Would you take a Bavaria 32 across the Atlantic

[prv]

I've done some reasonable voyages on square-riggers (definitely no time to get bored as a deckhand there, with the bosun and his/her list of jobs!) but never any ocean sailing in yachts. However, even on cross-Channel passages, I've started making sure I have a boat job or two available to do (though not one that definitely must be done) just to break up the day.

On the way to Alderney the other week, I fitted four new winch handle pockets, and sealed and tightened some bolts in the binnacle.

We're back that way again in a few weeks; I think I might wait till then to install the safety knives mentioned in another thread. Maybe even the forepeak hatch blind too.

Pete

 

[JumbleDuck]

Autopilot and fridge, agreed ...

One of my autopilots doesn't need any electricity, and how big a fridge does a Bavaria 32 have? Does it really make enough contribution to the food supplies for two or three weeks to justify all that electricity?

 

[Uricanejack]

No ocean voyage for me. My boat doesn't have a fridge.

 

[Daydream believer]

No ocean voyage for me. My boat doesn't have a fridge.

You could always go north to somewhere cold. That would solve your problem

 

[BrianH]

One of my autopilots doesn't need any electricity, and how big a fridge does a Bavaria 32 have? Does it really make enough contribution to the food supplies for two or three weeks to justify all that electricity?

Agreed. No one is going to get hungry or suffer on a diet that does not require a fridge, which really consumes an absurd amount of power for what advantage it gives. I survived over twenty years of Med. summers without one.

Yes, I have one now but solar panels were never so efficient and cheap as now. But a beer from the bilge is not that much warmer and certainly drinkable - you get used to what you have.

 

[sailaboutvic]

Of course, if it's properly equipped.

+1 and I am not a fan of Bavaria Unless it's an old model which seen very well build compered to the new once

 

[capnsensible]

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!

After 10 transatlantics and 31 passages that would count as an Ocean Yachtmaster qualifying trip, I have amused myself with the following:

Being on watch!
Sleeping
Sun tanning
Fixing broken bits
servicing engine, winches
Cleaning fenders
polishing all metalwork
whipping the ends of every rope on board
cooking and baking bread
sailing the yacht.....
steering 3 on 3 off for several thousand miles with broken autopilot
noon sight for latitude
morning and afternoon sights
stars at sunrise and sunset
fishing
steering even when autopilot works
texting to get weather forecast by iridium phone
watching movies on 12v dvd player


oh yeah, reading books!!

Enjoy it? you bet.

Don't need a fridge and would certainly nip across on a Bavaria 32........

 

[capnsensible]

. Have I missed something or has the RYA mantra of thou-shalt-switch-on-the-engine-whenever-thy-speed-falleth-below-five-knots taken hold of ocean voyaging too?

There is no such thing. I don't think you missed something, I think you made that up.

 

[geem]

One of my autopilots doesn't need any electricity, and how big a fridge does a Bavaria 32 have? Does it really make enough contribution to the food supplies for two or three weeks to justify all that electricity?

our fridge on our last boat that we sailed across the Atlantic had a 100 litre fridge/freezer. We built it under a bunk. it had 100mm of kingspan insulation and a water cooled condenser. it averaged 1 amp/hr. Not a huge power consumption and certainly less that the standard fridges fitted to most mass produced boats. You don't need a cavernous fridge for such a trip but it is nice to a small fridge/freezer on board. With cabin temperatures of 25 to 35 degC even your beer tastes hot without a fridge. The year we crossed the sea was 25 degC so you wouldn't have had cool bilges.
We ate well on our trip. Our food was not dissimilar to what we would have eaten at home. With so much time on your hands food becomes somewhat of a focus. We had some great meals from our fridge supplemented by fresh tuna and dorado. Lots of fish was frozed to be eaten later in the Caribbean. I think for the one amp consumption it was very worth while. It may be slightly different if the fridge is poorly insulated and power hungry but you could always change the fridge.

 

[JumbleDuck]

There is no such thing. I don't think you missed something, I think you made that up.

I am sure that I read about an RYA training cruise to France for which that was the rule. Spoils all the lovely calculations, I presume, if annoyingly variable things like "the wind" are allowed to dictate what happens ...

