[C320-list] How far offshore?

[RONALD HODEL]

We sailed our C 320 to Mexico and spent a year in paradise back in 2015-16. Our cruise took us about 3000 NM. The first couple legs of the trip down the Baja coast were in light air. We were the 2nd smallest boat in a fleet of 100 boats but we always came in about mid-fleet. As Gerry Douglas says, the 320 is a wolf in sheep’s clothing when it comes to boat speed. The last leg was the roughest, with 10-12’ following seas and winds to 29 knots. The fastest boat speed was 9.2 (we had to slow her down a bit in order to arrive in Cabo during the daylight hours.) I was concerned about the open stern but every single time the old girl just lifted her skirt and let the waves slide right by.  It took hand steering, however, as not even our below deck autopilot could keep up with the confused conditions. Later in our trip we went up against a northerly in the Sea of Cortez. (Never again!) Our racor fuel filter clogged and we lost power. (Always make sure your fuel tank, filters and fuel are clean as can be.) We short tacked for hours against 25-30 knot winds and square waves (5’ at 5 seconds). We took a lot of green water over the bow that slammed into our Iverson dodger which kept the cockpit quite dry (not totally but . . .) With a double reef in the main and the jib furled to about 70% the boat performed well - although we were never so glad to get to a quiet anchorage where we could deal with the filter. We took very little water through the forward hatch and exposed ports. Not that I’d do the Puddle Jump with her (although with the right conditions, you could do it, providing you could provision for a crew), but I’m toying with a trip down to Costa Rica someday, after COVID of course. We did not bash the boat home. We cheated and trucked the boat from San Carlos to Ensenada - with 1 fuel stop on the Baja coast, we couldn’t carry enough fuel for each leg.

Ron

Sent from my iPad

> On Aug 30, 2020, at 12:05 PM, Graeme Clark <cg at skyflyer.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> There’s safe and there’s comfortable and there’s efficient. Often impossible to have all three! Quite easy to have none!
> 
> As the original poster can I say many thanks for the many replies which have raised some interesting points and provided much food for thought.
> 
> I think the ERCD is a very broad brush.  I can imagine being in a Force 8, with 13ft waves and feeling quite comfortable and I don't have to imagine (because i have been there!) being in a Force 5 with 4 ft waves and feeling very unhappy indeed!
> 
> I certainly (personally) would want to be taking a C320 across the Atlantic or into the southern ocean. The length of passage probably guarantees some messy weather for a start!  Hence posing the question ‘how far offshore’ is sensible, not so much in terms of the aether conditions being much worse but in terms of the time to get to a port of refuge, half way across Biscay it it all goes to rat-sh*t I’m could be maybe 200 miles from nearest usable port of refuge.  
> 
> Someone mentioned sailing a round the coastline of France, or even cutting out sSpain altogether by taking the Canal du Midi.  The latter has a problem that whilst nominally 5ft deep in summer as water levels drop it is less, not helped by the usual detritus found thrown into canals.  Going the long way round is an option obviously, but extends the trip - depends whether you prefer to travel or arrive I guess!
> 
> Anyway its not a trip I plan this year, I was just curious to know robust other owners thought their boats to be. the article  referenced, about a yacht delivery to the Virgin islands was instructive in terms of equipment upgrades.
> 
> By the way - my own boat (#366, 1996) precedes the ERCD.  I understood though that one of the requirements is that all hatches should be hinged at the forward edge so a breaking wave over the bow will shut them rather than the other way.  Dis later models change this, as my boat is hinged to open forwards - which i like as it gate the air through the boat when at anchor!
> 
> Regards
> 
> Graeme
> 
> 
>> On 30 Aug 2020, at 13:24, Troy Dunn <troutwarrior at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Allen
>> 
>> Yikes!   I am no expert on what makes a good blue water boat, but...I would
>> not personally feel comfortable or safe in a 320 off soundings.   Count me
>> out on a coconut milk run in the C320.   Love out boat, she's fantastic for
>> the market she was built for and her intended use.
>> 
>> Respectfully
>> 
>> Troy
>