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Dive deep into the substance of sailing’s most engaging topics. During each episode, Teresa & Ben Carey catch up with 2 guests: cruisers, maritime professionals, and old salts — to discuss the lessons the ocean had in store for them.
You're listening to the Morning Muster, a podcast brought to you by Morse Alpha Expeditions and Ben and Theresa Carey.
Speaker 2:I think it's become a competition too. My boat's cooler than yours. I got a bigger electrical system than yours. I got more lithium batteries than you do. I got more solar panels than you do.
Speaker 2:I got a washing machine. I got a dryer. I can run my air conditioning off my battery bank. On it goes.
Speaker 1:Today's topic is oops, my boat is too big. I'm Teresa. And before we get started, a quick reminder, our summer expeditions are filling up fast already. We have two great trips going to Halifax, some to Rhode Island, and of course, the beautiful Rocky Main Coast. And those trips to Halifax, we're gonna stop in and visit John Harry's, which is one of our guests on our podcast today.
Speaker 1:So let's get started. I wanted to talk about this topic because my roots are as a pocket cruiser. So the first boat I bought was a North Sea 27. And when Ben and I finally joined forces, we moved aboard a Bristol Channel Cutter 28, and that was a comfortable home for us to live and travel on. And now we work with soon to be cruisers, and it seems like when we used to see the norm being thirty, thirty eight feet, maybe 40 feet, now that's considered cramped.
Speaker 1:People want 40 feet, 50 feet. And so this trend was puzzling to me, and I wanted to dig into that today. And I think this episode is gonna be a little bit of a serve as a bit of caution for boat buyers out there that as they think about the size of their vessel and when it starts to creep higher and higher to consider the trade offs. You know, just one more foot is pretty significant, and so that's what we'll talk about today. And I have two guests, Kim Stevens.
Speaker 1:Kim, you're currently anchored in Bonaire. Yes?
Speaker 3:Yes. We are.
Speaker 1:Great. And you're aboard a Stevens forty seven, which is a monohull. Kim and her husband, Bob, are making their way towards the Panama Canal and then across the Pacific. And our other guest is John Harrys. He's the owner editor of the online publication called Attainable Adventure Cruising, also called Morgan's Cloud.
Speaker 1:And we feel this is a great resource out there for serious cruisers and sailors, so it's great to have you both here with us.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 1:So let's start right off with it. People off people often ask Ben and I, what size boat should I buy? And I'm here to give you the answer right now, right at the beginning. The answer is, it depends. When we were buying Rasenante, we had already owned three boats before.
Speaker 1:We had done many boat deliveries, worked on many power and sailboats. But even so, we looked for two years before we found Rousinante. And in that time, we were able to narrow down our shortlisted criteria, which for us just had five things. We wanted a small, safe cockpit, not huge. We were looking for something with a flush deck.
Speaker 1:We wanted the lines led to the mast instead of then redirected to the cockpit. And we wanted to have the ability to sail solo. And I also wanted a booth saloon, but that wasn't a deal breaker. That was really just a comfort preference. And, so I'm gonna start with you, Kim.
Speaker 1:Since you're sitting on a boat right now and you this is your boat that you purchased recently, what was on your shortlist when you were buying a boat? Or what should have been too?
Speaker 3:Well, that's a great question because I think my list is probably different now that we've been living on it and working on it and refitting it for two years than it was when we were purchasing. So, my husband grew up sailing Their boats, I think, growing up were 30 and maybe 34 feet. And so sailing was newer for me. And so we learned I did the ASA classes on a Geno four zero nine, and that felt comfortable. And as we started looking, you know, some of the things that we were interested in was having a center cockpit.
Speaker 3:We knew we wanted something that was a known blue water sailor, sailing vessel because our goal was to circumnavigate. Wanted something livable. And this is where I would say some of the things I consider livable. I now think I should have said, is it saleable, not livable? But livable meaning, you know, having we wanted a bunk where we were not crawling over each other, getting in and out.
