Association Forum - boat for florida-bahamas crossing

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

boat for florida-bahamas crossing

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

cayugaboater
1st Mate

Member Avatar

50 Posts

Initially Posted - 02/13/2010 : 20:28:30

Need some advice: I want to be able to make the 50 mile or so crossing from st. lucie to bahamas, but it just sounds like a bit much for my 89 catalina 25 and my lake-sailing skills.

Sooooo, this may be anathema to ask here, and I'll apologize upfront for asking, but you guys know a lot of useful information, so I'm going to ask anyway, here goes:

what might be a good, relatively inexpensive, low maintenance used MOTORBOAT i should be looking for so that I can make this crossing in the limited amount of vacation days I have to do such a thing?

someday I'll sail it, but right now I just want to get over there and see the place!

89 wingkeel;std rig.
Sail #5811

Edited by - on

Nautiduck
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
3704 Posts

Response Posted - 02/13/2010 : 21:02:22

Edited by - on

Steve Milby
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

USA
5908 Posts

Response Posted - 02/13/2010 : 21:35:32

I would recommend against making the trip in the kind of powerboat that you describe. A small, inexpensive, used powerboat usually has low freeboard, and a low freeboard boat shouldn't cross the choppy Gulf Stream. An older used boat is likely to have one engine, and it's reliability might be doubtful. Any powerboat going offshore should have two engines, because, if one fails in the middle of the Gulf Stream, you won't have an alternate means of propulsion, as you would with a sailboat. You'd be stranded out there, and the Gulf Stream is not a place where you want to be stranded. You'd be much safer taking the C25.

A possible alternative might be to charter a trawler for 2-4 days, or a bigger sailboat with a diesel inboard engine.

Edited by - Steve Milby on 02/13/2010 21:37:38

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 02/13/2010 : 21:58:29

For sale, cheap! Caught (by aircraft--surface craft couldn't catch it) running drugs across the English Channel (I think)... Plenty of propulsion redundancy.

Edited by - on

cayugaboater
1st Mate

Members Avatar

50 Posts

Response Posted - 02/13/2010 : 22:00:51

I see your point, so if I were going to be looking for something like that it would have to be twin outboard boston whaler or some such, and Im already thinking its out of my price range right now. I've got a spare 73 23' Oday laying around i was going to keep down there, but thats probably not enough boat either?

Edited by - on

Steve Milby
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

USA
5908 Posts

Response Posted - 02/14/2010 : 00:40:14

The Oday sailboat could do the trip, if you wait for a good weather window, and have a good, long shaft motor. You should plan on making the crossing as fast as possible sailing if you have good wind, or motorsailing if necessary. Carry plenty of fuel and take along a good gps. Every year, there are groups of small sailboats crossing for the first time that make the crossing in a convoy. It would be good to hook up with one of them, because they can look out for aznd help each other.

Edited by - Steve Milby on 02/14/2010 00:42:30

redviking
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1771 Posts

Response Posted - 02/14/2010 : 08:12:58

There was a guy on a Hunter 25.5 - well equiped with a Steph (woman) on board that could make a sailor change course, who did the trip at least once. Renzo, do you still have that link? It's kinda cold here in Floooreeda.

sten

Edited by - on

jbkayaker
Captain

Members Avatar

USA
299 Posts

Response Posted - 02/14/2010 : 08:25:11

The MacGregor sailboaters make that crossing about once a year or used to. The key to doing it, according to what I have read, is NO Northern wind component. In other words the wind has to be from the Southern half of the compass. That's because a wind opposing the Gulf Stream makes waves build up. The MacGregor group will wait days for winds to be right and then depart several hours before Sunrise so that they will arrive at Bimini before Sunset. You'll find more information on a MacGregor board. Read the posts at the URL below and you'll get some idea of the challenge involved in crossing the Gulf Stream:
http://forums.macgregor.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=104346&highlight=sail+Bimini

Edited by - jbkayaker on 02/14/2010 08:36:54

Steve Milby
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

USA
5908 Posts

Response Posted - 02/14/2010 : 09:17:17

Some of the people at trailersailor.com usually organize a crossing too.

Before GPS, the thinking was that you should leave at night, because you could see the light at Miami until you were about halfway across, at which time you would begin to see the Bimini light, which would guide you the rest of the way to Bimini. You should time your crossing so that you'll arrive shortly after sunrise, so you can enter in daylight. I think GPS makes the lights less important for purposes of navigation, but you should still be sure to arrive in daylight. The GPS gives you a little more latitude in scheduling, and a lot more accuracy in navigation.

