Around the cockpit table during a potluck among boats awaiting the start of the Sail Indonesia Rally in Darwin the topic of bedding came up. Robin of the American Voyage 44 cat Endangered Species was explaining to Michelle of the Aussie 53′ cat Thor how she’d solved her preference for a softer mattress when Rick preferred firm. “Ashore we had a waterbed, and when we moved aboard, we dismantled it for the surrounding collar and filled it with two replacement air mattresses that I finagled from the Sleep Number people.”

I was surprised. I had never heard of air mattresses on a boat. I’ve been to enough boat shows to know that there are plenty of entrepreneurs doing their best to market mattress upgrades and customized bedding to sailors, but I also remember when outfitting my first boat that mattress and sheet issues were way down the list of priorities.

But should they be? After all, a cruising boat is our full-time home. As I started asking around among Rally participants (who, having traveled this far, should have some opinions on the subject), I was a little apologetic about asking them about such an intimate and perhaps peripheral issue to the challenges of voyaging. But the reactions I got surprised me. After a moment’s hesitation while they gave it a thought, they’d laugh and bubble over with information. As Renata of the Hallberg Rassey Nuku’alofa exclaimed, “To Helmut, it is THE most important thing.”

Barbara & Tom of SV GOSI. Tom was into it!

In fact, when chatting up Barbara and Tom of the Valiant 40′ Gosi on the bow of an Indonesian dive boat, the importance of bed and bedding to the men was reinforced.

I asked Barbara what kind of mattress she had, she mused a moment and said, “Oh, I think whatever came with the boat.” “Oh, no,” said Tom, “Remember, we got a custom foam mattress from the vendor at the Annapolis boat show. It’s high density foam but wrapped so it looks like a regular mattress.” What about sheets? Barbara was similarly uncertain, but Tom jumped in again, “We bought the highest quality sheets that were on sale in the New Zealand department store and then had them customized for our mattress.”

Shortly after this I posed the question to Margaret of the Tayana 47 Peregrina, and she burst out laughing. “A while back, to pass time on passage, I asked Peter one of those questions a woman should never ask her husband, ‘If someone asked you to name something about me you really loved, what would you say?” and he thought carefully for several minutes and said, ‘She makes the bed every day!‘” Peter quickly jumped in to defend himself. “I’ve been on so many boats where you go below and the berth isn’t made, and I realized how pleasing it is to me to go into our cabin and have such a put- together, orderly space. It’s welcoming.”

Shipboard beds start with mattress choice. Many boats come with odd-sized mattresses shaped to the boat and not to standard sheet sizes, necessitating custom-tailoring. My “pre-owned” boat when I bought it came with the original four-inch thick foam fitted with removable covers. To upgrade to thicker mattresses I had get new covers, too. In both the fore and aft cabins, the mattresses (old and new) were split in half to facilitate moving them to access spaces below. In the v-berth, a much thinner piece fitted an insert to convert the two singles to a double, which required king-sized flat sheets. This is typical of older boats’ sleeping set-up whether berths are oriented fore-and-aft, athwartships or offset to one side. They are often a pain to make.

Our berth on TACKLESS II Classic!

In newer boats, berths are less traditional, marketed to give at least the illusion of more “walk-around” space and thicker, higher-class mattresses. But one should question how secure they will feel underway.

Most of the cruisers I queried had some variation of foam mattresses, usually described as firm, high-density foam, and most had toppers of some sort, either memory foam or egg crate. Most also, motivated by spending time in New Zealand (if not coming from northern climes to start with), had added underlayments to control condensation. The most mentioned foundation was a sort of fibrous material compared to a “loofah” or a “Scotch Brite scrubbie.”

Guest berth aboard QUANTUM LEAP

Bette Lee of Quantum Leap is a woman who does lots of research before making choices. She explained that firmness of foam is measured in durometers, or the amount of weight it takes to depress it, and how you sleep — side, back or stomach — dictates the thickness foam you need. For example, a side sleeper needs thicker foam to support the shoulder, but a back sleeper can get away with less. On her catamaran the forward two berths over the bridge deck are standard one-piece queens, six inches thick, while the aft berth mattresses over the engines are split. As a guest aboard, I find the one-piece mattress comfortable but heavy to lift for making the bed.

