small sailboat around the world

Better Sailing

Best Small Sailboats To Sail Around The World

While there are plenty of 30-35ft blue water cruising yachts currently on the used sailboat market, many of them are tired and need new standing rigging, sails, engine, etc. That said, there are good boats out there that have been loved and looked after. Those that are well used have most likely been well maintained, too, so don’t be put off by yachts that have crossed oceans or even circumnavigated before, as their owners will have had to keep them properly seaworthy. Sailing around the world is no easy task, so these boats should be in tip-top shape. 

Some might consider 30-35ft too small for bluewater cruising or for a circumnavigation (sail around the world), but that has been disproved over the years. Bigger might be better for coastal cruising with friends, but maintenance costs rise exponentially with every extra foot. A small sailboat should be more than enough to carry a couple off on the adventures of which they dream.

Nicholson 35

Now somewhat legendary, the tough and dependable Nicholson 35 first appeared in 1971, and between then and 1985, some 228 boats were launched. Built to Lloyds’ specifications with a hand-laid solid GRP hull, she boasts a fully encapsulated lead fin keel and full-depth skeg. She has an alluring sheer with nicely balanced overhangs, giving her bows a powerful go-anywhere look, while her low-profile coachroof blends pleasingly into the decks.

Compared to today’s modern cruiser, the Nic 35’s accommodation is somewhat limited due to her relatively narrow beam and pinched ends, but what there is has been used intelligently and makes for a good working environment on long passages. The need to pass through the heads to reach the forecabin can be inconvenient with guests on board. Still, for two people cruising, these minor irritations are more than compensated for with the high quality and solidity of the fittings and joinery and the availability of safe sea berths on passage.

The main saloon is comfortable with 1.88m/6ft 2in headroom. A U-shaped dinette makes a narrow but long double in port, and the 1.92m/6ft 4in-long starboard settee a great sea berth. However, many were fitted with one or two pilot berths above the settee backs instead of lockers. The galley boasts a huge coolbox, full-size gimballed cooker, deep sink, and plenty of stowage. A crash bar, bum strap, and bulkhead pole make it a great working galley at sea. Opposite is a large aft-facing chart table with instrument mounting space on a half bulkhead separating it from the watch seat and wet locker further aft. A few boats had a forward-facing chart table and roomy quarter berth instead.

The water tanks are under the sole above the keel, not under the saloon settees as with many modern crafts. Small portlights and hatches mean natural light and ventilation might not be so plentiful as on a newer boat, but then there is less opportunity for leaks. Her cockpit is business-like – not over wide but with high coamings to support the crew securely and keep them dry. She also has a high bridge deck to stop water going below should a wave find its way into the cockpit and very deep cockpit lockers. The mainsheet track is within reach of the helmsman, just forward of the pedestal, but getting to the primaries entails climbing over the seats from behind the wheel. Her masthead sloop rig has a keelstepped mast. It is stout and uncomplicated, with twin lower shrouds and a removable inner forestay for a storm jib.

Post-1975 models had a taller mast option (51ft as opposed to 45ft), increasing the sail area considerably. No doubt most will now have the control lines led aft into the cockpit for safer shorthanded sailing. Under sail, the Nic comes into her own. She has a very positive helm, although she can be prone to weather helm if overpressed. Her performance under sail is well mannered and drama free. However, her large (145%) genoa can take some sheeting in (don’t leave the inner forestay on). Her high bows part the waves with a gentle motion, and her deep, longish keel keeps her tracking dead straight in a following sea. She won’t break any speed records, averaging around 5 knots on a long passage, but she’ll always get you there safely and in comfort.

Nicholson 35 Specs

>>Also Read: Best Sailboats Under 30 Feet

The Sadler 34 evolved from the 32, and while the 32 was a tough, capable seaworthy sailboat cable of sailing around the world. The 34 offers much more in the way of accommodation thanks to her wider beam. Apart from being pretty, the most notable feature of the 34 is her double-skinned hull, sandwiched with thick closed-cell foam, making her unsinkable and eliminating condensation thanks to the added insulation. She came with a deep fin, shoal fin, or bilge keels, and the post-1990 models had a Stephen Jones-designed, foiled fin keel with ballast bulb that upped upwind performance. Under sail, she is responsive and vice free with a comfy motion and predictable handling. While her pinched (in modern terms) stern might limit the width of the aft cabin, it works well at sea, allowing her deep full skeg-hung rudder to keep a good bite on the water.

