Safe Working Load (Aunts)

OceanSprint

OceanSprint

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I sail a Jaguar 24, displacement 1450 kg. After an offer to an aged aunt, now four want to come out sailing tomorrow. Plus me, that is about 425 kg. Is that a safe working load? It will be crowded, but the boat does claim to have four adult berths, so should be designed to take the weight ?
 
Excellent question on the weight of Aunts. It made me smile, worthy of P G Wodehouse.

The boat will be ok, the Aunts will be ok, but in my experience they will sit and not be inclined to move about much. Where you fit in and how you operate your vessel, whilst keeping the tea coming, is the crux of the issue. Aunts are not designed for instruction.
 
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are these standard-sized, EU compliant Aunts, or ones made in Britain and built to last, with scantlings to match ?
 
Lakesailor said:
Does the Aunt know her underpinnings are getting aired on here?
Click to expand...

I'm sure they wouldn't mind. But they do want to be safe - so would welcome serious advice - is it overloading in terms of safety, or just in terms of comfort? I suspect we will not be out for long, and will probably just motor round the bay.
 
I expect that the management of the boat will be compromised to a certain extent, but if you lay down some rules carefully, and make them wear LJs, they will realise that you are going to take care of them, and will do everything they can to make the expedition a success. If it works out as you hope, they should have an excellent experience and talk about it for years to come. Gotta handheld VHF ?


We need pics !
 
Speaking as someone with experience of these things.... you do know they need to be facing the sun at all times, don't you? Don't sail so that the big white sheet shades them.
 
I would say - it depends.

If you are in a river or an estuary, then there should be no problem
If the weather is benignly less than F4, then there should be no problem.

I used to take 5 burly lads out on my Jouet 680, at 22ft, a bit smaller than yours.
 
The only serious suggestion so far is that your aunt(s) may not be inclined to move out of the way as required! There is no buoyancy problem, almost any cruiser will take double the crew it was designed for before you notice it even slowing a little.

More important is to consider the limitations of space and the crush in the galley should you let an aunt take over the catering. I like to make sure we have a ready made picnic when passengers are on board for the first time. Apart from avoiding the distraction of watching the "two women in a kitchen" scenario, it allows everyone to remain above decks for the majority of the time - important if any of them prove susceptible to seasickness. Mind you, I'll let anyone do the washing up...

Rob.
 
We have had six at sea on our 23 footer. Discourage them from bringing too many personal belongings and scattering them about - if one of our guests needed to get something from the other end of the boat, we had to form a conga line.
 
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