Shopping for sheets, I’m quickly bewildered by the panoply of thread-count, material and finishes available and clueless to the ramifications for them in tropical climates. Cruisers, it seems, are as seduced by thread count as landlubbers, but at the same time they are swayed by what’s on sale. They were divided by loyalty to 100% cotton or cotton-poly blends, which, believers say, don’t seem to absorb the humidity. The best boat sheets I ever bought were discounted cotton-poly sets I got at a discount center; they were light-weight, wrinkle-free, soft, durable and resisted humidity — problems I had with later choices.

I was surprised how many cruisers admitted to not changing their sheets weekly, going as long as three weeks! Bette Lee carries three sets of sheets per berth, with dryer sheets folded into the spares in gallon-sized Ziploc bags to keep them fresh. Other cruisers use Space Bags to contain spare bedding.

In the tropics, many cruisers use an untucked top sheet they simply fold up to make the bed. Others still make the bed up daily with a thin blanket or lightweight quilt or fitted cover. For some, decor is important (really, it only takes a little extra time and money to get the coordinated look!), while others exclaim, “Well, they matched once!‘

Like sheets, pillows run the gamut from fiberfill, to memory foam to down. Barbara of the Sparkman Stevens ’47 Contrails adores her down pillows for sleeping, using washable polyester ones for the second pillows. She says the down has done fine in the tropics. Bette and her husband Tom, both side-sleepers use king-sized second pillows as body pillows to support knees and shoulders and ease lower back issues. An ingenious way to store extra blankets and quilts in the off season is to stuff them into pillow covers.

When I finally caught up with Michelle of Thor who was having that initial conversation with Robin at the potluck, she surprised me by saying she also had an air mattress. But it turned out it was new! “We had an innerspring mattress and I hated it. After talking with Robin I hunted all over Darwin and found one. We love it.”

Ah, the power of the potluck!

This article was published in the October 2011 issue of Latitudes and Attitudes.

To Do lists have two sorts of items on them: Must Do’s and Wish To Do’s. As the days tick down to departure, it’s easy to get your priorities confused, knowing deep down what you should be spending time and money on, but allowing yourself to get distracted by sexier items from the wish list.

Ken and his fiancé Margaret are in just this position.

They had been dreaming about cruising for years, when they stumbled on a deal to buy the boat of their dreams, a Voyage 44 catamaran that had been struck by lightning. It was a little sooner in the plan than they’d figured, so they’ve been commuting back and forth between North Carolina, where they’re prepping the boat, and Houston, where they’re trying to wrap up their shore-side lives.

Like many guys, Ken loves the challenge of fixing up his own boat and outfitting it with the equipment of his choice. Like many women, Margaret wants the boat to be a new home – particularly since enduring a household being dismantled. Like many new cruisers, they are both discovering that everything takes longer than they thought. Time is getting short.

There are two questions Ken and Margaret need to ask themselves if they want to leave on schedule:

• Does it all have to be done NOW?
• And WHAT really DOES have to be done now?

The answer to the first question is, no, it doesn’t all have to be done now.

Although many things benefit from being planned for, purchased and installed before you leave, the truth is there’s a lot you can get along without. Ask yourself if you can survive – really SURVIVE – without it. You can save lots of money and time by doing without your first season and learning what matters. If your cruising plan is seasonal, you can come home with a new To Do list and start earlier before your next departure. If you’re continuing onward, much of what you’ve decided you do need can be purchased “down island” or shipped in, and projects can be completed along the way.

But the answer to “What really DOES have to be done NOW?” is more complex, so, of course, we asked the Admirals.

Almost everything the Admirals came up with has to do with onboard systems that keep you safe. Note the key word “system.” Every piece of each system must be working right before you can truly rely on it.

● For sailors, right at the top is rigging.

A careful rig check from top to bottom can save you from mortifying disaster. Look under those spreader boots! You can be millimeters away from losing your rig through procrastination. If you aren’t confident, hire a professional. Ensure all turnbuckles (including the life-lines) have cotter pins and rings, and check all running rigging – halyards, sheets and reefing lines – for chafe. Replace what needs replacing, and refresh yourself on how they work! Have one or two spare lines for the furler, and, catamarans, check your nets and tramps! This a good time to be sure your deck jackline plan works so your harnesses and tethers won’t snag; you have bought all that, right?!