The Sadler 34 is quite a powerful performer and, despite having a fairly high displacement, achieves excellent passage times due to her ability to soldier on through foul weather and rough seas. Her deep and secure cockpit is perfectly dimensioned so as not to get thrown around at sea, and yet it provides enough clear seating for dining alfresco with mates. Stowage is also good, especially in the full-depth locker to port. There are harness points in the cockpit, but the mainsheet track runs across the bridge deck, which can catch out the unwary if the traveler isn’t locked in place.

On deck, the layout is practical, and the side decks uncluttered. Her foredeck is set up ideally for regular anchoring with a twin roller stemhead fitting and big anchor locker. Her accommodation is spacious enough for four. Though it was called a ‘double’ aft cabin, it only really works as a single, roomy quarterberth. She has an excellent U-shaped galley where pretty much everything can be reached with ease. The chart table opposite faces forward with its own seat, and there’s room aplenty for instruments and pilot books. Her saloon is roomy, and the table and seating are large enough for six to dine in comfort.

To port, the heads have a basin and its own door, allowing access to the forecabin. But in shower mode, the entire compartment runs athwartships, which isn’t ideal, especially as the hanging locker is in the same enclosure. There’s a decent-sized vee berth forward, which makes an ideal owner’s cabin at anchor. Stowage is reasonable, although the water tank is under the starboard settee.

Sadler 34 Specs

>>Also Read: Best Sailboats Under 100k

Not unlike the Nicholson 35 in both hull lines and reputation, the Rival 36 is a tough, solid yacht designed for passagemaking in virtually all weathers and sea conditions. The 36 slotted between the slightly cramped 34 and the larger 38 ketch, with 78 in total being launched. Possibly a squeeze on such a tight budget, but you get a lot more space in the R36 than the older R34, and there’s a good chance you could find one that’s already equipped for bluewater cruising. She was offered as a masthead sloop or with a cutter rig option. Keel choice was between a deep lead-ballasted fin, a shallower Scheel keel, or a centerboard (R36C).

Under sail, she’s predictable and easily handled, although, like her predecessors, she’s not the fastest boat around. As with most heavy displacement cruisers, she’s designed more to get you safely across oceans than to race around the cans. Wheel or tiller-steered, she has a large, deep cockpit with high coamings and excellent stowage for deck gear. Access along the wide side decks is good, assisted One of a range of solidly built and well-found cruising yachts built by Northshore Yachts, the Vancouver 32 was designed specifically for serious passagemaking.

Full hull sections and short overhangs offer a high-volume yacht with excellent load-carrying abilities. Her fully encapsulated shallow keel contains nearly 3 tonnes of lead ballast, giving her an enviable ballast ratio of nearly 45%; a keel shoe extends aft to support the rudder and protect the prop from floating debris and lines. Only available with tiller steering and transom-hung rudder, she has an easily manageable masthead cutter rig with full shrouds and twin straight spreaders.

A smart teak-capped bulwark offers extra security going forward while large scuppers ensure rapid deck drainage. The interior is surprisingly spacious and comfy. The long quarterberth and port-side straight by high teak-capped gunwales and long handrails on the coachroof, and the foredeck big enough for handling the headsails and ground tackle, which can be securely stowed in the large, deep anchor locker when sailing. Below decks, she is warm and woody and retains the trademark Rival ‘keyhole’ bulkhead separating the superbly designed and well-appointed galley and navigation areas from the saloon. The twin-leaf saloon table has fiddles and can seat six for a meal, while the settees are straight and make comfortable 1.91m-long sea berths with lee cloths. Most had a pipe cot above as well.

Maximum headroom is 1.91m/6ft 3in, and stowage is good, thanks in part to the water tank being above the keel. With no double cabin aft and only a quarterberth, the forecabin provides a comfortable vee berth with ample floor space to dress, plenty of lockers to stow your clothing, and even a dressing table. The heads/shower compartment is also roomy, and Jack and Jill doors offer access from both saloon and forecabin.

Rival 36 Specs

>>Also Read: Best Sailboat Brands

Vancouver 32

One of a range of solidly built and well-found cruising yachts built by Northshore Yachts, the Vancouver 32 was designed specifically for serious passage making. Full hull sections and short overhangs offer a high-volume yacht with excellent load-carrying abilities. Her fully encapsulated shallow keel contains nearly 3 tonnes of lead ballast, giving her an enviable ballast ratio of nearly 45%; a keel shoe extends aft to support the rudder and protect the prop from floating debris and lines. Only available with tiller steering and transom-hung rudder, she has an easily manageable masthead cutter rig with full shrouds and twin straight spreaders. A smart teak-capped bulwark offers extra security going forward while large scuppers ensure rapid deck drainage. The interior is surprisingly spacious and comfy.

