Offshore cruiser?

[sailbadthesinner]

I agree entirely
Particularly about your comments re cruising culture
But i think that it is more that cruising culture is dissecting itself in to a number of groups.
The debates ( i wouldn't call them clashes) on this site demonstrate it. There are those who want to sail off into the distance and strecth themselves, others want to potter, or are after more a 'holiday' experience rather than making any particular passage. W
ith these different objectives I see evolving very different attitudes accross the sailing community. I think the recent sea check debate demonstaretd it in part. In other parts it just showed that this community is a refelction of society and home to all types
I think that the culture has shifted far more towards the day trip culture and i think resentment builds up as areas get busy.
Yachties dont like wash
Motors fear crowd of racing dinghies in narrow channells
and everyone fears sunsail charterers
Sailing is changing. Not all of it for good and i am not sure how much and how many of the changes are in our own hands.

If it Cooks Flys or Floats, Rent it.

 

[billmacfarlane]

I don't see the tankage as being a particular problem. After all it's not being marketed as a motor sailer and 18 gall fuel should be more than enough for a typical passage that the boat is designed to take. I've got the same amount of diesel for a 36' boat and I don't see it as a problem. I also carry 5 gallons in 2 cans. Regarding water 44 gallons should last 2 people at least 10 days as long as they don't expect to have showers every day and take care with the washing up etc. Maybe it's time someone defined what they mean by "offshore cruising ". The term is too loose . The Jeanneau will be mostly used for Channel hopping , coastal cruising , with nights at anchor. I can't see anything wrong with the tankage for that , except that after 4 or 5 days at anchor you'll need to find a water tap to fill up at. Of course a single battery is not enough but anybody buying one , and I'm sure the boat will sell well , will buy more battery power. The really important question is is there enough space to fit extra batteries ?

 

[rogerroger]

an extra battery is on the extras list so I guess there must be room ?



Roger Holden
www.first-magnitude.co.uk

 

[webcraft]

I can't see the point of this thread. An offshore cruiser is a boat that is taken offshore - wherever that is. Is it a channel crossing, an Atlantic crossing or what? It seems to me that one man's coastal cruising is another man's offshore sailing and vice versa.

If someone gave me a Sun Odyssey 32 I would - pending my own sea trials - be quite happy to take her offshore as her general seakeeping qualities look as though they will be adequate to the task - although a slightly higher AVS (140deg is recommended by the RYA) would be nice. I don't think I'd lose too much sleep before setting off across Biscay or the Atlantic.

I might have to make some mods first and buy a few cheap extras.

Tankage shortfall can be overcome with containers. I crewed to the Canaries last year on a boat carrying no more than this - we carried extra diesel in cans and didn't wash.

Stowage shortage is more of a problem, but most cruising sailors are practical and ingenious people, and I am sure this problem can be overcome. After all, meagre stowage in a 32 footer is probably the same as capacious stowage in a 28 footer - many of which have circumnavigated.

Batteries - buy another one . . . not a big deal. If it looks like being a problem, switch off unnecessary electrics. We disconnected the electric water pump before setting off for the Canaries.

I guess what I am trying to say is that a lot of boats would make nice offshore cruisers - for the right skipper, and with the right modifications. This just seems a pointless argument about definitions - and as someone rightly pointed out, the yacht's RCD category is A, Ocean - and probably more deservedly than with some others recently reviewed. (The Legend from an earlier mag - and thread - springs to mind . . .)

- Nick

BlueMoment.Com
http://www.bluemoment.com

 

[kgi]

surely its more a case of the offshore crew than the cruiser, iseem to recall in PBO about eight or ten years ago that they talked about the Hurley22 for an atlantic crossing, modified with more water and batteries. some times i think we lose sight of where we want to go, and we are getting like our cousins across the pond, that unless your boat comes with all the latest bells and whistles you cannot enjoy it, i must admit i have found myself going along this particular course, new gps when the old one is still in the catalogue!!!!!!! some days i never learn....

