long distance sailing in small yachts

[Johnboy2004]

does anyone know where i can get info on longdistance sailing in small yachts?
any websites........................
guys i need ur opinions here,,,,,, would a jenneau sun oddessey 32 be suitable to sail from dublin to the med,,,,,and then futher on to the canaries in september time?

cheers


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[roly_voya]

Its not the size, folkboats and virtues (both 26ft) have circumnavigated and ridden out hurricains, I've met a couple on a 5 tonner (28ft) who have done an altantic circuit, there are lots more. Would trust my 32ft almost anywhere but she weighs about 9.5 tons and draws 6ft on a 20+ft keel length and is built like the proverbial b.. S.. h.. On the other hand a coroners inquest a couple of seasons back rulled that taking a large but light an shallow bodied fin keeler across bicay was reckless as the boat wasn't designed for it - despite cat A rating under the RCD. Have a serious think about whether your boat would be comfotable in a 3 day F8+ and would things break.
Would recomend Heavy Weather Cruising (tom Cunliffe, 1996, Fenhurst) as a good intro read and mabe a chat with the local sea check, explain you ideas and you will get loads og good sensible advice.

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[charles_reed]

Any boat can go anywhere

Providing you choose your conditions, why a sailboard has circumnavigated the world.

There are 2 schools of thought, heavy and slow (which keeps on getting caught in nasty weather) or light and fast (which allows you to avoid heavy weather).

My boat, which is snaller than yours, has successfully cruised the Western Approaches and done the scenic route down to the Med.

The boat you're proposing is not ideally suited to offshore work, but could easily get down to the Med or cross the Atlantic - the question you pose suggests you might not be as experienced as the boat is capable.

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[JPGruntfuttock]

A 32 foot Some Oddity seems an ideal boat for the Med and should make it there easily in good weather via the scenic route.

The comment about the light and fast debate is very fair, but isn't that "long distance light" also high tech strong, hence more expensive e.g. Sadlers etc. A serious question arises whether the Oddity falls into that category? Also and often forgotten, 32' suggests small crew, long distances pounding along in a lightweight are a lot more tiring than in a seakindly, steadier motion, quieter boat.

Bias admitted, I side with a medium heavy displacement long keeler, though the Oddity has a lot of advantages in overall living space for the Med.

Mind you, someone crossed the pond in a (modified) Liesure 17, years ago, but I bet he didn't want to live on it!




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[bbilly]

Think about when you get to the Med. The SO's are built for cruising in med, the are spacious, robust and very comfortble boats. Sounds like a ad for Beneteau but the Freanchies have found the right formula for med cruising for many people. If you take your time and your not in a hurry sounds great.

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[domlee]

Food for thought...try the book 'Sell Up and Sail by Bill and Laural Cooper - some good info...ISBN Number 0713647868. See also the Tohatsu web site re. punter crossing Atlantic in home-made 22 foot motorboat powered by 2.5hp outboard!!!

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[Johnboy2004]

interesting nice yellow boat.......amazing story..........

i wonder where he stored all the petrol!......


cheers for the info

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[AndrewB]

A 32\' Odyssy? No - IMHO.

Well, you asked for opinions, and I'm with JPGruntfuttock on this one. It's too light, and lightly constructed a boat for comfortable shorthanded ocean cruising, though maybe OK with 4-5 experienced crew.

Chances are you could coast-hop down to the Med without serious problems, but don't over-estimate what this boat is capable of. A good few yachts get a dusting on the passage between Portugal and the Canaries, for most the first real ocean passage they do.

Take no notice of any nonsense about sailing fast enough to get away from bad weather. This is a purely coastal strategy, when there is always a harbour within a few hours reach. The difference between the 5 knots of the heavy cruiser and the 8 knots of the lightweight is irrelevant in the context of the speed and scale of most ocean bad-weather systems, tropical storms excepted.

 

[Ric]

Re: A 32\' Odyssy? No - IMHO.

Ah yes the age-old anglo-saxon law that you can only sail around the world in a floating panzer. A little while back in one of the French mags there was an article by a bloke who had single handed his Beneteau 411 around Cape Horn. There is also a Frenchie sailing his Jeanneau Sun Odyssey around Greenland.

French boats are perfectly tough enough to stand up to a trip down to the Med, and will be much more fun once he gets here. I lose count of the number of Brit boats I see in the Med with flush decks, tiny cockpit, no bimini, no sprayhood, no bathing ladder, no opening hatches etc. Perfect for the North West passage - useless in the Med!

I have a Jeanneau 32.2 and I single-hand mine all over the place, including across the Gulf of Lions in a blow, which is pretty nasty. It is fine - ok not an ideal boat for the circumstances, but it is capable enough. But then for the 99% of beautiful sailing days in the Med, it is perfect. I'd rather have a boat that is perfect for 99% of the time, and adequate for the rest, than one that is perfect for 1% of the time and very uncomfortable for the remainder.

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[Johnboy2004]

Re: A 32\' Odyssy? No - IMHO.

hi what is the depreciation like on a jenneau 32? do you know where i can get info on cruising in the med, sth of france?



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[AndrewB]

Re: A 32\' Odyssy? No - IMHO.

