After sailing with my father-in-law in San Francisco a couple weeks ago we took a stroll through the marina to take a look at a friends boat.  As we passed a 36 foot boat I might have made a noob statement such as "That isn't a world cruiser though..."  I think we might have been talking along these lines since my FIL knows about my dream.  His response was to the affect "What, it's not big enough?"  I had a hard time responding intelligibly but mentioned it wasn't a size issue...

I thought about that for a bit and as will happen with thoughts in my head it faded.  Then I was reading the Cruisers Forum today and came across a post from a guy in LA who has somewhat of a similar plan to mine.  He was asking about a specific boat which I know nothing about but he also asked about what makes a blue water boat a Blue Water Boat.  This is a topic I've been studying lately and while I'm certainly no expert I can play one on TV...

A Blue Water Boat in many ways seems to be an ethereal thing.  It has little to do with size, within commonly accepted minimums and maximums which most often is based on crew size and capabilities.  Tania Aebi completed her Circumnavigation in a 26 foot boat.  Couples regularly make similar trips on boats up to 50 feet.  I personally semi-circumnaved (is that even a word?) on a 410 foot haze grey ship, of course that was with 300 of my closest friends.  ;)

Considering input from numberous sources, most certainly to be added to over time, Blue Water Boat has come to mean, at least to me, certain minimums of competing capacities and capabilities.

Length - Probably the least important issue as long as the boat is big enough to support it's crew for the duration of a cruise.  For a world cruise for the little woman, the royal son and the royal daughter I am considering between 42 and 50 feet, with 44 to 46 most likely.  If we end up bigger it will be due to the little woman's comfort requirements...  Or at least the perception there of...

Fuel Capacity - But wait, aren't we talking about SAILING around the world?  In my research I've found that there are times when one can not or should not sail.  There are also times when one will want to run equipment that can only operate while the engine is running - charging batteries, running water makers, charging fridge's etc.  And then of course there are the doldrums.  I've read accounts of folks who chose to sail across the equator and took 34 days to get from Ecuador to Marquesas and I've read accounts of folks who motored through the doldrums, sometimes for several hundred miles, who made the same passage in closer to 20 days.  It often seems to me that most things one considers when planning a world cruise are a compromise.  Now if you are adamant you're going to sail through these conditions and you have the stores onboard to support a 34+ day passage then good on ya.  Otherwise if you want to minimize your passages and prefer to motor for 400 miles likewise good on ya.  Therefore fuel capacity needs to be based on your preferences.  You will need a bare minimum to provide for motoring inside harbors, anchorages and marinas, plus to handle the charging requirements you'll have.  Further you'll need to consider what other charging and battery and equipment decisions you've made as these will have a direct bearing on fuel requirements.  One specific suggestion I read was to have enough fuel on board to motor 800 miles.  If a boat consumes 1 gallon an hour while traveling 5kts that fuel requirement is 160 gallons.  Personally that seems like a lot of fuel...  As I puruse YachtWorld dreaming I generally gravitate to boats sporting 80 to 100 gallons fuel capacity, and given that I'd still probably have up to 20 gallons in gerry cans on deck.

Storage Capacity - This one is a bit easier to handle then fuel.  In my mind there are only a few issues to consider: how many people are on board, how much personal gear will they require, how many spares do you want to carry and finally how will your boat handle the load.  It stands to reason that a 30,000lb boat will handle 5,000lbs of gear easier than a 15,000lb boat.  Spares, like most decisions, are based on one's comfort level and skill level.  No point in carry spares you don't know how to install...  Obviously the more people the more gear.  What I have found in backpacking is that whatever size backpack I take dictates how much gear I take and I'm going to fill it.  Knowing my propensity to take the Boyscout motto to heart I imagine my boat packing will be similar.  An extenuating topic of how many are aboard and what they want to bring is ones ability to pack well...  Basically if you can get everything you want to take on the boat and she's doesn't handle dangerously afterwards then there would seem to be enough storage capacity.  I know in my case I'll also need to consider space for souvenirs.  An interesting point though, perhaps storage capacity is more important than fuel.  I mean people have been circumnavigating since Magellan and many of them didn't use a drop of fuel...  Tania Aebi made her passage from Ecuador to Marquesas without an operational engine.  So what's really important?  I'm leaning towards food, water and toilet paper at the moment...  And a final takeaway from backpacking.  I can fill my backpack to the brim, then strap on all kinds of acourements to the outside and really load that sucker up.  So much so that I can barely make it up a small hill.  Just because you can fit 5000 pounds of gear on a 24 foot boat doesn't mean that it's safe to do so.  Plus what will it take to get the behemoth moving?

