NUTS & BOATS The occasional newsletter for to-be and already-are cruisers 2006 #4
Publisher: Trish Lambert
www.takehersailing.com
(C) P. Lambert 2006
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CRUISING MUSING
In Praise of the Smaller Boat by Skip Randall In this age of “bigger is better,” it has been a real adventure going from a huge ketch to a mid-sized cruiser to a 25-foot trailer sailor. I’ve realized that one doesn’t necessarily need a big yacht to enjoy cruising. Sometimes smaller is better. My first “real” boat, a 43-foot ketch, displacing 20 tons, was rightfully described as a yacht. I wanted a large boat for my first live-aboard experience, with lots of room and stowage, and I got it. She had forced air heating and A/C, a sound system that could shake the barnacles off the hull when cranked up, and a queen size bed (not a bunk) in the aft stateroom. Yes, this boat was certainly roomy and well-equipped, a fine live-aboard and party boat. Able to sleep ten souls, at least according to the sales brochure, during my ownership she did sleep eight comfortably on a two-week cruise. During one of many parties held aboard my floating home, I counted 22 heads above and below decks. Underway, her 1200 square feet of sail area a 39-foot waterline allowed her to plow through ocean swells with authority. Docking her was a bit tricky, but once safely in her slip, she was a dream; I felt that I’d found the perfect boat to live and cruise on. Then I met Trish. I was taken aback when on her first night on the boat, my new girlfriend didn’t exactly admire my pride and joy. “Nice, but too big,” she said matter-of-factly. I was miffed by this proclamation, and replied defensively, “Just what about her is too big, in your opinion?” Without missing a beat, Trish rattled off a list: Way too much freeboard, so if you fell overboard, you would likely stay there and die; control lines and winches so large that there was no way she would be able to handle them alone in an emergency; ground tackle so massive that even a bodybuilder couldn’t haul it in if the windlass went out. The list was longer, but I won’t bore you with the complete litany. I was irritated, and thought she was crazy (and perhaps jealous) of my gorgeous cruising boat. In my hubris, I overlooked the fact that Trish had a decade of double-handed ocean cruising under her belt. In contrast, I only had a few years of mostly dockside partying under mine, and all my long excursions had been made with a crew of at least eight. On our first double-handed multi-day trip to Catalina Island, Trish’s concerns about the largeness of the boat were demonstrated. Out on the water, the wind strengthened to 25 knots with gusts to over 30. A jib change from the mammoth hanked-on genoa to the number 2 jib proved to be a half-hour ordeal on a plunging foredeck. The 5/8-inch sheets were stretched so skinny that even the huge 3:1 winches were hard to grind. After picking up the mooring at Avalon (another ordeal with all that windage), we collapsed, exhausted, in the luxurious queen-sized bed. It wasn’t too long before I agreed that we should put the behemoth on the market and get a smaller boat. Our next boat was a Baba 30, a cutter with a ten-foot beam, displacing 15,000 pounds. The entire sail plan was less than the previous boat’s number one jib. Maneuvering her in and out of the slip was a breeze (well, at least most of the time). I could muscle in the sheets without a two-handed winch handle, and could, if needed, haul in the anchor by hand if the windlass broke down. She was consistently described as “cute,” and she proved to be an able bluewater cruiser. I guess you could legitimately call her a yacht, but I preferred the term “pocket cruiser.” Below deck she was cozy for a crew of two. We would probably still own her today if it were not for the trio of brutal hurricanes that banged her up in 2004 and 2005. She was berthed in the Florida panhandle then, and the area seemed to have crosshairs on it, hurricane-wise. She sustained cosmetic damage, which I considered lucky, as many friends’ boats were total wrecks after the blows. Although we loved that boat, we decided to sell her and go with a trailerable boat. At least then we could move it out of harm’s way if a hurricane was threatening. The decision to sell her was a heart-wrenching one, but I found that I was spending more time fixing her up than sailing her, so it seemed to be the right thing to do. Our current boat is a Seaward 25 and she is remarkable. At 3600 pounds, describing her as a yacht would be laughable, and we won’t be taking her on any big bluewater voyages. Still, she will be a fine coastal cruiser. Our small floating wonder sports a lot of features in her 25-foot span. Her beam is 8 feet, and she has 5 ft. 10 in. of headroom. She has big boat features like a diesel (18 hp) inboard, pedestal wheel steering, a marine head and holding tank, hot/cold water pressure system, 12 volt and 110 volt AC electrical system, and a comfy 6-½ foot V-berth bunk. Instrumentation includes depth sounder, wind gauges, compass, VHS radio, autopilot, and GPS. The cockpit is roomy enough for four, and the saloon can seat four for a meal (cozy, but doable) with the bulkhead-mounted drop-down table between the settee seats. Her strongest points are her versatility and practicality. With a winged keel and 25 inches of draft, she’s perfect for gunkholing. She has a fractional rig with roller-furling 120% jib, and the fully-battened main has two reef points. Best of all, she can be derigged and on the trailer in about an hour. With all control lines are led aft to the cockpit, our little vessel is set up for easy single-handing, and I’ll be the single hander most of the time since Trish isn’t planning to retire any time soon. She will be joining me as her schedule and the availability of WiFi permits. Right now the boat is wintering on a lake about thirty miles north of our home in Cypress, Texas. Come springtime, she’ll be on the trailer and westward bound for California, the first stop on a long list of cruising grounds that includes the San Juan Islands in the Pacific Northwest, the Chesapeake Bay, the Florida Keys, and the waters of the Northeast as far up as Nova Scotia. On the fresh water front, Lake Powell and Lake Texoma are on the list, along with the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. Cruising is cruising, whether it’s a yacht on a passage to Bora Bora or a 20-footer anchorage hopping across a bay. In my book, the important thing is to be out there on the water, doing it.
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