Light cruising gear
Hey guys,
I’m thinking a bit about how much stowage space to design into Firstborne. I have no cruising experience whatsoever, my sailing has been limited to dinghes and the occasional daysailing trip in a yacht, so I don’t really have a good idea of how much stowage space I’m going to need. Does anyone have a good list on hand that they’d be willing to share?
Requirements & design brief:
- Lightweight, it’s a very small boat, and loading it up with tons of gear is not an option, so I’m really looking for the bare minimum here
- The worst-case scenario from a gear standpoint would be that two people take the boat for say 4 weeks of coastal cruising in the baltic sea. I’d say running into a port briefly once every couple of days, to stock up on food etc. would be fine (and unavoidable, unless you take a watermaker and freeze-dried food)
- The boat has no engine, just sail and oar, like in the olden days before combustion engines 😉
- In terms of spares I think I’d take just a bit of extra wood, epoxy, and fiberglass along, enough to patch a hole or repair a rudder properly (permanently), but not much more. So maybe enough for 1m^2 of everything, which should come in at a couple of kgs.
So, anyone got a good list / resource? I’ll sit down and draft one myself later on as well, gotta get going right now though. 😉
Cheers,
Marco
Hi Marco,
I remember reading Tom Jones and him givinghis estimate of weight per person for cruising in one of his books. I’ll have a look and see if I can find it for you.
That’d be great thanks!
Thought I had one at hand but turned out I didn’t, but it’s easy to remember.
Water, the general rule is a gallon, per person, per day PLUS a little spare. Best kept in several containers rather than having all your eggs in one basket.
Food, is going to vary depending on personal preference, do have some easily done snack stuff at hand while sailing. I stay pretty minimalist with backpack stove (jetboil) and freezedried meals. A small thermos for hot stuff in season is valuable as is a water bottle to keep at hand.
Thermarest inflatable camp pad, a small camp pillow (a real indulgence, used life jacket for years but the pillow is nice). Couple of changes of clothes in dry bag. Minimal toiletries, I don’t shave on trips, small first aid kit more sunscreen and lib balm, spare batteries, a pump up sprayer serves as a shower. There are double bag waste receptacles that work pretty well for when a bucket won’t do but find a place to keep the used ones out of cabin, they aren’t quite 100%, close but still.
At least that’s a start.
Edit - One of the things that worked well on P52 was keeping things in rectangular plastic kitchen containers (around 5” x 5” x 8-9”) they would stack up in the locker areas in the seating pod behind 3- 8” diameter screw out hatches. One in the middle had common boxes, each side for individual stuff. Thermarest, clothes and bulkier items stowed in bunk area clipped behind some continuous bungee cord. Maps and the all important (for an old man) pee bottle bungied in the central area of hull.
Skip
Hi Marco,
.....I remember reading Tom Jones and him giving his estimate of weight per person for cruising in one of his books…...
Marco,
Dave Gerr Give a figure of 2.7 kilos of consumables and 4.4 litres of water per person per day. Ditto Skip, use more than one container.
General advice on layout, ergonomics and storage can be found in:
“The Nature of Boats ” Dave Gerr. Chapter 50 page 371
“Principles of Yacht Design” Larsson and Eliasson. Chapter 13 page 297
“Skenes Elements of Yacht Design” Francis S Kinney. Chapter 19 page 200
A lot of gear and catering comes down to personal preference and comfort levels, so offhand, here a few tips from my experience in small boats in no particular order:
1) Find tools and utensils which are or can be adapted to be used for more than one thing.
2) Try not to use ice in an icebox. Use frozen stews,soup, juice, milk or even beer. It saves space and minimises melt water mess.
3) Use a (spare) big rolled up towel for a pillow. If (when) it gets wet, it is easier to dry than a pillow and if isn’t dry enough I use a rolled up jumper.
4) Ditto Skip re containers for storage. It keeps things more organised, drier and sand / dirt free. It also means that if you take stuff ashore, you are not carrying up bits and pieces, just a box or two.
5) Spinnakers can make an extra blanket if you get too cold.
Cheers,
Rob
This short thread on the now defunct Texas 200 forum might be of interest.
http://www.texas200.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=745
Skip
I’m pretty busy up until later today, but I wanted to give you guys a quick thanks for the really helpful responses! 😊
Hi Marco, sorry for the wait.
Tom Jones gives these figures in his book Multihull Voyaging (p44). He notes that the usual advice for water is 1/2 gallon (US) per person per day which is 2 litres = 2kgs = 4.4lbs.
He claims that in his experience, actual water usage is more like 3lbs per person per day. This does not include water for washing.
He allows 4lbs of food (packaged weight) per person per day.
Clothes he allows 50lbs per person and says he took as many clothes for a week as he did for a cruise of several months.
All up he and his wife Carol, reckoned on “900lbs payload for coastal voyages and 1300lbs for long ones”.
So payload included:_
crew weight plus 50lbs each
7lbs per crew per day
Engine weight x1.5 to allow for controls and fuel, outboard bracket etc.
Extra sails such as spinnaker, storm sail
mattresses and bedding
head
galley gear
dinghy
batteries and cables
radio and other electricals
anchors and rodes
safety gear
tools and spares
Other - this includes books, musical instruments, CD’s and something to play them with
Tom Jones was fond of quoting Norm Cross who said, “The two greatest mistakes to be made is first: building a boat that is too large for your budget, and second: building one that is too small to carry the load you require.”
Hope this is useful.
Hi Marco,
sorry, but my pn function does not work in the moment, so I post my answer here. It is no problem if you use quarter sawn (45°) wood for strip planking and for stringers as well.
And please please please please ... plan for a 2 to 4 hp outboard motor for your proa. Rowing is no solution for a 23 foot proa. The North Sea and the Baltic Sea is packed with buisy shipping lines and if you have only light wind you can not risk it to cross a shipping line and force a tanker to give you way. Not to think about if you have to reach a habour with a strong headwind and/or current ... and yes, there are currents in the baltic!!! And they run in the same direction 24 hours a day, because they are powered by the wind, no joke!
Yacht Habours these days are not made to be entered with sails. If you don’t believe me then come to Wilhelmshaven these days and go sailing with me for a weekend. I will allow you to row my boat and you will see that it is not practicable, not to say dangerous.
Best Regards, Michel
I read through all the stuff you guys posted, and I’ve been working on a list of gear of my own. I intend to spend an afternoon actually weighing all the stuff to really get the mass estimate right; maybe I’ll get that done this weekend.
Does anyone pick up anything missing?
Cheers,
Marco