Sailing across the Atlantic on a sailing boat, under 40ft.

LittleSister said:
37 foot is a small boat? :unsure:
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It’s not what you’ve got it’s what you do with it that counts.

A reasonably fast well found 35-40’ boat would be a joy to sail across with three crew - 3 hrs on 6 off so you get plenty of sleep and not so large that you need more than two crew for a sail change. If there was a case of crew illness sailing in single-handed mode wouldn’t be impossible with a good autopilot and radar. On a three-four week crossing not every thing has to be done as slickly as when racing round the cans. Many more crew and space is cramped, for stores and crew, there’s not a lot to do - you won’t be sitting on the rail squeezing the last tenth of a knot out of the trade winds - and hot bunking becomes a necessity, if you don’t want people sleeping in the saloon.

if you are confident in the skipper and the yacht there’s no reason to regret the decision. Throw yourself into the preparations, make sure you can all sail together and look forward to it!

Coming back might be a different story!

PS all this is entirely supposition. I went both ways on a 60 footer with 8 on board!
 
Tomaret said:
It’s not what you’ve got it’s what you do with it that counts.

A reasonably fast well found 35-40’ boat would be a joy to sail across with three crew - 3 hrs on 6 off so you get plenty of sleep and not so large that you need more than two crew for a sail change. If there was a case of crew illness sailing in single-handed mode wouldn’t be impossible with a good autopilot and radar. On a three-four week crossing not every thing has to be done as slickly as when racing round the cans. Many more crew and space is cramped, for stores and crew, there’s not a lot to do - you won’t be sitting on the rail squeezing the last tenth of a knot out of the trade winds - and hot bunking becomes a necessity, if you don’t want people sleeping in the saloon.

if you are confident in the skipper and the yacht there’s no reason to regret the decision. Throw yourself into the preparations, make sure you can all sail together and look forward to it!

Coming back might be a different story!

PS all this is entirely supposition. I went both ways on a 60 footer with 8 on board!
Click to expand...
I agree 100%
A well found boat of that size is very capable of crossing the Atlantic. A few years ago it wound have been considered a big boat!
 
38mess said:
Sort of got myself into it next autumn on a 37 footer as crew.
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Which direction, and when? (And perhaps what boat type?)

Lots of boats under 40 foot doing the ARC or similar non-ARC run, each Autumn / Winter. Provided the boat is soundly built, maintained and prepared this would not worry me (though I had the luxury of doing this on a very plush 45 footer).

Coming back can be a lot more bumpy, I believe, though again masses of suitably prepared boats do this each year. I was “busy” when crew was being sought for the route back ;-)
 
The worst bit will be the 10 day quarantine,don't forget to budget for PCR testing before you fly ,travel insurance and probable~£1200 enforced hotel stay on return.
 
dunedin said:
Which direction, and when? (And perhaps what boat type?)

Lots of boats under 40 foot doing the ARC or similar non-ARC run, each Autumn / Winter. Provided the boat is soundly built, maintained and prepared this would not worry me (though I had the luxury of doing this on a very plush 45 footer).

Coming back can be a lot more bumpy, I believe, though again masses of suitably prepared boats do this each year. I was “busy” when crew was being sought for the route back ;-)
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Leaving Cape Verde Islands in November was the plan, so leaving Milford around September.
Coming back will be no problem at 40000 feet?
To be clear, it's next autumn not this autumn coming, so hopefully all covid problems will be a distant nightmare
 
Tomaret said:
It’s not what you’ve got it’s what you do with it that counts.

A reasonably fast well found 35-40’ boat would be a joy to sail across with three crew - 3 hrs on 6 off so you get plenty of sleep and not so large that you need more than two crew for a sail change. If there was a case of crew illness sailing in single-handed mode wouldn’t be impossible with a good autopilot and radar. On a three-four week crossing not every thing has to be done as slickly as when racing round the cans. Many more crew and space is cramped, for stores and crew, there’s not a lot to do - you won’t be sitting on the rail squeezing the last tenth of a knot out of the trade winds - and hot bunking becomes a necessity, if you don’t want people sleeping in the saloon.

if you are confident in the skipper and the yacht there’s no reason to regret the decision. Throw yourself into the preparations, make sure you can all sail together and look forward to it!

Coming back might be a different story!

PS all this is entirely supposition. I went both ways on a 60 footer with 8 on board!
Click to expand...
There should be three of us. The last time I went sailing with these guys on this boat was over 5 years ago, it's a rustler 37 I think. Non stop from Liverpool to Plymouth when the skipper bought her
 
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