Would you take a Bavaria 32 across the Atlantic

[KellysEye]

One other thought is that the trade winds are viewed as reliable, in 2004 we had lots of light winds and were praying for squalls to get the speed up. Be careful what you ask for, the middle one 50 miles across squall, measured by radar, stopped right on top of us, we tried steering but the wind was going round in circles. We put a white strobe on and went to bed.

2007 was a different matter and we did the ARC finish line. This is an extract from our web site:

Many boats that came in had taken a pasting during the crossing, in one report a yacht was sailing in steady forty knot winds gusting fifty nine. Fleet damage included: broken booms; rigging failures; broken spinnaker poles; torn sails; damaged stanchions; safety gear torn off deck; broken goose necks (attaches boom to mast); steering failures and much more. In one dreadful incident a skipper was hit by the boom during an uncontrolled gybe and knocked unconscious. He was taken off the yacht by a cruise ship but subsequently died in hospital in Barbados. Very sad.

Light winds and strong winds don't happen very often but are something that have to be handled if they come along.

 

[Uricanejack]

Back to original question. Would i? No.
Why. I have no particular desire to do so in any boat. I suspect it would be long boring with **** food.

If I did want to sail across oceans I'd pick a different boat.

Perhaps the op should decide what his goal is. If it's to get a nice new boat with all the shinny stuff and cruise his home waters it would be the right boat.

If his goal is to set of on a voyage around the Atlantic or the world. Im sure the same budget would find a slightly bigger better suited boat on the pre loved market and have the funds to equip it.

Perhaps a better question would be what nice 32 to 40 ft boats would be in budget range and what you would need as minimum for practical and ideal for comfortable.

 

[geem]

You're right about powered-auto and diesel generators are certainly a squeeze on smaller boats and the petrol ones some folk use offshore are a bit dodgy IMHO. That said, some extra power can be got from solar/towed systems.

However, I doubt such a boat will be easy to steer with a wind-vane, which leaves hand-steering. This will require a crew of four for comfort. Of course three or even two could do it, but that's starting to sound like graft.

For many I think the question will not come down to could I do it? but would I do it? I personally wouldn't, but that's just me.

You can happily run a small boat on a towed generator and solar panels. we crossed both directions with this set up on an electric autopilot.

 

[dom]

You can happily run a small boat on a towed generator and solar panels. we crossed both directions with this set up on an electric autopilot.

If you got that far in both directions it's safe to say you have really got the hang of it!

I'd be really interested to know what kind of boat were you sailing? What your power equation (ins and outs) looked in different weathers?

My experience is that (especially downwind) electric autopilots are great, but that they start drinking the power if the wind starts to blow.

BTW: Pl don't think me rude if you get a moment to answer and I don't reply; I am going to try and zip to the coast and return to London tomorrow ...it's suddenly summer!

 

[zzyyxx]

I do agree, the fridge is the real killer.

..well, that and the 42" wide-screen telly.

 

[Bobc]

And surely, if a group of people actually want to sail a boat across the Atlantic, some of them might like to steer her, for several hours per day?

Maybe for the first day or two, then you get bored of it (same direction all the time, nothing to see, etc.)

The fuel/battery-charging/fridge/self-steering calculation seems an extraordinary over-complication

My opinion based on actual experience rather than supposition

Ocean sailing is very different to day sailing/weekending. I think it's brilliant, but it can get rather boring at times.

 

[Greenheart]

Ocean sailing is very different to day sailing/weekending. I think it's brilliant, but it can get rather boring at times.

I wasn't dismissing your calculation for a moment, Bob - I was agreeing that if people regard crossing in a small yacht as an ordeal requiring increased electrical charging & output, rather than an adventure during which at least some of the output will be their own, then as you say, easier to buy a boat already there, or have it shipped across.

 

[jwilson]

Ideally you'll want the autopilot on 24/7. Also the fridge, instuments, and AIS will be on constantly, and the nav lights at night. We found that we had to run the engine twice a day for about 2 hours each time to keep the batteries topped-up. So you'd need enough fuel for at least 80 hours running. In addition to this, you might want to be able to motor if the wind dies (some people are happy to sit it out, but others aren't, and whether you can sit it out also depends on the amount of food and water on-board).

So I would fuel-up for the 80 hours for charging, and then 3 days of motoring on top of that, just to be sure.

Autopilot and fridge, agreed, but why AIS and instruments? Not much to hit mid-ocean that you won't see with your eyes. On one long distance offwind passage one watch were dial-sailors, and one turned off the instruments and just steered, getting into a rhythm to surf when you could. Guess whose 4-hourly distances were consistently significantly greater.

An earlier post queried stability when loaded: loaded down boats are generally more stable rather than less. Not an ideal boat for the job, but perfectly do-able. A Bav 32 is actually 34 ft long: lots of far, far smaller and less seaworthy boats have crossed.

 

[geem]

You can happily run a small boat on a towed generator and solar panels. we crossed both directions with this set up on an electric autopilot.

Prout Snowgoose 37 catamaran. 228watt of solar and a Duogen. We ran a fridge freezer, radar, nav lights (not led), watermaker, and gps,log etc. We showered every day and ate well. We never ran the engine for charging. in fact, our alternator packed in crossing Biscay and we didn't replace it until we got to Trinidad.
We had light winds for the crossing out and mostly light head winds to the Azores on the way back. We had some windy weather from behind (F8 for 36 hours) for the trip from Azores to Southern Ireland then mostly F6 on the nose for the last couple of days. Due to the light head winds to Azores, we ran the engine at low revs to keep us moving. The large swell and lack of wind knocked what wind there was out of the sails. It was impossible to sail at times. We were a thousand miles from anywhere and were running low on diesel so we radioed up a passing ship and asked if he had any diesel. It took some out of his lifeboat for us!! He was a German owner driver! Nice chap.
We are heading off to do a similar trip again. I finish work next week.

