Road to single handed solo sailing
Posted by cavalpist146@reddit | sailing | View on Reddit | 30 comments
I've just completed the ASA101 basic keelboat sailing course, without any prior sailing experience. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. My goal is to sail solo a small keelboat locally (in the Bay) and maybe along coastal waters of California. Next, I'm doing the ASA103 course in 6 weeks.
I am looking for suggestions on the path to single handed sailing, in terms of how much experience to get before even thinking about that, what additional courses to do, if there are specifically courses for single handing, or if it's better to go down the route of private instruction. I am very much open to 1:1 private instruction and can allocate $10,000/year to that.
I'm new to sailing, but I fly and, in aviation, what matters are number of hours and currency (how many hours in the last x months), not for how many years one has got the pilot license. Does it make sense in sailing too, rather than reasoning in terms of seasons?
Also, given my objective, I was thinking that inevitably I'd have to buy my own sailboat, since rarely clubs and schools allow dinhle handing on rented boats. Is that so? I assume I'd have much more freedom in rigging it for single handed.
Elegant-Leg540@reddit
Here you go: https://sfbaysss.org/
Shopshack@reddit
I was going to suggest the same.
One way to meet and get experience from others is that some of the single handers will do the double handed events and will need Crew. At least that’s how it was when I was in the Bay Area - admittedly many moons ago.
Powerful_Bluebird347@reddit
I’d like to throw a wrench in your plans by saying you really need to become a very good dinghy sailor. Save up for the bigger boat while you sail a dinghy and even race that dinghy.
dwkfym@reddit
I'm in the Chesapeake bay (roughly annapolis) and this was my progression.
Montgomery 17, doing short daysails while being mostly clueless and a lot of luck (back in Florida - I had sailed Sunfish before that, so I had the very core basics of sailing only)
Bristol 30 - Few single handed sails across the base (west - east) then up and down, until I eventually sailed to Norfolk. Did that a few more times.
Bristol 30 - Did the DelMarVa (roughly 500nm) single handed. My first taste of offshore/near coastal.
Bristol 30 - Sailed to Bahamas from Annapolis area. About 65% of it was single handed.
Pearson 365 - I don't want to single hand anymore, so I got a ketch rig boat. lol. I'm still gonna practice and run mainsail controls to the cockpit, though its a LOT easier to go to the mast with the bulwarks I now have.
I'd first make sure you really understand sailing. I mean how to reef in all conditions, how to tune and use sail shape in both head and mainsail, heaving to reliably, how to get the boat to stand up more and heel more, etc. This is really best done on a dinghy - a dinghy complicated enough to have a vang and outhaul. Rig tuning is helpful too but I've never owned a boat with running backstays (my mizzen running backs don't count).
Then learn cruising basics - coastal first. Learn how land mass effects waves and wind. Learn to understand weather patterns. Get really good at your ground tackle. Learn some single handed tricks - how to gybe, tack, heave to in all conditions (hint: take your time, theres almost always more time than you think and you can do things slow, little bit at a time). Get used to being by yourself for a very long time, ride the ups and downs of all the emotions. Be able to dock in high winds all by yourself. (dock lines are your friends here). Be able to set, re-set, weigh your anchor in 4 foot pitching seas at your bow, all alone. Set and stow downwind rigs all by yourself, pole and all.
I haven't progressed must past this point yet. I haven't done more than 3 days offshore single handed. But by then you'll be good enough where you get annoyed at people man-splaining stuff to you both online and real life. (btw I'm a man, also sometimes guilty of that). And remember, you have something to learn from almost anyone, even those less experienced than you. Sail on other peoples boats a lot too and learn how things are done, slightly different from how you do it.
Intrepid_Train3277@reddit
Great advice.
Wado@reddit
Liveaboard solo sailors perspective:
Sailors often share a measure of their experience by miles and qualify them by using words like, costal cruising, offshore, crossings and passages. That does not however equate to knowledge of sailing.
