Coastal Cruising in a 25' Hunter

Plymouth Sailor

Plymouth Sailor

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Dec 11, 2015
291
Hunter 25 Plymouth
Fellow Small Boat Sailors:

Interested in any anecdotes for long distance (20 miles or more) coastal cruises in a small 25' Hunter. Looking to hear about the actual sail such as wind, waves, weather, night sailing etc. I've done a few short sails across Buzzards Bay but nothing out of my comfort zone. I'm situated in Plymouth, MA now and want to do an extended cruise around Cape Cod Bay albeit in a tiny boat.
Any advice appreciated.

Mark
 
Last edited:
rgranger

rgranger

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Jan 19, 2010
12,369
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
In addition to anecdotes found in the previous write up...
  1. I'd recommend that you get familiar with the latest weather apps and have a back-up gps ... an inexpensive hand-held. Paper charts are also a good idea and I always download the "booklet" charts from the NOAA site. They are free and small enough to keep in the cockpit while sailing.
  2. I used to cook a lot on my boat and brew coffee etc. etc. But it takes a lot of time and cooking on the boat heats everything up in the cabin. I now mostly pack sandwich food stuffs for the evening meal and only cook in the morning when things are cooler. For coffee I use Folgers Coffee Singles and heat it on my stove in the morning.... make more than I need and store the excess in a thermos for later in the day.
  3. Master the art of packing light. We used to pack way too much stuff and it just makes finding the things you actually need challenging. However this art comes with experience. After each cruise, look at what you didn't use and take it off of the boat (except emergency stuff).
 
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rgranger

rgranger

.
Jan 19, 2010
12,369
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
  1. ... and pack a battery operated camping lantern and extra batteries. I like to hang mine off of the boom in the cockpit in the evening and I leave it on as an anchor light. In a fog, no one is looking up and people may miss your anchor light on the mast.
  2. Citronella candles!!!!! If the little bastards are biting, a citronella can save the trip. I have placed one in a cooking pot and then left it out in the cockpit at night. The pot was just a fire precaution in case the candle got knocked over. After about 20 min. all of the little biting bastards are gone.
 
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Stu Jackson

Stu Jackson

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Feb 26, 2004
22,770
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
Very good advice.

We owned a Catalina 25 for 13 years and sailed it all over from San Francisco: The Bay the Delta and out the ocean to Monterey and back (60 nm) and two overnights, one each way.

With your 20 mile jaunts under your belt, and given proper weather outlooks, just think of it as a longer trip.

Have fun, you'll do just fine.
 
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rgranger

rgranger

.
Jan 19, 2010
12,369
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
Sorry for the lack of cohesion but I keep remembering things that have made cruising easier.

... think about adding some sort of self steering. On my Macgregor 22, I added sheet to tiller self steering.

I followed this guy's advice

http://www.jsward.com/steering/

It worked surprisingly well...!!!!! and made the day a lot more pleasant. We sat around and fished, read some books etc.

But my system was much more crude than the one in the link above. I simply ran a line from the sheet to a cheep block I got at lowes that I tied off to a cleat on the gunwale. Then ran the line to the tiller. On the other side of the tiller I simply ran a bungee cord from the tiller to the cleat on the opposite gunwale.

We held course all day and only had to readjust if we dramatically shifted our positions in the boat.

On my current boat, I have an electric auto-tiller.
 
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