Offshore Sailing

[Shelley]

Any other 35s5 owners planning to do or have done some offshore sailing on their 35s5? Wondering what your experiences were, what modifications you made to your boat.

 

[Phil]

How Far Offshore? How Many Weeks?

First series from Beneteau with fin keels can be lots of work to steer. Are you just going a bit out and back offshore or doing a serious passage for weeks? Full keel boats are slower, but track better due to their shape. If you are speaking about serious distances I would do lots of homework. Take your boat out for a couple of days and get some experience. Ususlly the boat can do the trip, but the passengers get really run down, tired and sick.

 

[Randy]

Hard to steer????????????

Wondering what your refering to as hard to stear. I have a first 42 with a deep fin keel and I often dont touch the wheel. the first series is a well defined race boat which is balanced perfect. I have installed a new autohelm with the gyro for down wind runs but the gain is set on min. and it sails so smouth, the wheel wont move for hours at a time. my longest trip (without touching the wheel) was around 700 miles.

 

[Phil]

Steering

During heavy seas, swells can come around from the stern and that requires constant steering correction. It gives the autohelm a real workout and this in turn uses lots of energy. The right vessel for long distance passages is a full or partial keel. Fin keel boats pivot an do not hold a straight line. Im not saying it can't be done, but there is much more work with fin keel boats. That's a factHave Fun

 

[danknoxsf]

I have to agree with Randy

Phil--Well there is some truth in what you have to say about full keel and partial keel vessels designs having an inherent ability to hold a line a bit better in weather conditions this is not as true a statement as it once was. These days navel architecture has come along way. Most modern sailing boats have some type of fin keel and they hold a line petty well in all but the worst weather conditions. All boat designs are trade off’s and there are many classic full keel designs that have stood the test of time, but these days new boats that have full keel designs or even partial keels are not proving very popular with manufactures. Since we are on a "Beneteau" forum one might ask when was the last time Beneteau made a boat with a full keel design? I am petty familiar with most of their models and frankly off the top of my head I can't even think of one. Many of these boats are indeed used in “blue water” and most of them are going to used in “weather” conditions. I find that hard steering is not really a problem with these designs now-a-days.Modern boats are for the most part are lighter and much stronger than vessels of 25 years ago. Good designs have over coming many problems that older boat face on a daily basis. However I think you are 100% right that you need to take a few short trips on your boat before setting off for a longer journey. All sailors need to "know" their boats.Anyway that’s just my 2 cents and probably that all it is worth.Thanks for your post Phil.--Dan