Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

[Buccaneer]

Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

OK…
I’m planning a divorce, & moving away from Calif.
I’ve had a 1983 48MY for 15 years. (100Ton ticket 11 years.)
I regularly (and competently) single hand it - without thrusters.
I’m looking at a 1981 61 (extended to 67 by Hargrave Yachts?- with a bow thruster ) as my new boat/apartment on the East Coast - while I figure out life. Planning to do the Loop. Some Bahamas time too.
Alone.

Am I nuts?

 

[Pascal]

Re: Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

No you re not.

The 48 doesn’t have a lower helm with side doors so docking from the FB requires coming down and then go forward to your springs. Takes a little while and that delay not grows as the captain gets old

With the larger MYs, the lower helm and side doors put you just a few steps from your spring lines, making docking a breeze. Sight lines aft are always somewhat restricted but that can be addressed with cameras.

I ve single handed my personal 53MY for 20 years. I ve also ran a 70 footer single handed many times including runs from Miami to Nantucket. I ve also done many runs with an 84 to the Bahamas and picked my crew there.

The key is to prep lines and fenders ahead of time and know when to change plans and abort a docking if the conditions are too strong for solo.

On the plus side, the larger MYs are heavy, have a keel and don’t get pushed easily with the wind

 

[Captain Ralph]

Re: Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

Am I nuts?

Probably,, and we all are.
I prefer; A boat-holic (Aquaholic) with Terra(firma) phobia episodes.

After 20 years of running our 58, sometimes by myself, I can tell you;
Doable -Yes,, Smart- heck no..

Find a marine girl friend (mermaid) quickly.

 

[Bob Quinn]

Re: Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

I have found these "dock sticks" that hold a loop in a line and snap onto your boat hooks that work well for quickly looping onto a dock. I think being able to quickly secure a line or two is where the magic is.

https://www.amazon.com/Docking-Stic...94f259dded9135bbbcde6b6e01fa193e&gad_source=1

 

[Eddieclemons]

Re: Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

I think the answer in my graphical location is no. We have had high water with fast current in our Lakes for quite sometime this spring. If you were to experience a mechanical and or another emergency while underway it definitely would prove to be Very difficult to address and possibly fatal or total loss of the vessel. I could give several scenarios if needed.

 

[firbanks]

Re: Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

After 6 years with a 67’ CMY with no bow thruster, I’m in the “doable but not wicked smart” camp. Bow thruster will help but when you say the loop - bouts with high current and then wind in tight spaces could make for some challenges in anything but ideal conditions assuming full reliability of the (30+ year-old) systems. Easily done with a couple…

 

[bostonhatteras]

Re: Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

I single hand my 45 regularly. I'm docked in a river and my tee head slip has the current literally take a 90 degree turn nearly directly under the keel. Inbound current pushes the bow out, outbound current pushes the stern out. Also, in a sort of weird wind bowl but typically its off the dock slightly. I have a windsock on a piling and I consider the prevailing conditions upon approach. That said, with enough thought and preparations you certainly can do it. Just make sure the mechanicals are in good shape. Not having reverse on a hot approach or some such malady will make for a bad day. Pascals comment on bridge ladders versus pilot house doors is entirely true.

 

[ian w]

Re: Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

What makes single handed docking with a 53 is not having a centre cleat
With a centre cleat you can tie up with one line attached and stroll around slowly attaching the other lines
I would make sure you have a centre cleat

 

[Freestyle]

Re: Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

I felt comfortable operating my 43DC by myself but I was younger and drinking a lot.

I have single handed my 62 CPMY but success is just good luck. Driving and docking are the easy parts. Any adversity sends a single handed boat into extremis. You either survive unscathed or you don't. No thrill of victory because you won't have an audience and you die alone if you lose. So boat with someone and have more fun. It's easy to find someone better than an ex wife.

Bruce

Freestyle
1985 62 CPMY (54MY with ext)
Tampa

 

[Pascal]

Re: Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

What makes single handed docking with a 53 is not having a centre cleat
With a centre cleat you can tie up with one line attached and stroll around slowly attaching the other lines
I would make sure you have a centre cleat

Not sure what you mean about 53s not having “centre” cleats. Pretty much all hatteras MY have 4 cleats on each side. 1 bow, 2 midship and 1 stern. In Most conditions you would prep lines on all cleats and secure number 2 (second cleat counting from bow) leading aft to to the dock which will allow you to spring along the dock. The either nr 1 or nr 4 depending on wind and current.

