OT: Question for any yachties here

[Jim K..]

Go on, do a guesstimate.....?

[Chris Hogg]

Why can it take only two crew members to sail Greta (and her father?) over to the climate conference in South America, yet require four, (possibly six if you include those two already on board) to bring the boat back? (Apparently the four extra crew are going to fly out, which means four transatlantic flights, whereas if she'd gone both ways by air, it would only have taken two, which rather negates the whole idea of reducing her carbon footprint).

Unforeseen consequences?

[Brian Gaff]

Actually, one thing none of these people seem to have taken into account is that if you go on most airline web sites you are asked if you wish to offset you carbon footprint. I believe its a tenner for London to Glasgow last time I looked, no doubt more across the Atlantic. How valid is carbon offsetting? IE does somebody sit there planting loads of trees or what? Brian

[The Other Mike]

She's apparently off to Chile after the USA meeting, not flying so maybe by land using an electric vehicle powered by wind turbines and naturally fermented organic hemp.

Fuck knows how she'll get across the Darien Gap though, hopefully in the process she'll get something nasty like malaria or dengue fever, but preferably only a debilitating but non-deadly dose as if she dies she could be made a saint.

As for the original question it's a case of running an effective watch rota, the more the merrier up to a certain point, but it's normally 2 hours on with 4 or 6 hours off. You can do it with just three persons but four is a lot better.

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[dennis]

Its a con like all green stuff..

they buy someone else's carbon allowance, usually a third world country where they promise not to produce the carbon dioxide that you have just purchased and produced.

Of course they either wouldn't have produced the carbon dioxide in the first place or they just carry on anyway.

Greens like it because they can pretend they are saving the planet.

[tim...]

But most sail boats don't in open water

You set your auto-pilot to the route that you want, and your radar/AIS to alarm when on collision with a larger vessel.

If you hit a partially submerged container, well that's just bad luck. The lookout probably wouldn't have see it anyway

tim

[tim...]

really

last time I looked it was something like 1.25 for medium haul

In theory

the catch is that they find schemes who will probably be planting them anyway

tim

[Chris Hogg]

And Malizia II is equipped for single handed ocean racing, so should be able to travel for periods of at least a few hours with nobody at the helm, on watch, or whatever.

The whole episode seems to have back-fired on Thunberg, but I doubt if the environmentalists would see it that way. I'm still not clear how many trans-Atlantic flights will be involved overall, with various crews and family members coming and going. I gather she has Asperger Syndrome, which raises the question as to whether she's subtly being taken advantage of.

[dennis]

They don't have to plant trees, just buy carbon offsets on the open market.

The idea that they do plant trees is just rubbish.

[The Natural Philosopher]

This isnt most sail boats. This is a racing hydrofoil

[tim...]

but it is one of the subset of most, that's the point

precisely, it will have all the kit for automatic piloting

[F]

Described yesterday as more like a charity contribution than anything useful.

[F]

Cargo ship apparently.

'It would be making the trip anyway' is the explanation. Don't aircraft make the transatlantic trip on a daily basis 'anyway'?

[The Natural Philosopher]

And doesn't his extrat weight on the ship make it burn more fuel?

Of course Greentards can't actually understand basic engineering at all.

[Vir Campestris]

Oh no it isn't.

It has foils to help stability. They do not lift it out of the water (except perhaps momentarily over a wave).

Not like the new America's Cup mad things...

Andy

[ARW]

Depends if he is a fat bastard.

[The Natural Philosopher]

My bad

[TimW]

I know it was a rhetorical question but I will answer anyway.

In the open sea quite big vessels, sail or power might only have one person on watch. On a sailing boat if you have some kind of auto steering system one person can normally do everything. They need to sleep so that means a minimum crew of two. Single handed yachtsmen just break the rules and sleep in short shifts. Even a crew of two doing six hrs on and six hrs off is quite hard going and somewhat antisocial so for pleasure if you have the space a crew of three or four is preferred for an ocean passage. Generally.

TW