●  Check your sails for tears or slits, and replace cracked or missing sail slides and pins. It’s a lot easier to patch sails now in a loft, than later at sea, and it’s a huge disappointment to blow a sail out on your first passage. Make sure you have spare slides and sail tape and a sail sewing kit.

●  For powerboaters, engine systems clearly are number one, and they are pretty close to the top for sailors, too.

Service your engine and transmission, and be sure your fuel system is running cleanly by checking filters after taking the boat out and letting her roll around a bit. Spend for a good Racor prefilter system, single or (ideally) dual, with plenty of filters, and pack on enough oil for several complete oil changes. Also ensure your engine alarms are functioning.

Make sure your hoses are sound and are all double-clamped with stainless hose clamps and that the sea strainers on engine intakes reseat well after you check them. Check your fresh and saltwater pumps, and be sure to have either spares or rebuild kits, especially belts and impellers. Examine your stuffing boxes and shaft seals, and be sure the prop shaft itself can’t back out.

● When you look at your bilge, keep in mind you won’t be just coastal sailing anymore. Spend for a high-capacity automatic bilge pump (ideally two!) and make sure it works on both tacks and won’t siphon back. Then add a high-water alarm set only an inch or two above the normal bilgewater level… and plan to sleep a whole lot easier. Check that all your thru-hulls work, and tape or wire emergency bungs to fit them within reach.

● Some boats have simple electrical systems and some more complex. Sitting at the dock or day sailing gives you little idea if your batteries are really up to snuff. Even traveling down the waterway, you run the engine so regularly you likely don’t notice if your batteries are weak. But once you get to the islands and sit at anchor in warmer waters, filling your fridge daily with warm fish and beer… well, it’s not a good time to discover your batteries don’t have another year left in them.

Most traveling cruisers rely on battery monitor/chargers like the Link 2000 to provide the data they need to stay on top of their electrical requirements. If you rely solely on your alternator to charge your batteries, carry a back up alternator, plus be sure you have a good ohm meter, wire terminals and crimper in your tool kit.

And with those tools, be sure to go out and check all your running lights. Changing them all out for LEDs is a tempting upgrade, but just making sure they all work is more essential.

● Finally, you don’t want to short yourself on your anchoring system.

Instead of hundreds of dollars on fancy fenders and covers, invest in at least two good, proven anchors (and probably a third, stern anchor) – one (if not two) sizes larger than officially recommended for your size boat. Plus plenty of chain. All chain is the choice of most cruisers these days, and, unless the Bahamas are your sole destination, you should be prepared to anchor in deep water (40’+) at ratios of at least 5 or 7:1 in storm conditions. That’s a lot of chain. Think of yourself on the foredeck in a bad squall while choosing a windlass that will be strong enough to do the job and easy to operate; then don’t stint on the installation.

● Notice that almost all of these recommendations include some test to be done away from the dock. Sail away for a weekend at least, and see how your systems perform. And don’t wait to the last minute to do it. While you are out, check your autopilot under load, your depth sounder, and get radio checks from somewhere distant for your VHF and SSB. Cook with your stove, run your fridge and freezer, use your toilets, and clean your bottom. Life is not good if these don’t work right.

This is the stuff that should top your Must Do list for departure.

They don’t seem that sexy while tied to the dock, but once you are floating free – trust me – their importance will loom up. And, Margaret, nothing will make you feel more at home on your boat than faith in her essential systems.

Contributors: Kathy Parsons, HALE KAI; Karyn Ennor, MAGIC CARPET; Ellen Sanpere, CAYENNE III; Mary Heckrotte, CAMRYKA; Sheri Schneider, PROCYON; Bev Feiges, CLOVERLEAF; Ken Bujnoch & Margaret Henry, ROCKING B

Photos: Thanks to Mary Heckrotte, CAMRYKA; Sherry McCampbell, Soggy Paws (www.svsoggypaws.com); Ken Bujnoch & Margaret Henry, ROCKING B; Kathy Parsons, HALE KAI; Bev Feiges, CLOVERLEAF (feiges.blogspot.com).

