Solo cruising - am I being realistic?

[ross84]

So as a few of you probably won't remember, I've been around these forums asking various newbie questions. I've been doing a period of CPD (don't ask!) but soon I've got some time off from work and will do a fast-track course, hopefully buying some sort of 29ft sailing boat early next year. I'd like to live on it, but also, go sailing!

My first plan would be to sail it back to the north-west solo, and then next summer do a circumnavigation of Ireland and maybe go back around the UK. I'd have six weeks off work. I've read a lot of stories about solo circumnavigations because ultimately that's my goal.

That said, what would it be like sailing a yacht, say from Hamble to North Wales solo? Do solo sailors just set the course and go to sleep or must stay up all night? Or with plenty of time, might the solo sailor put in 12 hours a day and find an anchorage to call it a day? Can you anchor at sea?

Thanks for the advice!!!

 

[Kukri]

It’s usual if single handing round the coast to make short hops from port to port. This is both to ensure that you keep a look out and to comply with your insurance policy which will usually have a singlehanding clause requiring you to limit your passages to 18 hours or so.

There are customary anchorages off the coast, going back to the days of sail, which can be used in settled weather or to get a break if fighting a head wind. Dungeness East and West Roads are two.

A useful way to look at this is to plan to use the fair tides, and be in port or at anchor during the foul tide.

 

[RupertW]

The hardest thing soloing is parking and unparking the boat - this is a skill which it is really worth investing in getting training on - and own boat training too once you’ve bought it.

Otherwise at sea there is plenty of room and therefore time to sort things out yourself. An Autohelm and learning about sail balance is really useful too, but not absolutely essential for day trips. However the quality of the day is very different if you can concentrate on sails not steering and pop down to use the loo, heat up some food, or make a drink.

One thing to factor in for a trip like that alone in a new boat is that you need to be ready to leave the boat at different places if things break and find a local person to fix what you can’t fix yourself. If you’d been sailing the boat for a season already you would have been through all that first. So it could take far longer than you originally plan. And take lots of fuel In addition to what’s in the tank.

 

[johnalison]

I have little experience of single-handing but from what I can see most of the experienced ones go the extra mile to make the boat as easy to manage as possible. This means making sure the rig is easy to operate from the cockpit, with furling jib and lines to the cockpit. Alternatives are furling main on larger boats or even junk rig. Everything should operate smoothly, and don't overlook the usefulness of things like self-tailing winches, autopilot and good clutches. As said, parking is often not easy, so wear the single-handed pennant and carry lots of fenders.

 

[Poignard]

If you haven't done so already, you might enjoy reading "Down Channel" by R.T.McMullen.

 

[doug748]

Hello ross. All of the stuff you mention could be done but I think you might enjoy it more and potentially take less knocks if:

- You bought a boat nearer your intended base (where prices might be more modest anyway) or arranged the delivery with experienced crew who could help you build on your existing skills.

- You spent all of the first season around your home base, take a month in a marina and go out a lot, take some significant time on a swinging mooring or a trot. There would be plenty of scope for longer trips without setting off around Ireland where you could well run out of time. As mentioned, six weeks can disappear faster than anticipated.
By season two you would then be much better placed to decide the way forward.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Singlehand sailing is hard. Autopilots don't keep watch for you and while you are in the heads or whatever no end of problems can arise. Sailing for more than about 8 hours a day is tiring and that takes you only about 24 to 40 miles down coast where you must find a harbour or anchorage to stop, as others have said your insurance limits you to 18hours but if you do that you will probably need to rest all next day. Only mid ocean solo sailors sleep while their boats sail along, the rest of us need to keep an eye on commercial traffic, crabpots, fishing boats, other yachts and debris.

Reading paper charts while single handed is a particular challenge; bring them in the cockpit and they will get wet or blown way, study in the cabin and then you are not maintaining a proper watch - and in bad weather its worse. Thankgod for cockpit mounted chart plotters if you have them

No fast track course fully teaches you how to sail, that's something you learn slowly on your own boat with advice from fellow club members as you go. Making a delivery run is the most challenging of tasks - you don't know the boat, and usually you don't know the area. Doing it as first venture is to risk needing RNLI assistance or even a Darwin Award

Having said all that a 29ft boat is a good size for cruising and about to top limit for a less experienced sailor to manage.

Cruising needs a lot of fuel unless you have forever and anyway you need to run engine regularly to charge battery or your autopilot, nav lights, gps and radio wont work, though that's not unique to single handed. And then you need all the paper charts if in an unknown area - your battery might fail, your gps chart plotter might fail, but you still need to find that safe harbour and miss that deadly rock

Considerable passage planning is needed for a circuit of Ireland or UK. You need to go with the tidal flow and not dead into wind. Some days will be stormy so unsafe to go to sea, some will be so calm that its an engine droning all day or just stay in harbour and go shopping. You will be glued to Coastguard VHF weather reports and various internet weather sites. I think six weeks not long to get round Ireland, start smaller and good luck

 

[[70521]]

I'm planning an anticlockwise circumnavigation of the British Isle, with a wee hop up to the Faroe Isles, including several long hops, Plymouth - Ramsgate, Ramsgate - Edinburgh, Edinburgh - Faroe before enjoying the trip south at a slower place and taking in several distilleries. I am letting friends and relations know my plans and they are welcome to step on and off the boat at any port of call.

