The PCS Series
It is my intention to write, from time to time, a series of articles on the concept of the perfect cruising sailboat. As a reader I expect you to understand that you will probably never see a perfect sailboat – for cruising or any other purpose.
Nevertheless, the concept of the PCS allows one to develop a mental appreciation of the features present or lacking in a sailboat that you actually examine. This is useful whether you are in the process of acquiring a sailboat, or maintaining one that you already own.
Preliminaries
Before we can define the perfect cruising sailboat, we have to know for what kind of cruising the boat must be ready. For purposes of this discussion, these are the defining parameters I personally consider ideal. While these choices are subjective, they are not without a supporting rationale, as we shall see.
+ Range: Capable of non-stop circumnavigation of the earth in the course of a year.
+ Cabins: Two doubles and four singles or three doubles and two singles, either in anticipation of 8 total passengers / crew.
+ Hull: Must be self-righting or manually right-able from a capsize. Multi hulls are acceptable if they can meet this criterion – otherwise not.
+ Hull material: Metal – choice to be determined.
+ Hull construction: As nearly unsinkable as possible
+ Overall Length: Probably 65 to 75 feet.
+ Keel configuration: Twin keel or centerboard – as shallow draft as commensurate with stability (self-righting) criterion. Use wine-glass keel if necessary for stability. Various factors will affect final decision on this parameter.
+ Deck Layout: Small, comfortable, well-drained mid cockpit immediately behind or in front of wheelhouse.
+ Standing Rig: Three mast Stay-less Schooner.
+ Running Rig: Set up for safe single-handing.
+ Electrical System Integrity: All electrical components completely waterproof – capable of use even if submerged. All components of every kind to be actively protected from electrolytic corrosion and passively protected from lightening.
+ Overall System Integrity: All components in critical path of reaching destination are to be triple-redundant if possible – with manual backups for more automated functions. Hand tools to back up power tools. GPS system backed up with redundant instruments plus LORAN, direction-finder, dead reckoning compasses and logs, and celestial navigation instruments, charts and tables, including sextant, chronometer, and related equipment.
+ Propulsion: Twin diesels, each capable of hull speed, using feathering propellers. Full complement of manuals and spares. Possible bow- thruster for sharp turns.
+ Fresh Water: 100 gallon tank with filler port on deck – plus desalinators, both battery and solar powered, capable of at least 10 gallons a day production.
Self-Steering Gear: Can be engaged, disengaged, heading set, and feedback gain adjusted from the cockpit.
+ Ground Tackle: 3 anchors, Danforth, Plow, and Bruce designs with 2 powered winches and chain rodes. Best materials affordable.
+ Maintainability: All components that may require repair or replacement shall be readily accessible. Tools and spares for such repairs shall be ready to hand in invertible holders, lockers, and brackets. The precise location of each tool, spare, and component shall be recorded in a durable accessible format.
+ Safety and Emergencies While at sea, safety and emergency equipment and supplies shall be ready to hand, as if every possible crisis could occur at any moment. When at dockside or on mooring, most will be stowed securely to minimize susceptibility to thieves. At a minimum these items should include:
- Canisters of fluorescein
- Sailing dinghy
- Emergency radio beacons and strobe lights
- Extensive medical equipment and supplies,
- Fire extinguishers,
- Flash lights,
- Foul weather clothes
- Compatible cold weather clothes
- Life preservers,
- Life raft, inflatable
- Sail repair kit
- Sea anchors and hawsers,
- Storm sails,
- Survival suits,
- Wet suits and scuba gear, including air compressor,
That’s it for now. In subsequent posts I shall explain these choices and how I arrived at them. In the meantime, I welcome questions about any related topic you happen to think of.
To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea... "cruising" it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.
"I've always wanted to sail to the South Seas, but I can't afford it." What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of "security." And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone.
What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade.
The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.
Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?
As quoted by Stuart Kiehl
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Thanks for the memory, Steve Smith. Sterling was one of my sailing idols - he was SO skilled!
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