What really matters when it comes to preparing for an offshore adventure? Andy Schell distils it down to six golden rulesI completed my eighth and most recent Atlantic crossing in February, sailing from Mindelo, Cape Verde, to Barbados aboard our Farr 65 Falken with 10 crew. The 2,200-mile passage took just under 11 days \u2014 fast, comfortable and dreamy, exactly as you hope for a tradewind crossing in the tropics.
\nI have never, ever said ocean sailing is boring, but I had more free time on that trip than in any in recent memory. Time to get out the sextant and teach some celestial navigation, time to read, to fly the drone and mess around taking photos; time to do whatever I fancied!
\nTo me, that\u2019s the goal of a well-planned and executed ocean crossing: to have the time to truly enjoy it. But with so many things to think about in the preparation stage, where do you start?
\nWhat really matters?
\nMy wife, Mia, and I hosted a 59\u00b0 North small group workshop on just this topic in Annapolis this spring. The group spent the first morning brainstorming what \u2018matters\u2019 offshore versus what doesn\u2019t. Where and how should you focus your energy?
\nOur group of eight sailors were all yacht owners with varying backgrounds and boats, from sailing an old-school Allied Seawind 32, to building a new performance cruiser Xp 50. Yet some common themes emerged. Each person\u2019s \u2018mission\u2019 was to make safe, comfortable ocean cruising passages and have the knowledge and confidence to adapt to situations as they developed.
\nIn our workshop, what stood out on the \u2018matters\u2019 list included both serious and humorous items. Coffee was high on the list, right behind understanding the weather. Boat condition (ie maintenance), comms and self-steering made it to the \u2018matters\u2019 list, while some surprising items like boat design and electronics didn\u2019t.
\nCoffee features high on many offshore sailors\u2019 must-have lists! Photo: 59\u00b0 North Sailing
\nPerhaps the most important thing on the \u2018matters\u2019 list won\u2019t be covered in this article as it\u2019s such a big topic: medical. Keeping the crew healthy and managing the situation in the event of a medical emergency matters more than anything else, yet invariably most sailors leave those preparations until the last minute. Don\u2019t.
\nFor this article I\u2019ve chosen a few things from the \u2018matters\u2019 list to do a deeper dive on. Plus we\u2019ll touch on some things left off the list and why they don\u2019t matter as much as you might think. Here I\u2019ve tried to distil an entire weekend\u2019s discussions into just a few key points to help you plan and prioritise.
\nWhat doesn\u2019t matter
\nSeveral topics that seem to dominate armchair sailor discussions ended up on our \u2018doesn\u2019t matter\u2019 list. Take boat design for example \u2013 there are so many different types of boats plying the oceans that it\u2019s impossible to say what is \u2018best\u2019 for passagemaking. I often refer to my friend Matt Rutherford\u2019s epic Around the Americas voyage, a solo, nonstop passage through the Northwest Passage and around Cape Horn that took him 309 days.
\nHe did it in a 1970s 27ft Albin Vega which he refitted by diving around the boatyard skips of Annapolis. Nobody would argue that\u2019s an ideal boat for that mission, but he did it anyway. The more skilled and prepared the sailor, the less that boat design matters. So really it\u2019s knowledge and preparation that truly matter.
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A number of systems we spend way too much time debating didn\u2019t make the list. Who cares what kind of battery system you\u2019ve installed, the material in the sails, or what type of engine the boat has? What matters is less the choice of equipment but how it\u2019s designed, installed and maintained. Any system fit for purpose and properly maintained will serve the mission, so don\u2019t get too bogged down in brand choices and technical specs.
\nSailors have been crossing oceans for thousands of years and even an average boat today is light years safer and better performing than what we\u2019ve had for most of human history. Forget the stuff that doesn\u2019t matter and focus on what does.
\nhigh on the list of what matters are the boat\u2019s steering and self-steering systems. Photo: Tor Johnson
\n1 Skill
\n\u2018The more you know, the less you need,\u2019 is one of my favourite quotes, attributed to Yvon Choinard, founder of iconic clothing brand Patagonia, himself an avid climber and outdoorsman.
\nI often preach that seamanship is both \u2018learned\u2019 and \u2018earned\u2019. You don\u2019t need to have thousands of ocean miles under your keel to successfully cross the Atlantic, but you should have a wide array of accumulated knowledge. You can be the most book-smart sailor, but at some point you need to apply that knowledge in the real world by going to sea. Likewise, you can have vast amounts of experience and still not know how to be a good leader.