Fundamentally, the boat is being setup for single handed sailing, including a Hydrovane self steerer. For me the key to the whole voyage is preparation of the boat and, more importantly me, I have plans next summer of doing several single handed trips starting with short day sails through to non stop multi-day trips.

Make sure you have an insurance company that allow multi-day single handed sailing and talk to them about what you are planning to do. "Y" have a time limit of 18 hours (there are times I can't get from Plymouth to Roscoff in that time). Another issue I found was most insurance companies limit you to 12 miles offshore unless "on passage"; crossing Lyme Bay is OK as long as you are heading from Dartmouth to Portland, but just going to look at the Channel Light Vessel is not, unless you have an agreed limit, e.g. 40 miles offshore.

 

[Topcat47]

I would endorse the advice you are getting. I sail single handed quite often. My last epic "fail" was a trip from the Solent to Lulworth Cove. After 14 hours on passage it was clear I wasn't going to make it and had to run back into the shelter of Studland Bay and anchor. This was followed by a disturbed night and in the morning I popped into Poole Harbour for a proper rest before setting off home the following day. I've been sailing my boat on my own for around 15 years. Setting off in a new boat to sail any distance when you are new to sailing is NOT a good idea.

 

[eddystone]

I have little experience of single-handing but from what I can see most of the experienced ones go the extra mile to make the boat as easy to manage as possible. This means making sure the rig is easy to operate from the cockpit, with furling jib and lines to the cockpit. Alternatives are furling main on larger boats or even junk rig. Everything should operate smoothly, and don't overlook the usefulness of things like self-tailing winches, autopilot and good clutches. As said, parking is often not easy, so wear the single-handed pennant and carry lots of fenders.

And from my own experience of trying to rig the boat for single-handed operation (although very little actual sh sailing) the getting everything to operate smoothly is much harder than just installing the hardware. Also, being able to operate the windlass from the cockpit is irrelevant if you have to go forward to clear chain form the hawswpipe, to give one small example.

 

[matt1]

Make sure you have an insurance company that allow multi-day single handed sailing and talk to them about what you are planning to do. "Y" have a time limit of 18 hours (there are times I can't get from Plymouth to Roscoff in that time). Another issue I found was most insurance companies limit you to 12 miles offshore unless "on passage"; crossing Lyme Bay is OK as long as you are heading from Dartmouth to Portland, but just going to look at the Channel Light Vessel is not, unless you have an agreed limit, e.g. 40 miles offshore.[/QUOTE]

Agree - I do a fair bit of Singlehanding and in many respects find it easier, but despite being pretty experienced have struggled with insurers and their limits. It's very hard to get cover for longer durations, despite pointing out I have Cockpit mounted chartplotter, AIS, and an RTE. My insurer's eventually agreed to cover me for xchannel but there were time limits imposed. I now make a habit of telling them when I have made a trip SH, overnight etc and therefore giving them the opportunity to object after the event. May not help me in the event of a claim but makes me feel better ;-)

 

[maby]

So as a few of you probably won't remember, I've been around these forums asking various newbie questions. I've been doing a period of CPD (don't ask!) but soon I've got some time off from work and will do a fast-track course, hopefully buying some sort of 29ft sailing boat early next year. I'd like to live on it, but also, go sailing!

My first plan would be to sail it back to the north-west solo, and then next summer do a circumnavigation of Ireland and maybe go back around the UK. I'd have six weeks off work. I've read a lot of stories about solo circumnavigations because ultimately that's my goal.

That said, what would it be like sailing a yacht, say from Hamble to North Wales solo? Do solo sailors just set the course and go to sleep or must stay up all night? Or with plenty of time, might the solo sailor put in 12 hours a day and find an anchorage to call it a day? Can you anchor at sea?

Thanks for the advice!!!

Your problem on that passage will be the scarcity of places to stop and rest. You can't "anchor at sea" - in most places, the water will be too deep to anchor just a couple of hundred yards out from the shore - often much less. Many sailing boats will pretty much take care of themselves for quite long periods of time if you "heave to" which is a particular way of pointing it into the wind and setting the sails - but they will still drift with the current and trying to sleep "heaved to" close to shore is likely to be an unfortunate experience.