Speaker 3:We wanted room to have guests to come and stay. We have two children. And so, you know, having the right amount of, birds was important to us at the time. Galley layout, we love cooking. You know?
Speaker 3:But I think some of the things that I think about now is, you know, the salability of it for two people. So the Stevens 47 is 14 foot beam. You know? Definitely, she's a lot of boat. You know?
Speaker 3:No bow thrusters. No electric winches. None of the things that I think some people might think might make it easier. There's trade offs on that, of course, because there's also then a lot more things that can break. But I think, you know, my list when we were shopping definitely looked different than what it would now if I was starting all over again.
Speaker 1:Definitely. And this reminded me of, John, an article I recently read of yours that you you actually wrote an article about this trend of buying boats that are bigger and bigger that's been happening in the last decade. And this and this is how it'll tie in, Kim, with what you said about the bow thrusters and other things. But the article opened with a tragic story of two sailors that were injured and died from a flogging line while trying to reef their 66 foot boat. And, John, in your article, you argue that maybe size was a factor in this tragedy, in particular load of a big boat.
Speaker 1:It made me think of my experience sailing large schooners. It took a crew of five to do sail maneuvers. And so, John, you wrote that brokers are selling boats as double handable, two handed, because they have powered winches or bow thrusters or these other ease of use systems, single line reefing and so forth. And so I guess my question is, are these electronic winches, autopilots and other things, are they a suitable replacement for that extra crew?
Speaker 2:Well, that's that's really an interesting question. The the people who are selling these large boats, their their sales pitch is that by automating the boat, we've made it safe, And therefore you can sail a much bigger boat. The boat that those people died on last year. And I'll just say, I've written a long article analyzing that, which is outside of the paywall. But the key thing is to take away from that is those deaths in my view were the result of automation.
Speaker 2:And because they couldn't reef the boat without turning up into the wind. They had waited too long, there was other contributing factors, but the bottom line that killed them was that they had to turn the boat up into the wind to reef. And by this time it was blowing quite hard, 40 knots, gusting up to 40 knots. And that is the fundamental thing that killed them. And that is the requirement.
Speaker 2:And people will argue this. I have a whole series of 9,000 words of articles that, and I've interviewed all kinds of experts. And the bottom line is, with these automated systems, you cannot reliably reef without turning up into the wind. Yeah, there are tricks. You can back it behind the Genoa, but that requires having a full Genoa ride.
Speaker 2:You're not going to do that 40 knots of breeze. And you would be reaching and that's not going to work in 40 knots of breeze. So the key takeaway here is it's automation. Big a boat, but automation that killed those two people. Or the failure of automation.
Speaker 2:And it was the mainsheet that actually hit them. But a mainsheet's not gonna hit anybody if you don't have to turn up into the wind to reef. But before I go too far down that road, Kim, I'm I'm interested to ask you. If you had is the Stevens 47, by the way, I know the boat well. I I raced against the prototype in Antigua Race Week in 1982.
Speaker 2:Rod Stevens was on the prototype, we didn't win. We were second.
Speaker 1:Not bad.
Speaker 2:Everybody knows who Rod Stevens is knows why. Yeah. But what would be the three things that you and your husband find difficult? The top three things that you find difficult on the boat that make you think, maybe she's a little too big.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I mean and I think some of it is based on my physicality. Right? We're both fit Mhmm. Workout and all of that, but our primary winches are huge.
Speaker 3:And just the ability for me, if there's a lot of load, to work with those and help with tacking and hoisting the mainsail. Mean, things that I need to be confident in. There are two of us on the boat. We need to both be able to do everything, but it's challenging. So I think, you know, when it comes time to reef the sail, often I'm at the helm and my husband is going up and doing that just because it feels more efficient and safer.
Speaker 3:I think docking can be challenging. I mean, that, you know, without with that size of a boat, the wind likes to take our bow. We've had a couple Mhmm. Situations in marinas when there was a lot of wind where one time we were not able, we ended up anchoring out because we didn't wanna damage our boat or anybody else's boat.
