Minimalist Voyaging Under Sail: 5- The Essentials

Minimalist is about clutter reduction. The less stuff there is the less there is to go wrong.

Each piece of gear must be chosen for its utility, multiple uses, ease of repair, and fitted into the yacht so that the gear can be serviced regularly. For example, and the idea remains solidly minimalist. a Mini Trans At 6.5 sailor used his little 4 hp outboard to power both his Mini and the dinghy. John Guzzwell on Trekka may have been the first to do it and the idea remains solidly minimalist. First, the outboard and fuel are common to two applications. Secondly, outboards are used all around the world so finding a mechanic is not too difficult. Additionally, small outboards can often be repaired by a competent mechanic with minimal tools and spares. The same idea applied elsewhere on the yacht yields the same results.e

Areas for simplification:
refrigeration
pressure water
shore power

A short list of essentials aboard a KISS (keep it simple sailing?) boat might look like this;

Sink with drain to the sea on either tack
Toilet with discharge to holding tank and overboard
Stove with gimbels
Stove fuel safely stowed
Cooking gear that fits easily into lockers and securely on stove
Water tank with pump or lockers dedicated to water jugs
Berths and linens, one berth per side
Cabin illumination
Charts and cruising guides
Navigation and piloting tools
Handheld GPS
Handheld VHF
Tools for repairing the boat, rigging, and sails
Dinghy
Awnings
Mooring and docking equipment
Propulsion motor.
collision mat

What's missing? Things that require two people to operate or are difficult to fix.

Minimalist voyaging Under Sail: 4-The Boats

Entries 1, 2, and 3 are about boats I have sailed that fit the minimalist category. The following are quicks notes about other voyagers who describe the concept. Books by and about these folks are easily found in maritime book stores and on line.

The old-timers didn't try to be minimalists. There wasn't any "luxury" small boat sailing in those days. A short list old timers.

Joshua Slocum in Spray. He started it all with Sailing Alone Around the World

Captain Voss on Tillicum

Captain and Mrs Crapo on New Bedford

Robin Knox-Johnson on Suhaili

John Guzzwell on 26 foot Trekka

The modern era started with Lin and Larry Pardy with their simple sloops and the idea of "go small and go simple." Others, such as:

James Baldwin on the 28 foot sloop, Atom

Webb Chiles on a variety of sailing vessels including an open 19 footer.

Anne Hill in her book Voyaging on a Small Income

These and many others work on the idea that cruising should be simple and the more simple the more pleasurable. The idea is not to be cramped and uncomfortable but to live outside the boat. To do that they propose a small simple vessel.

Minimalist Voyaging Under Sail: 3

I sail and cruise a very simple boat, Averisera, an Aphrodite 101. She was built in 1984 in Denmark and is hull 264 from a production run of 400 plus hulls. The story is at another blog:

www.averisera.com

Another old race boat with a very simple interior. Averisera is easily cleaned or repaired. Also, fun to sail! As we have gotten older, the lack of headroom has become an inconvenience. Maybe even unnecessarily minimal.

Credit: Mc Cann

Credit: Kinnard

One gets an idea about just how small Averisera's living quarters are in pictures. We have dolled up the interior a bit but there is still only four and half feet of headroom. The sink is to starboard and has an electric fawcett. The stove is an Origo 3000 to port. We find the alcohol stove to be plenty sufficient. The head and forward cabin are forward of the visible bulkhead. 

Minimalist Voyaging Under Sail: 2

Another view of a minimalist voyager is an old 1984 Frers-designed IOR racer, the former Evergreen. Renamed, Rumor, she was sailed to the Caribbean from New England and double handed between the various Caribbean regattas.

The boat was a stripped out racing machine with four berths, an excuse for a galley and a tiny head. There were no head liners or trim. Everything was exposed. The boat was fast (PHRF in the 60s) and actually very easy to sail. For instrumentation, she had two each of hand held VHF and GPS, one installed depth meter and a masthead fly. One person could clean the boat thoroughly in a morning. It was the simplest boat to operate.

From the point of view of minimalist, this boat was it. The large cockpit made Rumor a popular boat for getting together with friends in foreign ports. The berths were comfy, the galley produced some good-enough eating, and she sailed like a dream. More time was spent sailing her than fixing her.

An old picture of Evergreen from 1985 or so.

Many old IOR war-horses are available for short money and make great cruisers without major refits.

Minimalist Voyaging Under Sail: 1

As sailing yachts used for cruising grow in size, the idea of "doing it simply" gets lost in the clutter of marketing and must haves. Smaller sailboats and simple cruising plans are less expensive than one may expect. Minimalist isn't by definition cramped, uncomfortable and/or crude. It can be quite comfy.

As a starting point, we cruised in the early 1960s aboard a very large yacht for it's time, a 48 foot yawl. She had about the same interior space a contemporary 40 footer. We had no pressure water or refrigeration and we towed a 13 foot wooden dinghy with a 3 hp outboard. The spars were solid spruce and the sails cotton.  Oh, yeah, we had 12 volt lights but generally illuminated the galley and main cabin with Coleman camp lanterns.

Mom, dad, four little kids and the dog lived aboard comfortably sailing between New England and the Bahamas/Florida.

Anchored off the light at Great Stirrup Cay, 1961