GalaxyGirl
Senior Member
Just curious...
Hey, glad to see you are back and/or still around.
Our 58 ft Roughwater, single with bow thruster. My wife is usually with me but being the admiral she tells me what to do, which she has done for the 23 years we been married. So nothing new! The only rule I have is she has to stay in the pilot house with me so I know where she is and she is OK.
Did you see one of the Choy Lees you where looking at sold and on her own bottom going to I believe Australia? I still think the 60+ ft Choy Lee is the best boat and meets your requirements.
Ah our dear GALAXYGIRL, now she and her mom want to single handle the oceans? You want to save some money on your 100 footer?
Okay, mine. Maybe the best choice for you and your 5 kids.....
PS, I can recomment her Blog at; The Blog of GALAXYGIRL
My second wife ruptured her achilles tendon in Friday Harbor while we were chartering a Pacific Trawler 37'. To get her to a medical specialist, I single handed the boat back to Anacortes on a Sunday, when I knew there wouldn't be any dock hands to help. I planned the trip to arrive at slack tide to avoid any cross currents and fortunately there was no crosswind. It was a two boat slip so there was very little margin for error. The main problem is tying the lines before you drift into the boat next to you. The greater the distance from the control station to the dock the longer the time the boat has to drift. I jumped over the side rail and tied the center line, but if the boat is tall that might not be an option.
I learned that you always have to have a contingency plan. If you're single handing a boat and you have a major health problem while underway you could die. Lifeline doesn't work beyond the radio horizon. If there are only two people aboard, both need to be able to single hand the boat. I think having bow and stern thrusters would help a lot. Most electric thrusters have a limited duty cycle and they will shut down when they get too hot (i.e. when you need them most).
So, I suppose singlehanding is really all about docking without help and line handling without help? Yeah, your story sounds kind of hairy. I can see how someone could break a sweat in that situation. Would you not have just anchored out until Monday when a dock hand would be back?
On long passages single handling is not wise...even shorter ones....especially on a large power vessel. Too many chores to be taken care of while still moving and stopping may not be an option due to motion.
Just because you can single hand for short trips, doesn't really mean much....in the long run you do what you have to do in dangerous situations to survive. But that's NOT how the voyage is supposed to be planned.
Nope, hope I never HAVE to singlehand, but as many have said, one must be prepared for anything, right. So, I'm information gathering.
Yes, in my humble opinion, the hard part is docking. The hardest part of the actual trip was running to the head leaving the autopilot driving. The channels were pretty congested, being a Sunday, but I was able to wait for a gap in the traffic.
We had an early Monday morning appointment with an orthopedic surgeon. I had to rent a wheelchair and roll my wife up the ramp before the tide went out.
The marina we were going to was on the leeward side of the island, so I knew I'd be OK at slack tide. A good navigation system helps a lot in planning your arrival time around the tide.
On long passages single handling is not wise...even shorter ones....especially on a large power vessel. Too many chores to be taken care of while still moving and stopping may not be an option due to motion.
Just because you can single hand for short trips, doesn't really mean much....in the long run you do what you have to do in dangerous situations to survive. But that's NOT how the voyage is supposed to be planned.
If voyaging with kids...you aren't single handling because they still can be look outs, basic watch standers and drop a loop over a cleat or a piling while docking. With at least 2 adults and several kids...most coastal cruising and reasonable ocean legs can be done in relative safety.
60+ years old, crossed the Atlantic 7 times single handed (the 8th time brings me back to Europe) I can tell you that single handle a vessel is the best there is. Being alone with the elements, walking naked, not need to be social, eat catch and just accept what Neptune gives.
This is not the live for every one, my first wife did not like boats. My beautiful young Brazil wife is very afraid of boats, coming from a small island in Brazil, ones when she moved house from one island to an other, with the help of her grandmother, she needed to dump all her lovely belonings like her washing machine, television etc. just to keep the boat flooting. She thinks i am a mad man with my love for the seas.
But she like the ride of our over hp machine.
Just curious, what was your boating experience at that time?
Totally makes sense. We will have at least 7 people aboard so I will be far from single handing, but I have heard folks mention more than once to only purchase a boat that you can single hand if need be in an emergency, so I got to wondering what size boats could be single handed if the need came up and what size would be totally out of the question.