Poll: Longest cruising yacht for single-handed sailors?

Longest cruising yacht for single-handed sailors?

  • 27-29ft

    Votes: 8 5.0%

  • 30-32ft

    Votes: 13 8.1%

  • 33-35ft

    Votes: 29 18.0%

  • 36-38ft

    Votes: 45 28.0%

  • 39-41ft

    Votes: 19 11.8%

  • 42-44ft

    Votes: 47 29.2%
  • Total voters
    161
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yodave said:
I guess it’s about reaching a balance that you’re comfortable with both physically and mentally. It’s about having a yacht that you know you can park when you’re out on the water, so that you can enjoy your time out there, rather than being stressed and fixated on how you’re going to get into port. That’s what I’m trying to understand via the poll; it’s both sides of the equation – sailing and parking.
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You are back to a different question again. You now seem to be asking what people would choose, which is different from what is possible. You are also narrowing down the type of usage by saying sailing and parking are both important.

As with the original question. length is still not the main determinant and the type of boat and how it is set up is far more important. In many ways it is easier to deal with the open water sailing bit and avoid the close quarters stuff by motoring in and out of congested sailing areas before setting sail. Parking requires a boat that steers predictably in both directions and is not affected too much by windage, but unfortunately those two tend not to go together. A bow thruster is one way of dealing with windage, so a fin keeler with a big rudder and a powerful engine plus a bow thruster is likely to be the easiest to park as you have more control over it in all directions. Will tell you whether it works in practice when I get my new boat - although others who have the same set up assure me that it does.

So, if you are choosing a boat for single hander (ignoring budget for the time being) think about how you intend using it and where the difficulties lie, then assess the boat against that, or more likely, how you can adapt the boat to minimise the areas of potential difficulty.
 
So....lets muddy the water even more..... A ketch rig has smaller sails which are easier to handle by one person. Reefing becomes a very simple matter of just dropping the main into a stackpack.....and heaving-to is a breeze. Progress is often adequate to good on genoa and mizzen alone......and likely you will get a centre cockpit...which puts you near the boats centre of gravity (for comfort) and never too far from where the action might be in terms of reefing and mooring
 
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I occasionally sail single handed on a 39ft boat.
If I was sailing predominantly single handed I wouldn't want to go any bigger.
It's not just about the sailing and parking, it's also about the costs. There is only one person paying for a night somewhere so I'm not likely to use a marina.
I want to be able to choose from the cheaper places to park. This might be an anchorage i.e. Newtown River, it may be a Town Quay i.e. Lymington or Hamble.
The moment you get above 40 feet the options start to become limited. Draught as well as length.
Before I bought the current boat I looked at bigger boats. They never appealed. It felt as if I was buying an extra cabin for someone else's benefit. Not mine.
34ft is the smallest that I would want to buy for single handing in the area I sail but smaller still would be better if I was doing what Dylan did.
So minimum size I think very much depends upon the type of sailing you want to do and the distances involved. But max size I reckon is 40ft.
 
yodave said:
I'm looking for a broad range of views from forum members on the longest cruising yacht for a single-handed sailor assuming that sailor has average skills, not a seasoned professional. All input greatfully received.
Thanks
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I can tell you of my experience and I can give you some advice, but ultimately it is mostly up to you and your sailing grounds.

I sail most of the time single handed. Five years ago I moved from a 36ft to a 42ft. My first sail with the 42ft looked daunting and I did it with plenty of caution. It was more a matter of necessity: either I did it on my own or I did not go sailing at all. So I did. I was reassured by the fact that the new 42ft had a bow thruster which the 36ft didn't, nevertheless my first maneuver was from my berth to the fueling pontoon with a light breeze. The first thing I noticed was how high the freeboard was when I jumped off from midship to tie alongside. Longer with modern boats means also significantly higher. After refuel eventually I went for my first sail. The autopilot helped, and an in-mast furling main was invaluable. The greatest difference I found was when I had to roll the giant Genoa no.1. It was heavy, very heavy to pull in just using my hands like I always did. Eventually I resorted to using the winch that I always thought it was inappropriate in case of a jam at the drum. But again I was driven by necessity.

