[Rhodes22-list] Ocean Sailing

[Richard Smith]

Read a couple of the Tristan Jones books.  He did a lot of blue water
sailing in a small boat.

Jones was a very colorful personality... it has been claimed by some, that
he played fast and loose with the facts!  Still the flavor of ocean passage
in a small boat is there.

The movie "The Perfect Storm" features a West Sail-32.  If there was ever a
blue water boat that's the one.  Although slightly exaggerated by the
production people what you see it behavior in a storm is what you get.  That
comment is here-say I have never had the misfortune as to be caught out in a
gale or worse a storm!

Later, the same Westsail, after the crew was evacuated by the Coast Guard,
was found, basically undamaged, on the hard!  The lesson here is that a
quality boat (for the voyage) can absorb a beating which incapacitates the
crew!

There is a rule of thumb respecting blue water sailing;  You are in peril of
the wave heights exceed the waterline length of your boat!

Richard Smith