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I love this! I'm actually planning to move full-time into a sailing yacht either this year or next, though the fact I'm doing this while working a full time jo

I love this! I'm actually planning to move full-time into a sailing yacht either this year or next, though the fact I'm doing this while working a full time job (remotely of course) will mean it's a rather slow rate of travel! I'm hoping to buy a forty footer of some description (probably a ketch but that could change between now and then) and do a lot of the work making it a comfortable place to live and work myself.

frontman1988 5y ago
How do you plan on being connected to the internet while sailing in the middle of nowhere? Someone here said starlink is geo-limited.
- Thlom 5y ago
  Inmarsat have full global coverage on L-band (except in Antarctica and the North Pole). KA-band is still a bit difficult and expensive on a small vessel as it’s currently dependent on very expensive steerable antennas. There’s also Iridium.
- BoxOfRain 5y ago
  A good directional aerial and a 4G/5G modem at first which will be a big limiting factor on where we can travel but eventually we'll go for Starlink or another satellite internet provider when they're no longer geofenced. I believe that there are plans for Starlink to support mobile installations in the next few years and honestly in a fair few places I've lived in recent years the 4G has been faster and more reliable than the ADSL or even FTTC connection anyway. The long passages are only a part of the appeal too, a large motivation is being able to explore coastal places on land without the issue holidaying has of trying to cram in as much as possible before you go to back to work. Also being able to opt-out of the miserable grey British winter is a part of it too, even three months on a mooring bouy somewhere with longer days would make it worthwhile!
asimpletune 5y ago
If you are looking to actually sail, like ocean cross, I highly recommend getting the smallest boat that fits your other requirements. This is counter-intuitive, and a lot of information out there is from people who either want to sell boats or don't know what they're talking about. The reason why I recommend this is that a small boat is much safer, because they're much cheaper to rig well and have back systems for everything. I.e. the the difference between a 31' and 45' will not make one bit of difference to the sea, however the 31' will be like 4-8x cheaper to supply. Boat costs scale geometrically, not linearly.
- throw0101a 5y ago
  > I.e. the the difference between a 31' and 45' will not make one bit of difference to the sea, however the 31' will be like 4-8x cheaper to supply. Not wrong from a financial point of view, but the it should be noted that (generally speaking) a boat's maximum speed is proportional to its length: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_speed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_speed You can cross oceans in a small boat, but you will probably do it much slower than a longer boat. There is some probability that something will go wrong every day you're out on the water, so the longer it takes the higher the chances that something bad will happen (never mind all the extra provisioning needed for those days). Also, the longer you're out, the more likely the weather will shift to something you won't like and you won't be able to avoid it because of your slow(er) speed. Just another factor to consider.
  - wrycoder 5y ago
    Proportional to the square root of the length, unless it’s a planing catamaran.
    - BoxOfRain 5y ago
      It's mad how much faster catamarans can be than monohulls. When I was a student me and some friends got together and bought a used Dart 16 with the spinnaker kit, it was the fastest thing there by a huge margin (albiet because most of the boats were the usual student fare, Fireflies, Laser 2s, GP14s). We played a fun game called 'cat and mouse' which was basically British bulldog but on dinghies, the club boats had to avoid getting caught by the much faster catamaran but it was a fair game because the cat was hopeless upwind and the slower club boats could point far further and escape. The most fun I ever had on that boat was at Bala Lake in north Wales, honestly one of the most underrated dinghy sailing places on the planet in my opinion.

frontman1988 5y ago

How do you plan on being connected to the internet while sailing in the middle of nowhere? Someone here said starlink is geo-limited.

Thlom 5y ago
Inmarsat have full global coverage on L-band (except in Antarctica and the North Pole). KA-band is still a bit difficult and expensive on a small vessel as it’s currently dependent on very expensive steerable antennas. There’s also Iridium.
BoxOfRain 5y ago
A good directional aerial and a 4G/5G modem at first which will be a big limiting factor on where we can travel but eventually we'll go for Starlink or another satellite internet provider when they're no longer geofenced. I believe that there are plans for Starlink to support mobile installations in the next few years and honestly in a fair few places I've lived in recent years the 4G has been faster and more reliable than the ADSL or even FTTC connection anyway. The long passages are only a part of the appeal too, a large motivation is being able to explore coastal places on land without the issue holidaying has of trying to cram in as much as possible before you go to back to work. Also being able to opt-out of the miserable grey British winter is a part of it too, even three months on a mooring bouy somewhere with longer days would make it worthwhile!

asimpletune 5y ago

If you are looking to actually sail, like ocean cross, I highly recommend getting the smallest boat that fits your other requirements. This is counter-intuitive, and a lot of information out there is from people who either want to sell boats or don't know what they're talking about. The reason why I recommend this is that a small boat is much safer, because they're much cheaper to rig well and have back systems for everything. I.e. the the difference between a 31' and 45' will not make one bit of difference to the sea, however the 31' will be like 4-8x cheaper to supply. Boat costs scale geometrically, not linearly.

throw0101a 5y ago
> I.e. the the difference between a 31' and 45' will not make one bit of difference to the sea, however the 31' will be like 4-8x cheaper to supply. Not wrong from a financial point of view, but the it should be noted that (generally speaking) a boat's maximum speed is proportional to its length: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_speed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_speed You can cross oceans in a small boat, but you will probably do it much slower than a longer boat. There is some probability that something will go wrong every day you're out on the water, so the longer it takes the higher the chances that something bad will happen (never mind all the extra provisioning needed for those days). Also, the longer you're out, the more likely the weather will shift to something you won't like and you won't be able to avoid it because of your slow(er) speed. Just another factor to consider.
- wrycoder 5y ago
  Proportional to the square root of the length, unless it’s a planing catamaran.
  - BoxOfRain 5y ago
    It's mad how much faster catamarans can be than monohulls. When I was a student me and some friends got together and bought a used Dart 16 with the spinnaker kit, it was the fastest thing there by a huge margin (albiet because most of the boats were the usual student fare, Fireflies, Laser 2s, GP14s). We played a fun game called 'cat and mouse' which was basically British bulldog but on dinghies, the club boats had to avoid getting caught by the much faster catamaran but it was a fair game because the cat was hopeless upwind and the slower club boats could point far further and escape. The most fun I ever had on that boat was at Bala Lake in north Wales, honestly one of the most underrated dinghy sailing places on the planet in my opinion.