You can have peace of mind from Starpath Navigation . Personally I would go for their T-1 calculator solution.

Hello, all! I have been learning to sail since May and currently have my ASA 101 and 103. I go sailing on Lake Lanier at least 1-2x per week on average at least with a mix of cruising and crewing for races. I was looking to do a monohull bareboat charter in BVI late next fall and plan on taking my 104 in the interim. I also plan on continuing to sail during that time on my club's Catalina 32's. Question is will I be able to reserve the bareboat without actually having my 104 at the time of booking? And do you think by that time I will have sufficient experience to handle the bareboat charter? Any other things you think I need to be thinking about? Thanks in advance for any information!

Hey y’all,

I’ve decided I’m going to sail around the world. I’ve given myself the hard deadline of my 35th birthday(November 2030) to take off from whatever port I’m in and most likely stick to the equator. I want to see the Panama Canal and sail the trade winds through the Pacific, then round the Cape of Good Hope, sail up to the Mediterranean, and back to the US. Gonna give myself a year, maybe longer, to do it and try to enjoy as many new places as possible.

Wondering what a realistic budget is for this? I don’t own a boat, and want to buy something ocean-worthy like a Tayana 37 or something between 35-40 ft that I can manage solo and that will be heavy enough to maybe get some sleep on during long passages. Have any of you done this? What was your budget like and what are some absolute essentials that were worth the money? Obviously I’d like a dinghy and would mostly be living at anchor unless I’m doing repairs/need to get out of bad weather.

Also, I’m considering getting certifications such as ABYC, USMC Master, STCW/ENG1, AEC1&2, and Marine Radio Certification to hopefully stop for a month or so at a time and make money if I need to replenish my bank account/fund repairs. Is this realistic to be able to use those most places around the world? What are some good places to stop for work? Have any of you gotten these certs and were they helpful?

Thanks so much in advance. I’m trying to gather as much info as I can to help me start the process of preparing for the journey now, so I can get certs squared away ASAP with all the sailing hours I need for some, and to start saving for the boat and the journey.

Fair winds!

Looking at a 440. Anyone have one that would like to share their pros and cons?

Please include year and layout.

I have always had a dream of commandeering a sailboat, just no clue how to get started. Instead of investing more in my divorce attorney, I feel like I should buy a boat sail boat :). If anyone is in the sf bay and willing to help, I'd love that.

Hey everyone,
I’m looking to get on the water for a day or two before the season ends. Based between New England and NYC.
**Experience:** Certified Day Skipper. Sailed in Montreal (St. Lawrence) and Portugal.
**Goal:** Looking to learn more and gain sea hours.
**The Deal:** I’ll gladly pull my weight, handle lines, or help you with end-of-season boat winterization/maintenance in exchange for a sail.
I have my own gear and can travel to your dock. DM me if you need an extra hand!

Heading south for the cyclone season 🌀

Our good friend’s buddy boating snapped this shot of Mezz! Definitely makes those longer days and average weather windows a lot more tolerable with friends by your side! 🌊🤞🏼

Hey all, my wife and I have moved back to Florida after years away. The biggest thing we'd love to do is to learn how to sail. We've seen YouTube videos so we aren't coming in from zero, but I'm also well aware that textbook knowledge and doing the thing are two entirely separate things. So what we're looking for is someone that has a boat, and needs some extra help on the weekends. The best thing is you don't even need to pay us. Teaching us the ropes, pun intended, is enough for us. In exchange we can provide witty banter, friendship, and a pack of your favorite beer. Any takers?

We work at a catamaran charter base in Cienfuegos, Cuba. I can give you a first-hand update on what sailing in Cuba is actually in Oct 2026 – fuel, provisioning, sailing routes and the situation in the Canarreos.

Something that is obvious once you do the arithmetic, and that I never did before I started reading the fatigue research.

Dawson and Reid published in Nature in 1997 that going without sleep degrades performance in a way you can put on the same scale as alcohol. Williamson and Feyer replicated it in 2000. Roughly: about 17 hours awake leaves you performing like someone at 0.05 percent blood alcohol, which is the drink drive limit across most of Europe. About 24 hours awake looks like 0.10 percent, which is over the limit essentially everywhere.

Chart attached. The two marked points are what those studies actually report. The line joining them is just joining them up, not a fitted model.

Now take a typical evening departure. Up at six for the last provisioning run, the fuel dock, stowing, the weather check. Off the dock at six in the evening. By two in the morning on your first night watch you have been awake 20 hours, and you have not stood a single watch yet. The tiredness was all spent on land.

The clock that matters is not when the passage started. It is when you last woke up.

Disclosure so it is not a surprise: I work for a marine electronics company, and we made a free tool out of this. It asks for the sleep you actually got before departure, along with crew size, route and sea state, and works the curve out hour by hour. Free, with no subscription and no premium tier. Happy to link it if anyone wants it rather than dropping it here.

The useful part does not need the tool though. Before your next overnight, work out what time you will have woken up on departure day and add the hours to your first night watch. If it comes out past 17, the fix is cheap: leave in the morning, or get a proper sleep in before you go and let someone else do the last jobs.

Huge support on our first post here! We even connected with people who knew Mezzaluna from her time in 🇺🇸 The power of the internet! 🤟🏽

Thought we’d throw in a little introduction of ourselves!

Let’s start with this… we knew absolutely nothing about sailing. To be honest, we thought it was for the wealthiest folk and completely out of our reach, until we discovered that wasn’t the case 🙂‍↕️

At 25, we bought our first boat, a 36ft Swanson, with zero experience and just dove headfirst into it.
We flew across Australia with three suitcases of belongings and moved aboard. That’s where we LEARNT everything. From living in a small space and maintaining a boat to fixing all sorts of things and, of course, learning how to sail.

After 18 months and many nautical miles, we knew this lifestyle was for us. But if we were going to do this properly, we needed a little more space. So, our girl had to go on the market.

Fast-forward to now, at 27, and we have our absolute dream boat: a Tashiba 40! Everything we learnt on our 36-footer led us to finding exactly what we needed in a vessel.

The plan now? Spend the next six months making some cash and tidying up Mezzaluna before finally throwing off the lines here in Australia 🇦🇺 and heading off to see what the world has to offer! 🌎
We hope to see more young crew jumping aboard this lifestyle and chasing the dream. It truly is something special.

If you have any questions or just want to connect, reach out! We’re always happy to chat and share what we’ve learnt along the way. 🤟🏽🫶🏼⛵️

Instagram - sailingmezzaluna

“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”

Hello, Looking to purchase my first sailboat. Interested 19 west wright potter,Catalina 22, Catalina 250, Hunter 23.

This will be something i’d like to learn on yet also be able to spend the weekend sleep aboard with my Lady.

Hoping to have a trailerable cruiser that I get up close to the shore line. Swing keel or removable board would be ideal.

Any advice from someone who’s sailed any of these. What did you like or dislike about it?

Would you recommend any of these for a beginner/weekend camper.

I’d likely be sailing the majority of the time solo, so easy set up and take down is something i’m considering heavily.

Budget >10k

Thank you 🙏

27YO - 2 years cruising and counting. Just started this reddit account to find more like minded people.

SV Mezzaluna - Tashiba 40
Instagram @ Sailingmezzaluna 📸

was been looking into sailboat charters and trying to understand what makes one booking option better than another. For those who have booked a sailing trip before, what matters most to you the boat’s condition, the skipper’s experience, or what is included in the price?