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Old 01-16-2013, 02:26 PM   #46
Marin
Scraping Paint
 
City: -
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 13,745
Well, you can cross an ocean in anything. What's-his-name did it in his little Gypsy Moth sailboat, Mark does it in his monster horizontal high rises, and all sorts of crap from the Japanese tsunami is washing up on our coast including containers, barrels, and a dock.

So I think the what-kind-of-boat question is pretty irrelevant in comparison to the question, what kind of boater is best for long, open ocean passagemaking?

And from my very limited experience and observation in open ocean (but not long distance) boating in Hawaii for a lot of years, it takes a very special kind of person to a) want to do it, b) be able to afford to do it, and c) have the skills, fortitude, and perseverance to be able to do it.

And if a, b, and c are not present in spades, the undertaking will most likely be a failure. At best the attempt will never occur, at worst it will occur with undesirable or downright fatal consequences.

Based solely on what I've been reading here, GG has plenty of "a" and pretty much none of "b" or "c."

"B" is a consequence of one's circumstances so the only person who can affect that is her.

"C" however, is not something that one doesn't have and then the next day does have. You don't get it from taking classes or reading books or talking to people, even if they're people with lots of "c." You get it by doing it and doing it a lot.

In preparation for an upcoming video project featuring an absolutely amazing 16 year old violinist (she came in third in the world in a recent event), my musical director mentioned yesterday a statement by somebody famous that to become truly expert at something it takes 10,000 hours of doing it. Now I have no idea if this is even remotely valid but the point certainly is.

But you have to start with hour number one, and that is where GG currently is. So if she wants to realize her current dream of long-range passagemaking, she's got a hell of a lot to learn and to practice before she has any hope of making the dream a reality.

Our violinist started at age four when she picked up a violin and and started messing around with it. GG has to pick up a boat and start messing around with it. Any boat at this point. So all of the advice that has been given earlier in this thread of the smartest way to get into boating at this stage of her non-experience is well worth heeding.

Because if you don't have that "10,000 hours" of experience, your chances of success at long range passagemaking are, in my opinion, pretty much zero no matter what boat you buy.
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