Serious cruising ?

[LittleShip]

Reading through some of the threads and the different opinions about cruising. Some people seem to think that a 15mile dash to a cove constitutes serious cruising whilst others tend to look at much further afield.

I thought it may be interesting to find out what the forum thinks is "Serious Cruising" distance wise.

 

[D3B]

having spent 18 months in Lowestoft I couldnt do anything else but 50+ from home port.....
other than gt yarmouth (yuck) the next nearest (nice) places were over 50 miles.

 

[hlb]

Used to do 600 mile round trips quite often. I think fuel prices have put a stop to that.

 

[PaulGooch]

I voted 50 nm. Nice distance to go in one day, spend a night and come home the next day. Makes for a sensible weekend out for us, without breaking the bank on fuel.

 

[Ripster]

50 for me too. We do often do shorter runs but that is blast out for lunch or something. A "serious" cruise would mean a route plan and full day or ON stop.

 

[epervier]

fuel at £1 a litre, I voted for 50 miles or 2-3 hours out of base camp.

 

[Sundowner Portofino]

4 hours at 25-30 knots is about my wife’s limit in one hop, anything more than that and she start losing the will to live, cold hands, cold feet, ear ache etc...

Seriously considering changing to a fly-bridge with auto-helm to combat this.

From Lymington though that gives us a pretty good cruising ground. Agree with previous post, anything beyond our immediate lunch stops involves a passage plan and chart work and that always feels serious.

 

[alt]

I do about 75 miles every weekend. I think that's why my engines have always run so well - decent hours at varied RPM

 

[Sneds]

I voted 50

Our choice is Cardiff, 1 hour or Swansea 3 hours looking forward to going further.

Pleae can someone organise me a week off work with F1 winds HW at about 1500hrs and some cheap diesel!

 

[powerskipper]

Good question.

For pleasure cruising 3 to 4 hours at 20 or 25 knots or what ever speed for that number of hours is great, leisurely get up and go and still time to see things etc when you get where your going.
I have done deliveries that are 175 to 260 miles in a day and its just a slog.
Not a lot of fun, some bits can be but just a very long day.

 

[Kawasaki]

Yep powerskipper I agree 4/5 hours is enough for a pleasure cruise.
I was on a Tug last year from Holyhead to N Ireland
Because of various reasons it took ages
Left Holyhead at 16.30 hours and berthed tother end at 11.00 next day
Was OK for a while, nice old vessel but was I glad to get off !

 

[U4]

50 for me...

 

[hlb]

Yep, about 4 hours is plenty in a day, but you can get a hell of a way in a week.

 

[Searush]

As a Raggie, I might format the question differently. So many boats, so many different speeds - I would have asked "How many hours?" 50 miles takes me 10-12 hours so that is a full day trip & I would normally expect a few days pottering before the return trip. But I'd only use a few quids worth of fuel provided the wind was blowing from a reasonable direction.

 

[Kawasaki]

asked "How many hours?" 50 miles takes me 10-12 hours

That's awfull, how der sort out the Pub opening hours!


provided the wind was blowing from a reasonable direction.

OK , here we go again
There are 3 types of wind for Raggies
1
Not enough
2
Too much
3
From the wrong direction.

'Nudge nudge, say no more'
Rushie

 

[Philiz]

Voted for 50 miles, but depends a lot on many factors. Amount of experience and type of boat springs to mind. For relatively inexperienced boaters such as us 50 miles is quite a big deal, but for old salties it's just a local run. Likewise a 100 mile trip on something like MF would take, maybe around 4 hours, but on a raggie or a slow boat it could take around 12 hours or more.
So. it's all relative really.