Small boats

The companionway washboard in cockpit table mode

There were three of us sitting in Samsara’s cockpit as the sun went down over Spanish Water in Curacao . That was when the conversation turned to the size of the cockpit.

Well, it would do, given the size of said cockpit and the fact that there were three of us in it with the table up (actually the companionway washboard balanced on the tiller in its alternative role as a repository for coffee cups, beer bottles, breakfast, and – as I sit under the awning writing this – the laptop and a cup of tea).

It does mean there was even less room for the three of us because, in order to stop the rudder moving as yet another giant RIB roared past with 20hp on the back and the remote throttle all the way forward, the tiller had to be immobilised by means of a wooden strut and its opposing shock cord made off on the headsail cleat.

It works rather well. I always did want a cockpit table.

But it does mean there is only room for three.

The other two were Caroline and Fred, a Dutch couple in a 42footer who had adopted me when I arrived and drove me into Willemstad for Immigration, Customs and the Harbour Authority (to tell me where to anchor). The least I could do was invite them aboard for a beer.

“Did you ever think you would like a bigger boat?” Caroline asked, by way of making conversation (she was jammed on the far side of the table. It could have been worse, she could have been on the side with strut and the shock cord.

“No, never,” I told her. “There are a lot of advantages to a small boat. I can lift the anchor in one hand to bring it on deck (and most people would still consider it over-sized).

“I can turn round in marinas without giving everyone heart attacks.

“I can climb the mast without chickening out before I get to the top.”

“Everything is cheaper – including the boat herself…”

And all of this has become a talking point in the beach bars of the Caribbean – and the Tuamotus, for all I know, and the marina terraces all the way up the Hamble…and certainly Uncle J’s hamburger joint in Spanish Water where last night I sat drinking Heineken with a Englishman, a Dutchman and a German – and no, this is not the beginning of a joke.

Instead, we discussed big boats – very big boats. In particular, the tragedy of the Bayesian, the superyacht that capsized in a totally unexpected waterspout off the coast of Italy, drowning 12 people including her owner, tech mogul Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, who was just about to start at Oxford.

Yes, it is a tragedy. But no, it would never have happened to our boats – smaller boats, sensible boats.

The facts will emerge eventually of course – in a court somewhere where reputations will weigh in the balance and a price will be put on life of young Hannah, so full of promise, whose body was the last to be brought up from the bottom.

But that’s what you get, we decided, when you want to have the second tallest mast in the world (well, obviously you don’t. You want the tallest – but the case isn’t difficult to argue).

And a mast that tall with however many sails all hoisted and ready to go would weigh as much as any one of our boats – certainly mine. I’m only about eight tonnes all up.

Then, there’s the other side – the retractable keel (which was, apparently, retracted). The keel is for stability – to make the boat pop back up if she gets knocked down. I got knocked down last autumn running into Storm Babet on the way to the Canaries.

So, the boat was full of water. So, the 10mm bolt holding the gooseneck together snapped like a twig, four metres of teak toe-rail popped off with nothing but the sheer force of water. Sails torn, fridge inverted (in contravention of the instructions) big spanner in the sink, a single kernel of sweetcorn lodged on the top of a picture frame…

But the boat popped back up. She carried on sailing – all the way to Las Palmas.

Nobody died. Nobody got sued.

Small boat, you see…

Small boats are the answer.

8 Responses to Small boats

  • … and another thing: small boats have shorter masts, so when a thunderstorm hits the anchorage, the lightning is going to go for the big cats.

  • I’m reading your book what a story and what achievements, I would be very grateful for the link to your supplements please.

  • Tad Roberts has some enthusiastic stability discussions re Bayesian underway on his Facebook page –
    https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009398593049

    And there is a long running thread on the YBW Forum with lots of other views and theories – I added a comment as well (on page 20!), in the link below.
    https://forums.ybw.com/threads/bayesian-s-y-sinks-in-palermo.611709/page-20#post-8486284

  • Love your posts.
    This one let me down. The email notification includes part of the first line after the title. It stopped before the ‘pit’ of cockpit. Horribly disappointed by the promised, but missing salacious material 🙂

  • Small boats are more fun We have a (small) 35 footer (with a removable cockpit table) 35 foot is realy the upper limit we think. Hoisting your mainsail wihouth a winch is also an indication ( but we are very happy with an (non electric) anchorwinch)

  • And the flowers that bloom in the spring, tra-la, have nothing to do with the case…………..

  • You can also sail them solo…you are living proof of that and when it comes to painting or varnishing them, there’s a lot less to do, as in the case of my wooden 25ft gaffer. With lower freeboard you can nip forward, lie on deck and scoop up a mooring buoy without a boat hook. And because of your shorter LOA you can leave the boat to herself long enough to do so. Ditto reefing down I can leave Betty II sailing herself while I roll in the mainsail canvas from the mast-deck. Another bonus of low freeboard is that I can clamber back aboard having jumped over the side for a swim: there’s a step in the transom-hung rudder to assist.I’m the only person of my five-strong family who actually enjoys sailing so a bigger boat would mean more empty berths all inviting the stowage of further unwanted kit.

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