Around in Ten (footers)

[John Vigor]

Are all you Vendee Globers aware that soon a round-the-world race for 10-foot boats will be starting?

Ten-foot sailboats!

Three entries so far, apparently, and the start is in 44 days or so.
The object is to beat Serge Testa's record for the smallest boat to sail around the world. He did it in 1987 in Acrohc Australis, a boat 11-foot 10 inches long.

I saw him and his boat in the Indian Ocean, and contacted Cruising World magazine. Would you like an article and pictures? I asked. No thank you, they said, we don't give publicity to gimmicks.

I guess they wouldn't have mentioned a word about Joshua Slocum, either, if they'd been going then.

Anyway, read about Around in Ten for yourself:

http://www.aroundinten.com

Cheers,

John Vigor

http://www.johnvigor.com/blog.html

[Neil Gordon]

I saw him and his boat in the Indian Ocean, and contacted Cruising World magazine. Would you like an article and pictures? I asked. No thank you, they said, we don't give publicity to gimmicks.

I guess they wouldn't have mentioned a word about Joshua Slocum, either, if they'd been going then.

They would if either Slocum or the 10 Foot Boat Company had promised to take out a couple of full page ads.

[John Vigor]

Do I detect a little cynicism here, Neil? I believe the thinking was that they didn't want to encourage other sailors to take unwarranted risks at sea.

My own philosophy is that if Nature wants to remove all the idiots from the gene pool, it's fine with me. Where would mankind be if we had never taken any risks? What progress would we have made?

There's an element of Big Brotherhood that worries me about the way governments force us to do things for our own safety, from wearing helmets while riding motorcycles, and seabelts while driving cars, to banning smoking while checking the chicks in bars.

Safety at sea is a matter of common sense, experience, and discipline. Bernard Moitessier never wore a life jacket in his life. When I first met him, he never even had lifelines on his little ketch.
I don't think Slocum did, either, and I know Capt. Voss didn't because I've seen the original Tilikum in the Maritime Museum in Victoria, BC, not far from here.

I don't think boating magazines need to preach safety to us, or to judge the morality of those who dare to challenge the sea. It's fine to remind us gently, should we need it, that the sea is dangerous, and should be treated with respect. But in my opinion the job of a magazine is to foster the sport, and to report on what's actually happening out there, even if it sounds whacky and dangerous.

I'm in the minority as usual, of course, but I don't mind. I'm used to it.

Cheers,

John V.

http://www.johnvigor.com/blog.html

[Neil Gordon]

Do I detect a little cynicism here, Neil? I believe the thinking was that they didn't want to encourage other sailors to take unwarranted risks at sea.

So they might say. Actually, I don't see 10 footers crossing oceans as "unwarranted risk." I suspect that you need a *seaworthy* 10 footer to attempt that sort of crossing. An unwarraned risk is buying a 40 something foot Clorox bottle (like the ones they advertise in the sailing mags as "easy to sail") and assuming you can go pretty much anywhere with it without much practice.

[wingreen]

There was a really good article recently, in National Geographic, I think, about the settlement of the South Pacific by the Polynesians. As I recall, archaeologists found a "home base" on one of the islands. The article talked some about how they must have mastered basic sailing and navigating, but weren't necessarily experts, since they could have hopped from one island to the next across most of the South Pacific while barely ever losing sight of land. They probably knew how to sail upwind, and how to navigate by "dead reckoning", and other common sense techniques, such as following clouds that pile up over islands that are below the horizon. The one that still puzzles the experts is the trip to Hawaii, which is quite a ways off the beaten southern-pacific track, and would have required some substantial sailing and navigational skill.

[Steve Laume]

The one that still puzzles the experts is the trip to Hawaii, which is quite a ways off the beaten southern-pacific track, and would have required some substantial sailing and navigational skill.

Hawaii, could have easily been a huge screw up. A bit too much to drink, some kid seeing just how far out he could go, that sort of thing. Maybe a storm setting some poor traveler way off course.

I was thinking about the safety stuff the other day while looking at the first sailing experiences and then at a picture of my first sailboat my aunt recently sent to me. The thing looked huge with a very skinny little 12 year old sitting in it.

