I have a sailing gig out of Nova Scotia starting in May. I’ve been told I should gear up for all seasons.

My main question is: Do I layer and use a top layer of foulies for water and wind? These are more like PVC coated waterproof jackets and overalls OR Do I go with something like Gill Coastal Jacket and trousers? Breathable fabric, waterproof zippers, etc.

Seems like the foulies would be more durable and provide more space for layering underneath while the coastal stuff would be a little more comfortable?

I’m not even sure if I’m using the right terminology. Is the pvc coated fishing gear called slickers? And the stuff like Gill, HH and Musto called foulies?

Thanks in advance guys. Appreciate your patience w a newbie.

It seems that finding insurance for offshore/coastal passages is becoming more difficult for everyone, let alone for people trying to take a small and inexpensive boat anywhere far.

I have a Bruce Roberts 29, valued at most $30k, Canadian registered. I'm planning to head down the West coast into the Sea of Cortez, perhaps continue into the south pacific in the following seasons.

I'm hoping to find a basic liability policy, simply the most basic coverage to let me access marinas and haul outs if needed along the way. I've read through countless forums on the topic and contacted a number of brokers and hit roadblocks every time. Often simply because the boat is Canadian registered, but mostly the denial seems based on size and value.

I'm interested to hear any advice others may have about navigating this situation. I'm very open to insurance that does not included coverage for offshore or coastal cruising, as long as I'm covered once I arrive to port or sheltered waters in the States or in Mexico.

Also, I'm curious to hear if any of you have experience recently cruising these regions uninsured.

Thanks for your input!

Hello. I’m in the state of Tennessee. Considering how I could go about maintaining my residency in the state (including driver’s license) after selling my home and going gypsy for a couple of years. I’m wondering if keeping a UPS street address mailbox would solve some of these issues. Thank you.

Is this a thing, that people do ? Do you have experience with this, or have you seen it among the sailboat cruising community in Grenada (or elsewhere I suppose) ?

More interested in answers along the lines of:

yes, I've done that or seen people do that, here's the details

-or-

no, I've spent hurricane seasons in Grenada, but never heard of anyone doing that / pretty sure it doesn't happen.

Analogous to house-sitting.

Couple differences. Instead of the sitter being competent to feed the cat, the sitter must be competent to a) take care of the boat in the owner's absence (eg be a reasonably experienced skipper or crew) and b) preferable if they are likely not to abscond with the boat in question, as it does not sit on a foundation attached to the earth.

If you want to clutch your pearls and write diatribes about why in your opinion no one should ever trust anyone else with their boat except for themselves, that's not an answer to the question and will receive a downvote, but thanks for sharing your angst.

I’ve been sailing in the NYC area for over 20 years. I’ve gone up and down the East River over 50 times. Those of you who’ve done it know that timing is essential. I’ve used Eldridge and the various rules of thumb. If you’ve done the southwest trip, you’ll have seen boats queued up at the Throgs Neck Bridge, waiting for just the right moment to head down the river.

Turns out the recommendations for the fair current transit are really the front edge of a relatively large time window for catching a fair current. Two years ago I started wondering, “why am I calculating stuff over and over? Why can’t I just look up when to go?” Then I started wondering where does Eldridge gets all their data. Turns out it’s all available from NOAA.

I realized that with all the NOAA data (your tax dollars at work, in a good way), I could calculate not just the recommended time to depart, but the hours long time windows when you can still catch a fair current, as well as the best time to depart for the fastest transit. I could even calculate the time of trips to hit slack water where the Harlem River meets the East River.

I’ve been working on ways to visualize the information rather than spreadsheets and tables and make it available on the web. I have some prototypes and I could really use feed back. If you’re interested in helping, please message me or respond to the post and I’ll message you.

All help appreciated, JJ

I’m just curious on pricing. Quoted 18,000USD for the following and wanted to verify if it’s fair. Location SE USA.

