"Capt. JG" wrote:

wrote in message
roups.com...
...
the speed of a sail boat is not all that slow.. i might have sailed
big boats but i can tell you a crab boat aint fast. the Renigade did 8
knots and the Tempest did 11, the fastest was a streamer in the gulf
of mexico and it did 17.

My feeling is that the "average" cruising sail boat typically makes
good about 4 knots port to port on passages of more than three days.
Of course the variance is high but making good 8 knots port to port
will require a fast boat and hard work and 11 knots is very fast even
for racing boats. I'd guess that the passage times for your
"Renigade" would be equivalent to a well sailed, fast 40 foot cruising
cat or performance cruising mono of about 50 feet.

-- Tom.

We've always calculated 5 kts. Seems to be pretty accurate.

5 knots is about what we motor at

If a power boat person is used to a 20 foot catamaran with twin 350
engines (like one of my SILs), then both 8 knots and 5 knots is going
to seem really really slow. But if the power boat person is more of a
trawler-type person who is used to 8 knots, then 5 knots might not
seem to be so much slower. On paper at least.

The difference is the length of the days required to get from point A
to point B. If you are used to thinking 8 knots, then it will take
you 6 hours to do 48 nm. At 5 knots it will take more than 9 hours.
In the winter and/or at high latitudes it may make a big difference in
planning your landfalls.