How slow do you sail ?

[lw395]

I there is not much wind and we are cruising, our first thought is to consider a closer destination rather than turn on the motor.
Obviously some times we need to make progress and the engine will go on.

Once the motor goes on, the apparent wind means you need a decent breeze beofre you'll turn it off. Particularly on a downwind leg. It's always great to get the kite up and reach past boats motoring in zero apparent wind.

Sometimes it's a matter of working out how long you can drift before needing the engine to make last orders. Doing 2 or 3 knots while you prepare (maybe even catch!) and eat dinner is pleasant progress. Doing 6 knots with a noisy engine is a chore.

I think a lot of yotters have become used to nice quiet engines and fire them up when they can't do 5 knots. Come the RTIR, they're knackered if the wind drops because they've just not put the hours in learning to make their boats move in F1/F2.
Also this culture seems to mean that cruising boats are not expected to perform in light airs, so the rigs are a bit poorly designed and small. I guess the med influence of on/off wind is at work here.

Then there's people who over-plan things, so need to keep moving or it's a fail. It's easier to head west and see where you get.

Running the engine late in the day gets attractive in terms of hot water for a shower, full batteries and heading towards a pint.

 

[sailaboutvic]

Well after the first few replies I thought I must be the only one but good to see others will also hold off before turning the key .
The question was ask , who beat into the wind , well all the way up the west coast of Italy we did some days we didn't get far ,a 15 miles sail turned into 30 , other days the angle of the coast to the northern winds meant we could make a lot more head way .

We was working out what fuel we used this year the other day and its turn out we sailed at the very less two third of our 2000 miles trip .
Still less then I hoped for , that still 660 miles under engine my calculation that's still a couple hundreds litre of fuel .
Must try harder

 

[sailaboutvic]

I there is not much wind and we are cruising, our first thought is to consider a closer destination rather than turn on the motor.
Obviously some times we need to make progress and the engine will go on.

Once the motor goes on, the apparent wind means you need a decent breeze beofre you'll turn it off. Particularly on a downwind leg. It's always great to get the kite up and reach past boats motoring in zero apparent wind.

Sometimes it's a matter of working out how long you can drift before needing the engine to make last orders. Doing 2 or 3 knots while you prepare (maybe even catch!) and eat dinner is pleasant progress. Doing 6 knots with a noisy engine is a chore.

I think a lot of yotters have become used to nice quiet engines and fire them up when they can't do 5 knots. Come the RTIR, they're knackered if the wind drops because they've just not put the hours in learning to make their boats move in F1/F2.
Also this culture seems to mean that cruising boats are not expected to perform in light airs, so the rigs are a bit poorly designed and small. I guess the med influence of on/off wind is at work here.

Then there's people who over-plan things, so need to keep moving or it's a fail. It's easier to head west and see where you get.

Running the engine late in the day gets attractive in terms of hot water for a shower, full batteries and heading towards a pint.

You are right , unless we need to get anywhere In particular we don't have a plain harbour , we sail until we had enough ,
It's not unusual if a wake up early and there a nice breeze blowing to up Anchor leaving my partner in bed , she use to it too she just sleep on .
We normally work out what anchorages we have on the way and if the wind plays games we call it a day , but it's not the first time we anchored up , then the wind picks in our favour early evening with a few more hours of day light and we up anchor .

Over plain is most people down fall . There set them self an harbour and keep aiming for it .

 

[oldmanofthehills]

2.2kts turned out to be our absolute limit for any length of time. Navigator expressed clear wish to be either bought supper or brought to harbour to enable her to cook it in comfort rather than jilling about all evening somewhere approaching Falmouth. She noted that I had had considerable time adjusting sails, wandering about the boat hoisting spare canvas optimistically but she was bored and hungry. In normal circumstances I think much less than 3.5kt gets us thinking of the iron topsail but it was pleasant weather to bumble

 

[LittleSister]

I used to sail with a friend who always planned on his boat doing an average of 4 knots VMG. The boat was significantly overweight and somewhat under-canvassed, so needed a decent breeze to get much speed at all, and of course, the wind was usually from the wrong direction. He also did not go out if there was a Force 6 in the forecast, on the grounds that it only had to be one Force out, and we'd be out in a 7, and we didn't want that, did we? We did a lot of motoring! (We also had a lot of fun.)

 

[ProDave]

It's not so much a case of how fast, but where people sail (or not)

Sailing in the Moray forth a lot, I observe larger boats heading in or out of Inverness / Calley canal. Almost without fail inbound boats drop their sails just round Chanonry point and motor the last 6 miles in, even if it is good conditions for sailing. And likewise outbound boats seem happy to motor that 6 miles before they even think about hoisting the canvas.

Me, I like to get the sails up if possible within minutes of leaving the harbour.

 

[Kukri]

I claim the slow record for crossing the North Sea in both directions, in 1976 which some may remember as a year of exceptional fine weather with prolonged calms. I dislike using the engine and try not to use it at all unless we are under time pressure, which I try not to be.

