Sailing Caribbean for UK Passport holders

Tranona said:
Echo what others say. There is no advantage to bilge keels except if you have a drying mooring. Of course people have gone off ocean and Med voyaging in boats like the Westerlys you are looking at but that was mainly because that was what was available 40 years ago, and later because they became "cheap". However, boats designed for the rough and tumble of coastal sailing in the UK are not particularly suited for use in warm non tidal waters. Have a look at what people actually use and you will see very different boats. I discovered this 30 years ago when planning my long term trip to the Med. My "ideal" was a Moody or Westerly just like you are looking at. Buy it and slowly sail it down to Greece ready for retirement. As part of the search we chartered a Moody 37 in the Med and within a couple of days realised how unsuitable it was. Great for living down below with lots of cabins, sumptuous woodwork, but a tiny exposed centre cockpit, poor access to the water for boarding and swimming, poor light airs performance so motored most of the time. Quickly canned the idea and bought a Bavaria 37. Simple, big cockpit, good sugar scoop for boarding and swimming, good light airs sailing, big engine, large fuel and water capacity, big bimini for shade in the cockpit, large fridge ample electric power Good anchoring arrangements with electric windlass.

Not as nicely made as the Moody, but far better for the job. When you go off voyaging the boat is more a means to an end rather than an end in itself, and buying a boat that is matched to the job is better than trying to adapt a boat designed for completely different sailing conditions. This does not mean that boats like the Westerly are not capable of the passage making - in fact in some ways better than more modern boats, it is just that you will be unusual if you spend more than 15% of your time actually sailing. It is living on board that is the priority.

The Westerly will serve you well for phase one - expanding horizons in coastal sailing and longer cruises to Europe or Scandinavia. I would avoid bilge keels if you can as the fin keels generally sail better and there really are not practical limitation with a 1.5m fin keel. Avoid ketches and unless you can afford to go to the Dubois centre cockpit designs or the bigger Conway with decent aft cabins, stick to aft cockpit. Pretty sure after 5 years or so, particularly if you have managed to get south towards Spain you will come to the conclusion that if you want to go further you will need a different kind of boat.
Click to expand...
Cheers so much for the detailed reply and advice Tranona and really appreciated and lots of food for thought there for our plans we're hoping to do.

We had been thinking of holding off a little and seeing if we can pull together some more for a Conway 36 footer size so think we may still hang on to our smaller 24' boat for maybe another season or so as we're still 'day sailing only' for the foreseable.

Our savings/what we can scrimp together is sadly very much at the lower end so sadly think the Bavarias and similar are still mostly out of our price range but we did see a lovely Hunter Legend 33 online (we've crewed on one before and really loved the design) and that was about the same as what some of the Conway's currently for sale are asking.

But yes - lots of food for thought thanks - and something to aim for with saving towards
 
Marceline said:
Just a follow up on bilge keels and how theres very little tidal range - for boats like catamarans what happens if they run aground ? Similarly for if a fin keel boat gets unfortunately blown onto a sandbank?
Click to expand...
Well step one is you avoid doing it in the first place!
Step two, chances are there's enough other people around with powerful tenders (20hp is a common size for a dinghy engine) and with a bit of coordination you'll hopefully get off.

I think I've only seen one yacht run aground in the three years years we've been here.

Same in the Med by the way.


Marceline said:
Sadly our budget is very much at the low end so we'd not be able to get much of a bigger boat and will likely be around 33' (but hoping to maybe save some more for a 36') but maybe we'll hold off getting or next boat and try and get as large a one as we can.
Click to expand...
Smaller is definitely doable, and better than not doing it at all. Good friends of ours did a two year circuit on a 34ft, as a family of four. But the reason they came home again was primarily because the boat was too small.
 
Marceline said:
a lovely Hunter Legend 33 online (we've crewed on one before and really loved the design)
Click to expand...
Just a word on choice of boat.
American Hunters have an unusual rig- no backstay, extremely swept back spreaders.