Personally, I'll stick with the floating tank. Call me a wimp, but the 1% of the time it looks after you in seriously bad weather more than compensates for the 99% when it looks out of place in a luxury Meddy marina (no risk of that for me - I can't afford the prices).

Actually, I've enjoyed sailing a chartered Odyssy in the Med. But I wouldn't be so keen on taking one out into the Atlantic - or even across Biscay with a marginal forecast.

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[JPGruntfuttock]

Re: A 32\' Odyssy? No - IMHO.

Actually may be there is a concensus of opinion here on the real question.

Yes, if it floats and is over 3 feet long some exceptionally brave, or foolhardy, individual has circumnavigated in one. If you are that brave?

The lightweight, large volume boats such as this SO 32 are perfectly capable of being sailed from Ireland to the Med, in the right season, in the right way and with a proper awareness of their limitations.

Once in the Med, they are well designed for prolonged coastal cruising, in the right season and for living aboard.

But the sticking point comes at taking it further afield, a long way from the nearest shelter or refuge.

Is it not fair to say that all boats are a compromise, this one wins in its size category for living on in the Med, but loses in the offshore voyaging stakes?





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[snowleopard]

small french boats

while there are lots of french sailors in boats we would consider too small, their government takes a more radical view. during the 2001 ARC, one of the participants rescued a french sinlehander from his sinking boat. his boat was of a 'coastal' classification and he expected a hefty fine for going beyond its range limits when he returned home.

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[temptress]

Re: A 32\' Odyssy? No - IMHO.

I've delivered all sorts of boats to all sorts of places and in my opinion the SO32 as a boat will do what you want it to do. The real question is will you (the crew) be able to stand it?

I need to state a bias here as I own and cruise an SO47.

Somewhere else here someone was talking about the fast and slow options. A fast and light boat shoulf be capable of passages in the teens (13/14) anything going around at 7 or 8 Knoghts would be considered medium displacment these days. With modern weather tracking software you can generally avoid bad weather on extended passages but you will always get caught out eventually.Everything is a compromise and ask 10 of us the same question you will get 10 answers.

I know of a couple who took their 28ft Impala to the windies and back cause it was the only way they could get there. It depends on what level of comfort you want.

I've ridden out storms in light fantastics and recently a 108ft Gaff Schooner. I know which was the most pleasant experiance but the boats survived. In fact the light boats has less damage but were a bit like living in a washing machine......


<hr width=100% size=1>Temptress of Down
Southsea Marina
Hants
UK

 

[AndrewB]

No, but, seriously though!

A fast cruising yacht may sometimes hit 13 knots on a surf in a decent breeze, but if JohnBoy2004 plans on passages at this speed in his Odyssey 32 he's going to be very disappointed!

For example:

13 knots = 312 miles per day = Canaries to St Lucia in 8½ days.

The ARC record, set by a Volvo 60, is 11½ days. 20 days is more typical for a modern light cruising yacht (by coincidence, that was the exact time taken by a Sun Odyssey 452 last year). That's an average of 5½ knots.

 

[steve_cronin]

Nahh Mate!

Cathy & Mick Sullivan, our next-door neighbours in land-locked Leicestershire, are somewhere off Cape Horn as I write in their Beneteau Evasion 34 "Tacks" (Evasion) having sailed from Hamble via Cork to the Cape Verdes and then over to Venezuela and down the eastern seabord of South America.

My wife and myself and our (then) small children did 27 channel crossings to the CIs and Brittany in the 70s & 80s in a 17ft motor cruiser and did Morbihan in a 22ft Newbridge before buying a Hunter 30 and now a Bav 42 in the Med.

Preparation and weather window watching have helped Cathy & Mick and in our early persuits, us too.

Modern man wants the platform of a RoRo these days to go to sea it seems to me!

Steve Cronin

<hr width=100% size=1>The above is, like any other post here, only a personal opinion

 

[steve_cronin]

Re: small french boats

Well that posting is just a fruit salad of prattish legislators and (if you will forgive the criticism) a wrong classification of a 32footer as a "small" boat.

CHRRISST!!! most of Britain's sailing community grew up on the 25' 10" Centaur and sailed them everywhere!

Stuff modernist nanny state thinking! A gentleman goes down quietly with his ship!

Steve Cronin

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[AndrewB]

Hi there Steve ...

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>

<font size=1>Stuff modernist nanny state thinking! A gentleman goes down quietly with his ship!</font size=1>

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... wanna borrow an Oppie for an across the pond?

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[snowleopard]

Re: small french boats

on the question of what constitutes 'small' these days, a sample of those crossing the atlantic can be seen <A target="_blank" HREF=http://arc.worldcruising.com/en/>here</A> under 'entries'. 32ft = 9.75m, smaller than any entries on the next ARC.

at 40ft we were very much among the little ones the other side of the atlantic.

the french legislation is an example of where it leads once you start compulsory skipper and boat licensing. they are already well on the way towards total regulation - just look at how CE marking affects self-builders!

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[applepip]

Re: Nahh Mate!

As you have all the experience please tell me why you chose the Bavaria.
We have our eye on one.

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