Speaker 2:Phyllis and I's first date, by the way, was a passage, an early summer, in fact, late spring passage, from Bermuda to Maine, two Gaels, you know, and it was the first time she'd ever been on a sailboat. So we know the feeling of having two people, you know, with different experience levels. And one of the things I hear over and over again that I think is wrong, and I think it sets people up to fail, is this idea that you both, and the magazines love this one and I hate it, and that is that you both have to be able to do everything on the boat equally well. I learned to ski in my forties. I will never ever ski the way somebody who learned to ski at 10 years old is gonna ski.
Speaker 2:And if I lost sight of that, I'd probably lose my joy of skiing. One of the things we learned is we're a team and that we have strength, we both have strengths, and we both have weaknesses. But that does not mean ever that you have to be able to do everything Bob can.
Speaker 1:I think, John, to your point, you said that you'll never be quite the skier as someone who started in their twenties. They had a head start from you. They've been doing it two decades longer than you and much younger. But, even if Kim, your husband, has been sailing much longer than you, yes, I agree, John. Don't put that pressure that you have to both be able to do everything.
Speaker 1:But I also think that, even though Bob has a head start on Kim, I think, Bob can learn a lot from Kim as well. There will be things that you that you excel in and become really great at that that's gonna be your niche, that he may never learn as much as you do on that particular thing or vice versa. And that's what I found with Ben and I. We also have strengths that we differentiate. Thankfully, our interests and strengths are kind of opposite, so it makes us a good team.
Speaker 1:But we we definitely have different backgrounds and different strengths. And I also wanted to mention one of two other things to you, Kim. In terms of the size and the load, I feel like sailboats, cruising boats, that the loads on cruising boats are heavy enough that we kinda all need mechanical advantage, and it levels the playing field on strength. And I bring this up because I often get comments about my size and strength or or lack thereof, but I think oftentimes it's not really about that. Everybody's gonna use a winch.
Speaker 1:Everybody's gonna use maybe the wind to help them do this or that. So, the loads are heavy on on cruising boats. That's that's what we work with. Even even the men, even the strong ones that can bench more than me. So
Speaker 2:I I would just totally agree with Teresa. Phil Phyllis and I ended up you know, we did we did expeditions to the Arctic for twenty years. I mean, you know, some fairly serious high stress sailing. And we were absolutely a team. And she has strengths I don't have, a lot of them.
Speaker 2:So that's the way to look at it. And in fact, I think the happy cruising couples tend to be the ones who have different strengths and weaknesses because they're not constantly competing. So totally agree with Theresa on that. I'm not making the, I certainly wouldn't suggest that I contributed any more to our cruises than Phyllis did. A fifty fifty team effort.
Speaker 1:I do wanna turn it back to size because that's what the the episode is about. And when I think about this, what was it, ten, twenty years ago when I first started cruising, it used to be that 35 feet, maybe 40 was big enough for a couple or a small family, and now people aren't looking at anything under that under 40. They're buying boats 50 or much bigger. And then just a decade ago. So I I wonder what have you all noticed that maybe what's changed about people or our lifestyles or our influences that make us make us, the big us, feel like we want or need or can handle bigger boats.
Speaker 3:I mean, it's interesting. It seems like it's this bigger is better feeling. You know, we were in the marina in Grenada and talking to a couple, and they had I think it was a 54 foot catamaran. And the gentleman was like, I would really like to to be 65. And it's just the two of them.
Speaker 3:They have no nobody, no crew on board. They want the comforts that they would have, I think, on land life within their boat. But there's trade offs. I mean, obvious trade offs for that and safety and salability and all those things and where you can go.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I think the land the comfort on land comparable to land life is a good point because what what are the big changes happened to us recently? Well, we had a pandemic, and then we have now this rise of the digital nomad and also Starlink. So people can just live and work, you know, have a nine to five on their boat with Starlink. So, yeah, we definitely didn't have that ten years ago, that option.
