Note from Trish: This issue’s article is a second excerpt, this one from Take Her Sailing Cruising Booklet #2, "Messing About with Boats, Part 1: Choosing a Cruising Boat." This booklet, along with the other two currently available on the web site, is a holiday gift special this month. Buy all three booklets, or one booklet and a THS t-shirt, for gift giving!!
When I came back from my second cruise, I planned to get back out on the water as soon as possible. With no expectations of hooking up with a partner, I began looking at boats that I could single hand. Even after Skip and I did hook up and we decided to go cruising as a couple, I kept the single handing criterion in mind when we looked at boats. Why? Because I’ve learned that there are any number of occurrences that can put one partner out of commission for some period of time when underway—seasickness, a broken limb, or other health issue. The boat, therefore, needs to be manageable by one person. Further, it needs to be manageable by the weakest member of the couple, which is usually the woman. This is definitely the case with Skip and me. As we shopped, I closely scrutinized deck layout, rig, and other features in the context of my ability to single hand each particular vessel. We now cruise a Baba 30 cutter, and I am confident that I can get her to port in case of an emergency that lays Skip low.
Putting a worst-case cap on, assume that something has happened on the water that requires only one person to get the boat to a safe harbor. Further, assume that the one person is the least physically strong. What kind of boat would stack the deck in her (or his) favor? Here are some factors to consider when looking at a boat from the standpoint of “singlehandleability” and safety. After the first one, I put the rest in alphabetical order since I don’t consider one factor more important than another—they are all important!
Minimizing Fatigue. This is probably the most important safety issue to provide for, and isn’t limited to a discussion of “suddenly single handing.” Fatigue is an enemy of any short handed crew—it slows down reflexes, clouds judgement, and can almost totally debilitate a boat handler. I remember experiencing the realities of fatigue off the Pacific coast of Baja California. It was night time on the third day of the trip and I was on watch. I don’t remember why I was so tired…all I remember is looking at the compass and not being able to read the bearing! I could see the dial clearly, I just couldn’t process what I was seeing into usable information. That was one scary experience.
A single hander must fight fatigue every way possible. One way to accomplish this is to make sure that the boat is set up so that a minimum of energy is required to handle it. Thinking in terms of minimizing fatigue will help you add items to your boat-shopping list that will increase the safety factor of your final purchase.
Keel. Keel types are discussed in general terms later in this booklet. From the standpoint of singlehandleability, the boat’s underbody should be designed so that:
The risk of broaching is minimized. Boats with deep fin keels and spade rudders can be tender, and will tend to surf down wavefaces. A lot of hand steering attention must be paid to keep the vessel from turning beam-on to the wave.
The boat tracks well to weather, so that you can claw off a lee shore. Boats with skeg rudders and partial skeg rudders perform well in this regard.
The boat is a stable platform with seakindly motion. The traditional heavy full keel boats hold the honors on this one.
The rudder and propeller are protected from groundings and underwater obstructions. Boats with the prop in an aperture provide the most protection—that is, they either have traditional full keels or more modern cutaway full keels.
It should be apparent that you are unlikely get all four of these characteristics in the same boat. Like so many areas of the cruising life, you will have to decide what’s most important for you and settle on the best compromise.
Rig. As a singlehandleability feature, the rig should be easily manageable by the least strong member of the crew.
Sail handling. I touched on this above when talking about fitting out a large boat for single handing. Sails should be easy to handle by one person; this includes raising, lowering, trimming and reefing. Beefed up winches, furling head/main sails, halyard lines that can be handled from the cockpit, and high mechanical advantage on travelers and running back stays are examples of ways in which sail handling can be made singlehandleable.
Size. From a worst-case single handing standpoint, the boat’s size will impact its maneuverability. For example, the larger the boat, the more canvas it will carry, and the more strength required to raise and trim the sails. Ditto the anchor. If difficult weather overpowers the self-steering system, the healthy crew member will need to hand steer, which may be a physical challenge that dangerously increases fatigue.
The singlehandleability factor does not rule out double handed cruising on a large (over 40 feet is my definition of “large”). If you fall in love with a “zaftig” vessel, additional systems may need to be present to make her singlehandleable—things like over-sized and/or electric winches, an electric windlass, roller furling main and jib sails, a beefy autopilot. The main traveler, running back stays, preventer, and (I have to say it) man-overboard system may need to be re-rigged with a higher mechanical advantage so that they can be easily used by “weaker” muscles. With this in mind, including singlehandleability as a criterion when looking at a larger boat (or any boat, for that matter) will help you plan and calculate the budget for necessary modifications to improve safety.
Steering. Way back when, I thought that tillers were confined to small 20-something boats, while all others came with wheels. This is for sure not the case. Tiller-steering enthusiasts cite a number of reasons for their preference, including the simplicity of the set up and the better “rudder feel” they have as a result of the simplicity. From the point of view of singlehandleability, the type of steering mechanism, the size of the rudder, and the amount of weather helm inherent in the boat (after sails are trimmed and the rig is tuned properly) will affect the ease with which either the autopilot or the weaker crew member will be able to steer the boat. This is most significant when it comes to dealing with heavy weather, when both the boat and the crew will be under stress.
Autosteering is a subset of the type of steering that affects ease of single handing. There needs to be some sort of reliable autosteering, whether it’s a wind vane, electrical autopilot, or both. Hand steering is a fatiguing exercise, and, as I mentioned above, minimizing fatigue is extremely important. Autosteering gets more into the “cruising equipment” realm, and is something I go into in more detail in the third booklet in the series (Messing About with Boats, Part 2), along with other gear to consider when fitting out the boat.
Weather helm. Some weather helm is not a problem, and in fact is desirable as wind speed rises. But excessive weather helm that can’t be decreased by trimming the sails or tuning the rig will make the boat difficult for the autosteering system to manage, which will require attentive hand steering—not safe due to the fatigue factor. Word of mouth has tagged some designs as having too much weather helm for safe cruising; the only other way to get a feel for this characteristic is through test sails. If you are serious about a boat that displayed “untrimmable” weather helm during your sea trial, consider getting the rig tuned and going out again. If the problem hasn’t been fixed, I suggest you walk away from her no matter how heartbreaking it will be to do so.
