Blue Water Insurance
An Insurance
Agency for Cruisers
|
Researching
Your Dream |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
We recommend getting the best cruising books available, and study them. We
We have listed them in an order that will allow you to grow into the more technical aspects of the multi-faceted subject of cruising in sailboats. International Marine Publishing probably has the most comprehensive array of maritime related books available (614) 759-3666. Some of these books are pretty expensive, but not nearly as expensive as the mistakes you can make by ignoring the valuable lessons that they contain. Hopefully from your reading you will get a feeling for some of the basic axioms of putting a cruising boat together:
"Practical Sailor" and "Cruising World" have information sheets and lists of boat owners available on specific types of sailboats that are compiled from their excellent surveys (PS) and owner experience (CW). These are both good sources of unbiased information once you are homing in on a specific size and type of boat. Get a copy of Jimmy Cornell’s Ocean Cruising Survey (published by Adlard Coles, London). It’s a bit dated, but I found it to be a great help when we were looking for a boat. Cornell doesn’t give you his opinion on cruising boats, instead he went to where the cruisers actually are (Venezuela, Fiji, New Zealand, South Africa), interviewed the crews, and surveyed what gear they used. We think that is a sound approach. Don’t let all your research
and study lead to the conclusion that there is any such thing as the ultimate
cruising boat. To the contrary, what impressed us during our 4-year circumnavigation
was: we cannot remember seeing two of the same kind of boats out cruising,
and the goldplaters that are regularly featured in the magazine articles
were notable by their absence. Real cruising boats are financial compromises,
often sailed by inexperienced sailors, who are usually on tight budgets.
The object of this boat defining process is not perfection, but rather
finding a safe, workable solution within the available resources (sounds
a lot like like real life). We think it is beneficial to study as many real boats as you can get aboard. Our experience was perhaps typical.
In 1987 at our ages of 39 and 41, we spent our entire life savings on:
paying for two college educations (Government Z coupons), buying an 11
year old boat, then outfitting & provisioning her for extended offshore
cruising. We had less than $3000 in the bank when our family left to see
the world in a real boat, on a typical voyage. Here is what we were able
to put together between existing systems & equipment that came with
the boat, and what we added:
Although S/V Jean Marie
was a pretty simple boat, she served us well on a 4-year, 38,000 mile trade
wind circumnavigation via Panama and the Cape of Good Hope. (yes sir, it
really can be done without a watermaker, autopilot, or a ham radio!)
We are presently modifying and outfitting S/V Jean Marie for her
next cruise, a 7-year 51,000 mile voyage around the world, west-about via
Cape Horn and Suez.
__________________ |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
So you think that you might
like to go cruising?
Although many of us may find that living aboard a
sailboat and voyaging to the four corners of the world to be a wonderful
way to live, it certainly is not for everyone. This life style requires a lot of realistic planning, hard work, and not a little money to be successful.
The rewards are great, but so are the effort and resources that it takes.
How can you get started in trying to define what is the right type of boat
for you? One of the most difficult things to sort out as you search
for information is, "Who should I listen to?" A few of the traditional
sources of misinformation that should be avoided at all costs are: the Boat Salesman (he has "just the boat for you," and needs to make
his next alimony payment), the Marina Resident (he has never been
out of the sight of land), or perhaps the Expert (he did it one
way 20 years ago, and no way is he going to change). In this edition of
"Second Time Around" we are going to suggest three strategies for beginning
your search for the "Holy Grail" of cruising: 1. Set up a starter library
and educate yourself enough to ask the right questions. 2. Find ways to
associate with people who have owned cruising boats, lived aboard, and
have cruised them offshore (better yet, crossed oceans in their
boats). 3. Make a critical study of boats that have actually been out cruising.
think that the
most beneficial publications are those written by skilled seamen with plenty
of actual experience (who may not necessarily be the most popular journalists).
We got quite a chuckle this spring when the cover of a national boating
magazine featured a prominent marine journalist and amateur boat builder
setting off to sail around the world, in a boat that he built, with no
cockpit dodger and an acre of varnished teak! This simply demonstrates
that there is no substitute for actual offshore experience. As we prepare S/V Jean Marie for her second circumnavigation, here are some of
the books / authors stacked up on our nightstand:
Associating with experienced
cruisers may not be as difficult as you think. Reading the SSCA "Commodores’
Bulletin" will give you a very realistic picture of where the cruisers
are and what they are doing. The ©2006 Blue
Water Insurance, All Rights Reserved.
If you have any technical questions or comments about this site, please
contact the webmaster.