Speaker 2:I think I think the biggest thing that's happened, and and you just touched on it or sort of rushed past it, Teresa, but I wanna emphasize it, is this idea people have that I can have everything or I should have everything that I had on land. Personally, I think that is the biggest contributor to unhappiness and to some of the disasters I see out there. And I'm not including you, Kim, I don't think your boat is excessively big. I think actually I love the Stephens. And, you know, I had somebody the other day in the comments on my site say, they were talking about their lithium battery system.
Speaker 2:I said, that is huge. What are you possibly thinking about with a battery bank that big and a solar panel bank that big? He said, well, it's no more electricity use than I had in my condominium before I went cruising. And to me, that comment indicates the biggest possible mistake you could make in deciding to go cruising, even if you have a lot of money. It's a really terrible mistake.
Speaker 2:You know, you see people in these huge complicated boats, and I don't think they're having, they may think they're having a good time. They're having a good time showing off their very cool boat to people, but they're also spending an awful lot of time fixing things. Many of them are scared of the boat. They might not admit it. They're in a situation where if anything breaks down on that boat, they have to stop and wait for an expert to fix it.
Speaker 2:They can't keep going. They back themselves into a really unpleasant situation. And I think it's become a competition too. My boat's cooler than yours. I got a bigger electrical system than yours.
Speaker 2:I got more lithium batteries than you do. I got more solar panels than you do. Got a washing machine. I got a dryer. I can run my air conditioning off my battery bank.
Speaker 2:On it goes.
Speaker 1:It's true.
Speaker 2:I I think people back themselves into a really bad situation.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But it's funny what you say because about a competition, my battery bank is bigger than I always say as soon as, you know, I'm hanging out with cruisers, and as soon as they say, hey. What kind of ground tackle do you have on that? Then I'm like, I'm out. I'm not interested in my the ground tackle's bigger than yours conversation.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But, yeah, you made a great point, John. It's a boat. It's not a house, and the whole experience is supposed to be different. It's not That's supposed to cool.
Speaker 1:It's not even and, you know, when you're on a boat, you're right. It's not a house, and the experience is different. And even if you say, well, I'm gonna be cramped inside a 40 foot boat, you're not supposed to stay inside all the time. You're supposed to get out and do other things. You live life differently.
Speaker 1:So, the size and the amount of battery power and the amount of this or that stuff should be different as well. It should be
Speaker 2:I actually prefer to talk weight and sail area. So, for example, let's take Kim's boat for a minute. Your boat is about a 32,000 pound boat. That's not that big a boat. You know, for example, just to put that in perspective, a Kraken 50 weighs about thousand pounds.
Speaker 2:Kraken 58 weighs tips the scale at, like, 75,000 pounds. The mast is 97 feet off the water. Is a seriously big boat. Back in the day, that would have been pros only, catch rigged, catch, cutter rigged. So that's the other thing that's happened is, you know, that people have confused what bigness means Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And got themselves into very, very big boats. But I don't think you've made that mistake, Kim. I mean
Speaker 3:Thank you. You know, it made me think when you were saying that about you and Phyllis and having your jobs. I mean, we have come to that. When You I think about how we anchor, how we moor, I'm typically at the helm for that Bob's catching the mooring ball. I mean, so you're right that you do naturally sort of gravitate and develop the skills to do different jobs.
Speaker 3:I guess my biggest concern is just making sure night watches that Bob's getting good rest. He's not having to worry about me being able to do everything. And some of the ways we've addressed that is, you know, I've really asked him a lot of questions before it's his turn to to sleep to make sure I'm feeling comfortable and confident so that he's getting rest. Because on these longer passages, we really both need to have those times, downtimes.
Speaker 1:I mean, I feel like everybody should be doing that during a watch transfer. That seems to be like for us, it's standard protocol to have that conversation for at least a few minutes or more before. We also have a whole bunch of other things we do, like a boat check and things. And then also, if one of our standard protocols, even though I feel like I could handle in most conditions, maybe not all, I could handle Rasenante, our Norsemen four four seven. I could handle it on my own.
