Sailing from California to Amsterdam?

Question

My friend and I want to spend $5000 dollars to buy an older 26 foot sailboat to sail from California (Oceanside Harbor?) to Amsterdam maybe sometime next year. It would be a really fun feat for us to undertake but I am really not sure if it is a smart thing to attempt. Anyone with any sailing knowledge have any tips for us? We would estimate the trip would take 20 days at a realistic speed of 10knots. It seems amazingly adventurous and we would love to do it..any feedback is appreciated!

Answer 1

Bring an EPIRB and life vests.

Keep the EPIRB with you at all times while you are waiting for someone to rescue you.

Answer 2

1.  You can not do this in 20 days, even at 10 knots.

2.  You are trapped by hull speed (square root of your waterline length times 1.43) in your case your hull speed would be about considerably below 7 knots.

3.  You are correct in an adventure.  I have spend a lot of time at sea in a small boat (38' sail) I have many hair raising adventures to recall.  I shudder to think how I would have felt in a 26' boat that I had purchased for a mere $5,000.

Have you possibly considered contacting the U. S. Power Squadron?  They are a boater organization that provides great education, including celestial navigation.  There is also the U.S. Coast Guard Axillary.  These organizations will neither encourage nor discourage your dreams, but will attempt to provide a lot of education to assist you.

Bottom line, I do discourage you to make such an attempt of going off shore in a $5,000 26 foot sail boat in any but the calmest of seas and then not for an overnight run.

Answer 3

Sounds like a romantic notion. Do you have any experience in ocean sailing? Do you know what a boat and crew have to deal with on a long voyage?

From the way you word your question I think you are taking on a deadly dream. First, 10 knots is very fast for cruising average, try 5 knots at best and even that is pushing it. Second, a $5000 boat is going to have problems from one end to the other. What are you going to do when your head-stay breaks? Do you know what a head-stay is? How about catching a c**p pot line in your prop, breaking the transmission. Maybe a corroded thru hull breaking loose.

Are you prepared to have someone on deck 24/7 as lookout? Who is going out on the forward deck to pull down the shredded jib in a 60 knot wind with 20' seas?

Those are just a few of the 1,000's of things that can go wrong and if you aren't prepared to deal with them, you can die.

Long distance cruising can be romantic and adventurous, but it's mostly tedious, physically and mentally demanding and full of ugly surprises.

Answer 4

First off, 10 knots is NOT a reasonable speed estimate for a 26' sailboat, sailing from the equator (Panama, because you have this whole "continent" thing between California and Holland) to the Netherlands. If you are very lucky (and a very competent sailor), you might average 100nm per day, just a bit more than 4 knots. From LA to Amsterdam under power is about 8000nm, roughly double that under sail for weather routing. So, assuming everything goes perfectly, you don't stop anywhere for for repairs or replenishing for even a second, the winds are 100% cooperative and you're the brightest, most knowledgeable sailor to ever grace the oceans, you might make it in about 160 days.  Personally, I wouldn't allow any less than 240 days, and that would be really pushing it.

As a culture that has been raised with the knowledge that we can buy a car for a few thousand dollars and drive it from LA to New York on a whim, it is difficult to recalibrate our brains to understand the challenges facing a mariner undertaking a journey of a similar distance. Yes, you can sail from CA to Amsterdam, but to do so with any chance of success (or survival) is going to require a lot of knowledge, experience and planning. Start by finding a good sailing school in your area (preferably one certified by either ASA or US Sailing), and work your way up through the classes from basic keelboat to celestial navigation and ocean passage-making. By then, you'll be ready to start planning your own ocean passage. And yes, it will be an amazing adventure!

Answer 5

Please heed the responses of the others.  Read as much as you can get your hands on of other sailors' accounts of trans-ocean crossings.  You don't say if you or your mate are "qualified sailors."  

The EPIRB mentioned by another (the emergency transponder that may - probably may not - help you to be found) costs about the same or more than your planned initial investment.

Your gut feeling is good:  it is not a smart thing to attempt if you are not experienced, knowledgeable, ingenious and wealthy.  For such an adventure, you should not consider buying any boat without a professional survey being done first- as has already been suggested.  Don't be discouraged!  Be Safe and Smart.  

The "cheapest" expense will be the actual purchase of your boat.  The equipment, supplies,  storage/docking/mooring, maintenance, insurance, repairs, customs & immigration fees if you touch land (oh, yes!) will exceed the investment exponentially.  

Oh, yes -- the estimated speed is more like the others have told you.  Remember that 4-5 knots is very good average progress -- not really counting 1-2-3 days of no wind and current carrying you way off course - or wind direction that has you tacking every 15 minutes and feeling like you're going backwards.  Good luck!

Answer 6

$5000.00 for an older 26 footer?  I think that's too much money for not enough boat.  Maybe you might want to think about getting a larger boat for that kind of trip.  Try looking in Portland or Seattle for a boat.  Craigslists.com or ebay.com.  I just sold my 24' Columbia Challenger for $1800.00 on ebay.