Motion on the water -  This seems to be tied in a lot of ways to Storage Capacity in that a boat's sea-handling cababilities can be greatly influenced by the load she's carrying.  I think for me it'll be very important that a boat have a reasonable, smooth?, motion in a sea.  IE She won't slam up and down over waves and swells, nor be thrown about violently by non-extreme gusts.  My guess is this would lead to both vessel and crew fatigue to the point it can become dangerous.  Again an ethereal topic that is difficult to nail down to a few specific features.

Sail Plan - This is a broad topic but basically I'm talking about a boat's ability to gracefully handle a wide range of wind conditions.  While sailing a Catalina 250 in San Diego bay we were cruising along very comfortable in common bay conditions of around 10 kts wind.  Every time we'd get hit by a gust of 15+kts we'd heel over until the leeward rail was kissing water.  Trust me, this didn't make mama very happy.  What was the problem?  Were we over-canvassed? I don't think so.  I am starting to think that the C250 has a very small comfort window, which then means we were over-canvassed I suppose...  Additionally she had no capacity for reefing built in and I hadn't brought any line to put something together, a mistake I no longer make.  I'm starting to believe a blue water boat may be more forgiving in this area.  Handling little gusts more gracefully plus having numerous reef points for when the gusts aren't so little.  Having numerous options on head sails sounds like it would help this flexiblity as well.  Some boats generally accepted as blue water boats have both a forestay and an inner stay that can each fly head sails.  Often with roller furlings on both.  Personally I think this is a great option and really allows a skipper to easily make reefing decisions.  However I've noted many a boat has crossed oceans without this feature.

Efficiency - The less effort one needs to put into taking a sailboat somewhere the safer it is but also the less "stores" one will use.  Obviously, to me, I won't be hand steering for 3000 miles on a passage.  If I do I'll be one grumpy dude.  So self steering would also seem to be a part of a blue water boat.  Apparently there are two options:  Wind vane and auto pilot.  Auto Pilot is a powered device and since it uses a motor I'm guessing the harder it has to work, as in the bigger the seas, the greater the power consumption.  This then has a direct impact on your fuel consumption, or at the very least your electrical consumption and battery charging methods. A wind vane uses the wind across a blade to hold it in a certain position there by steering you for free, as long as there's wind...  Perhaps the best solution here is to have both.  Another efficiency consideration is speed.  This goes hand in hand with Storage.  If a boat can only make 3-4 kts loaded you're going to need to carry more stores...  Catch 22 me thinks...

The final topic I'm going to consider today is Strength - Ah, yes... another overly broad topic.  I'm only going to point out two considerations.  Hull strength and rigging strength.  A boat that circumnavigates is going to take a serious pounding over thousands and thousands of miles no matter how benign the conditions you manage to keep yourself in.  Plus in areas like the Pacific coast of North and Central America there are lots of things in the water to run in to, other areas I'm sure as well...  Whales, logs, abandoned lobster traps etc.  There's lots of stuff out there so the hull will need to be able to take a few bangs and bumps.  Plus going through millions of waves can take it's toll also.  Hull flexing or oil canning will really affect the integrity of a boats hull.  Material, layup thickness, coring, and bulkhead support all go to the strength of the hull.  Thick is good and is probably the biggest reason so many boats made in the 80's are still making long passages.  Rigging strength may be one of the more common reasons an entire class or model of boat is considered not the be Blue Water.  Without rigging of sufficient strength, and therefore the deckplates it attaches to, the mast very well may just come down in the serious conditions one may find offshore.  These two points are where we just choose to go with brute strength.  No amount of seamanship or strategizing is going to add strength to a vessel or her rigging.  Sometimes you just need to say "Make it bigger..."

"Alright mister smarty pants, what boat fits all these criteria???" I'm not certain any boat will meet every criteria, as I said much of this process comes down to compromises.  However I will say that there are a few boats out there that I think would fit my, and my family's, needs on a world cruise.  I've previously mentioned a Peterson 44, I think that is a fine ship!  I think a LaFitte 44 is another fine vessel to take a family over the horizon.  Formosas are also exceptional craft.  If money were no object, and who am I kidding, then I would go out right now and purchase a new Island Packet 460 Center Cockpit.  Ah... Dreaming...

Okay, that's my opinion and I'm guessing there are as many disenters out there as anything.  If you disagree, or even agree, please feel free to comment.  This whole point of all this is for me to learn and to help me make the best decisions I can down the road, or seaway as it were.

Happy Sailing!
Seaman Ray