# 'typical' sailboat going to Tierra del Fuego?



## yellowwducky (Nov 6, 2008)

Hi all,

I am just curious, how realistic is it for normal non steel hulled boats to be thinking about heading down around the southern tip of South America? I have been reading some of the yachting porn cough I mean magazines  and it seems a popular destination. That said, from what I have seen so far it has been steel hulled monohulls. There doesn't seem to be iceberg issues so is there something preventing 'typical' fiberglass/epoxy mono/cats from going this route (physically being able to do it I mean, not 'you will get mushrooms growing' or 'its too scary' or 'thats the southern ocean and you will die' type arguments).

Thoughts, opinions?

Regards!


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## JohnRPollard (Mar 26, 2007)

No matter what boat you go in, it has to be very well equipped. Anchoring in tight spots, with lines run ashore and heavy ground tackle is the norm, and you need to anticipate being buffeted routinely by hurricane force williwaws. It's a very different level of sailing/cruising than what most of us are used to.

One of the reason metal boats are preferred is the abundance of uncharted rocks/boulders in the near coastal areas. But plenty of folks have made the trip in fiberglass. Joshua Slocum did it in wood.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

IIRC, one person I know of goes down there regularly in his Gemini 105 Mc Catamaran. He has some of the most amazing photos, and Performance Cruising often uses them in their ads for the Geminis.


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## camaraderie (May 22, 2002)

Beth Leonard and Evans Starzinger have extensively cruised that area and written about it if you want to know more about what it is like. Some good reading here:
Beth & Evans


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## erps (Aug 2, 2006)

Terry Milner on another Fraser 41 "No Komis" has a picture of his boat rounding the cape with some chatter about the trip on this news letter.

http://www.hmcsventure.com/theSignal/Signal Apr05.pdf


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## Valiente (Jun 16, 2006)

Steel is preferred for high-latitude work because it is more forgiving if you become the first boat to chart a rock the hard way...Also, steel is perceived as buying one a bit more time if you hit something, and is more easily repaired (welders are places glassers are not) in the very few shipyards or harbours in that part of the world.

Steel boats also tend to have the size and reserve capacity to carry the sort of gear (many large anchors, warps, drogues, spools of line to "spiderweb" yourself into a tight fjord) that seems advisable, as well as the larger fuel tanks, when compared to most production fibreglass boats, that seem prudent.

I have read a number of books on cruising the area, including the affecting "My Old Man and the Sea", and while it can and is done in production f/g boats, I think you need a level of seamanship not easily obtained through coastal cruising in temperate waters.


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## yellowwducky (Nov 6, 2008)

Well it looks awesome. I would think you could work your way up to it fairly readily over time. Charting unchartered rocks I think would be generally unadviseable no matter what kind of boat hehe. I would think I would prefer two hulls to one in that case though but that is just me thinking (uh typing) out loud there.


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## JohnRPollard (Mar 26, 2007)

Valiente said:


> ...I have read a number of books on cruising the area, including the affecting "My Old Man and the Sea", and while it can and is done in production f/g boats, I think you need a level of seamanship not easily obtained through coastal cruising in temperate waters.


Val,

I read and enjoyed that book too (well, I think you enjoyed it?)

Here it's worth mentioning that they did not so much "cruise the area" in their Vertue 25, as sail past in open water while rounding The Horn. I read the book so long ago that I can no longer remember distinctly whether they ducked in somewhere down there, but my vague recollection is they gave those cruising grounds a wide berth and proceeded north to more hospitable regions. They were on a timeline to complete the voyage, so made long legs between landfall. I hope my memory serves...

I think this is an important distinction. For instance, I would not hesitate to round The Horn in a properly designed fiberglass hull. But I would much prefer to go in steel or aluminum if I planned to explore and cruise Tierra del Fuego and adjacent coastal waters.

But Yellowducky was a bit vague on this distinction. Are we talking about rounding the Horn, or cruising Tierra del Fuego?