The long quarterberth and port-side straight settees make excellent sea berths, leaving the U-shaped starboard saloon settee (converts into double berth) and roomy vee berth forward for sleeping at anchor. A half bulkhead separates the galley/navigation areas from the saloon, with a support pillar on either side providing excellent handgrips. It’s a bonus having the quarter berths behind the ch

art table as it allows the off-watch crew to keep one eye on the instruments and chart. However, having the heads forward can result in a lot of water dripping off your oilies when going below in wet weather.

All that lovely solid hardwood adds to her weight (nearly twice that of a modern 32ft Bavaria). Most owners are more concerned with her superb oceangoing abilities, though. She sails predictably and undramatically, her high bows and fine balance ensuring she parts the waves with little spray and no slamming – ideal for long passages where many lighter boats can throw you about.

Vancouver 32 Specs

Peter is the editor of Better Sailing. He has sailed for countless hours and has maintained his own boats and sailboats for years. After years of trial and error, he decided to start this website to share the knowledge.

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17 Best Catamarans for Sailing Around the World

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Catamarans are quickly outstripping single-hull boats for long-distance journeys. They are more stable and comfortable , and some can travel more than 200 miles in a day. In today’s article, I have put together a complete (well almost) list of some of the best catamarans for circumnavigating the planet; the question is, which one is best for you?

The best catamarans for sailing around the world include: 

• The Fountaine Pajot Ipanema 58

These cats focus on speed, safety, and comfort for longer journeys. 

This article will show you the seventeen best catamarans for long journeys, and why they’re the best. You’ll also learn some great tips on what to look for in a Catamaran and how to save money by buying a used catamaran. Let this list be a jumping-off point for your future research!

Pro-tip; here are the actual costs of maintaining a cat and here are considerations on how to circumnavigate .

Table of Contents

The Best Catamarans for Sailing Around the World 

A catamaran is a double-hulled boat with a deck or cabin area in between (bluewater cat definition in this article ). The double hull design means that the boat rocks less, sits higher on the water, uses less fuel to sail, and can be sailed in shallower waters than a single-hulled boat without worrying about grounding. 

Catamarans come in a variety of sizes and can be sail-powered or motor-powered and range from single-person sailing boats to family-sized yachts. Every catamaran design is different, and the twin-hull shape offers many ways to customize the layout of a ship. 

Each boat on this list is a larger catamaran (+40ft, more on size here ), so if you’re going to sail around the world, you want lots of space for provisions and rest.

Of course, there are tons of technical specs for each of these boats, but I’m going to focus on the overall features of each of these catamarans, what makes them stand out, and why they would each be an excellent choice for a transatlantic journey. 

Antares 44i 

The Antares 44i is an excellent option for sailing around the world and was explicitly designed for long-distance cruising. It performs well in any weather conditions, can be sailed easily by two people, and you’ll be able to sail long distances and live in comfort. 

Although it can be easily sailed by a crew of two I believe that a true bluewater cat should be set up for single-handed sailing, more on that in another article .

This catamaran features a stateroom on each hull and a forward cabin with plenty of storage space. The living and entertainment features include a flatscreen tv and a high-end deck speaker system. 

With this model, Antares dedicates itself to high-quality boats with optimal rigging and engine configurations. 

Atlantic 42

Atlantic is no longer building this catamaran, but there are usually a few pre-owned boats on the market. You can also get it made custom if you love the design, but be prepared to spend more money on a custom boat (custom boat also gets custom problems ;)). 

The Atlantic 42 is slightly smaller than some of the other catamarans on this list but is a seaworthy vessel. 42 ft is what most sailors I interview ( in this article ) said was the smallest cat to safely cross big oceans. It is also a decent size to counter the risk of capsizing (more on that here ).

It has a forward cockpit and pilothouse, which gives the owner a better use of space and makes the boat easier to navigate. With single-handed capability, one person can sail it easily and let the rest of the crew relax. 

One of the best-praised aspects of the Atlantic 42 is its galley, more extensive than most 42-footers (12.8-meter) can offer. 

