From: gerard@progress.COM (Gerard Bras)
Subject: Re: Who's planning a cruise? Where and When?
Organization: Progress Software Corp.
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 17:53:16 GMT

jfh@cs.brown.edu (John F. Hughes) writes:

>In article <j_92dv#@rpi.edu> floydb@rpi.edu writes:
>>Is anyone planning a cruise/trip for this spring or summer?

>Four major items: designing and installing refrig. system, installing autohelm
>(I got one used for $175), redoing all interior brightwork, and fixing just
>about everything expensive in the house water system (new pump, new hot water
>heat exchanging tank, new accumulator tank, maybe new faucets in the head,
>maybe adding a "dish spray" style hose to the galley sink.)

Let me recommend the last item.  I put in a Delta faucet, with single lever
control and the kind of head that pulls out (sorry, I don't know the trade
term).  It is made for shack use but I can't see any way that it's inferior
to the "marine" units at West et. al.  Anyhow, it's wonderful.   Being able to 
rinse out the icebox after cleaning it is a real luxury.  The down side is that 
it was kind of expensive, around $150.  Installation was a POC.

Also while you're ripping the fixtures and fittings, you might as well 
spring for new hose too.  It's pretty cheap if you buy it by the box, is easier
to work than old hose, and your water will taste (much) better. Further, I 
really do recommend the ball type valves very highly for this purpose.   Get 
good ones at a discount plumbing supply place.
 
....

>Now a question for others: suppose you are making a 40 hour passage with a crew
>of 4 or 5. How do you arrange your watch schedule. What time of day or night do
>you choose to depart (if you can choose)? 

We try to time it so we make landfall in the morning.  We do three or four hour
watches, often longer in the day, sometimes shorter at night.  We discuss it
and see how we feel.  Being just two people who know each other pretty well
this kind of flexibility works.  For larger groups I'd suggest a more fixed 
schedule so people can plan thier activity and sleep.  Speaking of sleep we
have a rule that at least a bona fide effort has to be made at getting some
sleep in the afternoon.  This is the only way to get through the night and
staying alert.  Needless to say, neither of us is ever completely off the
hook, the "Both hands on deck" call is all too frequent.  This is one situation
where the extra crew is really desirable. 

Sailing shorthanded we tend to use electronic aids a lot. While we realize that
they can fail at any time and we'll have to do thier job, they do relieve a 
lot of the burden of being offshore.  Being less exhausted, I feel we are 
more able to do a good job on things the electronics do can't like running
the boat and piloting.  If an emergency does arise it is all the more important 
that the crew be up to par.  I'm happy to say that last year we had very near
100% uptime on all the 'tronics. 

One more observation, how you set up the boat makes a big difference on how
easy it to run shorthanded.  This covers everything from sight lines to 
instruments, having good telltales, what kind of sail handling gear is installed
and where cleats are located.   Anytime we do something to the boat we try
to consider the effect on managing the boat in adverse circumstances.  
As a result the boat is now much easier for one or two people to handle.
Often mocking up an installation with string and tape will save a lot of
grief later.
 
cheers,
gerard 
 

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