[C320-list] How far offshore?

[Larry Frank]

Graeme,

What makes an offshore boat is a subject that has been debated at all yacht clubs and harbor bars for hundreds of years.   I won't get into that but will support the observations that a 320 will pound going to weather in ocean waves.  Maybe not so much in swells like you might encounter in the pacific, but definitely in the short choppy waves that are the norm in the Gulf of Mexico where I sail.

No one mentioned how far they have sailed offshore.  I know my trips are not the longest but I have sailed 500+ miles from the coast of Texas to Veracruz Mexico in a race back in 2006.  I think Catalina Yachts used to have a spot on their website where significant cruises completed on Catalinas were logged.  You might want to see if it is still there.

As far as the open transom, I think your concerns might be misplaced.  When we purchased WindSwept, my wife liked that feature for swimming and boarding the dink.  I thought it was very poor design that would put the boat at risk in a large following sea.  I was wrong.  On one trip in the Gulf we were sailing in a large following sea with winds in the 25 kt range.  Of course it was dark, everything always seems to happen at night.  We were watching in amazement as the big waves would come up behind the stern and the stern wound then rise up and the wave the passed under WindSwept.  Until one didn't.  It broke in the cockpit.  The cockpit filled to just where the first hatch board should have been.  The water then ran out the transom under the insert in just a few seconds.  It could never have drained that quickly through a more normal scupper arrangement.    Take a look at the offshore racing monohulls in races like the Volvo.  They all have wide open transoms.  I now see it as a good thing.

Larry
WindSwept
C320#246

On 8/27/20, 11:49 AM, "C320-list on behalf of Graeme Clark" <c320-list-bounces at lists.catalina320.com on behalf of cg at skyflyer.co.uk> wrote:


    Curious to know if anyone has sailed any significant distances offshore in a C320. 

    I recall reading somewhere that it’s “not an offshore boat” but I have no idea why, nor at what point you are considered to be offshore. I think it’s a bit more than just out of sight of land?

    Similarly I don’t really uNderstand the phrase “blue water sailing” beyond the fact that if you’re doing it, you’ve got a good chance of waves breaking over the coachroof and pouring down the companionway if you’re foolish enough to leave it open!

    Here in Britain the furthest I’ve gone is 110nm across the English Channel to France but I’d like to sail down to the Mediterranean one day (no, not IN one day!) which Means crossing the Bay of Biscay. 300nm
    In some notoriously poor conditions if you’re unlucky Or the forecasters get it wrong! 

    Is that a foolish prospect in a C320?

    Graeme
    #366, 1996
    Sent from my phone. Excuse typos!