After my first two day sails I assessed the situation and I decided to upgrade and increase the number of clutches and deck tidy to take all controls to the cockpit. That made a huge difference. I also upgraded the Raymarine autopilot with a model that had a gyro and I fine tuned it for my sailing conditions. I found absolutely invaluable that my new boat had an opening transom. This helped a lot when going back to my berth on my own. This way I prepare my bow and mid lines hanging on the guard wires and my two stern lines running out around the inverted V backstay tensioners and into the cockpit. So I just reverse into and simply _walk_ on the pontoon, I tie the stern line that holds the boat in and then I walk on the finger to grab the mid and bow lines. Perfect!

So as you see it isn't just a matter of length but also a matter of the cockpit and transom configuration for simple single handed berthing. If my boat had a flat sugar scoop for example, without any step, I could not do this. If my boat had instead an opening transom, but with one of those new modern flipping bathing platforms, I could not do this either!

I find that the greatest challenges are in close quarter maneuvering. Once I am out sailing, really it does not make a great deal of difference. Or rather it does in that I no longer use the spinnaker. On the 36ft I could do it single handed. On the 42ft ... not a chance, the pole is way to big to handle on my own.

So to summarize: close quarter maneuvers are the most challenging time of your day sail. In-mast furling is recommended, all controls lead to cockpit are essential. A well tuned autopilot is also essential for sailing. A bow thruster is highly recommended. But the most essential feature of all is the ability to just walk on the pontoon from the transom for trouble free single handed berthing.
 
Retired in Crete said:
My 28ft Beneteau First has ample accommodation for one and has all the comforts of home (H & C shower etc). If I have guests it will sleep four in comfort, it is a doddle to park and sails well. Why would I want anything larger?
John
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The main reason I wanted a larger boat was because I wanted to go faster than the LWL limit my previous boat had. The second reason was to sail through the Atlantic in comfort and feeling safe in a big swell, which I did.

It makes a big difference to me that now my average speed is greater than what I could achieve as top speed with my previous boat. It makes a difference to my family that I can sail a 60nm passage in 8 hours at 7.5kts average instead of 12 hours at 5 kts average.
 
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Wow... lot's of food for thought there. Thanks to all voters and contributors.

I suppose that I was thinking under 50ft due to budget and a general feeling of being in control. I accept that lots of electric winches and thrusters make a huge difference. I also accept that a bigger yacht can be better to move around than a smaller yacht based on the bigger yacht having all mod cons, and the smaller yacht being an older less agile design. All things being equal though, it seems that a smaller yacht should be easier to park, but less good out on the water.

I can't help but think that part of the equation is what each skipper can handle in his/her mind.

Oh, and I'm not thinking of the smallest yacht possible because there's only one of me. My question is based on more than one person being aboard ...but there being a crew of only one, possibly two with the addition of others who aren't particularly interested.

Thanks to once again to all very much!
 
yodave said:
Wow... lot's of food for thought there. Thanks to all voters and contributors.

I suppose that I was thinking under 50ft due to budget and a general feeling of being in control. I accept that lots of electric winches and thrusters make a huge difference. I also accept that a bigger yacht can be better to move around than a smaller yacht based on the bigger yacht having all mod cons, and the smaller yacht being an older less agile design. All things being equal though, it seems that a smaller yacht should be easier to park, but less good out on the water.

I can't help but think that part of the equation is what each skipper can handle in his/her mind.

Oh, and I'm not thinking of the smallest yacht possible because there's only one of me. My question is based on more than one person being aboard ...but there being a crew of only one, possibly two with the addition of others who aren't particularly interested.

Thanks to once again to all very much!
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I singlehanded a 37ft gaff cutter for thirty years; she had been designed to be handled by a couple and was very easy despite the lack of any modern gadgets. She had a manual windlass, no wInches, staysail was self tacking, roller furling jib, roller reefing mainsail. When I bought her she actually had no electrics at all and had been sailed by the previous owners, an elderly couple, for thirty years. Displacement was 20,000lbs and of course long keel.

