Is it possible for any kind of private yacht to get to American shores from any point of English shores?

Question

This is for a fictional story, but I would still like it to be accurate. Thanks! Please include a source if you have one.

Answer 1

No.  All Power yachts have a range determined by fuel capacity.  If it's say 40' with 300 gal. tanks, it would be nearly impossible to make America.  On the other hand, a 33' sailboat made the trip. There it was drinking water and food, that were the major concerns.  If it's fiction..... well!

Answer 2

Go straight across the atlantic ocean and you will run right into the U.S. Mainland.

Answer 3

If by "any kind of private yacht" you mean sail or power - the answer is yes!  (assuming you are talking of a true "yacht" and not a Bayliner... or some kind of Cabin Cruiser.

So, if you are speaking of a true yacht... Yes it most certainly is possible... and in fact people do it everyday. Whoever says they can't - well, I guess they have never been boating outside of the bayou.

  

My son and I have done it several times... Our latest crossing took 19 days at sea.. We left from Ft. Lauderdale to Lisbon, to Southampton to deliver a brand new Krogen 54.

It was mostly uneventful except that we stayed an extra day (not included in the above days at sea) in Bermuda. It was either no wind or downwind all the way, and seas were rough for only 2 days before arriving at Horta, Faial, Azores.

Our route between fuel stops put us 900 nautical miles from port, at the midpoint and we had a 2,500 mile range.

When you reach the midpoint - you are alone in your own little water world, nothing in any direction but the horizon.

Passing Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point on the continent of Europe, going up the Rio Tejo to Lisbon, and passing under the 25th of April Bridge, modeled after the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco was a highlight of the trip.

The shortest navigable distance between New York City and Southampton is 3,169 nautical miles, so allowing for non-ideal routes (explaned below)  in practice a *pier-to-pier* average speed of 20 knots would yield a crossing time of 160 hours... some bigger yachts can do that at twice the speed and in half the time...

As anyone who understands navigation knows, straight is not the shortest route across the ocean.

Contrary to what they teach you in school... when making an ocean passage... The shortest distance between two points is NOT a straight line.  ie: the Azores and Ft. Lauderdale... for navigation purposes, one would follow the curve of the Earth. In this case, following the curve cuts 50 nautical miles off the trip. (versus - following a straight line).  That course, in the Northern Hemisphere, takes one further North.  The straight line course in this part of the Atlantic... is often the "motoryacht" Captain's choice... as he would rather follow the straight line (we call it a "rhumb" line) in anticipating better, calmer waters to the south...  The straight line (or  rhumb line - we call it)  -- from the Azores to Ft. Lauderdale (or vice versa) would set a course south so the yacht might take six days to get across the Atlantic from the Azores instead of five.

Also, this area off the Azores is called the "Horse Latitudes" nicknamed from the time the Spanish shipped horses from Spain to America... Once in the calm waters of the Azores, often these "sailing ships" would be caught for days with little or no wind in calm flat seas... So the area got its nickname by the fact that this area would be where they dumped the horses overboard to lighten up the ship - so it would sail in lighter winds...

Anyway...

Click on this link for a beautiful picture of such an ocean passage - private (motorized) yacht:

http://www.hershineyachts.com.au/Passage...

Both Ft lauderdale in the States, and NYC are favorite ports for ships traveling to Southampton... (Southampton by the way, was the home port of the RMS Titanic.)

good luck on the book...

Answer 4

As someone stated, it depends on the fuel capacity and consumption.

Many can make it, many can't.