 

[TonyMS]

We took 42 hours for Wells to Den Helder in our Jaguar 22, I think in 1977. When we reached the Dutch coast we had no idea where we were, but, as it was approaching midday, took a noon site on our plastic sextant and turned left to Den Helder!

 

[JumbleDuck]

Now the next question is, how many cruisers bother with beating into the wind?

With ... ? Sorry, not quite getting the concept there.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Me, I like to get the sails up if possible within minutes of leaving the harbour.

I'm with you there. Plus I always anchor, pick up moorings and depart under sail if it's at all possible.

 

[KellysEye]

Sailing down to the trade winds from the Canaries we had light winds and kept sailing we were not in a hurry.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

I'm with you there. Plus I always anchor, pick up moorings and depart under sail if it's at all possible.

Lucky you. As we have moorings in the Bristol Channel and in the Tamar estuary picking up moorings under sail is almost impossible due to tidal currents over 1 to 2kt even through moorings. In the old days they had gigs to assist final bit and a lot more boats came to greif. I will sail off if tide right though.

To get down coast from the Tamar I must go against the tide for 9 miles to get out of Plymouth. I could sail it on a falling tide if I had enough time to stop and wait for next tide but generally not worth it. Zig zag tacking in front of the Torpoint chain ferries will win you no friends either.

My cruising mentors told me long ago that most cruisers do half their time under power and that seems true.
Engines are useful so I am upset mine is now near dead. Good practice this last season but unsettled the Navigator sailing towards lee shores in F5/6 aiming for dog leg channels.

Racers and ocean crossers manage differently to cruisers.

 

[Sandyman]

Recall many years ago hearing the traditionalist saying engines would ruin the art of sailing. Were they correct ?

 

[geem]

With the Windward and Leewards as a cruising ground there is nearly always good wind for sailing and 99% of the time it has E in it. If the forecast is very light we just wait a day for normal service to resume so engining to go to a new island never happens. Normally we can fill the fuel tank at the beginning of the season and its still half full at the end with more fuel being consumed by the generator than the engine. Having said that the delivery trip from Curacao to anywhere in the East Caribbean is always a motorsail for nearly all boats. Its against the wind and current and Anywhere between 500-360nm. We are usually keen to get it over with so we dont spare the horses. With winds circa 20kts its usually engine at 1000-1200 rpm, working jib and two reefs in the main all sheeted in so we can lay 30deg apparent.

 

[Kukri]

Recall many years ago hearing the traditionalist saying engines would ruin the art of sailing. Were they correct ?

I think they were.

 

[RupertW]

I think they were.

Add in chartplotter and the art of navigation is lost. So you end up with a sport with far more people of varying ability able to take part in much more comfort. But so little challenge that it’s too boring for the next generation of owners to get involved.

 

[Simon__]

I won’t have done anything like the distance of others with my longest passage being around 80 miles but I’d also agree it depends.

The engine noise is terrible and when it’s running my partner says the smell makes her feel ill and she can’t go below. So if we’re not in any rush we’ll happily drift along providing the weather is nice. However, if we need to get somewhere before the tide turns or we lose the light or the conditions make drifting along uncomfortable we’ll put the engine on. In practice this happens a lot as we’re mostly weekend warriors and I’ve often pushed our luck in planning how far we can get. If we had more time I suspect we’d use the engine less.

 

[scotty123]

We took 42 hours for Wells to Den Helder in our Jaguar 22, I think in 1977. When we reached the Dutch coast we had no idea where we were, but, as it was approaching midday, took a noon site on our plastic sextant and turned left to Den Helder!

How, taking a noon site, did you arrive at the decision to "turn left" to Den Helder?

 

[johnalison]

Six knots really or you just pulling our leg

Sorry not to answer but there was no wifi on the boat.

Yes; I do mean six knots. Our HR 34 will normally motor at about 6.5kn and relaxed sailing is between 6 & 7, often more. I possibly need to put things into context. The sort of passage I am referring to would have been at the start or end of a three-month cruise, so we would have been involved in what was psychologically just a delivery trip. I normally do the sums in my head, and if the boat speed means a tiring or tiresome passage, I will motor or motor-sail on.

Something of a record for slow sailing was what we observed many years ago. We met three manky old men from an even mankier old boat, maybe 24ft or so, in Dieppe. They had taken three days to sail maybe 60 miles from Rye. My wife encountered them first in the bar of the club, then in a sort of prefab cabin. At 11.30 they had already celebrated their arrival a little too well and decided that it would be fun to try and guess my wife's age. Her lack of amusement at this game exceeded even that of Queen Victoria.

 

[RupertW]

Well, from all this I’m going to have another go at reducing our motor-on speed from 5 to 3 knots. We have no long passages planned for well over a year so it should be fine for island hopping.