\nThe more practised you are at handling a boat under sail, working in tight spaces on maintenance and repairs, reading and interpreting weather forecasts, understanding radar plots and the myriad other skills needed to safely cross an ocean, the easier it\u2019s going to be when you actually get out there.
\nUnderstanding navigation is one of the fundamentals for a bluewater adventure. Photo: 59\u00b0 North Sailing
\n2 Weather
\nIf seamanship is all about anticipation, what matters most is understanding and anticipating the weather. With modern comms, computerised weather models, forecasting tools and mobile-based weather-routing software, a sailor should never be \u2018caught out\u2019 by a change in the weather. The ability to predict the next 24-48 hours of any given passage provides a huge advantage when it comes to positioning your boat relative to weather systems on the larger scale, and your sail plan relative to conditions on a local scale.
\nUnderstand the difference between weather \u2018forecasting\u2019 and weather \u2018routing\u2019: the former gives information while the latter provides guidance. Weather routing, whether by a human service ashore or by software on board, is an essential tool, but it\u2019s worthless if you don\u2019t understand both its limitations and the big-picture forecast behind it.
\nWhen we teach weather, we always start by zooming right out to what creates wind in the first place (a difference in atmospheric pressure), and what the typical seasonal weather patterns are in the ocean in which we\u2019re sailing. As I write this, Falken is a day or two out from making landfall in Horta, Azores. The boat departed Bermuda and has been traversing the top of the Azores High, the dominant weather feature in the North Atlantic which, in conjunction with the jet stream aloft, helps to steer the depression track as they march from west to east.
\nStay south of the low centres and you can expect \u2018free\u2019 winds from the westerly quadrant as the lows, spinning counterclockwise, pass to the north. Well-developed lows will have associated cold fronts, and those cold fronts will have distinct patterns as they pass over the boat \u2013 increasing south-westerly winds, unsettled, squally weather, followed by a (sometimes violent) wind shift to the west-northwest and clearing skies. On a given Bermuda-Azores crossing you can expect three or four of these lows and associated fronts to overtake you on a typical 10-14 day crossing.
\nUnderstanding weather should be one of the highest priorities. Photo: 59\u00b0 North Sailing
\nThis is where anticipation comes in. Modern GRIB models have a pretty high degree of certainty in a 72-hour timeframe, so we can predict, at least within 12 hours, when an approaching front is going to overtake us, and can set the boat up accordingly.
\nAs the front approaches, the wind will build from the south-west. The course from Bermuda to the Azores is east-northeast, so we\u2019d typically be sailing on a run on starboard tack, with the jib poled out to windward and the mainsail off to port.
\nHowever, were the wind to shift abruptly to the west-northwest \u2013 if we missed anticipating the frontal passage \u2013 we\u2019d have to gybe through this wind shift, a tricky and dangerous manoeuvre in unsettled weather. Instead, we can gybe well ahead of the frontal passage and sail on a more northerly heading on port tack, continuing to shorten sail as the south-westerly increases.
\nWhen the wind shifts, the only manoeuvre required is to bear away and follow the shift, eventually coming back onto a run but on port tack as the skies clear and the wind fills in from the north-west as the low moves off to our north and east. Yes, we may have sailed 60 miles out of our way to the north, but we made a much safer and more comfortable sail out of it.
\nMy point is that with modern weather models you\u2019ll always know the coming trend over a 1-3 day window with a very high degree of certainty, and you can use that trend to make decisions. Is the wind lifting or heading us? Is the weather changing in our favour or against us? Is it easing off, allowing me to shake some reefs, or is it forecast to increase and might I want to reef down before dark?
\nWhat\u2019s most interesting to us as offshore sailors is the degree of certainty in the forecast. I typically use both the GFS model, provided by NOAA in the USA, and the ECMWF (aka \u2018Euro\u2019) model. People will argue about which model is \u2018better\u2019, but that\u2019s missing the point. All models do some things better than others and some things worse.
\nPhoto: 59\u00b0 North Sailing
\nWhat\u2019s useful in looking at both models is how they diverge over time \u2013 if both appear more or less the same after 3-5 days, I can infer a high degree of certainty in the models and therefore make more confident routing decisions. If, conversely, they diverge significantly in the 1-4 day range, that tells me there\u2019s a high degree of uncertainty in the models and I\u2019d better make more conservative routing decisions.
\nI\u2019ll always do a \u2018manual\u2019 route by analysing a few models myself and looking at which side of the rhumb line is favoured to give me the best sailing angles. Remember, in cruising, we\u2019re trying to optimise for safe, comfortable passages, not outright speed.
