OK So what do you do on long passages to stay awake?

Auto helm advantages in order of importance for us:

  1. Reduces fatigue (long passages considerably less tiring)
  2. Proper eye contact and sit opposite my wife and/or crew
  3. Relax more freeing me to walk about the boat, prepare grub, visit head, sit elsewhere
  4. Enjoy passing scenery
  5. Perform on board tasks, stow fenders, lines, adjust covers, etc
  6. Read books, mags, tablet, listen to music, paper chart work
Obviously I maintain a lookout, but I don't need to be physically at the wheel to do that. Autohelm is our most useful aid.
 
Nigelpickin said:
I know its just me but I really don't get the auto pilot thing, at least for MOBO's...
I didn't even bother speccing it on the new boat...I guess I could lash the wheel to hold course if need be.
Did a channel crossing in the dark a few years ago and the thing furthest from mind was taking a nap!! Don't know how some of these sailor types can relax enough to drop off :)
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Nodding off is not restricted to Raggie's. At 18 knots the adrenalin keeps the sirens away but drop back to 8 knots on a calm hot sunny day and the sirens will get you, or at least me, every time
 
So if I ever needed affirmation of my reluctance to engage the auto pilot its right here in this thread...

I think I'll take my chances, upright at the helm, facing forward with me peepers wide open...for fear of running into a cat napping narcoleptic. :)
 
Blaming the A/P is a total nonsense.
There are many things that deserve your attention while cruising, rather than holding the wheel just to follow your route.
I'd rather blame comfortable seats. I've yet to fall asleep while standing....
 
alant said:
On a displacement motor boat, particularly at night, you are usually inside & looking at a glass windscreen, listening to a hypnotic droning engine. If you are the helm & alone, however disciplined, you can nod off. Some artificial wake up system, PC or klaxon (wife) is essential.
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Yep, makes sense. Solo sailors traditionally use a kitchen egg-timer (the clockwork buzzer type, not the sand type).

I guess I was answering "what do you do to avoid boredom" rather than "what do you do to stay awake".

Pete
 
Bertramdriver said:
Nodding off is not restricted to Raggie's. At 18 knots the adrenalin keeps the sirens away but drop back to 8 knots on a calm hot sunny day and the sirens will get you, or at least me, every time
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prv said:
Indeed. Particularly since I have a remote control for the autopilot which means I can steer around a lobster pot while reclining on the foredeck :)
Pete
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Interesting. I recently decided to fit a remote to the AP this spring on the basis that sitting up front is
A further away from the Detroits
B closer to SWMBO who views the foredeck as her private lounging area and will keep me engaged
C keeps me physically active and stop the arthritis from setting the joints

And as far as avoiding cat napping narcoleptics are concerned, at least our course and speed are predicable.
 
MapisM said:
Blaming the A/P is a total nonsense.
There are many things that deserve your attention while cruising, rather than holding the wheel just to follow your route.
I'd rather blame comfortable seats. I've yet to fall asleep while standing....
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Not blaming the auto pilot for anything...my point is that keeping watch is my primary concern when cruising around. The challenges of watch keeping allay the boredom and if the boat needs me to function then I am more likely to stay awake. It might not be the same for all but on my boat the best viewpoint is through the big windows right near the steering wheel on the right hand side. I would say that at planing speed its not just a case of holding the wheel to keep course; feed back, adjustments for irregular sine and general connection with the boat are all factors. Not judging anyone, genuinely interested to hear how some folk are confident to use the boat while it is underway, I'm just a bit of a nervous type I guess...
As for nonsense, I'm reluctant to engage in a battle of semantics, but really?!
 
Nigelpickin said:
I would say that at planing speed its not just a case of holding the wheel to keep course; feed back, adjustments for irregular sine and general connection with the boat are all factors. Not judging anyone, genuinely interested to hear how some folk are confident to use the boat while it is underway, I'm just a bit of a nervous type I guess...
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I've not been on a big planing mobo, but I can well believe that it would be sensible to stay at the helm when travelling at speed. But the OP was talking about displacement speed, 8 knots. That's within the capability of a largish sailing yacht, so following the same sort of routine (walk around, read a book, cook dinner) doesn't seem unreasonable.

Pete
 
Nigelpickin said:
Not judging anyone, genuinely interested to hear how some folk are confident to use the boat while it is underway, I'm just a bit of a nervous type I guess...
As for nonsense, I'm reluctant to engage in a battle of semantics, but really?!
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Oh yeah, that wasn't my intent either, by all means.
And it's irrelevant anyway, since you now explained that you weren't blaming the a/p at all, to start with. :)

Re. helming manually with planing boats, actually the difference is not so much related to whether you're cruising at 8 or at 20 kts.
It's rather a matter of whether the conditions require the boat to be "driven" or not,
In fact, the a/p can steer to keep a course, but can't actually "drive" a boat, and never will.
I mean, if you're cruising at 80kts on a 20 footer, you just can't use the a/p, no matter ho flat the sea surface is, because you MUST drive the thing.
But there can be conditions where this applies also to bigger boats cruising at 20kts.
It's even possible (albeit indeed rare) that sea conditions require manual helming also on a big(ish) boat at 8kts.

Anyway, back to your original Q, actually my previous answer was more serious than it might have appeared: just don't sit while you're helming.
Pleasure boats are fitted with comfy seats in the p/house, sometimes with arm/headrest, just because pleasure boaters want them.
But from a functional viewpoint they are only a waste of space.
Just look at ships command bridges, you won't find any Stidd seats inside them... :)
 
Somehow this thread has wandered off course. What I wanted was light hearted advice on how others cope with long and low stress passages not judgement on whether AP's are the gods or the devils gift to mariners. Helming in the North Sea at dusk is a damn site more demanding than tootling between Aegean islands on a hot sunny day, so the issues and challenges are considerably different. So please ideas please.
 
MapisM said:
Blaming the A/P is a total nonsense.
There are many things that deserve your attention while cruising, rather than holding the wheel just to follow your route.
I'd rather blame comfortable seats. I've yet to fall asleep while standing....
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its easy----no seat in my wheelhouse and i often used to doze off standing up after a nights fishing on my own---worryingly i could never work out whether it was seconds or minutes----regards lr
 
very possibly----i was hand steering but other fishing boats i have seen with auto pilots had a very noisy alarm which went off at very short intervals----i was told the alarm had to fitted as a condition of their insurance----regards lentenrose---ps i never dozed off when there was something to interest me like another boat-----it was just those calm empty mornings
 
Bertramdriver said:
Somehow this thread has wandered off course. What I wanted was light hearted advice on how others cope with long and low stress passages not judgement on whether AP's are the gods or the devils gift to mariners. Helming in the North Sea at dusk is a damn site more demanding than tootling between Aegean islands on a hot sunny day, so the issues and challenges are considerably different. So please ideas please.
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Any chance you can specify exactly which you are sleeping in ?

I've done 215nm North Sea passages solo but do not wish to thread drift.
 
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DAKA said:
Any chance you can specify exactly which you are sleeping in ?

I've done 215nm North Sea passages solo but do not wish to thread drift.
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I've slept in a variety of waters but currently the Sarinikos in Greece. Not so much narcolepsy as super chilled.
SWMBO has suggested taking dogs on board on the basis that they'll need to be watched constantly, by me not her, of course. However it will take a while to train them in watch keeping.
 
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