single sailing

Slowing down is not loosing the dream! It was a dreamer who invented the wheel, and he had no experience whether it works or not.
Go on, enjoy your part (half the fun) and try getting the rest together.

Most replies here have been focused on some sort of technical advice or recommendations. But no matter which sort of boat you´ll choose finally, knowledge is 99% of your joy or the lack of ! Your boat usually is not right nor wrong, your decisions make each and every trip fun or sheer horror.
One point just touched lightly here is wheather. Having a profound understanding of the very complex wheather system is by far the most important issue in going offshore. Gaining it unfortunately the longest path in a sailors progress. But it is for free and can be improved without moving a boat.
At a second step after earning some stable "sea legs" I would try to find some "hand for bunk" arrangement on transit trips whith professional (better commercial) crew!
Watching a pro doing his job can tell you more in one voyage, than 25 years of club sailing with the "local hero".

Good Luck
Richard

 

IMO Says all vessels navigating on International waters MUST maintain a LOOKOUT 24hours a day while UNDERWAY.

I know a lot of people dont do it. But they all sure scream like hell when they run under my towlines.

K9

 

I second to that! Go out there and get addicted, like most of us here.

I don't share Apex's view on what most of the recommendations and advice are all about though.

What I think I am seeing is a division on advise between "learn by watching" (the pros) and "learn by doing" (so it gets embedded in your subconsciousness / muscle memory).

The advisers in the first group tend to then advise a "little yacht", the advisers in the second group tend to advise a "dinghy".
All miles away from the question "can a 65'-er by converted for single handed sailing", but spot-on the remark "I have never been sailing before".

Again, I hope the OP doesn't loose the dream.

For a choice on the most appropriate learning strategy it would probably help to have a rough idea of the age of the people on the brink of learning how to sail a boat here. Perhaps the OP can give the rest of us a hint.

Most will have guessed by now I would place myself in the "learn the basics by doing in a dinghy sized boat". Learning by watching (a pro) requires at least a hunch of when what decisions are made. The blessed ignorant won't even realise the experienced sailor is making a decision on many occasions in the first place. The skipper's quick look at the sky, estimating the significance of a cloud pattern overhead, will go by unnoticed, just as the small abnormality in the wind which had the rig tremble for a moment and made him look did.

After the basics are established and locked in underneath the surface, there are at least two extended strategies that will expand skills and knowledge fast and profound. Watching a pro with extensive local experience and trying to instruct another novice the absolute basics yourself. Both will make you think, rethink and understand why to do what when. And to plan ahead, vital when the intention is going offshore someday.

Another $0.02 added.

PS Kay, let the lucky screamers scream, it are the eternally silenced to contemplate about.

 

PS Kay, let the lucky screamers scream, it are the eternally silenced to contemplate about.

Might be me, but you lost me here JotM.

K9

 

Those that are still able to scream after meeting with your towlines are the lucky asses. But every now and then someone won't be doing much screaming no more. Kind of hard from six foot under.

 

Did we forget to answer this?:

"can a 65'-er by converted for single handed sailing"

To that again, my meaning is yes....

And about 24h lookout....

I was far out from the coast (somwhere between Norway/ Denmark), in a sailboat, "daylight", very dense fog, very short visibility, I started to hear this heavy vibrating sound, like heavy steel plates vibrating.... Well my boat was pure GRP, and hadnt been making a sound like that earlier. Guess my head was spinning quite a lot there; port/ starboard/ port etc..... Dammit/ somethings coming.....??!!

And then; not too far from the bow, the fog appeared to have welds, some spots of rust, showed even some flakes of paint.... Moving from my starboard side to port.... Then it was away...... just some waves, and the fog again.....

When I landed in Denmark I bought a bigger radar reflector.....

 

To the 1.:!:
For that reason I told him first to earn some "sea legs".
To the 2.:!:
Sound advice, and a proven way to gain the own knowledge: instruct another student!
Thanks for making some points come into sharper relief!
Regards
Richard

 

Well Knut, I am glad you are still among us.

I guess that makes you a "lucky ***", notwithstanding you did keep a perfectly good lookout.

After several accounts like yours and loss of the yacht Ouzo, the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) had some research done on radar reflectors. [link]

From their research (which can be found through the link above) they concluded:

The "if fitting a passive reflector" remark relates to the finding that when healed and in moderate seas, even the biggest of passive reflectors are hardly sufficient. Or in more detail:

Have fun and be safe. There are one or two things to be said about learning how to sail inshore.

Cheers

 

NB if money is no issue, you live and/or cruise close to a merchant shipping TSS and have ample power at your disposal, you might consider fitting AIS alongside an active or a passive radar reflector. You won't go unnoticed by the guys in the big league after that.

 

Radar reselctors are great. But they dont replace a lookout. Giving your safty to me by placing a RR on your mast and then hopeing that I will A. See you. And B. Be able to aviod you. Is at best criminal, and at worst deadly.

AIS is great, But you should see my radar in the Pugent Sounds. You think O-Hair Airport is busy.

