On 13 Sep 2005 17:33:17 -0700, "akcarlos" wrote:


rhys wrote:
On 12 Sep 2005 14:59:39 -0700, "akcarlos" wrote:


um do you remember any particulars on boat Joshua Slocum sailed around
the world in , I dont recall him looking like a body builder.

"Spray" was 36 feet long and easily handled by a man who not only
rebuilt her from frames to be easily handled, but by a man who had
spent his entire career on muscle-powered sailing vessels.

Today's boats are very different, and today's people, as well.

R.

my point was that you can have a larger yacht and sail it quite well
short crewed
without having lots of modern toys like roller furling, electric
winches etc .

I think you mistook my meaning: I don't actually approve of a lot of
"modern toys", or perhaps I should say I approve of them selectively.
For instance, I have hank-on sails. In fact, I convert tape luff
composite sails abandoned by racers because a bird shat on them or
something *back into* hank-ons...which is seen as retrograde around my
club. I also just bought a sextant, just rebuilt an Atomic 4, and just
spent a few hundred bucks on making up preventers for my boom, because
with a new spinnaker I'm doing a lot more downwind work.

So I am old-fashioned, I suppose. Or conservative. Or prudent. Or
cheap.

However, I do maintain that if your goal is more cruising and less
repair, the most sensible thing a cruising couple can do is to get as
nearly bulletproof a boat as possible, meaning one sized to their
capabilities, and to make themselves fit as possible so that they can
run it efficiently. In some cases, this means a slightly smaller boat
than they can afford (say, 40 feet), with less crap...sorry, treasured
possessions aboard, and more money invested in better gear.

For a two-person crew, roller furling is a must at 40 feet, unless the
couple in question are Olympian in size and strength. But I would
still want the ability to have a hank-on staysail for emergencies, and
the sort of roller furling where the genoa is easily stripped. By the
same logic, I don't like in mast furling.

R.