This article was published in the October 2010 issue of Latitudes and Attitudes.

Related articles on this website

• The Engine Room (Admiral’s Angle column #22)
  What women need to know about their engine rooms and boat systems and why
• To Have or Have Not? (Admiral’s Angle column #31)
  Equipping your boat with an eye to striking a balance between simplicity and complexity

The leading category for “little things” making a difference in a cruising woman’s life is in the galley.  The more time we spend out cruising the more we realize how important is not stinting on good galley tools.  “Good sharp knives, great pots and pans, and my Fagor™ pressure cooker,” states Sandy of Columbine, and she is seconded in that by several other Admirals.   Mary of Camryka says, “A stainless steel pressure cooker costs more initially, but it’s one of those lasts-a-lifetime items, so it pays to buy a good one.”  That was exactly my thinking I when I splurged on stainless-steel nesting pots, and I wish I’d spent for a Calphalon™ square griddle.  My cheapo Teflon-coated aluminum one is the most used and abused pan I own, and I can’t replace it out here.

Electrical gizmos have much more of a place aboard than in the old days, requiring an inverter and, as Yvonne of Australia 31 says, “enough battery power not to scrimp.”  It may surprise you to learn that almost half the responding Admirals use a bread machine.  New models even remember where they are in the cycle should someone switch the inverter off!  Several Admirals are surprised how much they use the microwave, and several people mention vacuum-sealers, either the larger Foodsaver™ models or a simple little device that has a mini-heat strip to reseal plastic food packages – the Euro Sealer™ (“as seen on TV”) – that Katherine of Sangaris recommends.

Judy of Ursa Minor has long been an advocate of plastic cutting sheets; “They take next to no space, are super easy to clean even in a small sink on a boat, and make it much easier to have a clean cutting board handy as I switch between cutting veggies and meat.” I’ve also found them handy to place across shelves to keep stuff tumbling out when accessing lockers underway.  Judy also has neat salad-spinner bags; they fold away flat, but do as good a job as regular spinners. I’ve found them at Bed, Bath & Beyond in the US.

Cindy of  Tashmoo loves her Pampered Chef™ food chopper as a substitute for a full- bore food processor, Mary advises good kitchen shears to be kept exclusively for galley work as well as a top-opening can-opener that leaves no sharp edge, and Bette Lee of Quantum Leap puts a vote in for silicone bakeware, colanders, and measuring cups.  “They save loads of space, and don’t rust or rattle.”   And speaking of small joys, I suspect there isn’t an Admiral alive who doesn’t appreciate quality paper towels and Ziplocs™ wherever we can find them and green Evert- Fresh™ bags for keeping veggies fresh.

Decent dishware and flatware – so that you don’t feel you are camping out – is brought up by several Admirals.  Ellen of Cayenne III likes her new Corelle™ plates, while Lisa of Lady Galadriel actually has a stash of real china for entertaining. Since I’m partial to plain white plates, I actually prefer the upscale plastic-ware with non-skid bottoms from the Galleyware Company™, marketed in most boating stores.  For passages, Judy recommends double-bowled dog dishes that can’t tip!  Woof!

OK!  Out of the galley!  The next most commonly mentioned category is good lighting, especially for reading in berth areas, salon and cockpit. Also, “a boat can be a small space for one person to have a light on to read while the other tries to sleep,” says Mary. “A book light minimizes the disturbance.”  These days many people are using LED headlamps for this, especially ones with a red light for night passages, which you can also us for running lights in your dinghy!  On Tackless we have a tiny orange LED light wired into the head compartment as a night light, which is about as small a joy as they come.  Elsewhere, I’m rather partial to Alpenglow™ daylight fluorescent lights.  And speaking of not disturbing sleepers, earphones for our computer/ DVD setup means I don’t have to listen to my husband’s videos shoot up the world!

On board email is important to most cruisers, whether they connect by SSB, an amplified Wifi antenna, or sat phone.  Satellite radio is also something many cruisers enjoy these days.  “We started our cruising with XM Radio™ but lost the signal once we got south of Cuba so now have Sirius™,” says Cindy. “It is nice to keep up with news and sports and have the variety of talk, story and music that it provides. We love listening to the old time radio shows when we are on passages.” Where satellite radio doesn’t reach, iPods™ fill the breach.  Judy says, “While on watch at night I find that listening to audio books or podcasts I’ve downloaded helps keep me awake.”

