VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, [4] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 21:06:03 08/23/08 Sat
Author: Bill
Subject: Re: Neil's Boat
In reply to: Neil 's message, "Re: Neil's Boat" on 19:18:28 08/23/08 Sat

Neil,

You have hit upon an interesting topic. Displacement. No doubt about it, with a small boat extended cruising and living aboard is a a challenge. I look at it like this. First I go to the PHRF rating sheets to see what the maximum allowable racing weight is and or 20% of the original displacement (a number I came to with lots of reading, okay I pulled it out of my ass) which ever is less. My thought is that we probably aren't overweight if we stick below the racing weight. In the case of the Dolphin which displaces all of 4,755 lbs the max crew weight is 900 lbs and 20% is 951 lbs. So let's go with 900 lbs. The standard rule of thumb that I have read is to allow 1,000 lbs per crew member for offshore cruising. Well we ain't' there by a long shot with the Dolphin. With one person, no problemo. With two... So I figure there are two solutions. Throw your hands up and get a bigger boat or decide if you need to be part of the "standard rule of thumb". I would definitely recommend Jay's books for traveling light. But up in the Northwest people kayak to Alaska all the time. So obviously we are living the Kings live in almost any sailboat.

It keeps coming back to where do you plan to go and is your first boat suppose to get you there or teach you to sail engineless. I could see sailing a Dolphin by myself to a lot of far away places. With two people I would have to get more clever. Impossible... I hate that word. Just challenging. And isn't that why we sail.

Oh, and for comparison. Montgomery 17's have sailed to Hawaii and cruised the Caribbean. Their displacement is 1,600 lbs.

I think that the downside to small light boats is that they can't carry much. The upside is that they can't carry much.

With respect to adding ballast for pulling an engine. I wouldn't unless you added sail area and needed it.

Cheers, Bill

Oh yea, that was one nice looking Dolphin. Way spendy, but someday, someone is going to get a great deal on a like new boat.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.