On our Tug at sea we have 2 people on the bridge at all times.When we enter heavy traffic centers I add one more officer just to watch the radar, and we still have near misses.

This isnt the same ocean that we had 40 years ago, or even 10 years ago. Its a LOT more crowded. I remember running a small Oceanographic vessel in the South central Pacific. You wouldnt see anyone for whole trips. Now I rarely have a nite with no contacts on the radar.

K9

 

I think RR's can be great, but, because of the false sense of safety it seems to offer some people, dangerous too. A radar reflector can never replace a lookout, but it might help a lookout on another vessel.

AIS on all seagoing yachts would be great, but cannot replace "look-out by sight and hearing" (Rule 5) for a long time to come, probably never. But when a small yacht is equipped with DCS&GPS&AIS-transponder it will show up nicely and labelled on your digital map with radar image and AIS overlay. One blib less of which to be unsure what it is you are looking at.

Now on a roomy little cruiser like PAR's design one might find the space to install that. But where on earth is it to be stashed on a RAID-boat like slender open boat? Weather proof and affordable too, please.

Illustration for armchair skippers (like myself at the moment): http://www.scannernet.nl/Online AIS DSC.html
Drag the map to see the entrance to the Port of Rotterdam [SSW]

Cheers,
Jaap

 

On the effect of radar reflectors, read table 1 on this page of US Sail: http://www.ussailing.org/safety/Studies/radar_reflector_3.htm

Scary to know when one, like me, tends to go out on the North Sea carrying a radar reflector of a type like the "HYE".

 

All, I appreciate that everyone is so concerned with my safety. I want to stay on the green side of the grass too. I am 60 years old. I started operating tractors at 10 and earned money at 14 driving bulldozers. at 15 I was operating earthmovers and driving dump trucks on the road; yes with a learners permit. I built with my own hands (literally all of it) the house I have lived in for the last 38 years. I have had a service call by a technitian at my house twice in those 38 years for a refrigerator UNDER Warranty. Otherwise I fix everything. I have a Master Plumbing license, an HVAC license, an Underground Utility contractor license for my state (I am taking the state exam for a General Contracting license February 20th- new requirement for Georgia), have OSHA 500 and am qualaified to teach OSHA 10 and 30 classes. I know how to be safe. I also can do alright on reading the weather.

Give me a gallon of gas, a pair of pliers and a rope and I can crank a stump. I designed and built a stick steering system(3/64" cable and bicycle cable housing) for a small river boat that did not add over 5 pounds to the boat. Designing the ropes, pullies, wenches etc. can be done. Of this I am sure. I was expecting more technical advice from someone who has sailed alone. My vision is to plan my trips for short port to port day trips. Yes, I will need a crew member for over night crossings, but they will be few and far between.

Back to my question; How easily can a sailboat of approx. 65 ft be rigged to be single handedly sailed? Does the rigging get in the way when not in use? Is it just added gear? Can it be set up with electric wenches and pullies so it can be done with out leaving the cockpit?

I am going to do this. I want to do it as easily and safely as possible. I would like to learn from your mistakes instead of mine.

 

Give me a small not-adapted but properly equipped boat suitable for my local coastal waters and I will probably be able to sail it single-handed safely. Seaworthiness is not embedded in the hardware only.

In short:
(1) It can be done and looking at your experience sheet _you_ might not call it difficult.
(2) Not necessarily.
(3) It's a different setup; some gear may be added, some gear may be removed.
(4) Absolutely.

Can we do it for you? No. You will have to learn to sail somewhere and somehow so you can decide how it should be done on your boat. Navigation at sea is a different ball game, as even at 65' you'll be just a speck in the ocean.
Anyway, here's an example of what you you could be thinking about, a Wally yacht 80':



I made most of my mistakes (errors of judgement or otherwise) on a 19' under rigged boat on sheltered waters with ample helping hands around. I am not so sure I would still be here had I been sailing a 65' solo. By the way, when meant for day sailing, have you ever considered something a bit smaller but aimed at short handed sailing, like the Alerion Express 28?

Edit: Look here, they make them in 67' also. [click on the image] But don't be fooled by the tranquillity in the picture. These are high performance boats that probably harness more power than an earth mover once the wind kicks in. And there is no ignition key to turn off the wind when it becomes to much to handle.

 

With electronics and/or hydraulics, this could be done pretty easily...just a matter of more/different equipment to install & probably a bit more design/build time to get it all arranged how it'll work best for you.

This is just a design issue. If you design your system without considering where the lines are running, it'll get in the way; if you pan everything out well in the first place, they'll be out of the way, right where you put them.

Yes, wither way...electronic wenches, or enough pulleys to route all of the lines to where you can easily reach them in the cockpit. May I suggest that if you go with electronic and/or hydraulic winches for your primary system, I would recommend having some form of mechanical back-up system installed as a contingency (but I'm not all that sure you didn't already probably know that yourself).

Love your spirit there; I tend to be REALLY hard to convince NOT to do something, or that I CAN'T do something, just because someone else thinks so.