Comfortable bedding also got multiple mentions.  Terri and Kimi of Delphinus put in a strong vote for the The Froli Mattress System™.  Not exactly a small thing, they insist, “That is our purchase of the year.  It’s as comfortable as a Tempurpedic™ mattress, but the air circulation beneath has eliminated the daily battle to dry out the moisture that used to collect between cushions and the wood below.   Sore backs and necks are gone!”  Similarly, Mary votes for feather pillows. “Contrary to speculation, they really haven’t gotten any more moldy or damp than foam — and I sure sleep better.”

One of the neatest ideas mentioned also came from Terri and Kimi. “Someone prior to us put three little bulkhead-based flower holders in our boat – three-sided teak boxes that hold a little plastic vase   We buy a bouquet of fresh flowers every so often to divide between the vases.  There is nothing as surreal and wonderful as smelling roses or lavender when bobbing around on a warm day.” A potted basil plant in the cockpit can be similarly as great for its brush-by aroma!

Several Admirals insisted on including a few nautical items.  “Without a doubt, it’s having a cockpit VHF radio (or radio with a cockpit mike),” says Linda of Serafin.  “A VHF in the nav station is useless when the engine is running and you can’t hear or reach it to talk.”   Jane of Cormorant votes for their “Watch Man” night-watch timer/alarm.  “The timer lets me read or listen to a book without risking getting so involved I forget to keep watch.  If the person on watch doesn’t push reset within one minute, it emits an ear-piercing scream, so the person sleeping can relax knowing that the one on watch can’t have gone asleep or–worst scenario–overboard.”

I haven’t been able to include all the suggestions I received, nor are all the ones included strictly “little things,” but the fact that so many of these were shared by Admirals cruising different parts of the worlds suggests that they do, in fact, make a big difference in our lives.

This article was published in the December 2008 issue of Latitudes and Attitudes.

Related articles (on this website)

• The Cruising Galley (Admiral’s Angle column #35)
• By Dark of Night (Admiral’s Angle column #34)

Most serious cruisers shop for their boat on the used market. Here, the term “used” has a good connotation, because it implies the boat has already been out there, logged some sea miles, been shaken down. To have been “used”, someone –the first, second, or third owner – has had to add at least the fundamental equipment and often much more, yet in one of the perennial injustices of the world, all those improvements rarely come back to the improver in the selling price. All good news for buyers.

Future cruising captains generally scan the ads in cruising publications or go to the boat brokers with a list of things they want in a boat.  Forgive me for oversimplifying, but they tend to focus on things like size, waterline, hull (material, shape, weight and whether a mono-or multi-hull), rig, engine, sail inventory, performance, tankage, etc. Much has been written about these features in major magazines and books, and each one has a myriad of variations, all of which will matter to Admirals, too, in ways you should understand.

But are there things an admiral should tune her eye to in her soon-to-be full-time home that the captain might overlook?

To start with, consider every aspect of the boat in question with how it will be for you underway. This is particularly true for smaller persons. Where are the handholds below? Can you move safely from cockpit to galley to head to the nav station? How will the galley be to work in underway? Can you get into the fridge and the food lockers while heeled over? Does the stove swing freely on its gimbals? Is there headroom above the sink, and will the sink backfill with saltwater on one tack or the other? Can you wedge yourself in to successfully use the head? Is there a good, secure place to sleep when you are off watch?

On deck, how do you feel about walking forward? Are there good handholds? Are the lifelines, bulwarks, toe-rails high enough?  Is the deck strewn with toe-biting obstacles? Can you reach the mainsail to connect the halyard or to help reef? Are you able you raise the sails yourself? In the cockpit, are the coamings high enough for security and back support? When you are behind the wheel, are you able to see forward? Can you brace yourself in the cockpit? Are you protected from weather? Can you get down the companionway in lively conditions?