One of the few 50 footers (15.24 meters) that can be sailed by just one person (many would of course disagree on this).

The Catana 50 is a catamaran worthy of an overseas journey. Its size adds to its stability on the open waters and its ability to sail straight through the choppy ocean and windy conditions. 

The Catana is also incredibly spacious on the inside, with substantial cabins and showers. The biggest downside to the Catana 50 is its price, as it’s much more expensive than most of its competitors. 

Catana also holds up well against some of the fastest cruising cats out there, here’s a list of the fastest cruisers if you are interested in that.

However, if you can find a gently-used Catana 50, you can rest assured that this boat will last! 

The Dolphin 42 is unique because of the use of daggerboards instead of fixed keels. This upgrade means that the boat has some pretty decent upwind performance while at the same time being faster downwind.

Centerboards and daggerboards offer some interesting downsides compared to mini keels. This is an interesting discussion and I suggest you read another one of my articles if you want to deepen your knowledge a little.

These catamarans are some of the lightest on the market. Not many Dolphins were made, so they are relatively hard to find. However, if you want a small, lightweight boat capable of going great distances, the Dolphin 42 is an excellent choice. 

Fountaine Pajot Belize 43

The Fountaine Pajot Belize is another well-built cruising yacht. Its core is made of foam instead of balsa, which reduces the risk of structural damage due to a rotten core in case of water intrusion. 

The design of Belize offers many options for customizability, with large open spaces and a combined saloon, navigation, and dinette area. 

There are two styles of Belize catamarans for sleeping quarters. You can either purchase a boat with an entire primary suite on one hull or one with two cabins in each hull. The first option is great if you are sailing the world alone and not expecting many guests, as it increases the storage capacity. 

Understanding what factors to consider when getting a cat can be hard, there are just so many of them (such as the daggerboard discussion above), I have tried to compile some of the most important in this article .

The boat also has wraparound windows to increase the sense of space in the galley. 

Fountaine Pajot Lucia 40

Fountaine Pajot is one of the best sailboat manufacturers existing today, as their boats are well made and highly versatile. The Lucia 40 is no exception – it’s a smaller boat but has a lot of room for moving around and on-board living. 

The living area is remarkably spacious on this catamaran for its size. 

The galley and lounge easily accommodate 6+people. The Lucia 40 doesn’t disappoint when it comes to sailing either, as the narrow hulls slice through choppy waters with ease. 

Most catamarans today are built to withstand rough weather but that doesn’t matter as much if the crew isn’t up for the task, I firmly believe that the most important thing a boat should consist of, is knowledge. Therefore taking online courses ( two free here ) or reading books ( my favorites here ) is imperative.

Gemini 105M

Gemini’s boats have been on the market for years and are solidly built for cruising. This boat is one of the most popular ever made, I personally would consider something different for offshore cruising, but since it has such a good reputation, I felt I had to add it to the list.

If you want to understand why I am hesitant to take this boat around the world, I recommend you read my article: What are trampolines on a catamaran?

The Gunboat 62 is a great catamaran and set the standards for the rest of the impressive Gunboat lineup. It’s sleek and spacious while being robust and capable of transatlantic journeys. You can easily travel the world in a Gunboat 62 with several people and not feel cramped. 

The yacht was made for speed and power and remains one of the fastest catamarans on the market, even rivaling the newer Gunboat models.  GABO

Although the earlier models of the Gunboat 62 weren’t designed for a lot of cargo, you can still find space for everything you need without compromise. 

Lagoon catamarans are known for their reliability and ease of use. If you are considering a catamaran for the first time and are unsure about the technicalities of sailing, a Lagoon boat is a great option. 

The Lagoon 380 is probably the smallest cruiser on this list, which makes it better suited for solo or couple sailing.  

When I go looking to buy something, whether it be a boat, campervan, or whatever, I create a checklist and classify all the things I want either by NEED or NICE to have.

I believe the Lagoon 380 to be sub-optimal for my NEEDS, even though it does check a lot of NICE boxes, there’s a step-by-step article on the NEED and NICE method here .

There are several cabin options available on the Lagoon 380, but if you’re sailing by yourself, you can settle for three cabins and a larger galley and living space. With a smaller cockpit and broader side decks, the Lagoon 380 packs a lot of practicality and ease of sailing into a more compact catamaran. 

If you like the idea of a Lagoon boat but want a little more space, the Lagoon 42 is the upgraded version of the Lagoon 380. With all of the same benefits, it comes with more space for cabins or storage, making it one of the best-selling Lagoons of all time. 

