Musings on Design for Solo Sailors

Capucine Trochet single-handing TARA TARA

The only way to see true reality is in solitude. One of the tragedies of human existence is that reality cannot be shared. What's real to you may not be to someone else.

― From A Steady Trade: A Boyhood at Sea by Tristan Jones

Musings on Design for Solo Sailors

As an adherent of the Buddy System, I look askance on solo, live-aboard cruising. That being said, many things - including simple inclination - can set us on a solitary course. Not just for the moment, but as a way of life. So it bears thinking about.

Sailing solo asks much more of us, and we need more from our vessels. What follows are my personal thoughts. They hardly amount to advice, much less any kind of yagotta. I offer them for your consideration.

To me, there is a big difference between ocean sailing and inshore that bears on a solo sailor’s needs. While offshore sailing has its own challenges, inshore has most of those plus constraints from proximal shorelines, rocks and reefs, highly variable wind and currents, and generally higher traffic. There are no inshore weeks of balanced sail and helm with little more than lookout duty for the single-hander. Inshore sailing is much more active.

A motor is a help, and at its best, goes a long way toward standing in for crew. It allows planned moves in mostly predictable time. The energy it consumes saves some of that drawn from our own, limited budget. Still, engines have their own costs, and sometimes fail or run through their own available energy. For the lone sailor, I would recommend considering it as an option rather than a codependency.

IMHO, the biggest threat to the single-hander is fatigue.

When sailing alone, there is no other to relieve the watch. To prepare food or drink. To lend a hand. To give a second assessment. To offer courage and moral support. We must guard our strength and sieze the opportunity to rest.

The second is hypothermia. Being in the wind means calories are blown to lee and gone. We can’t be relieved to go below and warm up. Even putting on extra clothing takes an extended moment away from the helm. Good clothing, put on ahead of need is essential, but also can be hard to manage, with sudden downturns of conditions or opportunity putting us in peril. Worse, hypothermia is insidious, dulling the mind and impairing decision by easy-to-miss degrees. As solo sailors, there is no other to note its symptoms. We must be alert to its signs and stay ahead of its advance.

These considerations and others can be helped by good design.

So what would I look for in a vessel that I can manage alone, actively sailing by day and anchoring by night, year-round? Here’s a wish list:

• Small Size - Small affords the best strength-to-boat ratio, both in terms of my own and the vessel’s. A smaller vessel has less mass, momentum, leverages and surface area reducing the stressor forces involved. At the same time, its greater mass-to-stressor ratio increases its relative strength. My required effort is reduced, both in terms of manipulating my vessel and onboard mechanics. Gear (e.g., anchors) and outfit (e.g. rig) are much smaller and lighter at every turn. Small is beautiful! (- E.F. Shumacher).

• Seakindly Motion - Easy motion with reduced, or at least smoothed (damped), roll, pitch and yaw, and lower angles of heel (stability) help keep fatigue down. These are primarily due to hull features, but weight distribution also plays a role.
  
  

• Ultra Shoal Draft - Every inch we shave from the hull opens options for shelter. When single handing near rope’s end, the ability to duck out of conditions can mean life or death. The simple ability to ground our vessel in a hard chance, in wading-depth water and its resourcesn in reach, saves a desperate swim ashore with the only the shirts on our backs
  
  

• Simple, Robust Everything - Single handers, even more than other sailors, are vulnerable to gear failure. A situation that arises is met by one person, rather than a team… when SHTF, we can only do so much alone. Simple, robust gear reduces risk of failure, and eases both assessment and subsequent address. If a quick fix is all that can be managed in a crisis, simple systems are more easily patched with a wider range of options. Redundancy increases safety-in-depth, and helps scale down crises.
  
  

• Handy, Balanced Rig - A rig that is easy to set, strike and balance are essential to the inshore single-hander. Time and energy are precious, rationed and not to be squandered on involved procedures. A balanced rig eases any self-steering system, freeing us from the helm and reducing the adrenaline rush when they are overwhelmed. Easy reefing with a good range of options reduces fatigue from transitions and sailing over- or under powered.
  
  A bonus is a rig that can be raised and lowered completely, if not by hand, then by easy, on-board, mechanical means (e.g., Thames Barge Rig, scaled down). This lets us reduce windage, especially at anchor, for better sleep.
  
  Consider Junk Ketch Rig for excellent reef and balance control. Not as easiliy lowered as some, however.
  
  

• ‘Efficient’ Human Propulsion - The ability to move through calms at an easy pace gets us into and out of harbor for both shelter and sleep. Options include oars, sculls and the Doi PowerFin. Pedal units are also possible, but much less simple. These need to be accomodated, not only by a design, but in terms of use and stowage.
  
  A hull’s shape determines how efficient - how easily driven - it is through water. Generally speaking, more slender, shallow hulls are more slippery, as are curvy ones. Retractable lateral resistance (consider off-centerboards for simplicity) can be cleared from the water when rowing or sailing offwind to reduce drag.
  
  Since rowing is upright, while sailing into the wind is often heeled, design constraints look for a balance according to priority.
  
  

• Interior Handling (Steering, Sail, Propulsion) - The ability to steer and manage sail and oar from within shelter is, I think, a huge advantage. We are far less exposed to the elements, less encumbered by gear (think foulies and PFDs), our galley is near at hand without the need to transition from deck. Eliminating the need for a cockpit potentially shrinks the boat.
  
  To my knowledge, this approach was pioneered for single-handing by ‘Blondie’ Hassler (JESTER and others) and extended by Phil Bolger (BIRDWATCHER and others), Sven Yrvind and Matt Layden.
  