Beta 30 with tmc60a transmission Panel"c engine mounts high rise exhaust stop solenoid oil change pump shallow oil pan flexible coupling 120amp alternator anti siphon valve multi groove belt water heater fittings Prop shaft flange

I was looking at crewbay.com for a sailing mileage building. But, only see some old perverts in the Mediterranean looking for only female crew under "friendship" title ... FFS 😂

I've got a 30 foot catamaran with a shallow draft, so I often anchor in shallow water. I used quite a short bridle/snubber last year (+- 5m a side), attached to the lower bows in the front and it worked well, although I never had to anchor in strong wind.

I'd like to use a longer snubber for when it's very windy, but when it's not it would drag on the ground and get worn. What I like about the attachment points for the bridle is that being off the front of the bows means there's absolutely no chafe, and with the bridle being attached about half a meter lower than the anchor roller, I get a slightly better angle on the anchor.

My thoughts for the future are to use a 5m nylon bridle, but then have another two 10m nylon lines with eyes on each end ready to go. In a big blow I would then extend the 5m lines with the 10 either using a soft/hard shackle or maybe luggage tagging them together by their eyes. Then I could let out more chain to match the new length, and have more stretch and another 10m of chain in the water.

Is there anything I'm not thinking about here? Any reason why it's not a workable idea?

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Bridle stowed

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Bridle deployed

I am looking to purchase a sailboat to spend weekends and some full weeks on. I want to spend the next several months to a year doing my research though and learning as much as I can. Does anyone know where I can find a checklist of things that need to be maintained and at what time intervals (monthly, every 3 months, annually, etc.)? Any YouTube channels or books would be appreciated as well. I am mostly looking for something to be docked for now as a part-time home and then I will look more into sailing at a later date.

Thank you in advance!

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My girlfriend and I have very recently started dreaming about getting a boat and living aboard. We are absolute beginners when it comes to this and have really just been watching some youtubers and have some questions.

What's a good price point to look at for a boat? We would want to be able to maintain everything aboard ourselves to help with costs and have no idea what exactly might make a bad boat or some jewel that we would purchase. As an example https://www.ebay.com/itm/135025624405?itmmeta=01HW8W9MKQVVN5PSN0T7DEDQX0&hash=item1f70278555:g:vhIAAOSwIHNmCggC is something I came across that I was curious why it's only 6k? Is it purely the age or is there likely some other issue that might not be disclosed that would require significant investment? The main thing that seems like an issue to me from the pictures would be sleeping 2 people. We probably aren't going to be able to spend 100k+ but something in the 40-60k range wouldn't be out of the question (We are also a few years out from this so we definitely aren't buying soon)

We both have jobs that we are able to work remotely with. If we were to live off the coast of some state for a while (likely Oregon, but we would be are very flexible on this) are there good resources for how we would maintain an address for tax purposes/jobs (Can we just use a PO box?)

A bit of a niche one here, but I play the saxophone and am curious if anyone has any experience/tips on maintaining a brass instrument while out at sea. Ideally I would be able to make a decent amount of the money we would need for day to day life busking but I'm not sure if it would be feasible to keep it on board.

Thanks for your help, I'm sure we'll have more questions as we learn more about this, I have read through this thread https://old.reddit.com/r/SailboatCruising/comments/1burzca/recommended_resources_for_a_beginner_advice_for/ and will definitely be checking out some of the recommendations there!

Can somebody tell me why I always see boats that have left usa, Europe on a trip around the world. But plans have changed and now boat is for sale in french Polynesia?

Is it difficult to sail on from there? Customs in new Zealand? Boats batterd and needs repair?

Maybe it's nothing but I seem to see it all to often and I'm like what's going on?

I’m not sure this is the right forum for this but I’m running into an electrical issue on a new to me Cape Dory 31 and am curious if anyone has experienced this before. The DC system on this boat has been in general very well maintained and cleanly installed. The only issue I have run into so far is that when I flip on the breaker for the bilge pump (Rule), which also has a couple of usb outlets connected to it, there is a very faint rhythmic ticking coming from the panel. It is extremely consistent, like a fast clock and faint: you can only hear it if you are right next to it. I can’t identify exactly where it is coming from and it might be from the separate switch for the pump that lets you set auto, manual or off. One of the weirder things is that if I turn on other breakers on the panel (e.g. cabin lights) the ticking speeds up for each new breaker! With all of the breakers on it is almost a steady noise.

