Open water lessons

Though a lot of people are doing it, a 35' or shorter mono hull would not be my choice for a live aboard, open water boat. The motion in anything much more than almost calm seas is just too relentless. When the boat sets up a roll in following seas the only comfortable place to be is at the helm, but the workload is so high that about an hour at a time is all one can reasonably expect to endure. If it can't be a Cat I hope to have more than 40' of LWL under me, and now I am really curious as to what we will learn on the November sail in the 47' mono hull across the Gulf Stream.

Forward heads are as useless in a pitching boat as experienced sailors always suggested.

The inside of the boat must be dry. Leaks are not to be tolerated, the boat needs a dodger, and keep the companionway pulled closed in any sea that may toss water that far.

An autopilot / wind vane is absolutely necessary for a short handed crew. If it breaks consider it an emergency and get to the nearest port as soon as possible for repairs. Constant helming will exhaust a short-handed crew to the point of making possibly fatal mistakes.

Anyone who takes to open water without a GPS and multiple back-ups, thinking that "traditional" navigation will be enough, is out of their freaking mind. If possible have two GPS systems independent all the way back to a split power source, then have a couple of hand-helds with spare batterers. Paper charts are good for pre-departure planning, getting an overall idea of what is around, and a place to plot lat / long points that were read off the the GPS. Make sure there is an operations manual available as well.

More GPS, if there is one system to know on the boat backwards, forwards, every nook and cranny, it is the GPS. Display control, mapping, route planning, waypoint entry and eddit, scale, every bit, every button, every keystroke; know it cold. When the chips are down and good navigation decisions need to be made NOW - that is no time to fumble.

Never take to open water without several thermos bottles on board. Anything hot to drink or eat during a wet / chilly watch is manna from heaven.

Make the sails as easy to handle as possible. Stopping the boat, heaving too, or just slowing it down for a while to catch a meal, a nap, or so the crew can use the head, can turn a difficult, unrelenting bash into an acceptable, slightly adventurous, passage. But if it takes a half hour of hard work to reef the sail or set the jib, the tendancy is to not do it and keep going, and that is usually a bad choice.

You can't spend too much money on good foul weather gear. On a 6 day passage around Long Island, in the summer, we were in our gear more often than not. If there is a hell it is not hot, it is wet and cold.

Have pity on anyone suffering from sea-sickness, do whatever you can to help them get over it. Your turn will come.