\nThat means playing the wind angles, not necessarily getting from A to B as quickly as possible. Then I\u2019ll let the computer run a route for me and see if it aligns with my own assumptions. Usually it does and I\u2019m confident. In the odd cases the computer and I disagree, that tells me I\u2019ve missed something in my analysis and I\u2019ll go back to the drawing board, or often, call in the experts and actually speak to a meteorologist.
\nBy doing this kind of weather analysis during the planning stages of a passage, right before departure, and usually daily at sea, I can confidently meet the \u2018anticipation\u2019 part of seamanship because I should never not know what\u2019s over the horizon weather-wise, and have the boat setup accordingly.
\nChoose a light weather downwind sail \u2013 and know how to use it. Photo: Tor Johnson
\n3 Sail Plan
\nHigh on our \u2018what matters\u2019 list was sail inventory. You can be the best at weather forecasting, but that\u2019s of little help if you can\u2019t adapt your sail plan to the changing conditions.
\nI think a good seagoing sail inventory, for monohull and multihull ocean-going cruising boats alike, should look like this:<\/p>\n
Bluewater mainsail: 3 reefs, external reef fairleads on the leech, full battens.
\nAll-purpose jib\/genoa: \u2018reefable\u2019 on a furler, the sail you\u2019ll use 90% of the time.
\nSecond, smaller\/flatter upwind jib: when you really need to point high or in case your all-purpose sail fails.
\nStorm jib\/staysail: ideally on a removable inner forestay.
\nLight weather downwind sail: gennaker, asymmetric or symmetric kite, your choice. Know how to rig your downwind sail and how to sail with it.
\nPole for wing-on-wing: modern boats almost all have bowsprits these days for flying asymmetric kites, but for real tradewinds voyaging you still need to carry a pole for sheeting headsails to windward when running, especially as the wind and sea state gets up.<\/p>\n
Sail material matters less, but certain materials are definitely more durable and forgiving than others.
\nAvoid flogging your sails offshore, and take care to keep them from chafing. Just have \u2018enough\u2019 sails to deal with changing conditions, with some redundancy in case of failures, make sure they\u2019re in good shape, and know how to use them.
\nKeep abreast of long- and short-range weather forecasts. Photo:Tor Johnson
\n4 Communications
\nYou can\u2019t get good weather information without good communications on board, and I feel pretty strongly about what constitutes a \u2018good\u2019 comms set up.
\nStarlink is ubiquitous now. As much as I hate the way it\u2019s changing offshore sailing philosophically, it\u2019s hard to argue against it for the ease of access to higher resolution weather data, and for connecting with doctors ashore in the event of a medical emergency. For 59\u00b0 North, we\u2019re considering installing Starlink to better be able to communicate with staff between passages when the boat is in remote harbours where it\u2019s hard to access good wifi or a local SIM card (Starlink will be turned off at sea on our boats, except in an emergency).
\nBut Starlink is not enough for emergency comms. It\u2019s an integrated system on the boat, and not something you can take with you in the liferaft in a real worst-case scenario. I said the same thing years ago about Iridium Go! \u2013 that was (and is) a great tool for sending emails and downloading weather, and we use them on our boats too, but it\u2019s not a replacement for a robust and reliable Iridium handset, kept in a waterproof case with a spare battery always charged.
\nTest the phone before every passage and make sure you keep the SIM active and the minutes topped up. We\u2019ve had the same Iridium handset technology since our first transatlantic back in 2011 \u2013 it\u2019s tried and true and won\u2019t fail you when you need it most.
\nHearty food keeps a crew happy and fuelled up for staying on watch during a long passage. Photo: Tor Johnson
\n5 Provisions & Water
\nThis one seems like a no-brainer, but I recall a pretty stupid situation from an ARC rally I worked on back in the late 2000s that prompts me to mention it. One of the boats had lost electricity and with it, their fridge and freezer (see below on \u2018decoupling\u2019 systems).
\nThey\u2019d planned all of their meals around fresh or frozen food, taking for granted that they\u2019d have a working fridge for the duration of the Atlantic crossing and not packing enough dry stores for contingencies. So with a week still to sail towards St Lucia, they sent a message to Rally Control asking for assistance with provisions. Not long after a nearby boat rendezvoused and passed over food to get them home. Needless to say this was a major planning oversight by the crew.
\nThe same applies to cooking gas \u2013 would you have enough food that doesn\u2019t need to be cooked to complete a passage in the event your propane runs out?
\nMost boats have watermakers these days, and with 10-11 crew sailing on Falken we literally couldn\u2019t complete our longest passages without one. We run our watermaker each night during dishwashing after dinner, always ending the day with full tanks. If the watermaker fails beyond repair, we can then start rationing from a full supply. And we carry emergency rations in plastic gallon cans in the bilge.