This means that for sailing deep downwind you can't really use the mainsail. Three weeks is a long time for your sail to be chafing on the rig.
So if buying this type of boat for use on trade winds passages, you'll need an alternative downwind sail setup. E.g. twin headsails, cruising chute, parasailor, etc. And you'll have to be sure that it's something that the two of you are comfortable using. Ideally you'll be able to shorten sail single handed.

Catamarans generally have the same problem, although their beam allows them to fly big downwind sails without a pole which makes life easier.

Personally I like straight spreaders.
 
Marceline said:
Cheers so much for the detailed reply and advice Tranona and really appreciated and lots of food for thought there for our plans we're hoping to do.

We had been thinking of holding off a little and seeing if we can pull together some more for a Conway 36 footer size so think we may still hang on to our smaller 24' boat for maybe another season or so as we're still 'day sailing only' for the foreseable.

Our savings/what we can scrimp together is sadly very much at the lower end so sadly think the Bavarias and similar are still mostly out of our price range but we did see a lovely Hunter Legend 33 online (we've crewed on one before and really loved the design) and that was about the same as what some of the Conway's currently for sale are asking.

But yes - lots of food for thought thanks - and something to aim for with saving towards
Click to expand...
We had a fab 22 years living on our 1977 Moody 33, two of us. Two cruises to the Caribbean and a lot of time spent between Gib and Lanzarote.

Big isn't always necessary!
 
ahh brill - huge thanks to you all - this is all very helpful and lots we can think about while planning our next step(s)

and 22years CapnSensible - that sounds like a wonderful time - if our budget doesn't in a year or two end up stretching beyond a W33 we'll not hold off when we're ready to go beyond our daysails round here in North Wales
 
Sea Change said:
Just a word on choice of boat.
American Hunters have an unusual rig- no backstay, extremely swept back spreaders.

This means that for sailing deep downwind you can't really use the mainsail. Three weeks is a long time for your sail to be chafing on the rig.
So if buying this type of boat for use on trade winds passages, you'll need an alternative downwind sail setup. E.g. twin headsails, cruising chute, parasailor, etc. And you'll have to be sure that it's something that the two of you are comfortable using. Ideally you'll be able to shorten sail single handed.

Catamarans generally have the same problem, although their beam allows them to fly big downwind sails without a pole which makes life easier.

Personally I like straight spreaders.
Click to expand...
ahh - also very good to know - will keep in mind to look for those downwind sailing options if we do end up going for a US Hunter
 
I suppose that the only advantage of having a yacht with bilge keels in the Caribbean is that you don't have to worry about ther props being dislodged in a hurricane if stored ashore, and the boat falling over.
I remember seeing a bilge keel Westerly Fulmar arrive here in the late 80's, when the ARC still came to Barbados rather than St Lucia - she had done fairly well in the ARC, and then she took part in the Mount Gay Regatta here (which then started on Boxing Day) and much to everyone's surprise did very well here as well.
However I think the the owners of the Fulmar probably already owned her for some time before deciding to do an Atlantic circuit, and they probably decided that it is better to go with a boat that they are very familiar (and happy) with, rather than selling her and starting the whole process of boat buying again, and getting familiar with the new boat.

Re size, everything is relative - in the late 80's I met a couple here on a Cal 25 who had just sailed across from the Canaries. I remember thinking then that the boat seemed to be a bit small for the two of them...... I met them again in Antigua 6 years later.
In the meantime they had been around the world, had two kids on the way, kid #3 was due in a few months time, and they were thinking that they definitely do need a larger boat - so they sold Direction and bought Driver, a 33' steel boat, which then took them to high latitudes for a few years - they are intrepid and hardy souls for sure, spending winters on board in Norway with 3 little kids.
I have attached a couple of articles about Direction and her crew.
 

Attachments

just wondering - does today's Gibraltar Agreement (which I welcome) have any changes for British Passport holders and their boats in EU waters 90/180 day rule ?

Will it mean that Gibraltar would (or wouldn't now) be a place to reset/be based for the 90 days while waiting to return to EU waters/Shengen countries ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top