The Offshore Voyaging Reference Site

Serve Your Apprenticeship

For-saleOffshore sailboat voyaging is a lifestyle that endlessly challenges, exhilarates, stretches, intimidates, and fulfills us. Which is why John and I are committed to encouraging others to take up and remain in this lifestyle.

Through this website we have been privileged to encounter, either personally or via email, many aspiring cruisers. A large number are approaching their new lifestyle sensibly and cautiously, by going offshore with other experienced sailors or by slowly ratcheting up the sailing they do on their own boat.

However, we are also encountering a number of people who assume that they should be able to just buy a sailboat, put on the right electronics, and go offshore; sort of like buying a car, installing a GPS, and driving across the country.


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Chris

We raced long-distance/overnight offshore with others and campaigned our own boat offshore for three years before cruising there.

In a few races, we got caught in some hellacious situations brought on by the often evil twin commitments to start and to finish…’series points’ don’t ya know.

We learned we could not only survive those situations but thrive on the learning thereafter. Sometimes the lessons left bruises to deepen the learning.

The biggest lesson we learned was that many offshore sailors talk loudly and carry a small stick. It is vitally important to validate such a skipper or crew with people who don’t have a merely social connection to them. One of those highly titled and touted persons punked out in 50 kts and hail in the Gulf Stream and nearly drowned six of us.

Richard from York

My wife and I are still working towards our offshore dream.
Firstly, I had the opportunity to crew on a yacht delivery from the UK to Gran Canaria. Crossing stormy Biscay in November in a 40 ft Beneteau was an eye opener and let me learn more about myself and the fact I can still work when cold, tired and scared. The onward ARC journey was good but not the same learning experience. The next was to ensure Jenny would enjoy it, so we arranged for her to crew a delivery from Antigua to the UK; she hit a whale, the steering broke and lots of equipment failures…

Secondly, we bought a small, old yacht in need of TLC. We learned how to change oil, fix the engine, repair rigging and generally mend and maintain a yacht.

We discovered several things: We both loved the experience of offshore sailing and we realised this was something we would love to do. We discovered that we are capable of repairing most things and how much work is involved in Yacht ownership. We found out that we should not underestimate the costs involved.

Most importantly we discovered that we are not ready to sell up and sail and compromises will have to be made.

Scott Kuhner

I learned how to sail when I was 14 racing Cape Cods and Lightnings. Then when I was nineteen, I was a crew on a 42 ft ketch sailing from St Thomas to Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Bahamas and finally to Miami. Between Samana in the DR and Cap Haitian in Haiti, we encountered a gale and blew out the main; but, we made it through. In 1969 I bought a 23 ft O’Day Tempest, got married and took our honeymoon sailing from Westport, CT to Nantucket.

In 1970, we realized that we loved being on the ocean so much we bought a 30 ft Seawind Ketch, spent the winter fixing it up and taking celestial navigation lessons at the Hayden Planetarium. That summer of 1971 we took a shakedown cruise to Maine and again loved it. Then, in the fall, we quit our jobs and set sail for points south and west. The trip from Cape Fear to St Thomas was the first time we had been offshore together. 10 days later we made it to St Thomas, and decided to keep sailing west into the Pacific.

We were successful because I was never in doubt that the boat would make it which gave Kitty the confidence she needed to keep going.

Scott Kuhner

I should have added to my last post that when we left on our 30 ft Seawind Ketch, we had NO electronics not even a depth sounder. We used a sextant, a taffrail log and a lead line. We learned that we could sail across an ocean without any fancy electronic gear so didn’t have to rely on anything except the integrity of the boat. Now when we are crossing oceans we realize that if any of our fancy electronics stops working we have the ability to keep going on our own. However, I will say that all our new gear does make it easier to navigate the seven seas.

We ended up spending four years sailing all the way around the world (we realized that it was easier to keep going west than trying to come back from New Zealand against the trades).

Beth Anderson

Great post. I had a rocky apprenticeship for my first offshore sail (although I had done a lot of coastal sailing) but what helped me was that my sailing partner (now husband) was very experienced. As long as I could look over at him and see that he was totally comfortable, I was able to calm down as well. But I still struggle to “trust the boat” the way he does.

On the other hand, we got a great deal on our sailboat because the previous owners probably were the type you described – it was 5 years old but had only been sailed for one season!