New England Cruising Platforms

After a few weeks cruising the Long Island Sound in our 38’ monohull, we’ve been giving thought to various boat designs, and their pros and cons.  My initial assumptions were that we wanted a “sailboat”; a monohull that could point close to the wind, heel and give you the experience of sailing.  We also wanted one that could get into small slips with lower costs.  This often comes with a deep(er) keel (although ours is uniquely shallow draft) that may make some areas harder or impossible to access, and more limited space and stowage.

Pointing

After a few weeks of exploring various nooks and crannies of the New England coastline, I’m starting to consider the pros and cons of various sailing platforms.  We’ve been cramming equipment into our little mono but wonder if it is the long term platform of choice.  We find that we rarely point into the wind with our sails, one of the pro’s of a mono.  While fun, tacking is a terribly inefficient way to make headway towards an upwind destination.  In short, it’s slow and a lot of work. 

We’re often headed somewhere, want to get there in some timeframe (before dark!) and opt to motor.  Yes, I’m aware schedules and sailing are mutually exclusive, but vacation windows are still a reality for a while longer for us. If the wind happens to be in our favor we’ll sail, but more frequently than not, we point and go to our next anchorage. 

Stuff

Second, we’ve noticed the lack of stowage, tankage and just useable space.  It’s manageable on a week or so vacation in boardshorts, but land transport (scooters or folding bikes) will never fit somewhere convenient.  If you need a place to set up a computer Monday thru Friday, it will be in the way for all other activities.  Our tiny fridge is a continuous jenga game.  We bought an electric cooler that lives in the outside cockpit for drinks, but a separate (and larger) freezer and refrigerator would be much more liveable.

 Utilities

Fresh water is always a luxury and conserved, as trips into a dock are “work” to be avoided if possible.  This is partially solved with our watermaker, but that also takes energy so is tied to when we run the generator.  Our black tank filled more quickly than we’d like, and even though free pumpouts are common, it is still something you must schedule and be in a populated area to leverage.  Energy was always the enemy, as we don’t currently have solar and have to run the generator regularly to fill our 800Ah Victron Lithium bank.  The 3000watt inverter has made life “normal” – we can plug in anything we wish anytime (coffee pot, computer, etc) but we generally deplete the 800Ah every 24 hours.  We currently have a range of about 250nm with our diesel motor, which is thus far sufficient, but I can imagine upwind passages would benefit from more diesel as well.

Basically:  We want to stay on anchor longer, and need more battery, more solar, more fresh water, bigger black tank.  What we have works, but it is more effort than I’d like.

Being on anchor is free ($0) and usually quiet / away from idiots, but we occasionally will pick up mooring balls ($40 to $100+ per night) if needed.   On both of these, the boat naturally points into the wind and fills the cabin with a breeze, and the gentle bob at a protected shallow anchorage is nice.  Slips ($2 to $10/ft/night… for us means $80 to $400 per night) have services (power, water, laundry, showers) but are typically not breezy and very frequently not peaceful.  The nicest neighbors (usually long distance cruisers) have always been at anchor.  Thus, some of the advantages of a smaller mono fitting into lower $/ft slips are also underleveraged here as well.

Age

It is said you can pay for your boat up front or over time.  Basically, new costs more, but hopefully 90% of the boat does not need replacement for a few (ideally ~10) years.  A 10 year old boat will need basically everything replaced one part at a time.  Choose your poison.  Cerulean is 13 years old and almost everything in the boat is being replaced.  While I can do a lot of it, I need help with some and don’t want to do others…however aftermarket labor for boats is crazy expensive.  $130 to $250 per hour per person and most work is glacially paced. A recent replacement of 2 hoses on our generator took 3 days and $2500 in labor. Completely rebuilding a boat in a marina would cost 100x just buying a new one.  Thus a new target platform for me would likely be a 2-3 year old boat…Has factory bugs worked out, possible some upgrades, but still a reasonable lifespan before every fitting, seal, pump, gasket, filter, or part corrodes and is frozen in place.

So what might a V2 look like? 

I’d emphasize the following:

 1. Age: 2-3 years old at most.

2. Draft: Shallow draft – most of the best areas / anchorages are very shallow and a deep mono would never make it in.  I can cite dozens of examples.  Most New England port areas are the mouths of rivers – shallow and narrow, unless you want to be exposed to the fetch of the sound.

3. Point of Sail: We don’t really need to point – if I really need to go up, I’ll motor into irons to get that sundowner.  Gentlemen sail beam or deeper.

4. Tankage, Power, Storage: More storage room, and meaningfully more solar and tankage.  Basically, able to stay on anchor longer and more comfortably. 

We like being on anchor for days and exploring via dinghy.  More storage, more refrigerator and freezer space.  We typically ran out of fresh water and electricity first.  I’d likely opt for a watermaker and a small washer and dryer.  This choice may seem controversial or excessive, but I’ve found it is common you sleep in warmer conditions than on land (you get used to it and is fine) but small loads washing sheets and linens regularly becomes more desirable than you might anticipate.  We’d do a load of underwear, shorts and bed linens every few days if we could, after a week the sweaty sheets are gross.  If you are leaving a charter and going to a spa, this is fine, but living this way long term, frequently refreshing your sheets (and shorts) is highly desirable.  All of this implies a generator for the watermaker and appliances, as well as to refill the Lithium bank when solar is not performing.

