Yacht for solo trip to Hawaii?

That was Donald Crowhurst in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. His suicide had more to do with the mounting pressure from faking months worth of race claims and the mounting pressure of having his logs scrutinized when he made the finish line.

Lots of solo sailors out there. You see more reports of little boats than big ones because there are more people who can afford little boats. Figure out what you want to do for self steering, then figure out three more ways to do it. small boats and limited fuel means limited amp hours to run an autopilot, so people carry undersized autopilots that burn out if they get hit with a lot of weather helm. A mechanical wind driven system takes a bit more thought and effort but takes no fuel, these can also break, and spare parts can be weeks away. I have heard many miserable stories of people who lost autopilot halfway through long voyages and had to stay at the helm for days on end.

The 246' Phocea , back when she was Club Mediterrenée, was built as a single handed sailer. That is probably excessive for your wants, but it can be done.

Sure bigger and better but the issue with soloing a larger boat is that the physical requirements needed for some maneuvers are a lot higher and often dangerous. In good weather when everything goes well, it's no problem but when that 2am squall pops up it will be all downhill.

It s easy to look at successful solo crossings by inexperienced sailors and think "I can do that" but in many cases they had Lady Luck aboard as a first mate

Going back to the original question, how th boat is set up is more important than actual size. A 40 or 50 rigged for single handling will probably be easier to handle than a 30 footer rigged for a crew. Last year, in the UK Fairlie Yachts build and launched a drop dead gorgeous 50 footer specifically designed for someone who wanted to do a solo circumnavigation.

That said, I think the level of experience required to safely attempt such a solo crossing means you re probably years from attempting it

If you go to Hawaii, you can buy a ton of sailboats that are really cheap from people who did the crossing and once they got to Hawaii, never wanted to look at,be on, or see a sailboat ever again.

ROFLMAO! I've had a few of those runs on the east coast. Swore I'd never set foot on a boat again. Then, once on land, the itch started again.

It's true, there are tons of sailboats there for sale cheap. People/couples think it's a great adventure until they do it and by the time they get there, they never want to step foot on the boat again.

As an Anchorage native, I can confidently say that that is not a good idea. With the second strongest tides in the world, and a broad silt bottom that shifts over time it's not for the novice. If you do go to anchorage you will find no marina, no fuel dock (save for the fuel dock for tankers and tugs at the commercial port), no water or holding tank pump out, and a boat launch ramp that is less developed than the launch ramps at at least four freshwater lakes in the area. There are people who do boat out of Anchorage, but not many, and you shouldn't try to be one of them. Homer is great, Kenai, and Whittier are too. Anchorage is a dangerous mudpit.

Sounds like a way to get a deal... I seriously need to look for one of these "grand adventure turned sour" boats!

Hahahaha! Captain J you got great motivational skills man! LOL

It was called Club Mediterranee and sailed by the late great Eric Tabarly

The "Dude", which was a famous sailor, sadly passed away before it was fully completed if my memory is serving me right, and the lady that saved the vessel off the scrap route opted to have a full crew. SY Maltese Falcon is also rigged to be handled by one person from the helm.

http://archives.pireport.org/archive/2012/November/11-19-ft.htm The rigging may have been changed in the Royal Huisman refit, she was a 4 masted schooner so that the individual sails would be small enough for one man to trim.

I think the idea was to build a giant yacht to benefit from the waterline length and the higher hull speed.

It would not be wise to singlehand such a large vessel.

Not Taberly, it was Alain Colas, but the two of them crossed paths and boats a few times...

Colas bought Pen Duick IV from Taberly and won the 1972 OSTAR (single-handed trans-Atlantic race) sailing it.

Club Méditerranée (later Phocea) was built for Colas and he sailed it in the 1976 OSTAR, which Taberly won sailing Pen Duick VI (~76' IOR Maxi).

Colas was lost at sea during the first Route du Rhum in 1978, Taberly died in an accident at sea in 1988.

You have this right, it jolted my memory. Hope I get the facts correct.
Read this story many years ago. Was both very sad and also a message on how one lie leads to the next and so on, until there is an avalanche of misery.
From memory, Mr Crowhurst used his last savings to build his own yacht and finally managed to get sponsorship from a newspaper for the exclusive on his story. It was his last "hurrah" in the face of bankruptcy.
At first all was going great and his messages back to the reading public was creating a big stir and breaking records, then things went bad and he realized it was all over.
Then, as a last resort, he decided to cut across the Atlantic instead of going Round the Horn. He ended up in Argentina but was so far ahead of time he had to wait it out a bit. Only an accident resulted in the discovery that he had cheated. That was the last anyone heard of him. They found his yacht drifting with his logs on board.
Like I say, this was a long time ago, so my memory may have left out some of the facts, but the story is as stirring as ever. Would make a good movie script!