How do you dry sail?

[PhillM]

I've read a couple of books in which the authors talked about "dry sailing" their proposed passage so as to be prepared for whatever the weather/sea conditions throws at them. One that comes to mind is Roger Taylor in Mingming and his trip up the East Coast. So I think I get the just of the idea ... check the prevailing winds, look at the tides for your proposed passage, work out where you expect to be and when. Mark it up and then think about what might you need to consider if in that position and the weather changes or sea state deteriorates. I guess ports of refuge or when you head out to sea, might be one set of criteria. But what else do you factor in?

I have a variety of plans for next year ... how can I improve my planning and execution by dry sailing passages over the Christmas holiday?

 

[Neeves]

I always understood 'dry sailing' to mean keeping you yacht on the hard and only putting it in the water when you actually want to sail. Here 'recent' Etchells are dry sailed but older ones are wet sailed. They have a separate 'class' for wet Etchells, because they are heavier.

We used to dry sail our X-99, the yard dropped it into the water on Friday and lifted it out on Monday - we raced it Saturday and or Sunday (and it was cheaper than a marina berth and we needed no AF).

Jonathan

 

[25931]

I alTTTways understood 'dry sailing' to mean keeping you yacht on the hard and only putting it in the water when you actually want to sail. Here 'recent' Etchells are dry sailed but older ones are wet sailed. They have a separate 'class' for wet Etchells, because they are heavier.

We used to dry sail our X-99, the yard dropped it into the water on Friday and lifted it out on Monday - we raced it Saturday and or Sunday (and it was cheaper than a marina berth and we needed no AF).

Jonathan

There is a club in Olhão where boats are kept on trailers and craned in and out as required.

 

[Poignard]

What PhillM calls dry sailing I have always heard called passage planning.

I dry sail my boat from a yard in France. She stays in her cradle when not in use.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

I always thought it those skippers that refuse to have alcohol on board

 

[TernVI]

I've read a couple of books in which the authors talked about "dry sailing" their proposed passage so as to be prepared for whatever the weather/sea conditions throws at them. One that comes to mind is Roger Taylor in Mingming and his trip up the East Coast. So I think I get the just of the idea ... check the prevailing winds, look at the tides for your proposed passage, work out where you expect to be and when. Mark it up and then think about what might you need to consider if in that position and the weather changes or sea state deteriorates. I guess ports of refuge or when you head out to sea, might be one set of criteria. But what else do you factor in?

I have a variety of plans for next year ... how can I improve my planning and execution by dry sailing passages over the Christmas holiday?

Sounds like it could be a way to generate an over-complex passage plan which might be great until the reality diverged from it!

One thing that might be useful would be to 'dry sail' a passage a couple of times.
Make your plan according to the forecast. Model your progress according to the actual wind, tide etc.
I think this is only going to be nteresting if you are planning to beat upwind, or maybe sail big angles with an asy?

 

[25931]

Sounds like it could be a way to generate an over-complex passage plan which might be great until the reality diverged from it!

One thing that might be useful would be to 'dry sail' a passage a couple of times.
Make your plan according to the forecast. Model your progress according to the actual wind, tide etc.
I think this is only going to be nteresting if you are planning to beat upwind, or maybe sail big angles with an asy?

Whilst planning can be very important it isn't always so, don't let it spoil your pleasure.

 

[Wansworth]

The skipper of a boat I was on always wrote in the log......”towards......”

 

[NealB]

The skipper of a boat I was on always wrote in the log......”towards......”

Of course.

Don't we all?

 

[johnalison]

I normally score rather low in the passage-planning department, but from the OP's examples it sounds like a good way of preparing for an unfamiliar passage. Sitting down with the books and charts and imagining one's way through the course, from harbour formalities to what fishing gear to take could be very helpful to some people. My own preparations for a North Sea passage generally go little further than lying awake at night wondering what one actually does when run down by a ship, but I wouldn't poo-poo the general idea.

 

[TernVI]

Whilst planning can be very important it isn't always so, don't let it spoil your pleasure.