It was an 8 Ft home built plywood pram with no floatation. Also absent from the picture of the smiling young sailor was any life saving device. Absolutely no sailing lessons were ever to be had and I had all of Indian River Bay in Delaware as my cruising grounds. No cell phone, no radio and I know I didn't tell my parents where I was going.

That was in the days of steel dash boards, no seat belts, helmets, air bags or crash bars built into cars. We had gas engines in boats with no blowers that I can ever recall. Kids got to figure out when the ice was safe and often miscalculated on the unsafe side. There were no referees when kids played sports. There was certainly not a boater safety requirement or any age limits on who could operate what. Radar, GPS or Loran were all yet to be a dream for the average boater.

We were living on the edge by todays standards. Most of what we were doing would have been considered irresponsible. Some of it would have been grounds for a child abuse case. I think life was much more fun though, Steve.

[seadog6532]

I'll have to stand with John V on this one.
A strong small boat with a good skipper can take you anywhere, but a big boat with a fool is not safe on a mill pond.
How many times have you heard of someone on too much boat getting into trouble because they think a big boat with all the boat show goodies can make up for time and experience on the water.
The boating magazines promote this kind of thinking by showing mostly large overpriced boats and gadgets.
When is the last time you saw a article about a 30 foot or smaller boat for off shore sailing in a main stream sailing magazine? We all know how good our boats are but you can't prove it by what is in print in the sailing mags.
Mark and Anna of Arianna CD30K#112

[Forrest]

Cautionary tale..

64 y/o guy takes sailing lessons in April, buys 56 foot boat, tries to singlehand - bad choice !

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f10 ... 094-2.html

Forrest

[Neil Gordon]

>>The article talked some about how they must have mastered basic sailing and navigating, but weren't necessarily experts, since they could have hopped from one island to the next across most of the South Pacific while barely ever losing sight of land.<<

Depends how you define "expert." England had some pretty good navigators when they were sailing the South Pacific, yet they "lost" islands they'd previously discovered. At the other end of the spectrum, I'm surely no expert, but I can dead recon myself from Boston to Provincetown and back (out of sight of land!) in a 28' sloop, something 99% of the population probably can't do but most of the people on this board can do.

I suspect the Polynesians developed skill and knowledge over generations, just like the Europeans and others did. Absent GPS and other gizmos, they used what they had. Wind, waves, sun, stars, clouds, etc., are all meaningful. And approximating latitude isn't much harder than holding your hand out at arm's length and measuring how many fingers high your favorite star is.

>>They probably knew how to sail upwind, ...<<

That puts them ahead of 99% of the population, too.

Are the winds seasonal? Beating to windward and DR are a bad combination for me.

>>The one that still puzzles the experts is the trip to Hawaii, which is quite a ways off the beaten southern-pacific track, and would have required some substantial sailing and navigational skill.<<

Perhaps an accidental voyage. Then you just need to find your way home and be able to find Hawaii again the next time. Columbus did a series of voyages and he managed to get back and forth okay. He didn't have a sextant, chronometer, GPS, etc., either.

[wingreen]

We were living on the edge by todays standards. Most of what we were doing would have been considered irresponsible. Some of it would have been grounds for a child abuse case. I think life was much more fun though, Steve.

Tell me about it... it's a wonder we managed to live through childhood. I say tongue-in-cheek b/c I think modern young people are a lot more dangerous b/c all their life everybody's taken care of of everything for them, and they've seldom been in a situation where they actually have to think about it. If they screw up, it's the adults' fault for not guaranteeing a fail-safe idiot-free environment.

I myself lived a childhood worthy of a long jail sentence, and can point to no fewer than a dozen cases where I probably should have died by my own stupidity... but I wouldn't trade that childhood for a "safe" childhood, or for anything else in the world...

[wingreen]

I'll have to stand with John V on this one.
A strong small boat with a good skipper can take you anywhere, but a big boat with a fool is not safe on a mill pond.
How many times have you heard of someone on too much boat getting into trouble because they think a big boat with all the boat show goodies can make up for time and experience on the water.
The boating magazines promote this kind of thinking by showing mostly large overpriced boats and gadgets.
When is the last time you saw a article about a 30 foot or smaller boat for off shore sailing in a main stream sailing magazine? We all know how good our boats are but you can't prove it by what is in print in the sailing mags.
Mark and Anna of Arianna CD30K#112

I get a lot of strange looks when I tell people I'm planning to take my Ty to the Bahamas. It's as if the thought has never occurred to them that anything under 30' can cross the Gulf Stream.