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## vega1860 (Dec 18, 2006)

These guys went to Antarctica and the Northwest Passage too. Notice the boat.






The book "Berserk" by David Mercy, is about the trip South. The skipper single-handed from the North Atlantic to Tierra del Fuego and picked up crew there for an exploration of Antarctica. Hilarious, a great read and available through (Shameless promotion here) the American Vega Association's online bookstore. Search for "Berserk"


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## JohnRPollard (Mar 26, 2007)

Yeah, but they're Norwegians, not mere mortals. So it doesn't count.


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

Vega - that is a sweet video! Wow! Those guys are completely whacked. I'm all over this.


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## Faster (Sep 13, 2005)

I know of one local that cruised south from here over a two year span, and spent considerable time cruising the inland waterways of Chile along the way. He did manage to do a long daysail that took him around 'the horn' (which is actually on an island which they circumnavigated). 

They did it on a Spencer 53, a locally built glass boat (bluewater heavy - many of you may have read the adventures of Hal Roth's original voyages on a Spencer 35). The stories they tell of anchoring in "sheltered" bays with 2 anchors and 4 or 5 shorelines are amazing. Hurricane force williwaws were commonplace, as was being trapped in one spot for some time waiting for weather to ease.

I think the success of such a voyage/cruise has far more to do with the sailor(s) than the boat per se

Edit- sorry, reread the OP and realized you didn't want comments such as above..... point being this particular glass boat was up to the task.


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## vega1860 (Dec 18, 2006)

smackdaddy said:


> Those guys are completely whacked.


They are not the only ones. We will be taking our boat into the Atlantic in a couple of years and my wife has just about convinced me to go around the Horn. Just one more reason I'm glad we have a Vega.


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

vega1860 said:


> They are not the only ones. We will be taking our boat into the Atlantic in a couple of years and my wife has just about convinced me to go around the Horn. Just one more reason I'm glad we have a Vega.


Well make sure you strap on the horns and film it, dude! And I just have to say that you must have one very cool wife if she's pressuring YOU to round the Horn. Is she smack-talkin' ya, or just encouraging?


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## billyruffn (Sep 21, 2004)

smackdaddy said:


> Vega - that is a sweet video! Wow! Those guys are completely whacked. I'm all over this.


Whacked? Well, not really -- acutally they're quite typical of the people you find on small sailboats north of 70 degrees.


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## vega1860 (Dec 18, 2006)

smackdaddy said:


> Well make sure you strap on the horns and film it, dude! And I just have to say that you must have one very cool wife if she's pressuring YOU to round the Horn. Is she smack-talkin' ya, or just encouraging?


I do indeed have a very cool wife and she is quite serious. I told her that if we do that I'm going to get the traditional gold earring in my left ear 

We missed the chance to return to HM Bark Endeavour for her voyage around the horn during which footage for Master and Commander was shot because I was too close to retirement and we did not want to postpone our own cruise plans. Our honeymoon, and first Pacific crossing under sail, was in Endeavour as voyage crew in '99 sailing from Vancouver to Hawaii and on to Fiji.

Laura's sailing resume also includes delivery crew on Spike Africa's voyage from San Diego to Kauai. (I had to stay home and work) Read about that trip here pdf with photos.


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## yellowwducky (Nov 6, 2008)

Good to hear its doable in a more 'typical' boat. Indeed, I am talking here of going into secluded bays and such. Making a run around the tip and straight back North seems to defeat a fair amount of the point. The story I was reading was in February's Yachting World and all the bays sounded like something not to be missed.


