Hi all,
I'm wondering what kind of daily average (mile-wise) people have done during long-distance cruising? Trying to estimate a realistic miles/day that I might expect with a C36. Yes, I know I could just assume an average speed and multiply by 24, but was hoping someone might have some real data from a trip they might share?
Thx,
J
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Josh McElwee
Sailing from East Greenwich, RI
2000 C36 MKII, M35B, "Chinook", Hull#1900
Josh,
Are you talking offshore? Rivers? Lakes? Coastal? ICW? Inquiring minds want to know!! :-)
Tom Sokoloski
C36/375IA Past Commodore
Noank, CT
Hi J
We budget on 110 to 120 miles VMG per day, allows for some tacking somewhere on a passage. With a nice steady following 20kts we have made 140 per day noon to noon VMG. (See photo) Best ever 150 NM.
We're pretty conservative, sail mostly just the two of us. Reefing down to 7 knots or so max. Usually. :-)
Have you got plans?
S.V. Wind Star
Rob & Margie Kyles: Auckland ,New Zealand
Mk I Hull #105 1983 Std Rig, Std Keel
J-
You will get all kinds of answers. Longest trip so far for us was Sailing from Wickford Rhode Island to Newburyport MA under 10-15 KT variable winds. Motored maybe 50% of time. Didn't push it hard. We towed a heavy dinghy. Lots of tidal currents (Buzzards Bay, Cape Cod Canal, Annisquam Canal)... both favorable and against. We just sailed during daylight. Did two 65-70 mile, 12 hour days. Our dinghy in tow cost us 1-1.5 knots. The math says we averaged about 5.8 Knots.
Paul
Paul & Wendy Keyser
"First Light"
Rye NH
2005 C36 MKII #2257
Wing, M35B
Great, thanks all! I was guess-timating just over 100 miles or so/day, so sounds like most people are pretty in-line with that.
Looking at an off-shore passage, am gearing up for the ARC Bahamas next year, so wanted a rough estimate for how many days we'll be en route.
Josh McElwee
Sailing from East Greenwich, RI
2000 C36 MKII, M35B, "Chinook", Hull#1900
ARC Rally, that's pretty cool! Be sure to keep us up to date on how this is going for you.
A Catalina 36 in the "right" wind can cruise 7-7.5 knots with peaks to 8 knots without help from tide or current to take it faster. There's the half-full portion. :)
In reality, the wind comes and goes and especially over that long of a trip. If you're able to motor, you should be able to hold a 5 knot average or better. So 120 nm a day is pretty reasonable if you have enough fuel to motor the lulls.
I would suggest trying out some overnight and 2-3 day passages to get an idea of what you are in for. It's amazing how noisy a boat can be at night especially whne the wind picks up. It's far different than a day sail. I found all my leaks on the 1st one bashing into waves when the wind swung on the nose.
2000 C36 MKII 1825
In three years of cruising Mexico we were conservative and estimated 100-110 miles in 24 hours. Often we did more but mostly we were in no hurry. If speed dropped to 1½ knots we would then motor if we wanted to maintain the estimate. Otherwise we would just wallow around until the wind picked up.
John Meyer
John Meyer
Hilbre
C36 MKll, Hull 2135
Cabrillo Marina, San Pedro, CA
Thanks all! Good to know the 100 mi/day is a pretty good estimate. Am really looking forward to the trip, have started upgrades/provisioning already (a not insubstantial undertaking in itself). Have the mast down now, and decided it was time to replace the standing rigging (original, so 15 years old now), new spare halyards, new VHF hailer, new mast-head tricolor/anchor (ARC requirement), new VHF antennae and cable (keeping old as spare, ARC requirement), new passive radar reflector (ARC requirement), and replacing the original radome with new HD radome (part of general electronics upgrade). At least Chinook's mast will be the nicest in the marina for a while!
Josh McElwee
Sailing from East Greenwich, RI
2000 C36 MKII, M35B, "Chinook", Hull#1900