Speaker 1:But our rule of thumb is if we're the only one awake day or night, if I have to do some sail changes, maybe go up to the Mastin Reef, I always wake Ben up, or he wakes me up. We don't do it solo simply because, you know, if you're up there alone and the other one's asleep and something happens, then no one's gonna know that something happens. So we just make it standard to to wake the other person, even if they're just standing in the companion way with their PFD on observing. And so that's I think that's fine. It's conservative.
Speaker 1:It's safe.
Speaker 2:First time we haven't agreed. Different view on that one. I'm not saying I'm right and you're wrong. Just just throw out a different view for the for the listeners. Phyllis and I sailed a lot of very challenging miles double handed.
Speaker 2:And we tried that early on where we always woke the other person when you're leaving the cockpit. And what we found was it was too sleep disruptive. And we felt that the negatives outweighed the positives. So what we did is we invested early on in person overboard alarms.
Speaker 1:Oh,
Speaker 2:An alarm that would go if one of us hit the water. So that's a trade off one. I certainly don't say you're wrong. No. But we found it was too sleep disruptive and that we were getting too tired.
Speaker 2:We were also sailing in the North where the conditions change a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, you know, these things are condition related to and and Yeah. Depend on who you are and all kinds of things. So I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just it's just interesting. There's two ways to approach it.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know I'm not wrong. Yeah. No. I feel like, John, you and I could figure out a watch rule rotation that would work for both of us. Because a lot of the things that you're saying also resonate with me.
Speaker 1:And so I think about you're saying it, you know, interrupts the sleep too much, but we also would often do twelve hour watches. So we'd have plenty, you know, like, we weren't even sleeping the whole time, or maybe in conditions where we actually didn't have to do that much changing of things throughout the night or throughout the watch. So everything that you're saying makes sense. I feel like if we had a conversation, you and I, if we had to sail together, we would come up with something that worked for us both. Because, you know, like you said, it's it depends.
Speaker 1:It depends on the circumstances, the people
Speaker 2:who circumstances. Absolutely. I mean, does.
Speaker 3:To me, it's like the larger the boat, the smaller the crew, the more conservative you probably need to be sailing too. And especially your night watches making those decisions on, you know, do you just automatically reef or not and things that can keep it safer through a night watch so that you're not having to, you know, put yourself in dangerous situations. And also having all the appropriate safety equipment like your overboard device, jack lines, tethers, all the things.
Speaker 1:John and Kim, we were talking about size. Now we're talking a little bit about safety. The waves out there are big, and a lot of people say that there's this idea that a bigger boat is more safe. Big storms, big waves, and your little boat, you get tossed around more, or you're safer in a big boat or more comfortable at sea and at anchor. What do you guys think of that?
Speaker 3:I mean, I do think that was some of the things that we heard as we were looking and, you know, some of the things we read. We actually connected with Jamie and Bean from Sailing Totem, same boat, to, you know, ask questions about it and things and knowing that we wanted to be blue water sailing. I mean, I think that is the thought process that's out there. I only have the comparison between what we have now and sort of what I learned on. And, you know, I don't know that I feel a huge difference.
Speaker 3:So, you know, I don't know that I have enough experience with some of the other boats to say how they perform, but she performs well.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. I I think that all makes sense. And and the Stevens is a is a great boat. I mean, it's got a great hull form. So that's the first thing to understand.
Speaker 2:This is a very seaworthy hull form. So, she would ride better, behave better offshore than boats many times bigger than she is. So, you gotta take into account hull form. Ben and Theresa, you had, small boats, but small boats with great hull forms, Not like, for example, if you look on the McCurdy and Roads website, they tell you the boat weighed 42,000 pounds. So that's a 56 foot boat, but a small 56 footer, only 42 feet on the waterline.