Next consider how the boat will be at anchor. As important as all of the above considerations are, the chief difference between a weekend sailer and a cruising boat is how well it serves as your home. Review the galley as a place to cook regular meals as opposed to quick bites at sea. Is there enough storage for cooking tools and even appliances you don’t want to leave behind? Spices? Pots and pans? Wine glasses? Will accessing the fridge be easy or a constant struggle?

Will your cabin meet your basic needs? Is the bed long enough? Will you be able to climb out reasonably easily at night? Is there enough storage for clothes and shoes? Is there somewhere on the boat – the cockpit or the salon – where you can lounge comfortably — cushy corners with good air movement where you can read or settees where you can stretch out full length for a nap? If you are planning a tropical cruise, emphasis will shift from belowdecks to the cockpit. Will you be able to provide shade or enclose yourself from rain? Alternatively can you open up to maximize the breeze? In colder climes, a snug salon may be more important; does the boat have insulation, dorades, heat?

The cruising community tends to be a social one, and, if you like to entertain, consider whether the boat will accommodate guests comfortably in the cockpit or below? Is there a place to play such games as cruiser favorites Mexican train, cribbage, or Scrabble, and, if you like videos, will you both be able to relax and see a TV/computer screen, topside or below. And, if having visitors join you along the way is important (there’s often a lot of empty talk!), will you have a place to put them?

Space and storage are the two most finite commodities on any sailboat. If you have hobbies –for example, sewing, beading, painting, writing –will there be space to pursue them? Will you be able to make space for books, files, and computers? And if the boat’s mechanic has a project in the engine room, will normal life in the salon and/or galley have to come to a halt every time he needs to make repairs? And storage! Know now there will never be enough, but consider whether the boat has storage for things both large and small, for his and her tools, for deck equipment like lines and fenders, and toys like dive gear, wind or kite surfing, kayaks and fishing. And last but not least, how is the boat’s access to the water, the dinghy, and the dock?

Finally, as we wrap up our checklist, let’s add a few things to beware of.  The chief one is cool-looking but impractical features, many of which, ironically, are conceived to draw in the distaff half. Some personal pet peeves are rounded settees in the cockpit or below (no comfy corners or backup berths!), curved space-age surfaces where you can’t set a drink down, and bathtubs! For others it may be amp-hungry gizmos – eg air-conditioning, microwaves, dishwashers, ice-makers – that seem desirable but turn out to work only at the dock. And lastly, the monohull-ers in my “club” want to remind you that the two hulls of a cat are not automatically the answer to space and storage issues, since loaded down cats can lose much of the performance and seakindliness that initially make them attractive.  Think every feature through!

No Admiral’s checklist for the perfect boat will be the same as the next, and, obviously, no one boat can score A+ on all fronts, but unlike those pre-fabbed RVs, boats can usually be aftermarket-customized to answer your needs, especially if a sharp eye was kept in the buying process. As Ellen of Cayenne III concludes, “Self-knowledge and a clear view of the goal make for better compromises…and every boat is a compromise.”

Contributing Admirals: Lisa Schofield, Lady Galadriel; Donna Abbott, Exit Only; Kathy Parsons, Hale Kai; Ellen Sanpere, Cayenne III; Vicki Juvrud, Firebird; Judy Knape, Ursa Minor; Debbie Leisure, Illusions; plus others

This article was published in the April 2007 issue of Latitudes and Attitudes.

There is no simple answer. The right boat size for you will factor in many considerations – sailing abilities, voyage planned, size of crew, cabins needed, storage needed, comfort expectations, rig and layout preferred, equipment you want to add, modifications you need to make, and, of course, budget. Every decision you make about the boat you go cruising in will have a cost associated with it – in dollars, energy and attention — both up front and forevermore as you move it, maintain it, dock it, haul it, and repair it. What you can, or are willing, to spend — in dollars, energy, or attention — will inevitably be the controlling factor, but the worth of many of those considerations may be quite different when you are out using the boat than when it was a pie in the sky on the dock!

Industry reports say the size of boats being shown at boat shows is getting bigger and bigger. But, when is a boat too big? Quite simply, a boat is too big if you can’t afford it. “If you have to take a mortgage or if buying a particular boat takes assets away from retirement or other after-cruising uses, you may never feel comfortable with the decision,” counsels Lisa of Lady Galadriel, a Crealock 37. “You’ll find that the costs of cruising are not merely proportional to the size of the boat, they’re exponential! Plus, you need to ensure that there’s enough left over to enjoy the travel at the places you visit.”

