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Waimanu / The Smallest Boat you'd go to sea in?


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I am fascinated by the story of the Townson 32 Waimanu and her trip to Vanuatu, as well as other adventures such as a circumnavigation of NZ and planed Trans Tasman race.

 

Obviously it is very sad she has been lost, as per the other thread. As the other thread has gotten into intricate detail as to the best tool to cut wire, I thought I'd start a new thread on simple boat cruising.

 

http://thevdmz.life/

 

What is the smallest or most simple boat you'd go cruising in?

Cruising mainly meaning the Islands, but also extended cruising around NZ.

 

These two extracts from the above blog are fascinating:

We appear to be a minority in the cruising community: yes we have electricity and an engine, but we don’t have the frills. No fridge, freezer, shower, watermaker, bbq, nuclear fall-out shelter, wine cellar or recording studio. (Just kidding: I haven’t met any cruisers with the last three either.) We do have LED lights, a solar panel, tiller-pilot and wind-vane self-steering gear – but more on those another time. 

And:

Waimanu is the best boat for us, because she’s the boat we have. Everything else is a dream, this is the reality.

 

I first thought, wow a Townson Twilight is small to go cruising in. The logistics of tankage, water and space to stow everything must be interesting. Then, if you go single handed, standard tankage on a boat that size would be fine for water. If you go simple, no fridge, generators, water makers or other electrical or mechanical gear you wont need many spare parts.

 

There is a Townson 32 on trademe for $15k. Could make for a cheap cruising boat. The skipper of Waimanu reports in the Herald he spent about $70k prepping the boat for this trip. He did have a new and good looking sail inventory, and made good daily mileage.

 

Not having a fridge would be interesting for me. It is nice to have a cold drink, and I note a comment they didn't have much fresh meat, not being able to store it. But if push came to shove, would you go cruising without a fridge, or stay at home and mow the lawns?

 

The Cav 45 on $1 reserve on trademe is already past $150k, and is insurance valued at $290k. It would be a comfortable boat to go cruising in, top shelf cruising boat many people have said.

 

Would you work another 20 years to get the money together for a Cav 45, or take a 30 something footer now?

 

Could you cruise without a water maker? I think if you didn't have hot and cold pressure water, you'd use a lot less water in the first place, no water pumps to fix, and substantially reduce power consumption, possibly meaning you wouldn't need a generator........

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"Go small , go now " To quote Lin Pardey.

 I don't see why not. In 5 or 6 months in Fiji or Tonga or both and back , you spend what .. say 2 to 3 weeks actually at sea and the rest mostly gunkholing or maybe a night or two here and there. So the ratio of  at sea time passage making and the whole daily run thing is pretty minor in terms of the whole trip.

 And I'll mention something else too. We're all used to racing and thats get there as fast as you can. Cruising passage making is about timing your arrival, so while a nice daily run is great chances are you'll be putting the brakes on for a daylight arrival between the reefs, or even arriving back in Opua in daylight for clearance. So the smaller boats we cruised with were never really very far out of touch.

Plenty of people cruise without a watermaker and lots of people won't have them because they're temperamental.

Having said that it rained three times in 5 months while we were away this winter, maybe drizzled a few more . And the three times was all stacked up in June. So the islands didn't have it to give away and you really need to boil anything you take off land anyway. One guy I spoke to carried 1.2 tons of it.

 We had a watermaker and it was pretttty freakin nice.

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If your filler is on the deck amidships you can block up the scuppers and fill directly.  I just stuffed rags in the scuppers and a towel around the filler( after a wash off period of course). Thats the whole boat catching water not just a cover, and its a lot.

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Would you work another 20 years to get the money together for a Cav 45, or take a 30 something footer now?

 

Could you cruise without a water maker? I think if you didn't have hot and cold pressure water, you'd use a lot less water in the first place, no water pumps to fix, and substantially reduce power consumption, possibly meaning you wouldn't need a generator........

Q1   Yes. I want it and I want it now.

Q2   Yes. If I want the comfort what I have at home, I can stay and watch tv all day long. Pretty safe.

Lots of example for small boats crossing oceans, without fancy gears or even without electricity. That's probably a bit too much for me. We might have lot more common with Phil than the name of our boats..... 

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Two of us lived on cav 32 for 8 years. No fridge. No watermaker no radio no electronics. Loved every minute .

So what is your standard menu / food like without a fridge?

What was your staple diet and what were your treats?

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Remember even the most hardcore is rarely at sea more than a few weeks a year. So for at least 11 months we would go to the local market every day or two and eat whatever we wanted. At sea there's no problem with fresh vegetables, pasta, eggs, cheese, in fact everything but fresh meat. So for a 7 day passage, meat the first day, leftovers the second, pickled pork or ham the third. Then vegetarian or canned meat (buy actual meat and cook something - better than canned meals) and a fresh fish was a big deal.

Soon as you clear customs go out for a burger and ice cream - you'll really appreciate it.

 

At sea popcorn , nuts, dried fruit and chocolate for treats.

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A small simple boat means small problems, I have had plenty of trailer sailers the best being a 26ft hotpot that with a few modifications felt quite adequate for a cruise to the islands and sailed really well, a Ross 780 would be even better.would want to be able to lock the keel down and have good reef systems.a gbe or turissimo would be tempting to surf some ocean swells. but I would not trust alloy beams and would want to be very careful of capsize. I like the story of the nz guy that shipped a 15? Ft open boat to Fiji and had an awesome winter up there. I wouldn't like it to mean if I lost my boat it would be the end of us financially or having to work longer before retirement. On my own I would go smaller and simpler with more speed, but the reality is we may end up trading up a little for more liveable comfort to keep the wife happy if we are going to cruise for a few winters.