Speaker 2:That's about where the line crosses, I think, between comfort at sea and too much load to be safe. And that's the top end of the bound too, I would say. I have to say that that boat scared the living hell out of me for the first two years I had her. I'd had a 45 foot 25,000 pound boat before, and I had no clue as to what I had done buying a 25 ton boat. I learned to handle her, I didn't kill anybody in the process, but there was a certain amount of luck in that, and what I was saved by was that she has absolutely no automation.
Speaker 2:So I had to figure out how to sail her properly without risking, without relying on automation. So to hit where's the sweet spot? Actually, I think Kim's boat's pretty close at 30,000 pounds, 30 to 35,000 pounds.
Speaker 1:Think the Norseman four four seven is right around the same, heaviness as you're talking about. Thirty thirty thousand?
Speaker 2:Yeah. By the way, that's a sweet boat too, though. I want when that boat first came out, I wanted one so bad.
Speaker 1:We're happy with it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But it's a great boat. It's a it's a good boat. And, you know, Perry is a great designer.
Speaker 3:So So we've been talking a lot about monohulls. There we go. But, comparably, like, catamaran. Yeah. I know how we feel, and that's why we purchased a monohull, but I'm just curious.
Speaker 1:I mean, I don't know. I love the monohull. I've sailed catamarans before. I've cruised on catamarans before, chartered catamarans, and they're very comfortable. If I was gonna go cruising in the BBIs or something like that, then a catamaran would be so great and so much fun to go swimming off of and snorkeling and all of that.
Speaker 1:There's definitely a purpose for catamarans. But if I'm gonna go cruising and do some sort of ocean passage at some point in that cruise, then I I'd like to be in a monohull. I think it's more comfortable out at sea. I feel like I have more control. Also, more affordable to maintain.
Speaker 1:I don't know, John. What do you think?
Speaker 2:I I I'm agnostic about, numbers of holes. I just like good designs, and that's my problem with cats. Most of the cats that are on the market today are design nightmares. I mean, they're just terribly, terribly badly designed. They're designed for exactly what Teresa said, which is to hang out in the BVI.
Speaker 2:I'm chartering a cat every day of the week. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And having a blast. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And having a blast. Having a And there is some great multihulls, but they're not the multi hulls you see out there. You know, people will say really silly things about multi hulls, like they say they don't roll. And I can give you the short version of this. They do roll, but just think about it.
Speaker 2:The period of the wave and distance between the top of the wave and the trough of the wave are longer than the width of the multi hole. They actually roll more and more quickly than a monohull Because they have to conform to the angle of the wave shape back and front on every wave. A well designed monohull doesn't have to do that. Well designed monohull can dampen that change. You can draw it out on a napkin if you don't believe me.
Speaker 2:Just draw it out on a napkin, you know, draw a wave, put a catamaran on the side of it, and see what happens.
Speaker 1:Is good information.
Speaker 2:Then you get cats that are really cool. I love the designs by Chris White. The big thing that you have to think about multi hulls is if you want it safe and you want it fun, you can't load it. And that's the big thing people miss. You put weight on a multi hull and things get dangerous and unfunned.
Speaker 1:Because a lot of times people will say to me, I'm oh, I'm look we're looking at only at catamarans. And I say, well, why are you only looking at catamarans? Because we have a family, and we're going sailing with our family. They want room for homeschooling and for all these other things. And I understand that, but it also misses the point a little bit.
Speaker 1:Part of our cruising adventure is getting off the boat and exploring in that way, but I think that's an interesting point. And also, wanted to bring up one more thing because we're running out of time, but I wanna make sure we get to this last thing, John, was something you wrote in your article that resonated with me and Ben. You wrote that, the biggest dangers for bigger boats are often a result of adding more complicated gear at the problem rather than skill and seamanship. I don't remember the exact phrasing, but it was something like that. And the often the best answer is to simplify the gear.
Speaker 1:And and that was also, like I said at the beginning, on one of our shortlist criterias. Lines led to the mast so we can reef at the mast, keep things simple and user friendly. So Totally. Can can you tell me more about that? You had a 56 foot boat.