“A boat is too big if it taking care of it becomes too much work, if you can’t find a convenient place with big enough equipment to haul it, if you have to hire other people to do all the work that needs to be done, or if you can’t keep up with the constant cleaning that is necessary when you live in every square inch,” weighs in Donna of the Privilege 39 Exit Only. A boat is never so big as when you are underneath her cleaning the hull and the waterline!

Most importantly, a boat is too big if you can’t handle her. As a boat gets bigger, so does its sail plan. It’s more work to raise the sails and more work on the winches to trim them. Vicki of Firebird, at 84 feet by far the largest boat in my Admiral’s Club, says, “We’ve liked many things about our big boat: the walk-in engine room, the space for guests, the privacy and security our high freeboard affords us, and the extended range our of big tankage, but we could not have cruised this monster without our third crew!” Most cruisers don’t have the luxury of hired crew and might not want to sacrifice the privacy if they could. Most of us are more concerned with the challenges of maneuvering our boats in packed harbors, in the close quarters of a marina, or, as Kathy of Hale Kai reminds, coping when things go wrong: “A big boat is more difficult to sail or anchor single-handedly, to short tack up a channel should the engine fail, or to kedge off if you run aground.” A boat is too big if the crew is “afraid” of it. How many times have I seen a couple pinned to a marina, or, sadder, a boat stashed in a yard, because a scary experience took the wind from their sails?

“Go on the smallest boat you can put up with,” says Lisa of Lady Galadriel. Because the Crealock is a small 37 (thanks to her low freeboard), during the four years it took them to cruise from San Francisco to Annapolis, Lisa and her husband spent a lot of time considering boats they might upgrade to. Upon arrival though, they opted instead on a major refit. “So I don’t have an indoor shower,” Lisa shrugs. “We know this boat, we can each singlehand her, and her particular strengths – a great salon for entertaining and surprising storage – outweigh the other inconveniences of her size.”

Lack of storage is a key compromise in choosing a smaller boat. “I’ve spent time on a lot of different-sized boats,” says Judy of Ursa Minor, a Saga 43, “and no matter how big the boat, there is never enough storage space, especially if it’s to be your only home.” For Kathy Parsons, who wrote her first book while cruising on a Whitby 42, it’s the lack of work space that frustrates her on the 38’ Hale Kai. “Writing and doing projects becomes more difficult. I’m always having to put my work away because every space aboard does double duty.”

Debbie, who has lived for six years on the 29′ Island Packet Illusions, however, says this. “Only on rare occasions have I wished for a bigger boat. We originally wanted a 32′, but, due to finances, that would have meant working at least another year, and we were ready to go! We decided to buy the 29′ and try it. If it proved too small, we could always go back to work again for the bigger boat. I highly recommend going NOW on a smaller boat as opposed to not going at all… or waiting ‘til it is too late.”

Fully half of my Admirals have been cruising for years in boats under 38 feet.  Unilaterally they sing the praises of the smaller boat’s affordability, its ease of handling, the fact that they can singlehand if they have to, and that they can take shelter in small places.

But there are some caveats.  Smaller boats with shorter waterlines are slower, making passages longer, while lighter boats are not as comfortable in rough conditions, making passages (and sometimes anchorages!) less pleasant. Furthermore, for some cruisers, performance is not something to be sniffed at. “Our 51’ retired Moorings charterboat was the most waterline we could get for the money,” says Ellen of Cayenne III. “it was the fastest yet most comfortable and seaworthy hull we saw. As we look at new boats on the market, we see lots of gee-whiz bells and whistles, but all that stuff in a fat slob of a hull wouldn’t be worth a dime to us. Fast is fun, and when fast isn’t fun, at least it’s over soon.”

And then sometimes it just comes down to elbow room. When my husband and I were looking for an “our” boat to take the place of our two 44’ CSYs, we found, because we are both tall, that many of the boats highly touted as cruisers were just too confined for us. Neither of us wanted to have to duck to move around belowdecks, and we insisted on being able to stretch out full length in both the berth and the cockpit. We kept our 44 with the 7’ headroom and have found her to be just right!…FOR US!

