Are travelers obsolete equipment on modern cruising yachts?

Jul 27, 2011
4,989
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
Most
Some of these "modern" cruising boats obviously value an unencumbered cockpit as a major selling point...but I personally don't think that makes the traveler obsolete....
Yeah--most of ones time spent on these charter cruising yachts is at anchor. So a little loss of sailing efficiency for the larger, more comfortable, cockpit is preferred by customers. Why else would those huge cruising catamarans be so popular?

The Hanse was a comfortable cruising yacht. Large cockpit w/ drop-down transom. Winches set aft near steering stations; big electric ones to raise the mainsail and furl the 100% jib. Three cabins, two heads with small holding tanks (not good). Bow thruster which was much needed; refrigeration, freezer, nice inverter, Simrad chart plotter at steering and below. A Lewmar horizontal windlass tugging 175' of 3/8" chain; could have used more.
 
Last edited:
Nov 26, 2012
2,315
Catalina 250 Bodega Bay CA
Sounds like the furling main is another example of a trade off, then, no traveller either? These boats have compromised sailing abilities! Live aboards? All this talk about using the traveller to get the boom to center seems to ignore the fact that you can lift the boom above center and tack even higher, especially in mild wind. Chief
 
Jul 27, 2011
4,989
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
Sounds like the furling main is another example of a trade off, then, no traveller either? These boats have compromised sailing abilities! Live aboards? All this talk about using the traveller to get the boom to center seems to ignore the fact that you can lift the boom above center and tack even higher, especially in mild wind. Chief
From what I've seen, most people cannot sail the boats efficiently anyway as most have never raced. Forgive, but even these lumbering cruising yachts still have more sailing potential than can be utilized by many skippers and their crews.
 
  • Like
Likes: Rick D
Nov 26, 2012
2,315
Catalina 250 Bodega Bay CA
KG: 10% of us are sailors, 90% others only own sailboats. I read a comment recently that sailboats are now being built to dazzle our wives; not us! Chief
 
  • Like
Likes: FastOlson
Nov 8, 2010
11,386
Beneteau First 36.7 & 260 Minneapolis MN & Bayfield WI
OK, here's the biggest most 'cruisy' of them all, the Oceanis Yacht 63 going upwind. Rather impressively I might add. The short triangulated mainsheet and high arch make the boom VERY close to the CL. And nothing to interfere with Jodi going down for another cocktail. If this is my future I'm not afraid.
oy63.png
 
Last edited:
Apr 8, 2010
1,942
Ericson Yachts Olson 34 28400 Portland OR
Jackdaw, in the near future neither of you will be at the 'helm' and cocktails will be mixed and brought to you robotically. And that's if you choose the hardship of actually being 'on board' rather than relaxing at home and enjoying the experience remotely on your 100" viewing screens on multiple walls.... or perhaps just played into your brain via implants.
:)
 
Nov 8, 2010
11,386
Beneteau First 36.7 & 260 Minneapolis MN & Bayfield WI
jackdaw: coming from a racing sailor, thats scary! Chief
I don't know....

I sail on a lot of boats. At the end of the day, any boat is like a toolbox. It's got tools it it, some more than others, some better than others. If the box is basically OK then its about who uses the given tools. I'm pretty sure I could get that OY63 around a course pretty well.
 
  • Like
Likes: pateco
Aug 1, 2011
3,972
Catalina 270 255 Wabamun. Welcome to the marina
Is there separate guest quarters in that arch or is that where the 50" flatscreen nav is mounted?
 
Jan 4, 2013
269
Catalina 270 Rochester, NY
I have to agree with Jackdaw. That boom has to be very close to the center line so how much speed would you actually loose?
 

meb135

.
Nov 17, 2012
92
Hunter 33 Shediac Bay
I don't know....

I sail on a lot of boats. At the end of the day, any boat is like a toolbox. It's got tools it it, some more than others, some better than others. If the box is basically OK then its about who uses the given tools. I'm pretty sure I could get that OY63 around a course pretty well.
Thank you for this reply Jackdaw.
Many seem to think that because a sailboat has a furling main and an arch that the owner doesn't know how to sail properly, let alone racing. I've been sailing for 40 years and racing for many of those years on many types of boat and my H33, with furling main and arch goes around the course pretty well. Winning some and placing high on most others. It's all about using what you have at your disposal.
Marc
 
Nov 26, 2012
2,315
Catalina 250 Bodega Bay CA
Just think how much better you would have sailed with all "the tools" at your disposal. Whatever, most people can't sail anyway no matter the size of the boat! Chief
 
  • Like
Likes: Allan12210
Oct 26, 2008
6,045
Catalina 320 Barnegat, NJ
002.JPG
The traveler, located directly under the location where Sue places her seat cushion, is the single most annoying sail trim item on the boat, in Sue's opinion. It can't be permanently centered, it can't be moved from side to side when tacking. It is simply in the way and is impossible to manage for marital harmony. Shelby seems to have a handle on it, though.
 

Gunni

.
Mar 16, 2010
5,937
Beneteau 411 Oceanis Annapolis
Scott, all you need is an $9,000 cockpit arch, some running rigging and you too can have go traveler-less!
 

DougM

.
Jul 24, 2005
2,242
Beneteau 323 Manistee, MI
I don't know whose bright idea it was to put a rollover bar on a sailboat.
It just looks stupid in addition to being impractical. Anything that can be done to make a sailboat look like a stinkpot with a radar arch I guess. just my opinion...
 
  • Like
Likes: justsomeguy
Jul 27, 2011
4,989
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
Good discussion, but for kicks I just looked at some pictures of the 2017 Dufour 46 and those do show a traveler installed; but the 2017 Bavaria 42 Vision and 2013 Hanse 495 do not. They have just about everything else though. Fact correction.:meh:
 
Nov 26, 2012
2,315
Catalina 250 Bodega Bay CA
Scott: looks like your thwartship traveler goes gunwale to gunwale. That is a great unit! Mine stops at the seat edge and I need to trade you. Sue would like mine better as she could lean up against the cabin bulkhead without all that mess getting in her way! Chief