For reference, today we have the following for tankage and power:

• 5K Watt Fischer Panda Generator

• 3K Watt Victron Inverter/Charger

• 800Ah Victron Lithium

• 66 gal of fuel, which = about 250nm range

• 59 gal fresh water tank

• Spectra “Catalina 340c” watermaker @ 14 GPH

• 13 gal black tank

• No solar (yet)

5. Airflow:  assume you will NOT be running aircon and it’s warm but breezy.  Every compartment needs hatches with screens that face the front of the boat (incoming wind on an anchor) and fans.  But ideally, large numerous hatches facing forward that one can mount windscoops to.  This will make a huge difference in your quality of life.  Also screens on every opening.  New England has black biting flies much of summer.

6. SuperDinghy: Able to carry a larger, more powerful dinghy.  Our 8’ inflatable zodiac works but is frequently a questionable ride even short distances in any kind of (common) current or wind.  It is a soft bottom inflatable with a electric motor, which is the most underpowered / inefficient you can get. The electric is nice to just recharge in the boat, but lugging the (huge) charger to the bar with you because you only have enough juice for a one way trip is getting old.

Nirvana would be a dry, aluminum bottom center console dinghy with a 20hp+, electric start.  This is your “car” and how you interact with the world around your boat.  I want a dry, fast comfortable, reliable one that can get me to a interesting headwater or a restaurant across the bay at night. Nearly any sailing platform will need special aftermarket davits to accommodate this as these can be ~300lbs+.

I’d also get a depth sounder in the dinghy and use it to ‘scout’ potential anchorages that are shallow, to get actual depths.  The difference between 5 ft and 10 ft is meaningful and the charts are not that accurate.

8. Single-handed-ness.  Sails easily on beam, broad and down for longer passages.  Probably in boom or in mast furling – emphasis on use single handed, especially reefing, which is more frequent than we thought.  Multistage reef systems may work well but can be difficult to manage single handed in stressful situations.  One person should be able to reef downwind in spirited conditions without turning upwind or incurring any panic.

9. Toys: Carries toys.  A lot of them.  Paddleboards, kayaks, or our nirvana would be to carry a small toy sailboat of some kind (Laser? Tiwal?).  We love sailing, just not as a means to get to somewhere on any kind of any schedule.  Sailing in circles / out and back is more fun than looking at VMG, especially upwind.

10. Shade:  After a week or so of “outside”, the sun can become oppressive even in cooler climates.  I’d get shade covers made for the bow and boom, cooling the boat but still allowing airflow at anchor.  In winter (we delivered over Thanksgiving one year from Rhode Island to New Jersey in freezing temperatures) I’d also ensure an interior helm with radar and AIS as well as a fully enclosed outside helm (fully enclosable bimini setup).

Summary:

I don’t think we leverage the advantages of a mono thus far…

• Easier/cheaper to get a slip/dock.  We don’t dock unless forced to.

• ·Sails upwind – we motor upwind.

• We DO love our lifting keel….priceless.

I’d wish for:

• Ability to anchor for extended periods, comfortably.  More tankage, more electrical power, toys, room, etc

• Ability to explore further and more confidently in a comfortable dinghy more extensively.

• If working from the boat, 3-4 cabins.  Dedicated “offices” are really desirable, and/or a “shop” on board.

Granted, these experience are New England area.  I’m sure med mooring in the Mediterranean is a whole different set of criteria, which likely favor a skinny mono.  I’m assuming the Caribbean favors catamarans for many reasons – but many of which are reflected above (anchoring vs med mooring, beam or broad reach sailing, etc)

Thus, some of the potential future platforms we may go look at for fun are Catamarans. The space allows a lot more flexibility for equipment, capabilities and comforts. A 38’ mono is totally possible, even comfortably, to travel the world. But it’s cramming a lot into a very small package. Power is one of the biggest issues and a cat simply has more flat surface to work with.

These include the 40 foot Bali CatSpace Sail (https://www.bali-catamarans.com/en/catamarans/bali-catspace-sail/) and the 42 foot Bali 4.2 (https://www.bali-catamarans.com/en/catamarans/bali-4-2/).  Of course we love the larger more expensive cats (Seawind or even a Balance) but the prices are unrealistic.

This is actually the boat Gabe had on day one of our ill fated Exumas trip (no fault of Bali, was a beautiful boat)

A few on yachtworld:

https://www.yachtworld.com/boats-for-sale/condition-used/type-sail/makemodel-bali:4.1+bali:catspace+bali:4.2+bali:4.0+bali:4.0-open-space+bali:catspace-sailing-yacht/length-38,50/year-2018,2025/ 

I’d welcome any thoughts!

-Todd