Some cruising boats have one person that knows whats going on and a family/crew of people with no clue. Everyone gains “miles under their belt” and some motor the entire way which still counts as sailing. All that said take advice with a cup of salt.
Approach sailing with a pilots perspective. Hire a pro to teach you, take you out, run through a checklist, and then slowly take on more of the responsibility in a controlled way. Ask that pro for help finding a boat that’s right for your needs. Seek advice from someone that can scrutinize said boat before buying. And read lots of books!
Sailing can be a complex subject but ultimately very rewarding. Enjoy the process and let me know if you have any questions!
Intrepid_Train3277@reddit
I would love a list of books to read. I’m a novice. Thank you!
M37841@reddit
Yes I was going to say the same thing. If you’ve got money to throw at this then hire a pro, eventually just to watch you single hand it, offer advice and help if it goes pear-shaped. Much more likely to make single-handing progress doing that than group courses
DadBodFacade@reddit
Start with a dinghy. Preferably one with a main and jib and a spinnaker. Learn to sail it with the main, then main and jib. If you want true multitasking get something with a spinnaker, and learn to solo it.
Dinghies will teach you very quickly about how to get the sails to work for you, how to create/manage momentum and how to recover from compromised situations without causing big damage. Knowing how to sail into a dock safely is an amazing skill to have and is best learned on a dinghy.
Once you can sail a dinghy well in a wide variety of conditions, move up to a small keelboat with an engine and some sort of autopilot. Take plenty of time in open water, or open dock situations, learning to control the boat under power... especially how to operate at slower speeds and quickly reverse and back out under control to extract yourself from less than ideal situations.
Crewing on a boat will definitely teach you things but not as quickly and effectively as sailing and dinghy on your own.
Once you are in a keelboat, you will need to figure out some logistics specific to your boat such as hoisting/dousing sails, docking, anchoring, etc. taking to others can help with this.
Just know the bigger the boat the more you need to think ahead... It's just more momentum and energy. So you must think ahead and ensure you are ready for what's next as trying to adapt late is much more challenging.
Nearly any boat can be solo sailed, but those with some auto steering are much easier, as are those with simpler sail plans and controls (asymmetrical vs symmetrical spinnakers, mainsail luff rollers, roller furling jibs, halyards and sheets lead to cockpit & helm, etc). As you evaluate boats just think through how you will safely perform all the actions needed to sail especially in less than ideal conditions.
nickelchrome@reddit
I would get a Catalina 22 or something similar and start sailing it and learning as you go. A lot of the skills in single handing bigger boats are core sailing skills that take time to drill down and get intuition with.
You should get a tiller autopilot for it and practice sailing it in settled conditions and work your way up.
Eventually you can move up to a bigger boat, you’ll get a lot more out of training then (spending more time on systems and motoring than sailing)
Coreantes@reddit
Exactly what I did with a Catalina 23. Just get out there. I did have a tiller AP to keep me straight while hoisting the main at the mast.
Mehfisto666@reddit
Oh yeah if you solo absolutely have an autopilot
Mehfisto666@reddit
You are overthinking it. I bought a 28 ft keelboat as my first boat ever without havingever sailed before, the seller took me out 2 hours and the day after i was off on a 400NM trip to take the boat north.
I did, however, work at sea as a matros on bigger boats so i knew navigation and how to read sea weather and charts.
Sailing in fair weather is super easy. It's the rough weather that makes it difficult.
If you would like to cruise the coast a bit and i guess sleep on the boat I'd try to go for a 26 to 30ft, ideally 28ft. It's not going to be more complex than a smaller boat and the extra weight will make it feel safer, more stable and less blown around by the wind.
What makes a BIG difference in boat ownership is whether the boat is trailearable or not. If you can take it out of the water yourself and take it home it makes it soooo much easier. You don't have to pay exorbitant marina prices and it's easy to do maintenance. This is the only reason why I'd want anything smaller.