 

[doug748]

Agreed. No one is going to get hungry or suffer on a diet that does not require a fridge, which really consumes an absurd amount of power for what advantage it gives. I survived over twenty years of Med. summers without one.

Yes, I have one now but solar panels were never so efficient and cheap as now. But a beer from the bilge is not that much warmer and certainly drinkable - you get used to what you have.

Thank God for that. I was worried.

The comment about fridges being a key consideration had me foxed as well.

As an old git, I find contemporary life recedes away from me at an hyperbolic rate but maybe I am not totally out of it.

 

[JumbleDuck]

The comment about fridges being a key consideration had me foxed as well.

We live in a world in which a starter boat has to be 34' long with hot and cold pressurised water, fridge, freezer, central heating, chartplotter, AIS, 40hp engine and so on. Sails are optional, I think.

 

[Birdseye]

What if.. the keel fell off? That applies to all vessels with keels attached by fasteners, including Najads I believe!

You are verging on the silly there.

 

[capnsensible]

I missed off my list heaving to for a swim and also rubbing suntan cream on scantily clad ladies.

That last one can take some time........

 

[colhel]

this reminds me of a little story. When we did it we had no fridge. in the azores we met up with group of 3who have just purchased a large catamaran. we stayed in touch by radio and although they have a fridge freezer they ran out of gas so couldn't cook anything so offered us their frozen chickens. Unfortunately due to the swelly conditions we couldn't get very close so they threw them towards us. I don't know if anyone has tried catching a frozen chicken in an Atlantic swell. We didn't really think this through. A frozen chicken lobbed at a boat in theory could cause quite a lot of damage. Lucky for us he wasn't a very good aim.

 

[maby]

this reminds me of a little story. When we did it we had no fridge. in the azores we met up with group of 3who have just purchased a large catamaran. we stayed in touch by radio and although they have a fridge freezer they ran out of gas so couldn't cook anything so offered us their frozen chickens. Unfortunately due to the swelly conditions we couldn't get very close so they threw them towards us. I don't know if anyone has tried catching a frozen chicken in an Atlantic swell. We didn't really think this through. A frozen chicken lobbed at a boat in theory could cause quite a lot of damage. Lucky for us he wasn't a very good aim.

I remember talking to an engineer who had been involved in the design of a new high speed train some years ago. They were concerned that a bird strike could be serious, so they borrowed a "chicken gun" from an aerospace specialist company - used to test big jet engines to see how they could cope with a bird strike. They pointed the gun at the front of one of their trains and fired - they were disturbed to see that the chicken went through the windscreen, demolished the rear wall of the driver's cab and caused havoc throughout the front passenger space before ending up lodged in the rear wall of the carriage. They went back to the owners of the gun to ask for advice on how to make their train more resilient - the first question that the aerospace engineers asked was "You did defrost the chicken first, didnt you?"

 

[prv]

I don't know if anyone has tried catching a frozen chicken in an Atlantic swell.

I haven't, but it does sound like it ought to be on some kind of TV gameshow

Pete

 

[30boat]

I missed off my list heaving to for a swim and also rubbing suntan cream on scantily clad ladies.

That last one can take some time........

Yeah,I guess your willy keeps getting in the way...

 

[Tomahawk]

I remember talking to an engineer who had been involved in the design of a new high speed train some years ago. ….. "You did defrost the chicken first, didnt you?"

Oh for some photos….

 

[JumbleDuck]

I remember talking to an engineer who had been involved in the design of a new high speed train some years ago. They were concerned that a bird strike could be serious, so they borrowed a "chicken gun" from an aerospace specialist company - used to test big jet engines to see how they could cope with a bird strike. They pointed the gun at the front of one of their trains and fired - they were disturbed to see that the chicken went through the windscreen, demolished the rear wall of the driver's cab and caused havoc throughout the front passenger space before ending up lodged in the rear wall of the carriage. They went back to the owners of the gun to ask for advice on how to make their train more resilient - the first question that the aerospace engineers asked was "You did defrost the chicken first, didnt you?"

http://www.snopes.com/science/cannon.asp