Re the Pacific is an engine just a nice to have

[PhilipH]

A friend of mine is on his second circumnavigation in a 36ft junk rigged boat and does not have an engine (no outboard either) and uses a a yuloh to get into anchorages. Another person we have met on our travels has a 30ft boat and no engine and also uses a yuloh, and he has almost completed a circumnavigation. So wondering if I should get rid of my engine, reduce weight and drag, reduce costs etc

 

[AndrewB]

No. Its true you don't need an engine for crossing oceans, but it comes in very handy indeed when you arrive somewhere. Many of the islands in the Pacific have tricky, reef strewn entrances often with currents. Plus strong trade winds. Sweeps, whether for rowing or sculling, are really only practicable for smaller yachts, say up to 25 feet, for dealing with light winds. (I speak from experience, though not of yulohs).

Of course there have been advocates of engineless sailing. But they used to say you can't count yourself a blue-water sailor unless you had towed the Pardeys in somewhere.

 

[KellysEye]

I remember the Pardy's calling ahead to be towed in. The other cruisers got so fed up with it they would leave the anchorage when they called.

 

[vyv_cox]

I remember an article in YM quite a few years ago about taking a famous engineless yacht and its famous owner from Brighton Marina to Limehouse. It read like a total cockup from start to finish, I forget how many things they rammed but it was in double figures.

 

[BobnLesley]

I'm typing this reply at Fakarava in the Tuamotus at the moment and a quick check shows that the engine's run for precisely 22.6 hours since we left Ecuador some four months and four thousand odd miles ago, which at first glance would suggests that the engine's not vital or indeed even important. However, about 1/3 of those engine hours where used in getting us out of Bayia de Caraquez and away from the Ecuadorean coast, equipped just with a sweep/yuloh, we'd probably still be there.
Having arrived in French Polynesia we might well have managed to sail in/out of most of the Marquesan anchorages that we visited, but backing down on the anchor with 30hp of diesel power allows you to sleep more easily than if you dig it in by backing the mainsail.
Reef passes here in the Tuamotus: If you time them perfectly and the wind's light and the swell low you'd theoretically be able to enter or leave using the sweep and no doubt lots of people have and probably still do, but with any weather or if you get the pass-tides wrong, you would be quickly in trouble.
My advice would be to keep the engine, you might not need it much, but when you do, you'll really need it.

 

[Roberto]

For someone Atlantic based, would that imply going around Tierra del Fuego? I suppose an engineless boat would not be allowed through Panama canal ?

 

[Kelpie]

For those determined to forgo their inboard, would a decent tender/ob used as a tug be a viable option for those rare occasions when you need a bit of grunt?

 

[temptress]

For someone Atlantic based, would that imply going around Tierra del Fuego? I suppose an engineless boat would not be allowed through Panama canal ?

Correct. Sailing in the Lakes and through the canal is NOT ALLOWED. You must be able to maintain 6 knots under engine in the Panama Canal - anything less and they will tow you through at very great expense! So all boats with an engine put 6 knots (or more) as their cruising speed when applying for their measurement cert ....

 

[BobnLesley]

Correct. Sailing in the Lakes and through the canal is NOT ALLOWED. You must be able to maintain 6 knots under engine in the Panama Canal - anything less and they will tow you through at very great expense! So all boats with an engine put 6 knots (or more) as their cruising speed when applying for their measurement cert ....

But once the admeasurer arrives he'll enquire as to what your 'real/actual' comfortable cruising speed is and provided that's 5 knots or more they're OK about it.

 

[TQA]

Donald E " squeaky" Street cruised and raced his engineless yawl Iolaire mostly in the Caribbean but he made several transatlantics as well one to race in Ireland.

I think it was a rare day when he called for a tow.

 

[GHA]

Done it before with a very grumpy engine from a few hours to a few days. Never again, too stressy and limiting. Pick an easy bay to get into a day or 2 ahead, possibly miles away from checkin offices and makes you look a bit suspicious. Spending an hour or 2 to get out of a windless bay grabbing occasional gusts back into the trades with rocks around just isn't fun, though does leave a strong habit of always having the hook ready to go and a sail ready to hoist at all times

Rolly anchorage or windshift them moving isn't a 10 minute job.

More than once was more than enough..

 

[vyv_cox]

Donald E " squeaky" Street cruised and raced his engineless yawl Iolaire mostly in the Caribbean but he made several transatlantics as well one to race in Ireland.

I think it was a rare day when he called for a tow.

He was the skipper and Iolaire was his boat that I referred to in post #4. A dreadful advertisement for engineless sailing.

 

[AndrewB]

Donald E " squeaky" Street cruised and raced his engineless yawl Iolaire mostly in the Caribbean but he made several transatlantics as well one to race in Ireland.

I think it was a rare day when he called for a tow.

Towed her into Falmouth in, I think, 1994. Next time I saw her was about 10 years later when we were moored next to each other in Limehouse. It looked like she was undergoing a major refit, including quite possibly a new engine.

 

[TQA]

He was the skipper and Iolaire was his boat that I referred to in post #4. A dreadful advertisement for engineless sailing.

Was anyone monitoring his Heineken intake?

 

[Kukri]

He was the skipper and Iolaire was his boat that I referred to in post #4. A dreadful advertisement for engineless sailing.

I recall chatting with Anne and Liz Hammick, two very competent sisters, well known in sailing circles, who had crewed for him across the Atlantic; they were fitting out a Rustler 31 at Bedwells in Walton in the late seventies and they called IOLAIRE "The Ocean Sailing Wreck"

 

[vyv_cox]

Was anyone monitoring his Heineken intake?

He was being crewed by YM journalists AFAIR, so they probably matched his intake.