a needful read...

Maybe the best article I've come across on why it makes environment sense to live on a boat over on S/V Violet Hour.

Just sayin'.

sustainable/unsustainable...

Yesterday, something came into focus on what made a good deal or a great deal on a sailboat.

All the great deals I've seen lately are for sale because the boats had become unsustainable for their owners to continue owning.

You might want to think on that for a bit...

A cruising boat worth thinking about...

 

There's a Beneteau 235 for sale here that caught my attention and got me thinking about what a great little cruising boat it would make.

Now as far as French production boats go, I've never been a huge fan of the Beneteau boats preferring the Jeanneau designs back in the pre-conglomerate days. I expect that's mainly because of the designs of Philippe Harlé like the Sangria, Fantasia, and Tonic.

As far as the Beneteau 235 is concerned it fills the same design niche as the Tonic.

Now, I don't know about you, but the idea of a Tonic or a Bendy 235 as a cruising boat makes a whole lot of sense and inspires dreams of unfettered freedom.

Sure, they're small but small equals a low price, minimal cruising expenses, and small problems. 

That said a small boat is not for everyone.

Back when I was considering buying a Tonic for serious cruising my life was pared down to just the essentials and that's a given where cruising in a small boat is concerned.

These days, where anything smaller than a forty-foot boat is considered small, what is considered essential is a very different thing and people do love having a lot of stuff.

For me. the real beauty of a small design like the 235 is that there is simply no room for anything that is surplus to requirements. The idea of not having to contend with dragging stuff you don't need or use actually qualifies as something akin to a luxury.

Which is not to say it would be an easy transition for most. I'm in the middle of a never-ending struggle  to cull all the various stuff that seems to accumulate and just takes up room but never gets used. So I'm well aware how difficult it can be.

The attraction of a little boat like the 235 or Tonic, for me at least, has everything to do with jettisoning all the stuff I don't need and getting back to a simpler and more focused life. Which, when you think about t is why most of us decided to sail away in the first place.

I often do a mental exercise where I work out how I'd cruise a given boat where I use an Atlantic circle as an example. While doing an Atlantic circle on a 235 is not on everyone's with list it would be an excellent way to sort out just what you'd actually need after you've done your Wordle for the day.

Now, If only I can bring myself to throw away that bent stanchion I can't find a use for...

On that "Just use less" mantra...

Way back when, Jimmy Carter pointed out that it might make sense to turn your thermostat down a few degrees and wear a sweater as a means to save on fossil fuels.

Which, as it happens, was a very simple and elegant answer to a difficult problem of the then current oil shortage.

Just use less.

Of course, Americans as a group wanted nothing to do with such a solution and the political output of the whole "Wear a sweater" was, at best, negative and just the sort of political grist that found Ronald Reagan as the next President of the US of A.

Which has exactly what to do with cruising and VolksCruisers?

Well, for me at least, Jimmy Carter's advice to use less, struck a chord with me and has been one of my favorite mantras where most things are concerned. Which, admittedly, does not fly well in the face of the current consumerist mindset of most folks on boats where the answer to most questions is to go bigger and spend large.

For example, the other day I was reading about a boat's new electrical system which was powerful enough to run a a village. When I costed out the huge solar array, 16K genset and gargantuan bank of lithium batteries, I came up with a sum that I could cruise lavishly on for the next few decades. Now, while I admittedly found the cost to be appalling, my main reaction to the electrical system was that it was over-complicated and had so many potential failure points that could seriously ruin their day/week/year that it was just a power failure waiting to happen.

Apparently, the reason behind the huge electrical upgrade was they'd kept bolting on more and more appliances/systems to the mix. Since they felt the need to expand and since they were adding power they might as well add on some more electron guzzling systems while they were at it which resulted in a death spiral as far as common sense was concerned.

Just maybe, at some point they could have just said to themselves...

"It's a boat so maybe we should simplify things a little and not set it up like a house on the grid. Yeah, maybe we could use a bit less."

Right now, adding a heater to "So It Goes" is currently on my "I really should do this" project list and it's easy to be seduced to the dark side of just throw money at it consumerism. While I'll admit that a central heating system is appealing but, then again, it's expensive as well as requiring an uptick in electrical consumption.Which would require another solar panel (or two) and a bigger battery bank and since we only have a 34-foot boat becomes somewhat problematic in the grand theme of things.

On the other hand, a small used solid fuel heater is fairly cheap as are a couple of sweaters and a I've already got some good sleeping bags for those extra chilly nights. So it would seem that I'll be taking President Carter's advice as it makes the most sense.

regarding a very long voyage in a pretty small boat...

I read recently how Keith Leitzke has returned from another cruise to nowhere in particular and it got me thinking about a few things...

The first being how that Bill Lapworth's CAL 20 is still a great minimal cruising design in spite of the fact that it was never really designed to be one.

While I'm sure the Cal 20 would not be everyone's choice for a long sea voyage apparently Keith Leitzke thought it was just the thing for a four month or longer blue water voyage.

The fact that the Cal  20 has more than proven its blue water bona-fides with numerous trans-pacific voyages to its credit just goes to show that seaworthiness is not dependent on cost or size.

Of course, doing extreme blue water voyages in small boats means that one has to get creative to the Nth degree where space and loading is concerned. Seriously, just how do you store four months or more of provisions, water, and other needful gear?

Just thinking about how to store 120 gallons of water on a Cal 20, for starters, kinda makes my brain hurt! Throw in the provisions of even the most stoic menu for four+ months and you're talking about some genius creative use of space...

Well that or getting into TARDIS territory.

The important thing to keep in mind is that, obviously, it's been done so it's possible and knowing something is possible means all you have to do is figure it out because impossible is no longer an option.

Just sayin'

On the subject of sustainability...

SUSTAINABILITY

noun

1. The ability to be sustained, supported, upheld, or confirmed. 
2. Environmental Science: The quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological balance: The committee is developing sustainability standards for products that use energy.

 

The other day I found myself trying to explain the idea of sustainable cruising to someone and found the process a lot more complicated than expected. It is really a very simple concept and not complicated at all. Basically, sustainable cruising is simply just living within our means.

Simple right?

In hindsight, I've come around to the idea that maybe it's not all that simple. As it happens, the majority of folks I know actually don't live within their means or, to be more precise, are so close to the edge that any unforeseen dip in their income puts them into unsustainable territory.

Worse, it's not just a large percentage of individuals living in an unsustainable manner but the cities, states, and countries that they live in are also not working in a sustainable fashion. Even the world we live in is being run in a way that, considering it has finite resources but an ever-increasing population and demand on those resources, works on the premise that we can somehow continue population and economic growth forever without adverse effect.

So, considering that most everyone on the planet is not living within their means, it sorta/kinda makes the whole concept of sustainability something of a foreign concept to a lot of folks and yes, Dear Reader, a lot of those folks are interested in boats and cruising.

Which, I guess, also has a lot to do with not everyone quite getting the whole VolksCruiser concept which is really just about getting a boat and cruising off into the sunset in a sustainable fashion.

Some more on the subject soon come...

Speaking of sustainability...