Has anyone experienced something similar? I’m going to start disconnecting things until it stops but wanted to ask here first.

credit: Henry Beard and Roy McKie

I’ve never used the flooded LA batteries, only AGM. I’m about to replace a 2x(2x6v) bank, and am seriously considering going flooded. I’ve read a lot of maintenance instructions from leading battery manufacturers, and so what I’m really looking for is some practical advice about:

The gassing - does it have a noticeable smell? I am usually at the boat at least one a week - is a week enough time for an explosive situation to develop, assuming proper water levels?

The heeling - the batteries are situated under the starboard settee, pretty tightly packed in with the batteries’ long edges aligned port-starboard. I wonder if the natural heeling under sail will cause problems.

For charging I have an older 20 amp charger from shore power and am in the process of installing solar panels.

Thanks!

Hi everybody!

Aspiring sailor here. Last year I befriended an older boatbuilder and over this friendship he's been taking me sailing a bit and I joined the local sailing club trying to learn some seamanship. Now I really like sailing and I've been thinking of turning this into a career somehow

Now some info on me, I'm in my early 30's, live in Denmark and work as a furnituremaker/woodworker, work has really been drying up lately though and it's not looking any better for the foreseeable future, now my friend let me know that the shipyards around are really busy and are looking hard for workers, so an apprenticeship would almost be guaranteed and with this in mind I considered signing up for school in boatbuilding, it's between 3 - 4 years and will involve everything from electrical systems and engines to fiberglass and ofcourse woodworking, it'll be between a mix of attending school at U NORD in Elsinore but mostly working as an apprentice in a shipyard somewhere

Now for the real question, say I do all of this and get my journeyman's papers as a boatbuilder, how viable is it to cruise around just doing this? The thought of being some sort of travelling journeyman on the seas is really appealing, I mean I'm already going around working, why not expand the horizon a bit and move to the seas?

My concerns are things like work permits and demand, I just don't know if people would even consider using a journeyman passing through, and I'm sure my certifications and what not would mean less in some places and jack squat in more remote places. Also I'm concerned about the general attitude, I know around here people often don't look too favourable at foreign tradesmen because they supposedly take work away from the locals, but maybe it's different at marinas?

To preface I would like to do this as legally as possible, I imagine places like the mediterranean or the Caribbean would be more susceptible to something like this, but considering I'm a EU citizen atleast I'd be able to work in EU overseas territories right?

Has anybody here done this? Thoughts, warnings, prayers and good advice are all welcome.

After a fun, and at times wild sail down the west coast from the PNW to Mexico, we've had an awesome winter sailing the wonderful Gulf of California. The anchorages here are often exposed "open roadstead" types, and usually pretty shallow. While that has meant some uncomfortable nights, it has also meant that sailing on and off the anchor without engine has been very easy to do on a regular basis. I have been surprised by how few fellow sailors decide to do this, so I made a quick video describing why it is important to have skills and confidence to sail on and off anchor, and how to do it!

Cheers!

https://youtu.be/6nemOOmKIxI

Assuming you use paper charts as your primary tool for trip planning - what other apps/websites/tools do you use when planning a trip. And in what order do you use them?

This came out pretty good. I’m happy with the case designed for it as well.

Hi all, generally new on Reddit, but I was wondering how long would it take to get enough experience to sail around the world in a couple. I have significant dingy sailing experience, but nothing on larger yachts. I was hoping to start building my skills slowly and maybe in 10 years time we would be able to have enough experience to do something like an Atlantic crossing. I am obviously looking to start small with some RYA courses (day skipper first) and build experience from there.