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

vega1860 said:


> I do indeed have a very cool wife and she is quite serious. I told her that if we do that I'm going to get the traditional gold earring in my left ear
> 
> We missed the chance to return to HM Bark Endeavour for her voyage around the horn during which footage for Master and Commander was shot because I was too close to retirement and we did not want to postpone our own cruise plans. Our honeymoon, and first Pacific crossing under sail, was in Endeavour as voyage crew in '99 sailing from Vancouver to Hawaii and on to Fiji.
> 
> Laura's sailing resume also includes delivery crew on Spike Africa's voyage from San Diego to Kauai. (I had to stay home and work) Read about that trip here pdf with photos.


Is that Endeavor the replica of Cook's ship? If so, I'm just finishing "Blue Latitudes" - a book about his voyages that included the author's crewing on that ship. Man that sounds like an incredible ride. Did Cook have a set of stones or what?

You're a lucky dude Vega! I'll take a look at that Spike story.


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## Valiente (Jun 16, 2006)

JohnRPollard said:


> Val,
> 
> I read and enjoyed that book too (well, I think you enjoyed it?)
> 
> Here it's worth mentioning that they did not so much "cruise the area" in their Vertue 25, as sail past in open water while rounding The Horn. I read the book so long ago that I can no longer remember distinctly whether they ducked in somewhere down there, but my vague recollection is they gave those cruising grounds a wide berth and proceeded north to more hospitable regions. They were on a timeline to complete the voyage, so made long legs between landfall. I hope my memory serves...


I can't remember clearly, either, except for the loss of the ship's cat.

They still had to get there, which must have involved some high-latitude pit stops, but I agree that open ocean is nominally less tricky than the Beagle Channel's little surprises. Depending on conditions, I think it's possible to round the Horn from Hermite Islands to Staten Island in 24 hours, but to go from 50 S to 50 S could take a couple of very hard and potentially dangerous weeks.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

They did the offshore route...


Valiente said:


> I can't remember clearly, either, except for the loss of the ship's cat.
> 
> They still had to get there, which must have involved some high-latitude pit stops, but I agree that open ocean is nominally less tricky than the Beagle Channel's little surprises. Depending on conditions, I think it's possible to round the Horn from Hermite Islands to Staten Island in 24 hours, but to go from 50 S to 50 S could take a couple of very hard and potentially dangerous weeks.


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## vega1860 (Dec 18, 2006)

smackdaddy said:


> Is that Endeavor the replica of Cook's ship?


That's the one.



smackdaddy said:


> Did Cook have a set of stones or what?


Yes, indeed he did.


smackdaddy said:


> You're a lucky dude Vega!


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## LittleWingCA (Jul 17, 2008)

There is a good series on Nordhavn dot com about the crew of Egret who went from the Med around the Horn and eventually to New Zealand. It wasn't in a sailboat but a F/G motorboat. Great pics and info on weather and what they found as far as harbors, etc. Good reference material if you want to know what a trip like that can be like. Makes for good reading.


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## mccary (Feb 24, 2002)

*Lets not forget*

that *Joshua Slocum* sailed his small wooden sloop (modified to ketch while at the Straight of Magellan), Spray, way down to Cape Horn... he survived and wrote a nice book about it.


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## billyruffn (Sep 21, 2004)

smackdaddy said:


> Is that Endeavor the replica of Cook's ship? If so, I'm just finishing "Blue Latitudes" - a book about his voyages that included the author's crewing on that ship. Man that sounds like an incredible ride. Did Cook have a set of stones or what?


Smackdaddy,

If you liked Blue Latitudes you might take a look at another "Cook book" at Amazon.com: Cook : The Extraordinary Voyages of Captain James Cook: Nicholas Thomas: Books

It's a more serious ("academic") history, but it gives you a greatly expanded view of the man and his incredible voyages.


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

Cool - thanks Billy. I'll check it out. I've also been checking into those Berserk Wild Viking guys (someone posted a link to their video somewhere around here). Freakin' hilarious those guys! And insane sailors to boot. Cook would have loved 'em - or flogged 'em. You never could tell with that guy.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

Smacky—

The Vikings have since ditched the Norsea 27 for a larger steel-hulled beastie IIRC.


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