Speaker 1:What systems on that boat did what did you do to them to simplify or make them more manageable? And maybe, Kim, you have something to add there too. You know, when you buy a new boat, you inherit the systems from the previous owners. So what have you observed with that too?
Speaker 2:On the McCurdy and Rod's 56, and first thing is I am not recommending people buy a 56 foot 25,000 pound boat, a 50,000 pound boat. We were doing expeditions. The boat was perfect for that. So there were reasons for that boat, but it had nothing to do with room or anything like that. It was mainly, mainly storage and deck, deck, deck accessible storage and all kinds of other things.
Speaker 2:But a couple of things you can do to make a boat, quick things you can do to make a boat safer and easier. First thing is turn her into a cutter. If the jib sheets are too heavily loaded, I would never, the McCurdy and Rhodes 56 I bought came with a number two Genoa and a number one Genoa. I laid them out on the lawn at the boat yard and took one look at the number one Genoa and sent it to Bacon Sales. I never even put it up.
Speaker 2:Bacon secondhand for those, they're not in business anymore. Then I pulled out the number two and did the same thing. And, luckily she came with a Gyptopsal and a Staysal, but that's the biggest thing you could do to that Stevens Kim, to make her much easier to handle would be to turn her into a cutter. I've got a, here comes the plug for attainable bench cruising. I have a complete series of articles on how to do that.
Speaker 2:So that's, that's the big one, docking, learn to use an AFRON running balance spring. There's only one rope you have to get on the dock when you, when you, I can see the tub tugboat mate in the background nodding.
Speaker 1:That's right. Benjie knows that line well.
Speaker 2:There is only one rope you have to get on the wharf, and you are then docked and that's the aft running spring from the balance point on the boat. There's a little bit more to know, I've written a lot of words on that, you can get them in our online book. If you learn how to do that, the whole docking thing kinda goes away. Mhmm. And when you cut a rig, don't let anybody try and sell you an over overlapping Genoa.
Speaker 2:There's no reason for it. You need a 100% high cut jib and the low cut
Speaker 1:stays on all the the things that we did to our Norsemen. All the things Yeah. Got we had a one thirty. We got rid of that. The overlapping.
Speaker 1:We don't have that either. You're saying all the things
Speaker 2:that Totally. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, you guys know. That's why I'm chuckling. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You guys know. You know? I mean, it's about it's just easier. Well, I feel So that will change the boat for you again.
Speaker 3:I feel better because we've already done some of these things. So yay. I'm glad we we just resized. Our our our prop was undersized. We had done a total repower.
Speaker 3:And just in Grenada, we got the the prop now is the correct size for the engine, and it has made a world of difference. And using the running spring is great. Honestly, the biggest thing was probably the propeller because that has made a world of difference in maneuver maneuvering and also just in our diesel use and things like that.
Speaker 2:Sounds like you're totally on the right track. If the boat was intimidating for you docking, and you had a small prop, that totally explains that. And just one other quick tip, so many people will tell you that, you know, people will say, Oh, I've got a terrible problem. My boat has terrible prop walk. Know, she tends to, the stern tends to kick when I put her in reverse.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Okay. They just got it backwards. One of the biggest things you can learn about docking is prop walk and prop wash are your friend. The more you got, the better you are.
Speaker 2:I can see the tugboat skipper in the background there going on on on on. Right?
Speaker 1:Except he had dual props, so he didn't it's not from the tugboat that we learned prop walk. It is our friend.
Speaker 4:Well, yeah, to some degree. But I do
Speaker 2:want Anybody can dock with with twins. Exactly. I've lost so much respect for you, Beth.
Speaker 4:I I think when when I when I talk to our students about docking and other things that are are scary for them, I always say, you know, sailing is somewhat like playing an instrument, and you're not gonna get any better at it unless you practice. So knowing the fundamentals and how things work, and then getting out there and just doing it over and over and over and over and over again is what's going to give you that confidence. No one knows how to do it the first or second time.
