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0 pointsthrow0101a4y ago0 comments

> I.e. the the difference between a 31' and 45' will not make one bit of difference to the sea, however the 31' will be like 4-8x cheaper to supply.

Not wrong from a financial point of view, but the it should be noted that (generally speaking) a boat's maximum speed is proportional to its length:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_speed

You can cross oceans in a small boat, but you will probably do it much slower than a longer boat. There is some probability that something will go wrong every day you're out on the water, so the longer it takes the higher the chances that something bad will happen (never mind all the extra provisioning needed for those days). Also, the longer you're out, the more likely the weather will shift to something you won't like and you won't be able to avoid it because of your slow(er) speed.

Just another factor to consider.

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3 comments · 2 top-level

wrycoder4y ago· 1 in thread

Proportional to the square root of the length, unless it’s a planing catamaran.

BoxOfRain4y ago

It's mad how much faster catamarans can be than monohulls. When I was a student me and some friends got together and bought a used Dart 16 with the spinnaker kit, it was the fastest thing there by a huge margin (albiet because most of the boats were the usual student fare, Fireflies, Laser 2s, GP14s). We played a fun game called 'cat and mouse' which was basically British bulldog but on dinghies, the club boats had to avoid getting caught by the much faster catamaran but it was a fair game because the cat was hopeless upwind and the slower club boats could point far further and escape.

The most fun I ever had on that boat was at Bala Lake in north Wales, honestly one of the most underrated dinghy sailing places on the planet in my opinion.

entaloneralie4y ago

We've been doing 50+ days passages across the Pacific on a 33 footer, while keeping in touch with other boats doing the same transits, in the same season with similar problem. But from our experience, when shit hits the fan, I rather be on a small boat with sails I can pull down with my bare hands.

bigger boats - bigger problems.

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