Member Jonathan Lloyd s/v Sophia has prepared a detailed paper on the steps that aspiring world voyagers should take in preparing themselves and their boat for distance sailing. We are posting his paper in sections here and ask our very experienced members to comment, providing different perspectives and insights from their own experience. When completed, we hope to compile a paper on Best Practices in Preparation for Ocean Voyaging as a reference. 

Part I: INTRODUCTION

Undertaking a circumnavigation of the world in your own yacht is not only an activity, which takes a substantial amount of time but one which requires considerable planning and preparation. If you join a rally such as the World ARC, the feat can be accomplished in 15 months. However, most cruisers adopt a more leisurely approach and take up to 5 years and even longer. The more leisurely approach means that the vast majority of circumnavigators are retirees in their 50s and 60s, most of whom are double-handed married couples or partners of long standing. However, there are younger couples often with young children, who are able to take a sabbatical or break from work in order to achieve this ambition. In some cases, they break their circumnavigation and return to work in order to obtain the necessary funds to continue. There are also single-handers, who fall into both categories.

In our case, our circumnavigation started when we left the Solent on 1st June 2014 and finished when we crossed our outward track on arrival in Martinique in the Caribbean on 8th March 2018. Cruising up the east coast of the USA this summer has given us ample time to reflect on how well prepared we were for this challenge and the lessons we have learnt in this regard, which might be of assistance to those contemplating such a venture in the future.

While undertaking a circumnavigation had been a long-held ambition for both of us, the requirements of career, children’s education and caring for elderly parents meant waiting until these responsibilities were no longer a consideration before we could start the serious business of planning and preparing for this undertaking. With the death of my mother in 2012 the opportunity arose to do so. Once her affairs and estate had been settled I agreed to retire in April 2013 with my wife Anne following suit several months later. This would give us approximately a year to get organised. We reckoned that we would need at least this long in order to prepare both ourselves and also prepare and equip our yacht, as well as making the necessary domestic arrangements for a long term absence. At this point, we also set a target date for our departure, as it is all too easy to let your departure date slip if you do not have a target.


Vice Commodore, OCC 

Part III: ACQUIRING A SUITABLE YACHT

Concurrently with our own preparation, we needed to acquire and equip a yacht for this purpose. We felt that our Jeanneau 40, while an excellent yacht for coastal cruising in Channel waters, where we had sailed her for the previous five years, was not primarily intended for serious ocean cruising. We wanted a class A ocean cruiser such as a Hallberg-Rassy, Oyster or Malo, which have the scantlings and build quality to cope with the serious conditions, which one can potentially encounter on an ocean crossing. After looking at several such yachts in the 40- to 45-foot range including a Malo 42 in Plymouth, we decided that the Malo was the right yacht for us. In particular, we liked its deep, well-sheltered aft cockpit. Nearly all Hallberg-Rassys, Najads and Oysters in this size range have centre cockpits. Our search then focussed on the Malo 42 and eventually through the internet we found two for sale in the Netherlands, which were both newer and in better condition than the one in Plymouth.

There was not much to choose between the two. However, we chose Sofia because she had been very lightly used for a 12-year-old yacht and had been yard maintained during her previous ownership of eight years. Fortuitously for us, Sofia was also an estate sale, which had been on the market for over a year. This was an important factor in terms of our budget. Although she was a quality yacht, she had not been used or fitted out for ocean cruising and we would need to allocate a significant sum from our budget to equip her for this purpose. So we were very lucky to obtain Sofia for a bargain price.

Once Sofia was back on our berth on the Hamble River the serious task of equipping and preparing her for the circumnavigation began. This task fell into two broad categories. First was equipping her with the systems that she would need for ocean cruising, but did not possess. The second was upgrading her existing systems and equipment so that Sofia would be as well prepared as possible and minimise the possibility that she might require extensive work at some point in our circumnavigation. The main items of equipment that fell into the first category were self-steering gear, communications equipment including a HF radio and satellite telephone, a watermaker and additional power generation capacity. 

Vice Commodore, OCC