Single/short handed tips

[thinwater]

A hundred thoughts come to mind. I've recorded many here:



https://amzn.to/2s7EwpN

* Autopilots are great, but also practice adjusting the boat to hold a course by set of sail alone. For example, jib in tight and traveler down should hold a close reach.

* Practice emergency steering with a drogue (can be fenders and anchor). I've had a bent rudder solo (submerged tree trunk) and it helps if you've sorted this out ahead of time. Failed is one of the more common reasons for vessel abandonment, but it should not be.

* Anchoring out is a better choice than a difficult docking situation.

 

[Brent Swain]

One of the things we do here for new boat owners is take them out on the river and practice coming along side.
The river flowing at up to 3knts does tend to scare people initially but after half an hour to an hour most people have it nailed and the increase in confidence is immeasurable.
It strikes me that the same would work in marinas and other locations.
We tend to cast off and go sailing thanking god that we didn't clobber anyone and then return, gingerly hoping to tie up again with no issues.
Maybe spending an hour or so just practicing leaving and returning with lots of fenders in place would be a good call.

A word on bringing lines back aft.
I did this a few years ago and now I find a lot of the lines are going back to the mast.
So often when the wind is above 18 to 20knts something would go wrong, usually near or around the mast.
A kink in a rope stopping it running through a deck organiser, a rope or slider snagging, a sheet getting caught etc, all requiring you making a dash forward to sort it out.
So i figured I needed to make going forward easier and safer.
So my own rule is that out of sight of land, after first reef or after dusk, I wear a safety line.
A lifejacket is almost pointless when offshore, on your own, especially with the autohelm on.
So ensuring you have a good safety line system in place I believe is a must.
Last season I started using a jackstay down the centreline rather than along both decks.
This ensures that you cant fall over the rail, as if you did you'd find it virtually impossible to get back onboard.
Another idea was using a spare halyard which I've tried a couple of times but the centreline jackstay seems the best option.

At sea, running an extra lifeline line from alongside your cockpit ,to chest high on the upper shrouds, then back down to your bow pulpit, gives you a chest high lifeline near your mast. Not in the way of anything, and easily taken down in port.

 

[Brent Swain]

A hundred thoughts come to mind. I've recorded many here:

View attachment 71270

https://amzn.to/2s7EwpN

* Autopilots are great, but also practice adjusting the boat to hold a course by set of sail alone. For example, jib in tight and traveler down should hold a close reach.

* Practice emergency steering with a drogue (can be fenders and anchor). I've had a bent rudder solo (submerged tree trunk) and it helps if you've sorted this out ahead of time. Failed is one of the more common reasons for vessel abandonment, but it should not be.

* Anchoring out is a better choice than a difficult docking situation.

A good solid skeg drastically reduces the likelihood of a bent rudder shaft. I hit plenty of big logs in BC every winter, at night. No problems. Anchoring out, and waiting for light conditions for docking, if you must dock, works well .
So does docking in the easiest and safest way possible ,usually bow in, and turning her around later, in calm conditions, is much easier, and safer.

 

[Brent Swain]

rig lines and fenders on both sides of the boat when docking, always. Then it doesn't matter which side you go in, or if you get blown off, or something goes wrong and you have to change where you intended to go in a hurry.

Get your midships line on first, quickly. Then you have her under control.

 

[LittleSister]

Prepare dock lines well ahead. A midships line with a loop on the end and a tickle of power can save a lot of frantic running about. Park the autopilot with the helm hard over to the appropriate side so that you can lock the tiller while you sort out the rest of the lines,

And to make it easier to get your loop on cleats, put a bit of plastic hose over the loop part of the rope to hold it open.

 

[Hadenough]

Accept help from ashore (most single handers don't) to avoid damaging other boats which single handers seem to think is their right.

 

[Porthandbuoy]

Accept help from ashore (most single handers don't) to avoid damaging other boats which single handers seem to think is their right.

That's a bit harsh. How many times have you offered to help a singlehander, only to have it turned down?

 

[PabloPicasso]

A tip I picked up from Foolish Muse book is to learn how to hove too, I know we all no how to, but do we? FM book explains how useful this is in more than just the heavy weather scenario that I'd been saving it for... as in doing so much closer to home and using the calm stable state to sort mooring lines, fenders etc before berthing or - and I haven't learnt this one yet, hove to at just the right point and time to calmly pick up a mooring bouy or set the anchor.
Another tip, but not specific to solo sailing, is using a long single jib sheet, long enough to go back through the cockpit and so cover both tacks, less sheet than two seperate ones and never (pretty much) gets tangled up. I've been doing this for the last cpl of years and it works very well,

Humour me here, what's the benefit of one continuous line over two tied to the clue?

 

[Phildorset]

it's a bit shorter than two seperate sheets and being one line it almost never tangles up, i've tried it and like it.

 

[Phildorset]

it's a bit shorter than two seperate sheets and being one line it almost never tangles up, i've tried it and like it.

