Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 30i
For a novice sailor, having a pair of experienced hands on board to give you advice and to help you out in tricky situations can be invaluable. But as you develop your skills as a sailor and you grow in confidence, the idea may come to you to get into solo sailing. What really intrigued me about solo sailing is not the fact of being alone. Sailing solo actually requires a change in your mindset, as you have to assume all the roles while operating the boat. All the tasks that you usually delegate to your crew members have to be done by yourself. Navigating, steering, trimming, reefing, mooring, repairing or cooking, all of those activities require an entirely different approach when sailing alone. A key aspect is preparation and anticipation as each of these activities need to be executed in the most efficient way. As you have to plan everything from A-Z, it can give you valuable insights into all the aspects of boat handling and helps pushing your boundaries in becoming a better sailor. Choose the boat that’s right for you The first question you are probably going to ask yourself: What type of boat is best suited for solo sailing? The main thing is to concentrate on the ease of handling your boat. This is a very tricky task especially if you are planning to charter a boat, just like in my case. Not all charterers might be open to the idea of handing over a boat to a novice solo sailor. Moreover, the standard charter fleets have often a limited choice of boats below 30 feet. Smaller boats are usually easier to manoeuver in tight spaces, are cheaper and as a solo sailor you definitely do not need that much space below deck. After checking out and contacting several charter companies in the Mediterranean, North and Baltic Sea, I found my luck on the German North East coast. I chartered a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 30i after weighing up price, base accessibility and suitability for singlehanded sailing. Here some of the key metrics that I used during my research: – Operation of sail controls: Checking out the sail handling system is the first thing to do. Mainsheet and the winches for the genua should be within arms-length when standing behind the steering wheel. When you need to reef, it is essential that you can do everything from the cockpit. The Jeanneau had a one line reefing system, so there was no need to get to the mast when reducing the sail. Also a lazy jack is quite useful when packing up the main sail (although this is anyway standard for all charter boats nowadays). – Autopilot: this will be your best friend on your solo trip. Especially on longer sailing trips, a well functioning autopilot is an invaluable asset. In my case, I had a standard Raymarine autopilot which worked quite well in winds up to 18kts. Above those wind strengths, I preferred not to push to hard and steered on my own. – Navigation: The navigation system of the Jeanneau was actually below deck. I used mainly my Ipad as navigation tool which worked perfectly fine for me. I used the plotter below deck to double check my routing from time to time. I was using the NV charts app, and a big plus was that I got the access codes for the digital maps from the Charterer few weeks before the start of the trip. If you use your Ipad as main navigation tool, it is essential to invest in adequate waterproof protection gear and a mounting system that can resist stronger winds.
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