I tend to write very versatile plans, if the wind is not taking me very far on day one of a cruise, I usually don't go as far as 'planned', I don't much like motoring just to keep to a plan.

 

[johnalison]

I tend to write very versatile plans, if the wind is not taking me very far on day one of a cruise, I usually don't go as far as 'planned', I don't much like motoring just to keep to a plan.

Not so easy when it is Thursday in your last week and you’ve got to be at work on Monday. It is a good idea to plan to have sufficient fuel.

 

[DownWest]

Not so easy when it is Thursday in your last week and you’ve got to be at work on Monday. It is a good idea to plan to have sufficient fuel.

You have to work on Monday? How restricting... I thort most on here had cast such restrictions off well ago. Err, I do have to talk to some client tomorrow...

 

[wully1]

Dry sailing is unknown here in Argyll..

 

[Laminar Flow]

To my mind there are a number of different interpretations of "Dry Sailing":

a) Dry storage or dry moorage, where the boat is kept ashore until use.

b) The alchohol-free enjoyment of wind assisted progress on a boat.

c) The indubitable benefit and pleasure of having a wheelhouse.

What the OP is referring to and as already indicated by Mr. Poignard, I know as passage planning. I have indulged in it at times, but mostly in a very general sense such as: best times to cross the Atlantic or: preferred season for the Baltic (we sure as hell got that one wrong, as if the streams of boats heading the other way weren't indicative). But, as other's have found:

Helmuth von Moltke 1800–91
No plan of operations reaches with any certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main force.

 

[DownWest]

To my mind there are a number of different interpretations of "Dry Sailing":

a) Dry storage or dry moorage, where the boat is kept ashore until use.

b) The alchohol-free enjoyment of wind assisted progress on a boat.

c) The indubitable benefit and pleasure of having a wheelhouse.

What the OP is referring to and as already indicated by Mr. Poignard, I know as passage planning. I have indulged in it at times, but mostly in a very general sense such as: best times to cross the Atlantic or: preferred season for the Baltic (we sure as hell got that one wrong, as if the streams of boats heading the other way weren't indicative). But, as other's have found:

Helmuth von Moltke 1800–91
No plan of operations reaches with any certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main force.

Well yes, but the planning bit gives you the options., if you look at them.

 

[Laminar Flow]

Well yes, but the planning bit gives you the options., if you look at them.

Well, yes of course.
Our passage planning mostly revolves around whether there might be something of interest at a certain destination.
Are there tidal restrictions?
What are the alternatives along the way (non tidal harbours) if something goes sideways?
Until departure is imminent (days to hours), I rarely check the weather, other than for the most general , seasonal patterns.
Same goes for the tidal requirements, to determine departure and arrival windows. Over longer distances and in terms of the variables involving a sailing vessel, it is pretty senseless to make overly detailed plans.

 

[Whitlock]

The skipper of a boat I was on always wrote in the log......”towards......”

The RYA Yachtmaster course used to promote that idea in the Eighties.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

You have to work on Monday? How restricting... I thort most on here had cast such restrictions off well ago. Err, I do have to talk to some client tomorrow...

I remember talking to a guy when I was beating back up the French coast from La Rochelle, I seem to remember it was on the fuel berth late at night in Les Sables after something like 14 hours of sailing needing to get home in 3 days. After we had finished talking and I said to him are you off in the morning as well he replied with Oh no I am retired now aren't you. I was 50 I think and the thought of another 15 years wrinkled and I have always remembered that phrase just in case I can use it on some poor wretch.

 

[mjcoon]

I remember talking to a guy when I was beating back up the French coast from La Rochelle, I seem to remember it was on the fuel berth late at night in Les Sables after something like 14 hours of sailing needing to get home in 3 days. After we had finished talking and I said to him are you off in the morning as well he replied with Oh no I am retired now aren't you. I was 50 I think and the thought of another 15 years wrinkled and I have always remembered that phrase just in case I can use it on some poor wretch.

I guess that was wrinkled and rankled!