chances of someone being behind you are still pretty slim even in a big departure fleet start. Think like you are on your own and plan that way, If you have a problem you will be unlikely to see any help within 24hrs once your a few days out. Do first aid courses with a paramedic as treating injuries in my view is the biggest risk, and you need to do things emmediately. Life raft and EPIRB is your kast resort but these days is quite effective as a rescue even if you have to wait for a shaip to divert, there are ships crossing this route quite often. Watch out for them at night! I've had two appear dead astern doing 18-20knts they creep up quickly!

If you want to party leave January and head for Barbados, Grenada and then Trinidad for carnival, it's also a good place to get work done on the boat or store it for a return trip.

 

[snowleopard]

tell me that at least you keep in touch over VHF...

The distances soon get too great for VHF. There is usually someone within range but to chat to your mates wherever they may be requires SSB. You can get whoever is within range to relay your position to the reporting net so your friends on shore will know how far you have got.

 

[snowleopard]

If you are pushed for time off from your careers, the best option is probably to take a commercial passage. Fly out, do the trip and fly back. Here is one possibility...

http://jst.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Winter-Brochure-for-Website-amended-low-res-2.pdf

You will see you are too late for this year's westbound trip but there is Bermuda-Southampton via the Azores in March for £2,495.

An own-boat passage UK-Caribbean needs to be started before the end of August to avoid a high likelihood of bad weather while heading south to the Canaries. Traditional wisdom says 'be south of Gib by 1st Sept'. Though you'll probably be OK for a few weeks later.

 

[GHA]

We are, in fact, three Engineering grads and I'm starting to think that buying our own boat is not something we should so daunted by. We've discussed this over and over again - maybe it is more approachable than we think and is probably quite cost-effective if we can sail her back or get a delivery for the return leg. That said, kitting out and maintenance is going to take time, money and uncertainty. The reason I think this option is daunting is because we all have quite promising jobs and, while taking 3 months out to sail across probably wouldn't be too damaging, taking 6 months out plus myriad weekends of fettling might be more risky. Thoughts please.

A few random thoughts...

• You don't *have* to cross the pond. The Carib is nice and everything but it's not that fantastic, everywhere is nice. A UK, Europe, Canaries, Azores, UK loop is still a fantastic sailing achievement and much easier to break the trip up. Still big boys sailing.
• Plans written down in calendars are very dangerous things to have onboard a boat
• If you're into sailing then there's a lot to be said for the learning experience of kitting out a boat for offshore, you really don't need that much but it needs to be reliable. Knowledge gained will be very valuable for life.
• A lot of offshore sailing is dealing with jumping into the unknown, because it's , well, unknown. Probably the same as you're feeling a bit at the moment. This can be lessened a bit by coming to terms with the fact that the universe is ultimately a bit random and you'll never be able to completely predict or control it. But just jump reassured by the fact it is almost always ok.

Sorry, bit philosophical and nondescript but valid I think. The only decision you really need to take now is buy a boat or not, personally I would get one and get out on the water then forget about any other decisions until later on when it makes a bit more sense. That way you're not so emotionally locked in to a decision which might not make so much sense.

"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing—absolute nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing,"

 

[oldvarnish]

Just thought I'd mention 'The Atlantic Crossing Guide' pub Adlard Coles - full of good stuff

 

[PaulMcC]

No particular advice (well actually a bit of advice but not based on much knowledge!) but think you plan sounds great.
I bought my boat with a similar ambition but with an expectation of owning it for a few years before crossing, and in the short term I'm enjoying coastal sailing and building my experience with the 'fixing it' side of sailing.

The ideal cheap solution would be to find a skipper looking for crew across and crew for them on a 'friends' rather than 'commercial' basis. To make that happen you'll need to get to know a lot of yacht owners though which is difficult to do when you don't have your own boat but happens automatically it seems when you do.

That aside, sounds to me like working out your balance between time and money is going to be important to deciding the best choice. I would definitely recommend buying a boat, doing a few mods whilest sailing it here for 6 months, then sailing across and back before selling it. (But that's basically because that's what I'm doing!) You are probably talking about a realistic gross cost of £20,000 and assuming you sell it again when back in the UK, a net cost of £5,000 - £10,000. But for that you get the two crossings and a year of sailing as and when you want, and you will end up with a huge amount more experience of solving problems then you ever will from chartering.

 

[Neil_Y]

An own-boat passage UK-Caribbean needs to be started before the end of August to avoid a high likelihood of bad weather while heading south to the Canaries. Traditional wisdom says 'be south of Gib by 1st Sept'. Though you'll probably be OK for a few weeks later.

I have to say that's good advice if you want to avoid some seriously rough stuff, leaving in November from Falmouth did allow us to experience what 10m swell was like in Coruna and Bayona after two days hove to in the bay to see how the boat behaved in 50knts+. Trouble was I didn't buy the boat until September.

Cheapest option, but not easy for three is crew seekers, many private owners will take one or two crew for just shared food costs (£10.00/£15.00 a day) and they will be leaving from many different ports in the Canaries between November and mid Jan.

 

[pyrojames]

As three engineering students you should be able to access the voyage, find and prepare a bot for the passage and complete the task entirely independently of anyone else. It will also look very good on an engineers CV straight of of uni if you have done so successfully.

If I was interviewing you after a crossing I would be far more impressed if you did it alone, rather than as crew, or as part of the ARC.

Buying a boat here and sailing to the other side with the though of selling should be approached on the basis that you won't get any money for it on the other side. If you do it is a bonus, if you don't the cost should all be part of the experience.

Read all you can, including the early cruising stuff which is very good on the self reliance side of things, if now a little dated on some of the details. You can quite reasonably sail without fridge, autopilot, fancy electronic etc. Getting a boat and spending time sailing every moment possible through summer and winter before you go will help you get to know both your own limits and those of the boat. If you find that you have reached the limits of friendship, self endurance/reliance and lastly the boat, before you leave it will be a worth it, before you find out the same half way across.

 

[snowleopard]

I have to say that's good advice if you want to avoid some seriously rough stuff, leaving in November from Falmouth did allow us to experience what 10m swell was like in Coruna and Bayona after two days hove to in the bay to see how the boat behaved in 50knts+. Trouble was I didn't buy the boat until September.

I was waiting to meet Lord Nelson in Las Palmas after her passage from Southampton. They were several days motoring into F11 headwinds making 1/2 knot steerage way in Biscay during October.

 

[dk]

Go ahead and do it on your own. By the time you've got the boat down to the Canaries you'll all have a whole load more experience and day/night sea miles and plenty of opportunity to prove the boat. Crossing the Atlantic isn't hard, but it does require discipline. One of you must take on the mantle of skipper, with the attached responsibility, but in effect this will make little difference when sailing if you're all at roughly the same level.
The return crossing will be trickier, but by that time you'll have sorted the boat, tested the crew and have been inundated with invaluable advice for the trip back.
Enjoy!