"Scott Vernon" wrote in message
...
do you motor when sailing below a certain speed, say 2 kts.?

It depends.

If we are going to a marina that is only open for a few hours ( -3 HW +2 ),
then we will use the engine if we need to. The alternative would be a
seven hour wait in potentially rough water.

OTOH, if we are out in the Solent (my local area), then I am quite happy to
drift if the tide is carrying us in the right direction.

A typical scenario would be a weekend trip to St Vaast, in France. The
distance is 75 miles. The marina in St Vaast has a lock gate that opens
when the tide is 4.7m above chart datum (usually HW-3). Depending on the
wind, the trip can take between 10, and 19 hours. Our recent trip was taken
on a day when the lock was due to open a 18:00. So we departed at 05:00.
If we had arrived after 19:00, then we would not be able to go out to a
restaurant. (French time is an hour ahead, the French eat early, and there
is a long walk from the marina). You can see that we needed to maintain
about 5.5 kts.





Regards


Donal
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