Wednesday 3 October 2012

World of Cruising

We have all had that problem. Everyone has had a lovely day on the yacht anchored off St Trop in the Mediterranean sun, playing with the jetskis, hanging on to the inflatables as the speedboats towed them round, watching the fishes in the submarine, taking spins in the helicopter...
Then the time comes to up and aweigh and all the toys have to come aboard, leaving nowhere to party! Horrors!
The answer, according to Dutch shipyard Amels, is to bring along a Superyacht Support Craft, where you can store all the kit so you aren't tripping over stuff every time you want a discreet ciggy on the upper deck where the wife can't see. Every yacht should have one.
Actually, one of my long term fantasies has been to get a cruising boat so I could visit lots of lovely places to row while still having a comfy bed at night. The problem is that a good rowing boat is long and thin, so you would need a short, fat rowing boat as well, to act as a tender. And of course you would need a sailing dinghy just in case and possibly a sliding seat jobby for those times when a real workout is required.
Carrying all these boats aboard would take up the whole deck of a big boat. So perhaps the answer would be to have a smart little steam yacht to live in and a big motor barge with all the boats inside, following along like Dumbo after Timothy.

3 comments:

Philip said...

Our solution to this problem is a Klepper canoe - skin on ash frame double kayak that is superbly seaworthy and packs down into 2 bags in our forepeak. In our dreams we would have a large schooner with an elegant gig in the davits - but Festina and the kayak are all we can afford and they have helped us explore from the Artic circle to the Carribean !.

doryman said...

Chris, I'm working on this conundrum as we speak. I think a fine rowing vessel can serve as an auxiliary and it's efficient rowing profile assist in the tow.
If all goes well, sea trials will begin in six months. Nothing yachty about this experiment.
Rest assured, there will be no helicopter, nor jet ski.

Chris Partridge said...

"Unknown" writes:
I understand the dilemna, Chris. I have a 12' rowboat with a sliding seat that's quite amusing on my home waters of the bay and Long Island Sound but I'm getting a little sailboat for those days ...
However, the rowboat is too narrow and tippy to be a dinghy for the sailboat (which is 4 inches longer but that's another story) SO i need another dinghy to get to the sailboat on the mooring!?