[j2sailor]

I'm in agreement with John V.; perhaps this will lessen the gene pool. Unfortunately, this kind of nonsense puts rescuers at risk. I have always thought that sailors should not expect rescue if they take unusual risks. For example: singlehanders or ocean racers.

If you singlehand, do so at your own risk. I love singlehanding. There aren't many sports that challenge you quite as much as singlehanded sailing. But I wouldn't expect anyone to come out after me if I fall overboard. Or don't show up at the next port of call.

Why should I endanger the lives of another crew to save me from myself?

I understand the risks of singlehanding. So I train myself in special strength and conditioning exercises that I've found work well to keep you aboard and prevent injury. I have worked for several years on developing specific exercises just for cruising sailors.

In my opinion, you should train for cruising similar to the way one would train for any endurance sport. We all realize that many Americans are in some awfully sad shape. Health experts predict that our Nation's youngsters will suffer from health problems long before their time.

Not enough time is just an excuse. Everybody has the same 24 hours. And it takes less than 30 minutes a day to achieve superb fitness. Like John V's black box theory, fitness adds points when things don't go as expected.

Those few seconds that you aren't wearing a pfd or harness might be the very moment the boat rolls and threatens to cast you overboard. Or maybe you trip and fall, placing your full body weight on one or both wrists. Or fingertips.

It takes work, sweat and effort. But again, I harken back to that box of John's. I believe the payoff is quite worthwhile.

Best - J

[Bill Cochrane]

There are some very good books dealing with the navigation methods and sailing craft used by the ancient Polynesians. We, the Navigators: The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific, by David Lewis (ISBN 0-8248-1582-3) is very complete, well researched and documented, and quite readable. There are also a couple of books by Ben Finney on the modern-day re-creation of both vessels and navigation techniques by a group of Hawai'ians: Sailing in the Wake of the Ancestors (1-58178-024-9) and Voyage of Rediscovery (0-520-08002-5).

All are well worth a winter's read. No sextant, chronometer, or magnetic compass, and yet the modern Hawai'ians proved that their ancestors could reliably navigate from Hawai'i to Tahiti and return, as well as among the other major island groups of the South Pacific.

[Tod M]

May I ask what these "special strength and conditioning exercises" are that you speak of?

[j2sailor]

Hi Tod,
Target exercises deal with building strength, stamina, speed, coordination, balance and range-of-motion. I've found, for me anyway, the simpler the better. No fancy equipment. If you cruise, you don't have the room. But you do need something you can do on the boat or ashore easily. After all, cruisers do tend to stay ashore a while.

I use high intensity interval training for most conditioning. This is the same training used by Olympians in sports that require bursts of energy followed by relative periods of calm. Sprinting or boxing, for instance.

The core of my training is rope skipping. 130-145+ turns a minute. I have studied and used this exercise for over 30 years. I've developed a burst interval training program that gets you into shape safely and quickly.

In my opinion, no other exercise comes close to conditioning the entire body from head to toe, along with enhancing balance and coordination. Kids skip rope, as do 70+ year old adults. Your body loves jumping!

I've tried a lot of other exercises. Hill sprints are good, if you live around hills. But here in Florida, that's a bit limited. So I concentrate on the rope, power walking (I don't run on concrete; it screwed up my back) and high level stretching exercises: back arches (on the fingertips) and so forth.

Upper body strength is quite important in all of sailing, as is balance. Leg and back strength are vital. As are forearm, wrist and finger (grip) strength. I rarely go walking without a soft ball that I can squeeze in and out.

I do not work with weights. All weight exercise is done with your own body weight. For instance, one of the best body weight exercises is the full range pushup. Trainer Craig Ballantyne says that if you're fit, you should be able to knock off 34 of these. That's flat palm and toes, body straight up on both arms, then down to within a few inches off the deck.

Like anything else, you build up your fitness level slowly. I'm about halfway done with a manuscript on health conditioning for sailors. I show the stats of where we are health wise, where we're going if we don't shape up (according to stats) and then show my idea of how to rise to a high level of fitness.

Best - J.