 

[sailor211]

Aery do-able.
Are you in a rush? if not save power and have fun balancing the sails so the boat sails itself. 5 degrees off optimum cause makes little difference until a few hundred miles from your destination, what with weather changes etc. Is a particular port that important. Seriously go south till the butter melts on a comfortable course, then turn west keeping warm. You will end up somewhere nice. Then you make for your desired Caribbean island. Not a lot of difference than going to Alderney instead of Cherbourg.

A telltale on the rigging and a compass.

I enjoy being out there, wind, sea, wildlife, books to read, bread to cook, a long time without the wife informing me I am wrong (she does not sail over oceans) No need for entertainment so no need for power. One download of GRIB Files a day. Nothing eles

 

[dom]

We are heading off to do a similar trip again. I finish work next week.

Many thanks for that - v. helpful.
May I wish you fair winds and good luck on your impending trip -so jealous!!!

 

[capnsensible]

How do you get bored on an ocean trip? I must be missing something apart from brain cells.

 

[maby]

How do you get bored on an ocean trip? I must be missing something apart from brain cells.

I guess that depends very much on what entertains you. Within a few hours of leaving shore, you'll be out of sight of land and you are then not going to see much other than water and horizon for the next 20 or 30 days. You'll be out of range of a television signal within a day and radio not long afterwards. The motion of the boat is going to limit your ability to do creative arts like painting. You'll have no networking and hence no internet unless you are paying a fortune to some satellite company. What are you left with? Reading? A lot of people seem to have forgotten how to do that!

 

[Daydream believer]

Oh ...well that's all right then

Gracious of you to accept you were wrong!!!

 

[30boat]

I guess that depends very much on what entertains you. Within a few hours of leaving shore, you'll be out of sight of land and you are then not going to see much other than water and horizon for the next 20 or 30 days. You'll be out of range of a television signal within a day and radio not long afterwards. The motion of the boat is going to limit your ability to do creative arts like painting. You'll have no networking and hence no internet unless you are paying a fortune to some satellite company. What are you left with? Reading? A lot of people seem to have forgotten how to do that!

I agree.I love sailing but going accross doesn't tempt me.I'm very active and need to do things all the time especially working which I love.30 odd days in a boat would not make me happy.Other people do it to escape their boring day jobs and I understand that but I love what I do and don't need to stop doing it.

 

[Buck Turgidson]

I'd love to do it.
Having done a 1200 nm close reach in a 25' 60year old leaky wooden boat, downhill in a 32 footer sounds like luxury!
Take care of the boat and it should be fine and as the minitrasat guy has said, you don't need 400l of diesel.

 

[Ashman]

We recently left Mindelo at the same time as a couple of delivery crew were taking a brand Bavaria to Rio. It was a stock boat with in mast furling and the only extra was 10 twenty five litre of fuel in cans on deck. They'd sailed the boat from Germany to the Canaries and onto Cape Verdes and when we met them again in Cabedelo, Brazil last week they told us the trip from the CV's took them 11 days. Unfortunately their electric auto pilot had failed so they were waiting in Cabedelo for a spare before heading south (if there's a lesson to be learned its always carry a spare motor). It is a trip that delivery skippers out here do regularly, Bavarias are popular Brazil apparently. Incidentally the delivery guys gave us some remarkably good advice on where to cross the ITCZ at this time of the year, we were only really in the doldrums for 150NM.

Crossing the Atlantic is surprisingly easy if you follow the well documented advice on routes and seasons - our problem on the CV's to Brazil leg was more a lack of wind so it took us 15 days from Mindelo to Recife.

We rely on a beefy electric autopilot and it takes a couple of hours of generator or engine to replace the power but so often on the way from the UK we've had days of near calm that running the main engine for a while has not been a big deal.

 

[RichardS]

I guess that depends very much on what entertains you. Within a few hours of leaving shore, you'll be out of sight of land and you are then not going to see much other than water and horizon for the next 20 or 30 days. You'll be out of range of a television signal within a day and radio not long afterwards. The motion of the boat is going to limit your ability to do creative arts like painting. You'll have no networking and hence no internet unless you are paying a fortune to some satellite company. What are you left with?

Boat maintenance?

Richard

 

[Simondjuk]

TV? Radio? Internet? There'd be no time for any of that even if it were available.

16 waking hours. I'd use them in some variation based loosely around 2 of cooking, 2 of cleaning, 2 of boat maintenance, 2 of navigation/weather, 2 of driving/sail changing, 1 of log/diary keeping, 2 of fishing/sitting on the bow/watching the water/watching the sky, 1 of ablutions and 1 of reading. The remaining hour I think I'd use just to relax.

 

[30boat]

TV? Radio? Internet? There'd be no time for any of that even if it were available.

16 waking hours. I'd use them in some variation based loosely around 2 of cooking, 2 of cleaning, 2 of boat maintenance, 2 of navigation/weather, 2 of driving/sail changing, 1 of log/diary keeping, 2 of fishing/sitting on the bow/watching the water/watching the sky, 1 of ablutions and 1 of reading. The remaining hour I think I'd use just to relax.

You do have a point.When I'm sailing solo offshore there's always something to do,reading usually takes the back seat most of the time.