 

[ParaHandy]

It costs £335 in a boat costing >£50,000 to put another battery in. This is surely ridiculous. I presume the sales person would opine that nobody in their right mind would buy it with one battery and, that being so, why not have two as standard?

I’m not convinced that this boat, capable of crossing the channel with a family of four in her, has enough fuel or water capacity. I suppose it appears strange talking about fuel range in a sailing boat but on two occasions this year I’ve had to motor there and back virtually the whole way which was about 15-18 gallons with “winter hours” operating at refuelling stops. There’s either been too much or too little wind this year.

Anyway, thanks to all who posted.

 

[Guest]

Re: Offshore cruiser? - webcraft

Hi,

I have to agree with Nick. Sailing is about more than litres of diesel and water. It is about properly planning a passage and ranting that a boat isn't up to offshore standards because of it having one battery and limited tankage suggests thatmany of us are getting to fixated by the toys and forgetting about what the objective is.

If you really need to get to Cherbourg and back on a deadline catch a ferry. They are a lot cheaper, infinitely more comfortable and you can even take your car so that you can explore the surrounding countryside.

Regards





Fred

 

[claymore]

Dougie ma bonny lad - whit ye haf met wi' is a laid o' the great English unwashed. As we all ken - cleanliness is next tae godliness - sae - that maks em unwashed an' ungodly - Jings mon - whit are we da'in here?

regards
Claymore

 

[Twister_Ken]

Indigo manages on 40 litres of fuel and 100 litres of water.

Looking in her logbook I see she was once taken from Chichester to la Coruna non-stop.

 

[ParaHandy]

Re: Offshore cruiser? - webcraft

Which planet are you on (or from)? There is nobody that I have met (yet...give it time, there might be the opposite of you lurking somewhere) who does not enjoy the blessed peace when the motor gets switched *OFF*. Sadly, the weather round these parts does not always cooperate and, from time to time, you've got to switch it *ON* again. Sometimes, you've even got to be somewhere else other than stuck in the middle of the channel going nowhere fast. And then, horror of horrors, it gets switched *ON* again.

The objective, in case you've forgotten, is to get from A to B and back again. How I chose to do that is my choice.

 

[claymore]

Re: Offshore cruiser? - webcraft

A head of steam McPhail if ye please
We need tae be in Tignabruich within the 'oor.

regards
Claymore

 

[ParaHandy]

Re: Offshore cruiser? - webcraft

Ah've telt ye afore...this biler winna tak it. And therrrs nae guid ye fetching thon posh mags to burn, wee dougie's jist sits there reading them like a stookey.......mind, ah canna see whits of interest, yon editor's like the speaking clock.................

 

[snooks]

It's the intro that describes the boat as a "superb offshore cruiser" in the feature James writes "She will make a comfortable and quick coastal cruiser and offshore family cruiser in which overnight passage making will be perfectly practical" I think that explains what he meant.

But if not...

Vertue XXXV, crossed the atlantic with no power, no engine, I think that's offshore. Used signalling flags to communicate as well!

I also met an ex-legionnaire who's water supply consisted of 2 x 2 litre bottles, one for drinking, one for washing, he came across the channel at it's widest point, from Brittany to Falmouth which would be offshore by definition. I wouldn't like to do it, but he chose to.

James didn't say you could set off round the world in such a boat, the SO 32 could be taken across the channel or over to Ireland, and I'm sure she'd do it well, you'd take reserves of fuel and water, but then again you'd also put safety equipment on board that wasn't supplied.

She can be rigged for the sailing you'd like to do in her, it might mean adding a battery or two, but if you were to buy a blue water cruise like a Rustler, Hallberg Rassy, Pacific Seacraft etc... you wouldn't expect to get on board cast off and sail into the distance...for a start you'd need charts...or would you like manufactures supplying those as well???

To some, offshore is out of sight of land, to others it's mid Atlantic