That Cornish and Welsh coast is short of friendly bays and harbours where you can safely moor up for the night. You will need to do some very careful passage planning to ensure that you can arrive at your next stopping place within your personal endurance limits. Your 29 foot boat will be doing well to average 5 knots - if you think that you can manage 18 hours without sleep and still be safely in control of the boat, you will be covering somewhere between 50 and 100 miles (optimistically) per day. It certainly can be done, but an inexperienced sailor can easily overestimate the speed of their boat and their endurance and find themselves exhausted, in the dark and a long way from the next safe place to stop!

 

[chriss999]

I agree with all that has been said.
Maybe set up your boat in year 1 and do local trips. Practice year 2 with multi-day hops up and down the coast. Then year 3 go further if you are happy with your skills and your boat.
And sail with others as much as you can, on your boat or theirs.

 

[RupertW]

I agree with all that has been said.
Maybe set up your boat in year 1 and do local trips. Practice year 2 with multi-day hops up and down the coast. Then year 3 go further if you are happy with your skills and your boat.
And sail with others as much as you can, on your boat or theirs.

I’m not sure I would be that cautious but you just need to be ready to fix things as you go.

 

[stevie69p]

I pretty much single hand most of the time I am sailing. The longest passages that I do during the summer tend to be around the 100 mile mark, so about 20 hours of actual sea time, but if it's a west coast of Scotland trip, or an Irish Sea trip, I usually try to work the tides and anchor when the tide is foul, so that gives a 6 hour rest.

I did recently buy a new boat and did the delivery trip at a weekend, with the necessity to be back for work on the Monday. I have never felt so exhausted in a long time. It was 160 miles non stop and took 30 hours. I was fighting the need to sleep from about 18 hours into the passage, and it's not something I would like to do again. So I can understand the insurers' 18 hour limit. Do not underestimate fatigue and the need for rest. Sailing is mentally tiring.

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

For single hand sailing, you will require additional experience and exposure; also, the boat has to be geared up for singlehanded. Each trip has to be planned in more detail and always have a plan "B" and think of the "what if" scenario. Additional personal safety electronics may be needed and always remember that you are on your own. Need to know your own capabilities and limitations. Long distance single hand sailing is demanding but rewarding. Enjoy and stay safe.

 

[laika]

I've got some time off from work and will do a fast-track course

If you mean a fast-track yachtmaster course save your questions. After 4 months of being immersed in it you'll probably be able to answer a lot of your own questions and have a few different ones to ask.

 

[Tim Good]

Realistically a sailing course without prior experience of sailing isn't going to prep you enough for sailing a new and unproven boat from the Hamble to N Wales. Much of single handed sailing is about knowing your boat. As others have said that really comes into play when parking it!

So can you single hand to N Wales. Yes certainly and people do that sort of thing no problem. Will you have all the experience of tides, your boat and weather needed... probably not. I would try and get assistance for that first passage and then consider single handing later.

You can do day sails most of the way to N Wales but going around Lands End you may which to overnight. In that case you can take 20 minutes naps which it is safe.... i.e. when not in a shipping lane, other vessels are not nearby, when your off shore and when you're happy your autopilot is reliable. 20 min naps is the normal time which means you don't enter deep sleep and usually gives you time to avoid something.

An AIS transponder with a CPA alarm is a must for me when sailing singlehanded.

When I bought my boat in Falmouth and took it back to Bristol, which looked fine and passed the sea trial, loads went wrong.... I wouldn't have wanted to deal with all those things while single handed. To name but a few.... engine oil leak as someone didn't fit the filter correctly. Boom vang snapped, Fuel leak.. etc

 

[Poignard]

I pretty much single hand most of the time I am sailing. The longest passages that I do during the summer tend to be around the 100 mile mark, so about 20 hours of actual sea time, but if it's a west coast of Scotland trip, or an Irish Sea trip, I usually try to work the tides and anchor when the tide is foul, so that gives a 6 hour rest.

I did recently buy a new boat and did the delivery trip at a weekend, with the necessity to be back for work on the Monday. I have never felt so exhausted in a long time. It was 160 miles non stop and took 30 hours. I was fighting the need to sleep from about 18 hours into the passage, and it's not something I would like to do again. So I can understand the insurers' 18 hour limit. Do not underestimate fatigue and the need for rest. Sailing is mentally tiring.

I remember doing a single-handed trip like that. I was so tired I stood up and leaned on the companionway hatch to try and keep awake but even then I kept nodding off. When I got to Yarmouth I had just enough energy to secure to a buoy and then I slept for ten glorious hours!

 

[greeny]

Learn to sail, complete a few passages with someone maybe with a little more experience than yourself, then you will better understand the problems and difficulties of single handed sailing in busy coastal waters around the UK. I don't want to pour cold water on your ambition but please take the time to get some experience first.
In answer to your question about anchoring at sea, no you don't anchor at sea normally, you may heave too and take a rest but not in the busy coastal waters of UK. It may be possible to find shelter along the coast and tuck in somewhere and anchor for a few hours in depths where you have enough rode to effectively anchor.