Contributing Admirals: Lisa Schofield, Lady Galadriel; Donna Abbott, Exit Only; Kathy Parsons, Hale Kai; Ellen Sanpere, Cayenne III; Vicki Juvrud, Firebird; Judy Knape, Ursa Minor; Debbie Leisure, Illusions; plus others.

This article was published in the March 2007 issue of Latitudes and Attitudes.

Laundry, a practical thing lots of women heading to sea ask about, is an excellent example. Ashore you likely had your own washer/drier, and you took clean laundry for granted. But upon moving aboard and going cruising, laundry becomes an event… if not an outright adventure. Every Admiral afloat has laundry tales to tell!

The first choice of most cruisers is the coin-operated machine. This, in theory, keeps control of your clothes in your hands, although, as Mary of I Wanda says, “you often throw your clothes into a mystery machine and hope your predecessor wasn’t dying rugs!” Marina laundry rooms, when available, are usually preferred for being closest to the boat and a good place to meet friends, exchange books, share cruising info, and read local notice boards, although sometimes they are in horrific shape. Mary tells of standing on boards to prevent shock and filling machines with a garden hose! Even in the best ones, there is often a scramble for enough machines to handle your two or three-weeks-worth, so it’s not unusual to find cruisers haunting laundry rooms in the wee hours! Where there is no marina, using a town Laundromat is the next choice. Although the schlep quotient goes up (conscript your other half!), since you’re more likely to meet local people, so does the adventure quotient. Either way, Mary advises, “Bring a good book, waterproof bags to keep things dry on the return trip, LOTS of change, and decant the detergent you need into smaller containers.”

As coin-operated machines thin out, cruisers turn to services that charge by the kilo to do it for you. “I’ve learned to feel good about supporting the local economy,” says Ellen of Cayenne III, a perspective echoed by most Admirals. Favorites are anchorage entrepreneurs who come by boat to pick up! Farther afield, the “service” may simply be a local lady who hand washes in a tub and dries your personals on a bush. Although this usually works out well, there are always risks: your favorite shirt disappears, your whites come back dyed pink, your shorts shrink a size, or the whole load looks worse than when you sent it in. Friends once picked up their laundry in the Marquesas to find it all mildewed from being hung to dry in an attic!

You know you are really out there when you find yourself with a bar of laundry soap, a plunger and your own bucket. …Or stomping on a load in your dinghy the morning after a heavy rain. …Or up the river with the local ladies. Camryka’s Mary says, “It’s never my first choice, but I feel ever-so-saintly when I’ve hung hand-washed duds on the lifelines to dry!” Judy, now cruising aboard Ursa Minor, remembers doing laundry on a remote island in Fiji. “Several young girls came to help us as we stood in the river with our clothes. They used pieces of plywood to scrub the clothes on, and, as they taught us the knack, it became a real team effort. They clearly got a kick out helping us!”

Some cruisers find gadgets to help with onboard laundry. There’s the little hand-cranked washer that looks like “Sputnik” and old-fashioned wringers your grandmother might recognize. If your boat’s big enough and you have a watermaker, you can install a regular washing machine like the popular front-loader from Splendide™. Cayenne III used to raft up to friends who had one. They made the water and filled the other boat’s tank, while their friends did the wash for both!

I guess I must confess that we put one of these on Tackless II during our Trinidad refit six years ago. It was not originally on our project list, but my husband’s drinking buddies put him up to it. “My Admiral,” said Bill, “put her foot down and said she wouldn’t go to sea without it!” We’d recently had a bad laundry experience, so the next thing you know we’re enlarging a locker, putting in some new hoses and through-hulls, and swaying up a 168lb white box to finagle through the hatch. I won’t lie and tell you that it hasn’t been a joy: doing a load in an uninhabited bay and hanging it over the foredeck to dry.

But then again, look at all the fun I’m missing!

Contributing Admirals: Mary Verlaque, I Wanda; Mary Heckrotte, Camryka; Judy Knape, Ursa Minor; Ellen Sanpere, Cayenne III; and others

This article was published in the January 2007 issue of Latitudes and Attitudes.

Related articles (on this website)

• What We Wear (Admiral’s Angle column #10)