  

• A Comfortable Interior - Inside the vessel is our ‘hole in the weather’. There should be a comfortable, warm, dry place to sit and sleep and cook. If an intimate guest is to be accommodated, they’ll need the same. If these areas overlap, they should transition smoothly, without much time or effort.
  
  Consider a simple, dedicated galley arrangements handy to the helm. At a minimum, space for pre-prepared food storage + thermos.
  
  

• Ample Carrying Capacity - The ability to carry plenty for any given leg of a voyage, including enough for unforeseen delays, takes pressure off any crew. Lone sailors are especially vulnerable if forced to press on for lack of provisions. Our safety margins are narrower to begin with… a forced march can quickly use up what’s left.
  
  
  

All these points work together to enhance and extend our physical ease, resilience and reach while reducing exposure and fatigue. Some, however, work at odds with one another. We seek a dynamic balance to meet expected conditions, leaning this way or that according to where and how we intend to sail.

Every vessel is a compromise, and these are no exception. The single sailor, even more than is generally true for two or more, must put themselves first and foremost among the vessels’ priorities. Exchanging ergonomics for lesser priorities (speed, windward excellence, size, etc.) is a fail-dangerouser bargain. Safety margins are vital, and trading them away is a poor bargain.

So there’s a set of criteria that I’d look for. 

If it were me. 

Which I hope it never is.

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Here are some current live-aboard, cruising solo sailors I admire and  from whom I’ve distilled the above approaches. The word that pops to (my) mind as the common denominator of these sailors is discipline… each has harnessed their energies and passions to surmount the challenges of singe-handing to forge a joyous lifestyle.

Note that, while some inshore sailing is part of any cruiser’s voyage, all I know of are passage based. In other words, close inshore risks are the exception, rather than the rule, and therefore are more easily managed.

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Matt Layden - Matt is a a designer / builder / sailor who solos long and deep -  with more coastal inshore sailing than most. A minimalist, he expemplifies the smallest end of the scale, down to his SAND FLEA(!)

His PARADOX and others hit all the points above. His approach is affirmed by the many versions built and sailed by ‘mature’ soloists.

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Sven Yrvind - Another pioneer of the small, robust, handy school, Sven has been sailing the course for scores of years. His approaches have kept him actively sailing well into his 80s!

He’s another whose designs merit close study. His rigs, are particularly handy and versatile.

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Holly Martin - Holly is a hands-on cruiser, circumnavigating in GEKGO, fixer-upper she transformed into a capable, cruising home. She’s pragmatic, inventive and ‘chill’.

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Kiana Weitzel - Kiana is soloing a larger Wharram catamaran, learning as she goes from near scratch. She provides a good look at simple sailing with the advantages (and some disadvantages) of a larger footprint.

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Shemaya Laurel - While not strictly speaking a live-aboard, Shemaya is a coastal sailor (considerable inshore sailing) for extended periods. In her case, fatigue and exposure are of particular concern, and she casually demonstrates how far preparation and pacing can take us.

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Yann Quenet - Yann is on his second circumnavigation in his 5 meter BALUCHON! He’s another who makes the very small end of the scale look both practical and inviting!

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Here are some designs that I think would either make good single-handers along the lines above or provide inspiration for them. They’re not by any means a definitive list, but serve as illustrations. Each have features to consider, if not copy!:

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Matt Layen’s PARADOX, showing the well-thought-out approach to a successful and compact cruiser. He sets a high bar! Not clearly shown here are his chine runners… fixed flanges running along about ⅓ of the chine providing enhanced lateral resistance (no keel or boards to handle and no extra draft!).

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BOB is a doodle of mine, inspired by Matt Layden’s PARADOX. It’s the simplest to build and gets the most interior on a given footprint. It won’t be as slippery as some others, but is exceptionally stable under sail, relative to its size. It would be my choice given how I roll.

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Phil Bolger’s BIRDWATCHER (and his enhanced BIRDWATCHER II) are another high water mark. The cabin is see-through and watertight, making this hull self rescuing from inside after a full knock-down!

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OLLIE is an early sketch toward John Harris’ thoughts on adapting Phil Bolger’s DOVEKIE. Note the small, aft cockpit with a dodger bar to set up a sheltered station. Rowing can be done from inside.

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FAERING CRUISER is another by John Harris. This one is exceptionally slippery making it easy to drive under sail and oar. Accomodations are accordingly scant for a live-aboard (a cockpit shelter helps), but a minimilist could do well with this one.

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Godfrey Stephens’ adaptation of Bill Short’s SAN FRANSICO BAY PELICAN. Lots of accomodation on a small footprint, these are surprisingly able sailors in rough water.

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EGRET by Ralph Monroe manages to be a small 29ft, and coud be scaled down if desired. As was, she earned her legendary reputation delivering mail year round in wild, Gulf Stream waters. Early proof that hard chines can produce a slippery, seaworthy hull.

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Fritz Koschmann aboard his Howard Chapelle designed Scow in SE Alaska.

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BALUCHON on it’s first circumnavigation.

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James Wharram’s well proven TIKI 21 and 26… lots of single-hander footprint in a small package. A large deck tent expands living space at anchor.

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MUSTELID is another of my designs… it’s in reach of single handing as is, though I’d shorten the forward cockpit for one rowing station and switch to ketch rig. Inside handling can be arranged. The mast-furled Leg O’ Mutton sails with Holopuni Quick-Rig inspired booms turned out to be fantastically simple and easy to handle (we later learned that SEAPEARL canoes offered a similar rig).