A boat race of note, some measles content, and in the “a bad connection” department…
Way back when, at the Beaulieu boat jumble, we came across an American selling circumnavigation chart kits for something like a hundred pounds or so. Of course, the charts were xeroxed, black and white, and 3/4 size but they came in a big burgundy Cordura bag and the kit had to weigh at least 25 kilos.
It just might have been the best deal I’ve ever come across in terms of boat or cruising stuff. We could go just about anywhere.
Now days, when a single paper chart costs $28 or more, the outlay for circumnavigation coverage would cost more than our Islander.
A LOT MORE!
Still, we do need some minimal coverage in paper but digital charting is the way to go. The following video from one of my favorite You Tube channels, The Low Cost Sailor, has just about all the information you’ll need to know for navigating your frugal digital charting path. Good stuff.
For anyone interested, I’m leaning towards the Orca charts with CPN as a backup…
Not a fan of anything McIntyre, but he certainly has a skill of relieving people of lots of money.
Yep, he sure does.
That said, a single handed round the world race in homebuilt plywood boats smaller than Minis is still a pretty
big accomplishment. The upside is that it shows it can be done.
Sure, not a surprise to anyone who has read “Shrimpy”, that the boats would be able enough. But the initial claim of less than 10K build cost for a yacht to take part was pure BS. Then came the mandatory mast sections, stainless fittings pack, etc etc. One of the boats for sale had a price of £65K.
Agreed.
The problem, as least as I see it, is that there’s always a payday for for jacking up the cost of sailing.Sadly, promoting affordable sailing or cruising, is not going to pay any bills so it has to be a labor of love…
Or, in some cases fueled by anger.
My “bang my head against the bulkhead until the pain stops” personal hate object is the whole cruising rally scam. The ARC and reasonable facsimiles have had a real negative affect on the whole cruising gig. Of course, all in the guise of making a passage safer while turbo-charging the consumerist dogma.
Sure, I’d love to see a non-profit rally based on affordable practice that does not impact the stops in a negative manner as well as being an example of low cost low impact cruising. Then again, I doubt anyone in the sailing media would cover it as it would not attract advertisers.
So it goes…
I hear you. Of course, if people are prepared to pay someone lots of money to sail around the world with that persons name and advertising, that IS a personal choice if one wants to be in an organized “race”.
I was priced out of the Mini-Transat due to entry fees, which would have covered 2 years cruising budget.
The Setka Atlantic Challenge, is the only free to enter “race”, with no prizes, in one design 15ft boats, designed by the same guy who drew the MiniGlobe580 boats. Don seems to ride on the coat tails of others.
The cruising community generally look after their own, but the “safety in numbers” seems to be a really easy sell. Rant over. The fact i have just seen a fold-up stainless bow-boarding ladder, on “special” for $600, reminds me there is a sucker born every minute.
While I have zero interest in races or rallies, I do find the organization of the Race to Alaska (https://r2ak.com/) both refreshing and a “race” I follow every year. Certainly worth checking out…
The prize is $10K nailed to a tree and they suggest bringing a pry bar to collect it. The second prize is a set of steak knives.