Instead of blowing 10k on courses spend that money to get a boat and go out there
mhplog_4444@reddit
Spinnaker sailing school in Redwood City has a club option which allows single handing. If your experience is there.
Moondance_sailor@reddit
I would say the boat you have is really a factor in single handing. Does it balance well? Meaning when sails are properly trimmed does the helm wander. Do the lines run to the cockpit? Do you have an auto helm of some kind (auto pilot or weathervane style)
As far as experience I’d say once you feel confident you can handle your boat confidently in the weather you expect as conditions that are two steps closer to awful. I assume it’s like aviation being confident in emergencies to the point where you can limit the error chain.
The coast of California can be pretty rowdy. The west coast has strong currents and some strong winds and not a lot of places to hide. Especially north of pt conception.
I have been sailing since I was 3 (now 38) and I don’t single hand a lot but I have friends who have solo sailed oceans. I think a lot of it is a mind set and skill increases at an exponential level to duration of trip. So a short jaunt around the bay I’d say your close of the boat is set up to make it easy.
A solo trip to half moon bay? Maybe give it a year or so before you try that.
millijuna@reddit
It’s also how the boat is setup. We have an Ericson 27 that is explicitly setup for single handing. All halyards are lead to the cockpit, roller furling headsail, lazyjacks, sailpack. We can deploy and douse our sails without leaving the safety of the cockpit.
We also have a Simrad TP32 autopilot connected to our wind instruments that can act as a third hand when needed. I can let the AP hold the tiller while I trim sails, and in reasonably settled conditions, the robot can handle the steering through a tack while I haul the jib over.
Moondance_sailor@reddit
Yeah I mentioned equipment is a big part of it. It is wild though the number of people on social Media who will buy a boat and sail it to Hawaii the next week but have never done anything like it before. Maybe I’m a victim of dunning Kruger effect but solo sailing long distance unnerves me.
millijuna@reddit
My buddy and I are preparing our E27 for her biggest trip in 20 years. We’re planning a 5 week trip to the west coast of Vancouver Island. The level of detail and major prep that goes into this is no joke. And we’re not even crossing an ocean.
cavalpist146@reddit (OP)
Thanks everyone for the valuable inputs. I'm certainly keen on getting experience first on club sails, but in parallel I'd get 1:1 instruction focused on my objective.
As far as boats, are there keelboats<30ft that are more suitable for single handing, perhaps with some customization? I was already assuming I'd look for a boat with an autopilot.
millijuna@reddit
I don’t have any formal training, but it took me some 10 years to become confident enough in my skills to take the Ericson 27 I share out single handed.
I initially sailed a lot with my friend who’s the other owner and much more experienced. Then I started taking less experienced people out, such as my father, to be an extra set of hands.
I’m now confident enough in my skills to set my anchor (we don’t have a windlass installed yet) and setup a stern tie single handed.
It’s worth the work.
The hard part isn’t so much the sailing and passagemaking, imho, it’s the close in boat handling. Docking, undocking, anchoring. Those are the skills to focus on
ImpressiveFault8542@reddit
I really enjoyed Andrew Evans book on the subject.
MissingGravitas@reddit
Here's the basic progression for the ASA and US Sailing courses. The descriptions are extremely simplified of course; you'll touch on many topics from the start but each will go into greater detail. E.g. you might not cook aboard until Bareboat, and you might not be expected to draw a diagram of all the diesel parts until CPM.
Single-handing, to me, is largely about identifying what tasks commonly use a second person and finding a way to work around that. Docking is a big one, as is anything that needs steady steering if you don't a functioning autopilot. And you're correct; I doubt anyone would charter to someone solo. Just for reference, the school I did required completing the CPM level to sail outside the Bay (e.g. Monterey, etc). I don't think any of the other schools/clubs allow taking their boats past the demarcation line.