Edited by - Steve Milby on 02/14/2010 09:21:18

jbkayaker
Captain

Members Avatar

USA
299 Posts

Response Posted - 02/14/2010 : 10:15:57

After reading about the Jordan Series Drogue I would like to have one for offshore trips. See
http://www.jordanseriesdrogue.com/D_3.htm

Edited by - on

britinusa
Web Editor

Members Avatar

USA
5404 Posts

Response Posted - 02/14/2010 : 10:21:23

50 miles?

We took JD over to Bimini for a short weekend (launched Friday, sailed from Biscayne Bay Saturday Morning, Arrived Saturday night at Bimini, relaxed (or should that be 'Recovered') on Sunday, Departed 5am Monday, back in Biscayne Bay Monday night, pulled out on Tuesday.)

We motored most of the journey as the waves were too big on the way there and wind was coming the wrong way on the return trip. We only sailed a couple of hours altogether.

Would I do the trip in JD again ... yes, but only in company of at least a couple of other C25/C250's et.al.

The motoring took 13 hours each way to Bimini!

The bahama's would add quite a bit to that time.

Pual

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 02/14/2010 : 10:21:31

When I did the trip on my trawler, there were some guys out at Chub Key on a Grady White with twin Yamaha 4 stroke outboards. Of course, their boat probably cost more than mine! It would be nice to be able to cruise the Bahama banks at 25 knots!

You could make the crossing to Bimini in a 25 foot express type cruiser IF you wait for weather. We waited 2 weeks in Key Largo for winds from the S and seas 2 to 4. Then we scooted up to Miami, fueled one last time, and left at 4 AM. We were in by early afternoon. We had to wait in Bimini and Cat Cay for another week for weather good enough to make Chub. Then waited 3 or 4 days to get a weather window for Nassau.

You get the idea.

A well found sailboat is slower, but much more capable in winds to 25 knots and seas 5 to 6 - and that is a calm day out there.

Check out our 3 month voyage to the Bahamas

http://www.indiscipline.org/cruise2001/cruise2001.html

One thing, we ran into a guy several times with about a 20 foot swing keel sailboat. He could anchor or beach anywhere. He never had to pay slip fees or wait out bad weather in a rolly anchorage. He could pull the boat up in little coves in about a foot of water and walk ashore.

We saw several outboard powered small sailboats way out there.

Edited by - on

cayugaboater
1st Mate

Members Avatar

50 Posts

Response Posted - 02/14/2010 : 15:26:42

Well the 23 foot O'day I have thats just sitting since i bought the c25 has a crank up and down centerboard setup, that sounds like it might work nice there.
I'd be going from port st.lucie, across but guess would have go south first to make up for the current drift

Edited by - on

Frank Law
Navigator

Members Avatar

USA
159 Posts

Response Posted - 02/14/2010 : 17:32:34

A friend of mine has made the trip from Lauderdale area to the Bahamas about 4 times in a 22' swing keel sailboat. (not a Cat 22) He always went at night Less wind, steadier wind..He would trailer the boat from Pa. and wait for the right day and go for it...I think if he could make it in his 22' boat ,our 25'er should make the trip.
Frank Law
About Time
1983 sr,swk,

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 02/14/2010 : 21:46:45

22', 20', 19'... A Beetle Cat can <i>potentially</i> make it... The question is what odds you're willing to work with and how ready <i>you</i> are. The smaller, slower, and less blue-water-capable the boat, the more skilled and/or adventuresome the skipper should be. The Gulf Stream, besides having nasty seas in NW, N, or NE winds, often creates its own weather systems that are very visible from a distance but very difficult to predict (and are often not predicted). A good friend had seas going over the top of his 25-foot wooden Folk Boat as he sailed singlehanded across The Stream to Cuba. Fine for him--not for me!

Edited by - on

skrenz
Captain

Members Avatar

USA
351 Posts

Response Posted - 02/15/2010 : 10:57:36

I sailed over to the Bahamas in a 40 foot sailboat in 20 knots of wind from the northeast and 8 foot seas. We had to motor back two days later in about 1 foot seas with southeast winds of 5 knots. Its all in the weather. I certainly would not want to have been going over in a 25 foot boat in that sea state but coming back I could have been comfortable in an 18 foot boat. The other thing to remember is that the longer the waterline of the boat the faster you will be able to go. In the 25 you are pretty well limited to 6.5 knots through the water under best conditions at hull speed. In a longer boat your hull speed is that much more. Sail verses power? I don't know that you would be that much "safer" in a power boat as opposed to a sail boat. The argument that a sail boat essentially has two means of propulsion as opposed to a single engine power boat I think holds a lot of water.
More important is your own skill level both to operate the boat and to navigate. Going over to the Bahamas is real navigation. Not at all like sailing along the coast. My best suggestion is to sail over with someone else (even in a class perhaps) before you try it on your own. Knowing what to expect is half the battle/challenge.

Edited by - on

Topic

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Jump To:

Association Forum

Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.