\nA well-maintained boat will always do better on the ocean than a new but poorly looked-after yacht. Photo: 59\u00b0 North Sailing
\n6 Maintenance
\nIf boat design and systems choices matter little, then maintenance does. A poorly designed but well maintained boat will do much better on an ocean passage than a perfectly designed but poorly maintained one.
\nWhen it comes to tools we follow a simple axiom \u2013 if you need a tool once, borrow it; if you need it twice, buy it. There\u2019s nothing worse than facing a relatively easy fix at sea but not having the right tool for the job. Spend a lot of time figuring out what tools you\u2019ll need; buy the highest quality you can afford (and take care of them); test them to make sure they work for the intended purpose; and keep them organised and inventoried on the boat.
\nWe discovered, thankfully in port, that Falken required a custom-welded impeller puller to change the impeller on the engine\u2019s cooling water pump, thanks to the secondary alternator mount interfering. What should be a five-minute job turned into a three day bonanza, but now, through much trial and error, we have the right tool.
\nMaintenance has to be prioritised into \u2018mission critical\u2019 systems versus \u2018luxury\u2019 systems, and you have to be honest about what makes up the two lists. Hull, keel, rudder and sails are \u2018mission critical\u2019; cosmetic repairs, many electronics and instruments, even the engine in some cases, aren\u2019t.
\nAt the outfitting and planning stage of a voyage, think about what systems are \u2018coupled\u2019 \u2013 ie co-dependent to function \u2013 and try to uncouple them. A modern problem is that more and more boats have converted to lithium batteries which can power induction hobs and electric ovens. These are wonderful conveniences and absolutely increase the joy of life aboard. However, you\u2019ve now coupled your hot meals with a working electrical system, which itself is already coupled to a working charging system. Should the charging or electrical systems fail, you\u2019ve lost the ability to make a hot meal on top of it.
\nMake sure PLBs or other devices are correctly registered and check Iridium phone is active and charged. Photo: Tor Johnson
\nYou might decide it\u2019s worth the risk, and put more effort into making sure the electrical and charging systems are properly maintained as the stakes are higher. But these decisions should be made consciously and ahead of time.
\nThink also about what needs maintaining at sea versus what can wait until after a passage. Any watch system will work so long as it\u2019s adhered to and everyone is able to get rest. But when the crew is working overtime on maintenance items at sea, the watch schedule breaks down and a vicious cycle of sleep deprivation begins. The less sleep each watch gets, the more likelihood for mistakes.
\nThere\u2019s a fine line between making small improvements to the boat at sea and wrecking the watch system. Splicing strops, whipping rope ends, even servicing the odd winch are great activities on watch on a sunny day.
\nBut this becomes a problem when a non-mission critical item is confused for a critical repair, and too much time and energy is spent at sea trying to fix it. Marine electronics are a favourite culprit, and one I\u2019m guilty of spending too much time fiddling with.
\nWe get so used to having all the data at our fingertips \u2013 wind and boat speed, digital compass, AWA, XTE, etc \u2013 that we sometimes forget we can sail without them. And networked electronics are notoriously fussy. One bad connection in a NMEA2000 backbone can wreak havoc across the entire network, and you can spend hours tracing wires trying to get it back online when a paper chart and handheld GPS would navigate you across any ocean quite happily.
\nBack at the planning stage we can mitigate the risk of losing a mission critical system by installing redundancies. Two alternators on the engine for charging, for example, or even an \u2018A\u2019 and \u2018B\u2019 N2K backbone if instruments are critical to your passage. But once you set off, really think hard about what systems you will deal with while on passage, and which can wait until landfall.
\nThe rewards
\nAfter that tradewind crossing on Falken, my first mate Manot and I had 10 days to kill in Barbados. The boat, after a thorough cleaning, was in tip-top shape and beyond the normal rig checks and routine maintenance, we didn\u2019t have any issues to fix so could enjoy island life.
\nThis is how a good ocean crossing can be \u2013 mellow and philosophical at sea, with time for adventures on landfall. Keep things simple and make conscious decisions about how you fit out your boat and execute a voyage to focus on what really matters.<\/p>\n
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The post The 6 preparation rules you should follow for sailing across oceans appeared first on Yachting World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What really matters when it comes to preparing for an offshore adventure? Andy Schell distils it down to six golden rulesI completed my eighth and most recent Atlantic crossing in February, sailing from Mindelo, Cape Verde, to Barbados aboard our … <\/p>\n