Speaker 1:And we also have in our procedures when we teach docking, procedures are always options, right? You have a way of doing things, but you can always veer from that if necessary. But one of the first steps is if you're nervous about it, then do a drive by. Approach the dock if there's room. You know?
Speaker 1:Approach, take a look, make a plan, keep on driving past, and then and then dock the second time. Or the third time, maybe take two drive bys if you need to. So,
Speaker 2:I totally agree with that one. And the other thing about the practice, you don't have to practice on the dock. Just do it out anywhere. It's better in smooth water because you see the effect of just learning how to turn the boat in her own length using prop wash or prop walk without moving the wheel.
Speaker 1:I think it's also hard sometimes because it feels hard. Like, it feels intimidating. A big boat, a dock. So that even though if it's not hard conceptually, sometimes it I don't know. I get a little nervous when I'm gonna dock depending on the wind and what's going on.
Speaker 1:Certainly can feel that way. Even if I know in my head the steps I'm gonna do, and I can execute them.
Speaker 2:I'm totally with you. I get butterfly If it's a tricky one, I have butterflies in my stomach every time. It's kind of part of the thrill, and totally about drive bys. And you did not If you muff a docking and leave and don't hit anybody, that's a successful docking because you just learned for the next pass. I think my record is six passes before I go alongside.
Speaker 2:The dock guys start on the dock telling you how to do it. And I I have the answer to that. Right? Because I'm deaf. I just put my hand up in my ear and go, what?
Speaker 2:What? Drives them crazy. Don't and that's the other tip. Do not listen to the guys on the dock. They know They and particularly if you're a woman.
Speaker 1:Yeah. They definitely communicate with women differently.
Speaker 2:It just Oh,
Speaker 3:for sure.
Speaker 2:You know, Phyllis will hand hand somebody a line and say, put that line on that cleat. And will look at her and have their own opinion. If I tell them to do it, they'll do it. It's I'm I'm embarrassed for my gender. That's all I can tell you.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm
Speaker 2:glad you said that.
Speaker 1:Well, we're running out of time, and I wanna bring this back to boat size again. Is there anything else that either of you wanted to mention that's important for our listeners to hear about things they need to think about in terms of boat size?
Speaker 3:I think just taking the time to really explore your options, get on a boat, ask questions, talk to people who have the models that you're interested in to learn a little more about them, I think is really helpful.
Speaker 2:The one thing I I I would say is, we talked about some of the benefits of biggerboatscom comfort, but don't ever forget. Once boats get over about 35,000 pounds, they get exponentially more dangerous. We do not get stronger as our boats get bigger. I know that's kind of obvious, but people forget that. And automation does not make them safer, it makes them more dangerous.
Speaker 2:Sooner or later that automation will fail. And the bigger the boat is, the harder it is going to be, is going to be to get it back under control after it fails. And the more likely it is that you're gonna get hurt doing it. And then more importantly, still, automated mental handling systems are more dangerous than slab reefing, always. And the reason is because they can fail in ways require you to do very dangerous things to fix them.
Speaker 2:Most notably going up the mast. And, they don't allow you to reef off the wind without turning up into the wind. And that, okay, I know it can be done, but they don't do that reliably. You know, reefing up wind, you could get wet.
Speaker 1:Alright. Well, thank you both for talking with me. I appreciate it. We've learned a lot from both of you.
Speaker 2:I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 3:Thank you. It was great.
Speaker 1:Well, that wraps another edition of the Morning Muster. If you're hungry for more, make sure to swing by our website at morsealpha.com. Just head on over to the podcast section, and you'll find all the episodes right there. And hey, while you're cruising around our website, don't forget to check out our fantastic sail training expeditions. We've got an exciting season ahead, so make sure to secure your birth before they're gone.
Speaker 1:And again, that's morsealpha.com, m0rsealpha.com. You can also catch us on Instagram where we're known as Morse Alpha Expeditions. Until our next rendezvous, remember, sail with purpose and always stay found.