I am now thinking of "modernising" my sailing and thus far I have been dismayed by how far backwards, rather than forwards, we seem to have gone! The thing that really dismays me is how much more hard work seems to be involved in sailing a modern boat. This boils down to the following factors:

1. Much, much, more friction in the rig. Very often the approach seems to be "add a winch" rather than "eliminate the friction". I absolutely detest, and consider unsafe, sails that don't come down or reef when they ought to, which is when I first think about it!

2. Sloop rather than cutter rig means graunching the expletive deleted headsail in on every single tack. On the old gaff cutter the staysail took care of itself and you just cast off the old and belayed the new jib sheet at the psychological moment. Easy.

3. Very many boats have cockpits optimised for sailing with a crew on deck. I think that a cruiser should be capable of being sailed by one small woman on deck!

I cant afford bowthrusters and suchlike, so my modern boat is going to be a little smaller (she will none the less have better accomodation, I fancy) and I am voting 33-35ft
 
I used to sail my 50' Bavaria single handed across the North Sea to Holland, Belgium, France from the East coast and in the Mediterranean. The boat was set up so that it was possible for me to sail single handed. Autopilot connected to the chartplotter, in mast furling and all lines back to the cockpit.
The purists would probably frown on the above but it enabled me to go sailing when I wanted to.
 
Thanks for the additional input. This is all really useful information.

The results so far are:

27-29ft 3votes 4.00%

30-32ft 6 votes 8.00%

33-35ft 14 votes 18.67%

36-38ft 19 votes 25.33%

39-41ft 9 votes 12.00%

42-44ft 24 votes 32.00%

Total votes 75

It’s worth noting that the 42-44ft option most probably should be interpretted as 42-44ft and above, as quite a few voters would have preferred to vote for a longer yacht than 44ft.

Thanks again; and if you haven't voted, please vote now as I intend to keep the poll open indefinately.
 
I keep coming back to the Amel range. Everything is designed so that physical strength is not needed and Henri Amel used to single hand his 53' Super Maramu in his 80's.
 
Sybarite said:
I keep coming back to the Amel range. Everything is designed so that physical strength is not needed and Henri Amel used to single hand his 53' Super Maramu in his 80's.
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Superb boats and lots have made the trip round with just a couple onboard.

I have reservations about the reliance on electric motors for sailhandling on the models above 45 ft.
 
TQA said:
Superb boats and lots have made the trip round with just a couple onboard.

I have reservations about the reliance on electric motors for sailhandling on the models above 45 ft.
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All electric furling devices have back up winch handle capability.

Amel refused to have hydraulic furling because, in the event of a problem, hydraulic engineers are not readily available in the back of beyond whereas electric motors can be found everywhere.
 
Nicholas123 said:
This poll dos'nt go down small enough when you consider all the maintenance & cost that a bigger boat entails.

A Macwester 27 mark two would be perfect :encouragement:
:D
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Lowest category is 27-29 foot - so you can be included. However, think most would agree that 27' is very small for two people to live comfortably together!

Anyway the question was not about that - he was asking the longest boat suitable for single handing - hence the bias in the responses to larger boats. He did not ask about costs.
 
Single handed boat handling (of any size) will teach you lots and lots about the most important word in sailing - ANTICIPATION.

The size of the boat will become less and less important to you as experience grows. We run 62' (33 tons) with just the two of us which in reality means that I am effectively single-handed much of the time. The size of the boat makes it simpler in some circumstances and more difficult in others, but everyone should single hand even if only around the local area - it teaches you to properly prioritise, to prepare, and to ANTICIPATE.

Whatever the size of the boat just take every opportunity to practice - a 45' would seem no different to 35' to me now, but 35 years ago it certainly would have done! Try to get whatever bigger boat experience you can with as many people as you can and the size thing will become pretty much irrelevant.

Ps. Did I mention ANTICIPATION!
 
Well in my case I voted 42-44 because there was not another option, but meaning that 42 is really the top. This is because the sail area of a 42ft is just about at the limit a "cruiser" single hander can manage in comfort.
 
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