.... both ends are tied to the clue, so no sheet ends in the cockpit - perhaps you were thinking otherwise?

 

[Sandy]

Accept help from ashore (most single handers don't) to avoid damaging other boats which single handers seem to think is their right.

A good friend always passes the entire rope to anybody offering to assist as he comes along side single handed - the looks of confusion are always a picture. The reason is the person on the pontoon has no idea how the single hander has set the boat up to come along side and will only mess things up.

So far I've never needed to do it, but I rarely enter a marina single handed.

 

[KAL]

As previously mentioned, both Duncan Wells and Andy Evans have written amazingly helpful books borne of experience.

Duncan’s has many photos showing the different methods. Try them; they do work. I have fitted his ‘livesaver” to all our life jackets and his method for rigging a handy billy on the shrouds to lift a MoB takes less than 30 secs. I also use a line from centre cleat to stern cleat then to winch as previously described. It was a complete game changer. I still remember leaping from the boat as a beginner, as it came alongside. Horrors. This method means you calmly chuck the loop past the shore cleat, take in on the winch and motor ahead steering the bows in. Calm, no hassle, no stress no fuss.

Andy’s book is also a really excellent read and packed with useful boat management tips. The bought version is worth going for. Highly recommended.

You’ll then refine things and figure out what works best for you and your boat.

Some sort of self steering is pretty useful, nay essential. Andy’s system is worth exploring if you have tiller steering.

 

[Ric]

To make stern-to Med mooring easier, I run a line from cockpit to bow, through a block, then back to cockpit. On one end of the line is a very large stainless carabina. I reverse into mooring, attach a stern line to bollard, clip the carbina to the dock's bow-mooring line, then pull the carabina to the bow. This pulls the boat slightly forwards so that I don't have to worry about the stern bashing the dock. I then attach a second stern line, then walk forward, pull in the carabina, grab the bow-mooring line and cleat it to the bow. This method also avoids getting mud all over the deck.

 

[doug748]

Accept help from ashore (most single handers don't) to avoid damaging other boats which single handers seem to think is their right.

My advice is to do the opposite - for God's sake don't ask loafers for help when leaving, and ignore all shouted advice when arriving.
One exception would be when pinned hard in a difficult berth, where professional help from a marina dory can be the only way to do the job.

On another tack, when a boat arrives I like to fend off the bow for them, if others do that for me it is a welcome gesture. It has the advantage of needing no instruction and cannot be got wrong.

 

[Kukri]

Accept help from ashore (most single handers don't) to avoid damaging other boats which single handers seem to think is their right.

Remarkable.

I have indeed damaged another boat.

It was in 1969, but “help from ashore” wouldn’t have made any difference. I’d dropped an old fashioned mooring - cork buoy, coir buoy rope, riser chain - and the buoy rope found its way round the rudder and the boat would not answer her helm.

Of course, now that I’m getting old and doddering, I might clout yours tomorrow. Do you still sail on the Orwell?

 

[Kukri]

My advice is to do the opposite - for God's sake don't ask loafers for help when leaving, and ignore all shouted advice when arriving.
One exception would be when pinned hard in a difficult berth, where professional help from a marina dory can be the only way to do the job.

On another tack, when a boat arrives I like to fend off the bow for them, if others do that for me it is a welcome gesture. It has the advantage of needing no instruction and cannot be got wrong.

+1.

 

[thinwater]

... for God's sake don't ask loafers for help when leaving....

I've found I can get good help if I talk with sailors while I'm there, and we settle on a sound plan. But not passers by.

 

[Seajet]

I've not seen a singlehander yet prang anyone else's boat - and I do think it best to do it solo, that way there's a vague hope of keeping to Plan A; when a well wisher on the pontoon / wall etc is added to the mix one might as well get the camera going and dial up Youtube.

A long time ago I did meet a chap who'd singlehanded from Grimsby to Weymouth, short tacking through the Channel shipping lanes and taking 20 minute cat-nap sleeps; " Ah 'ad this 250,000 tonner, and 'e wouldn't give way " still makes my toes curl.

 

[dancrane]

...jib sheets tied together with a reef knot works very well...on everything from Osprey racing dinghies to 30' cruiser/racers.

Can't think why that never occurred to me, thank you Andy. My genoa tails are always getting lost between traveller and thwart.

I'm also shocked to reflect how 5 years of singlehanding a two-hander has been limited by the lack of any hands-free steering.

The Osprey's cockpit is a significant space, and in theory, the long tiller extension lets me roam free, but I never do - the extension is a pain to steer with from anywhere ahead of the traveller, which is only 7ft from the transom...

...and I don't know how I envisaged hoisting and handing the spinnaker while necessarily holding the tiller at the same time......

...but my next job is definitely fixing up a basic way of keeping the helm centred while unattended.

 

[Seajet]

Dan,

if you have fittings - say spinnaker sheet blocks you almost certainly won't be requiring - alongside the tiller, a line across from one to the other with a couple of turns around the tiller inbetween makes a poor mans' autohelm - for a minute or so while faffing about, anyway !