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The disadvantages of a small boat
As I blogged last time, most people are excited to hear about Aurelia’s spring voyage from San Diego to Hawaii until they hear that she’s only 24-feet long. Then they give me the stink eye.
To be sure, there are numerous disadvantages of sailing small. There’s length. There’s width. And internal space. And storage. And speed.
Imagine spending a month unable to walk more than 20 feet in any one direction before having to turn around and go the other way. Or having to remain stooped a bit in the cabin. Or having to whittle down your reading stash to the 25 books that can fit on Aurelia’s small shelves.
Beyond neck cramp, leg cramp and a small library, the most important disadvantage of a small boat is its slow speed. Sailboats are limited by physics to a maximum speed of 1.3 times the square root of their waterline length, which for Aurelia is 5.8 knots, or about 6.7 miles per hour. That’s about how fast a fast jogger jogs. For practical reasons (sea conditions, suboptimal winds, sailor fatigue), Aurelia averages just more than 4 knots sailing around the clock, or about 100 nautical miles (115 land miles) per day. Larger boats can make it from the mainland to Hawaii in 15 days or less. Aurelia will take a month. Why rush a rush a good thing?