For SF, offshore can vary significantly. I've made plenty of trips up and down the coast where it was nothing but motoring and flat water. Sometimes there was dense fog. Other times there were decent swells and 20-30 knots. Note that most people have no issues with seasickness inside the Bay, but outside it's a different picture.
kcmike@reddit
Why would you approach it in any other way than you did with pilots license. Practice, practice, practice. Sailing is x & y axis. Flying adds z. So much easier and less risk. Go sailing every week with a club, racing group or charter company.
cmclx@reddit
Go to the local yacht clubs and see if you can get on a boat that is racing (the bay had no shortage of yacht clubs). The experience you gain from handling a boat on the bay would be invaluable for single handing. I used to always tell crew, “Why buy a boat when skippers here always need crew?“ Might as well learn on someone else’s dime.
vepkenez@reddit
I do a ton of solo sailing. It’s almost like I do it as my main form of exercise. Here’s a video of me sailing with no autopilot but I do use this thing called a tiller tamer which keeps the tiller just under control enough so you can go do things for a minute. Get a boat and go out without other people. You will be forced to develop a bag of tricks.
Infamous-Adeptness71@reddit
Courses are great. Nothing wrong with that.
Yeah, you might do some private instruction, but you certainly won't need 10k worth! No way. Get a handful of private lessons at most. (even better if the lessons are on your boat).
Yes, you'll need a boat pretty soon.
If you haven't started a log, do so. Sailing is not exactly like flying, but there are similarities. Hours matter, as does 'checking' out in certain skills and practicing them occasionally. Of course this is not as closely supervised/regulated as in flying. So you need to provide the structure yourself.
Really, you're just gradually working up to higher skill levels. Keep pushing a little farther each time. And don't worry about mistakes. That's when the learning happens.
ShrekNFionaVonSwamp@reddit
Same sitch here… ATP with a penchant for solo sailing… have the asa101 and nothing else… use solo’d in the San Diego bay three times… once on a capris 22 which was pretty easy and two more on a Catalina 25 which has been a handful but I’ve learned the most about trim, theoretical speed and what the water looks like from the high side of the cockpit during a round up into irons.
Fun times… honestly… just go do it if it’s less than 10kts… more than 10kts, reef and enjoy the ride. Go full bore once you’ve got a handle on the mechanics… a bungee goes a long way to help with the tiller while you’re managing sheets…
hamboner5@reddit
I was in a similar space about 6 years ago but on the gulf instead of the west coast. Not that I'd recommend it, but I just watched a bunch of instructional youtube videos for a couple months on docking, sail trip, navigation, rules of the water, knots, etc. and then bought a catalina 25 and sailed it solo right from the get go. Honestly the only thing that was somewhat difficult was coming back into the slip but having an outboard made it a lot easier. The actual sailing part, yeah you're gonna be bad at it at first but no one is ever gonna be an expert on their first sail.
After about 2-3mo of people at the local yacht club seeing me heading out alone, someone asked me if I wanted to crew on his J30 for some casual races. I kept going every week for the season and even crewed for some longer distance ocean events. That was where I actually learned to sail; you'll learn more from 1 hour of racing than 20 hours of milling around by yourself.
If I were back at the beginning again, I'd start with the racing if I could. Head to the local yacht club, find someone who knows what they're doing but is laid back enough to be patient and teach a beginner, and make yourself reliably available for the casual racing scene at the club. Showing up every week is a lot more important to a lot of people than your skill level. Then you can learn to sail well, get comfortable on the water, and meet a lot of people without spending a dime. Then when it's time to get your boat you might have more of an idea of whether you want to race, adventure, or daysail and it'll help you pick a boat you'll be happy with. Also, if you make it known you're looking, there's a not insignificant chance someone at the yacht club will offer you a boat at a steep discount. No one wants to deal with flaky buyers and brokers they don't know.
Sorry for the essay but hope there's something useful here.
Brave-Entrance7475@reddit
Dont even bother finding crew. Learn solo.
Buy a damn boat and go. What's the worst that can happen, death?
Hindsight 20/20, you won't mind.
1have2much3time@reddit
Spinnaker sailing in Redwood City has a single handed course for their Merit 25 fleet.