Land Rovers

You can enjoy the ocean-going lifestyle on any budget. I joined a few friends on a Cape to Rio voyage. It wasn’t the triennial race. A friend and I with 2 crew sailed a 30-foot Miura the 3500 plus nautical miles.

 

Miura’s have been referred to as The Land Rovers of the ocean. The first launch, “Dawn’ was floated in Cape Town in 1974. As of now more than 50 hulls of that class have been built. They have proved themselves as seaworthy with several of the class having circumnavigated the globe.  They are designed for efficient use of the wind.  In December 1975 ‘Sundance Kid’ won Rothman’s week; a 3 day racing event that happened in the seas around Cape Town..

A big attraction was the price. You could buy, for half the cost of a European build, a small, manageable yacht, relatively inexpensive to maintain. They were seaworthy. They could take you around the world, the pleasant way, and the fast way. Tropical seas versus the Southern Ocean; 26.000 nautical miles of being cold and wet. There are a few brief reprises.

 

Miuras are small. They feel cramped. The Cape to Rio run was an exciting extended camping trip. If you are looking forward to a cruise around the world. And creature comforts are not a priority in your life than it may be the perfect choice for you. I have that t-shirt. The word ‘Crew” on the back is fading, but I occasionally pull if from our shirt drawer.

To be honest: The most important aspect of yachting is safety. Make sure that you have sufficient training and experience to know the correct decision in every circumstance or possible one. Choose a boat wisely. Build quality and design are critical. The materials used for building yachts are evolving rapidly. Many of the bigger production yacht companies offer carbon fibre rigging, both standing and running. That’s progress from Dacron and Kevlar.

Choose every available means to assist in navigation and weather prediction. There is a wide selection of electronic and other devices make that make passage planning, navigating, weather forecasting and communication quite simple. If everything works. 

If it doesn’t, there are backups and backups to those. Learn how to use a sextant. Always navigate using paper charts. Use your hand held VHF radio to communicate with container ships. They can give you weather forecasts and more. A guy I met in France had managed to get two 44 gallon drums of diesel from a passing South African ship  in the Atlantic. The ocean community is a close one.