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I did the south island this year in a 31 footer and am taking her to the chatham in feb,small boats are really easy to sail and reef a lot easier to handle than a fifty foot monster.When i was a kid we did the island circut most of the boats were 37 foot or smaller.my boat is steel with small windows so pretty hard to sink.

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Black Panther,

Do you have a fridge now? I imagine the reliability and energy consumption of fridges has improved over the years. Still need to consider the energy requirements, but at the same time, solar would have come leaps and bounds over the same period too?

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was a little surprised at how the short sharp chop produced around tiri during an easterly 

 

shook up my little 25', 20' LWL world cruiser

 

 

though it had sailed across the atlantic + pacific to get here

 

i wonder if it was sold in nz 

 

because of a bad fijian final leg

 

Therein lies a shortcoming of a smaller boat, a harsher motion in a seaway. BP's comments about how long a cruiser actually spends at sea is salient. But I also wonder how many people are put off by the thought of getting the sh*t kicked out of them in a blow in a small boat. That said, plenty of people can 'loose their passion for cruising' getting the sh*t kicked out of them in larger boats too.

 

I note the Norwegian who was just rescued appeared to have a comfortable looking large-ish boat. Single handed though.

 

One thing that I wonder about with the Townson 32, the cockpit is very close to the water. It must be a wet cockpit compared to the average offshore cruiser. No dodger or canvas around the life lines (not saying you need it, just wondering what the cockpit is like for night watches etc).

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I am in " erice" camp,short lwl,with gulfs short sharp chop really does effect us smaller boats.But then thinking if you were to go offshore longer length between waves would be more comfortable,but then comes in to play rig height,not taller enough as 1/4 to 1/2 rig height is always below swell height.So no power to push through,guess all comes down to what one can afford and compromise on the trade offs.

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With a small boat to cruise the islands if it was just me I'd be happy with no dinghy just a paddleboard to both get to shore and go surfing, not too hard to have a small dinghy and 2hp though and makes it easier to get groceries. Ideally I would have a light dinghy that rows well and took an optimist rig, and would double as a life raft.

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BP has a fridge but we haven't been running it unless we were heading out for a few days. Maybe when I get the solar panels I will but for now running the engine isn't worth it.

On the cav no outboard. Next boat came with an Avon and an outboard so used it. Current boat has same but I am really keen to get a rowboat.

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I am in " erice" camp,short lwl,with gulfs short sharp chop really does effect us smaller boats.But then thinking if you were to go offshore longer length between waves would be more comfortable,but then comes in to play rig height,not taller enough as 1/4 to 1/2 rig height is always below swell height.So no power to push through,guess all comes down to what one can afford and compromise on the trade offs.

That's an interesting point.

I'd be happy with something about 40 ft, but simple. 37-40 ft I think is a good cross over between space and comfort in a seaway, but still fairly easy to handle.

I think in the current second hand market cost / price isn't that closely aligned with size, it is more closely aligned with condition of the boat, and the amount of gear onboard. I'm think here the age and state of the sails, engine, batteries, anchors etc.

 

I think fundamental requirements are an engine and electricity onboard, and an outboard for the dinghy. None of those are particularly onerous these days, in fact, good luck finding an engineless yacht these days, unless you are doing a home build.

 

Fridges in themselves are simple enough, but they introduce energy requirements.

Water maker? I can see the convenience. I'd want to take a rain collection system. I'd view a water maker as a luxury item.

Pressure water, no. Just use a footpump, uses less water.

Hot water? In the tropics? Who does that? Surely a solar shower is all you need.

Could I cruise without a fridge? Probably. But if the fridge was already onboard, I wouldn't take it off.

Would I go offshore in a Townson Twlight, not sure I'm up for that. Would I be happy in a 37-40 ft boat with simple systems, yes defiantly.

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BP has a fridge but we haven't been running it unless we were heading out for a few days. Maybe when I get the solar panels I will but for now running the engine isn't worth it.

On the cav no outboard. Next boat came with an Avon and an outboard so used it. Current boat has same but I am really keen to get a rowboat.

So how did you get around without an outboard? Just row, or row and sail?

Assuming you had a good practical dinghy with the Cav.

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A small simple boat means small problems, I have had plenty of trailer sailers the best being a 26ft hotpot that with a few modifications felt quite adequate for a cruise to the islands and sailed really well, a Ross 780 would be even better.would want to be able to lock the keel down and have good reef systems.a gbe or turissimo would be tempting to surf some ocean swells. but I would not trust alloy beams and would want to be very careful of capsize. I like the story of the nz guy that shipped a 15? Ft open boat to Fiji and had an awesome winter up there. I wouldn't like it to mean if I lost my boat it would be the end of us financially or having to work longer before retirement. On my own I would go smaller and simpler with more speed, but the reality is we may end up trading up a little for more liveable comfort to keep the wife happy if we are going to cruise for a few winters.

I saw that boat, a John Welsford Navigator, in blue lagoon. Market boat.. they go around the yachts. He told me he sails it to Lautoka.

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