For context I am an engineer, living in the uk (not by the sea). I have a decent understanding of motors, hydrodynamics and general maintenance. I was hoping to know if a 10 year timeline is reasonable? What big things should I make sure I learn? Is it an achievable goal? What courses which aren’t mandatory should I do?

I have been in contact with some sailing schools but they have generally been quite unhelpful. Would appreciate any advice and tips.

I would like to make my way to Bahamas and Virgin Islands , I believe with my current insurance I can go to the Bahamas, which insurers will insure US residents in the Caribbean?

Bought a sailboat. Moved on to it. Forgot that I didn't know how to sail. Lol

Hi, I’m wondering if anyone has any experience exiting ICW from either St. John’s, St. Mary’s, or St. Simon’s cuts and could share advice or comparative assessments? Planning to inquire locally also. 5.6’ draft vessel under aux. power.

Thanks!

Ahoy all!

Getting ready to set sail with the destination unknown (to a degree) and the goal to see the world. Thoughts on Starlink vs cellular hotspot vs Iridium?

Doing the dream of sailing the world and recording it then editing then uploading.

Thank you in advance!

Knotta T-Rex

Recently I very unexpectedly was willed a 1999 40’ sailboat from a family member who passed. The boat will possibly be sold but the possibility learning to sail it and potentially living on it in the future is very intriguing.

I have helped sail the boat a few times in the past but that was really just following directions. I have driven lots of small boats but nothing over 22ft. I have a ton of wing foiling experience which seems to have many similarities to sailing. While I’m sure this is all helpful the idea of driving, sailing, and most of all docking is daunting. If I end up keeping the boat I will happily invest in proper instruction.

Moorage is a very challenging aspect of all of this but I have taken the steps to have a slip if needed.

So far I have read / am currently reading

• The Essentials of Living Aboard a Boat
• Sailing: The Basics
• The Complete Anchoring Handbook

I have several months before any decisions need to be made and I am currently just trying to learn as much as I can.

What resources would you recommend to someone in my position? Any advice? I am in my mid 20s in NW Washington and would not be taking this all on alone.

I currently have quotes from Antigua and St. Martin— flexible 10 day trip in May. Experienced scuba divers & outdoors people who would rather spend time in secluded anchorages and uninhabited places with good hiking and outdoor adventure with scuba along the way…. Basically anywhere we can get to from Miami is open!

So… if you wanted to create an adventure cruising itinerary for 10 days or so— scuba diving, hiking, and maybe only eating out a few nights… where would you go?!

Dear friends,

this is a bit of a (long) personal story more than a technical question.

My late father was an outstanding sailor and loved being at sea more than anything else. I grew up until my University years at sea on our boats at least 3 months during the summer here in the Mediterranean and almost every weekend was spent sailing. We sailed with most weather and rarely stuck moored. I remember as a little kid how much he resisted turning on the motor even after hours of calm sploshing around with empty sails and he told us his pleasure of sailing was about being at sea much more than getting from A to B.

Later on in our lives we exited the Mediterranean through both Gibraltar, sailing the Atlantic to Panama and through Suez to Madagascar.

As a young medical student I made some money skippering boats between Italy and Sardinia and the Balearic islands but then when medical school got tougher and more demanding I completely stopped going at sea and sailing.

Now fast forward half a century I am retiring from the medical profession, a beautiful but gruesome job and sometimes at night remember my times at sea, my dad, some beautiful images etched (at night with a full moon and a strong green luminescent wake on a flat sea with a storm with lightning at a distance) and some terrifying moments (gale force Mistral downwind of bonifacio with steep waves high as mid mast with their crests swept horizontally) and dream about that life.

One thing that holds me back though is that as much I have experienced the sea, even as a skipper, it was always somewhat under my dad's tutelage and advice and ask myself how much of my knowledge and decision making would stand in serious conditions without his input. His experience would have helped me immensely starting from the evaluation of a potential buy, his knowledge of every single bolt acquired by decades of maintaining strong seaworthy boats).

Thanks for reading this, it is more for myself to put thought is some perspective, but if you can share opinions and advice I'd be very grateful.