 

[RonNP]

Re: Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

I used to single hand my 63 CPMY all the time. It had bow thrusters which helped when the breezes off the Pacific kicks in. I'm looking to do it again. You'd be nuts to get married again but buying a bigger boat seems like a good move.

 

[firbanks]

Re: Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

You'd be nuts to get married again but buying a bigger boat seems like a good move.

This could be the greatest advice ever offered on this site - worthy of framing! Haha

 

[Dan Mapes]

Re: Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

Do you have a remote control hanging around your neck? That would certainly make things easier. But for one reason or another I don't like the idea as lines have a habit of doing things we don't like and snagging it could be ugly. That leads to other thoughts about being alone on a large yacht.

As to the loop? Two lines are important when locking through. It might even be required by the lock master. You cannot slip two lines through a cleat going down in a lock and once they start going down they don't stop. Maybe it could be done in a 27 footer but no way I'd run an MY through the canal systems by myself.
BTW a wife may not be the best solution to that issue. Ask me how I know!

 

[Bob Quinn]

Re: Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

I used to single hand my 63 CPMY all the time. It had bow thrusters which helped when the breezes off the Pacific kicks in. I'm looking to do it again. You'd be nuts to get married again but buying a bigger boat seems like a good move.

And cheaper too! If you really feel like dumping money into a hole, stick with a boat. Less erratic failures, won't run off with the captain next door, requires less maintenance and costs a lot less to drive. I spent money the other way for 23 years, cost me half of everything I owned. Won't do it again.

 

[Retired1]

Re: Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

Line up dockage and insurance first.

 

[GCSI]

Re: Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

Buccaneer:
I single hand a 75 SD. Bahamas in winter then Maine for summers while meandering around between the two. A Yacht Controller that operates the gears and bow thruster makes it easier. Over the last 5 years of cruising the only issue I’ve had was when the bow thruster crapped-out at THE worst possible moment; additional crew would not have made any difference.
Best advice would be having deck prepped (lines, fenders) well in advance of approaching dock. Typically, I utilize a short spring line outside of Pilothouse to temporarily secure vessel while getting other lines set.

Brett

 

[RonNP]

Re: Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

And cheaper too! If you really feel like dumping money into a hole, stick with a boat

I wish I had learned that lesson 40 years ago.

 

[cww]

Re: Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

As one data point, I have a 53MY and single-handing is no problem, I do it a lot. The boat has clear sightlines aft by sticking your head out the side doors when the wing doors are open, and it's just a few steps from the lower helm to get to the cleats for the spring lines on either side. It's *far* easier to take this boat out and put it back in the dock by myself than it ever has been for anything I've had on a trailer. It's also easier than my 34' Sea Ray express cruiser was, because you aren't climbing up and down on different levels and having to climb around a windshield.

There are several positives that make these boats uniquely well behaved around the dock. They have large propellers for the size of the boat so you have plenty of torque, and they're spaced widely apart so you have lots of leverage to walk the boat around. They're heavy and have a substantial keel that runs most of the length of the boat, because of this they just tend to sit where you put it until you use the engines to move it. This gives you plenty of time to jump on/off to secure lines and lasso cleats. Wind and current will still have an effect, but it's a lot less than on a lighter boat or one that doesn't have a keel. The side decks are so wide that you don't have to turn sideways or crab walk to get around the boat, it makes it really easy to get from one place to another quickly.

These things will be true of all the motoryacht-style Hatts in the 50' and up range, I don't think you will have any issues with singlehanding a 60-something. It's much easier to handle than it is any of the smaller boats I've had, especially the ones on a trailer, these are light years ahead of that.

 

[rwaldrop13]

Re: Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

Not sure what you mean about 53s not having “centre” cleats. Pretty much all hatteras MY have 4 cleats on each side. 1 bow, 2 midship and 1 stern. In Most conditions you would prep lines on all cleats and secure number 2 (second cleat counting from bow) leading aft to to the dock which will allow you to spring along the dock. The either nr 1 or nr 4 depending on wind and current.

I have to second Pascal on this. With the 4 cleats/side, it made 2 people locking thru Okochobee Waterway doable. One person on the stern, person at lower helm could almost lean out from pilothouse to handle forward line.

 

[rsmith]

Re: Reality Check please …. Single handing a 67 ?

“I single hand all the time cause I’m the greatest bla bla bla” ever see one of these chuckleheads boats? Swim platforms half ripped off 13 million bumpers hanging all over and looking like the runner up in a demolition derby. And then there’s the trail of destruction they leave in their wakes. Don’t believe me just check out boat fails in the interweb it’s scary.