The Lagoon 42 is also a faster cruiser built for strength. While it’s not the fastest on the market, it works well in choppy waters and windy conditions, making it great for the beginning sailor to go on a more extended trip. 

Many people have completed an around-the-world sail with this ship.

Although there is a flybridge version, I would recommend the “open” version due to several factors, some including increased windage and a higher boom. More on flybridges pros and cons here .

For stability, safety, and durability, you can’t beat the Lagoon 42. 

The Leopard 45 performs better with less storage weight because of the relatively low bridge deck clearance. If the boat is fully loaded, you could experience some wave pounding. However, the cockpit is open and airy, with devices that block the sun and provide maximum comfort while sailing. 

The Leopard 45 is an incredibly beautiful boat,   and has a strong reputation for excellent build quality!

Leopard catamarans are one of my personal favorites, as such I have written an entire article about the brand, so if you want to understand its pros and cons then here is the link . Gabo

Designed in South Africa, it features a high rear arch for extra support and very smoothly connected decks. The galley is large and open, and most Leopards offer a four-cabin plan. If you are traveling with another person, this boat is an excellent option for you! 

The Manta 42 is another classic catamaran that you can buy used (at a decent price), as it is an incredibly seaworthy vessel. While still in production, the Manta was one of the most popular catamarans on the market. 

It is still in high demand amongst circumnavigators. Buying a used Manta 42 usually means that you inherit some of the previous owner’s boat upgrades! 

The Manta 42 also made it to my list of the 9 safest catamarans on the market ( link ).

This blue water cat can be sailed by one or two people, making it ideal for liveaboard couples or long-distance shorthanded sailing. The galley is in the saloon ( instead of in one of the hulls ), making the cabins below more spacious and better equipped. 

Overall, the Manta is well equipped for sailing around the world. 

Nautitech 44

Nautitech is an excellent brand of the catamaran, with several different designs per boat. The Nautitech 44 has a unique feature, you can have it with two options for steering: twin wheels or a single wheel.

The Nautitech 44 also features a cockpit on the same level as the saloon. The door between the two is more convenient than a hatch and dramatically reduces the risk of water damage during rain pour. 

This is also the same boat that aeroyacht president Gregor owns, he has offered some great insights into Nautitech in the book Catamarans (amazon link )

Outremer 45

Outremer is famous for being one of the fastest brands of catamarans on the market. If you need speed, the Outremer 45 might be the perfect choice for you. It has a top speed of 16 knots, which is higher than almost every other catamaran of its class. 

While the Outremer 45 is known for speed, it doesn’t compromise on the quality of living. 

You can settle into life on this boat with complete peace of mind. Even as a beginning sailor, the steering is simple and easy to use, and the autopilot is top of the line, so you’ll be able to sail across the ocean in an Outremer without issue. 

Privilege Serie 5

A French-designed catamaran, the Privilege Serie 5 is one of the most comfortable 50-foot (15 m) yachts available. The unique cabin layout includes the master cabin in the boat’s center instead of in one of the hulls. 

The Privilege Serie 5 is also incredibly easy to sail, despite its larger size. 

The sails and controls lead to the helm, where the raised deck makes it easy to see all around the deck. If you want to cross the ocean with a full crew then the Privilege Serie 5 might be perfect for you! 

Seawind 1000

The Seawind 1000 is the smallest boat on this list, measuring 33 feet (10 meters) long altogether. However, this doesn’t mean that it’s not livable. If you are sailing on your own or with a partner, there is more than enough space to live in the Seawind 1000, which includes the option of a centered cabin or two hull cabins. 

Because it’s small, the Seawind 1000 is easy to handle. The mast and sails are all manufactured for extra stability and ease of use. 

Overall, the Seawind 1000 is an excellent example of a simple, safe, and seaworthy catamaran. 

Note: since this is a small catamaran it will also be more sensitive to heavy weather so trip-planning becomes even more important.

The Voyage 44 is one of the oldest cats on this list, having had its hay-day in the mid-1990s. However, this also means that a used Voyage 44 will be cheaper than a newer boat. If you can find a Voyage with previous responsible owners, you will inherit any upgrades and fixes that they’ve made on top of a very seaworthy boat. 

The Voyage 44 has more storage and space than most cruisers of its size and is known for behaving very well in choppy waters. 

This catamaran does its job well while providing adequate space for cooking, sleeping, and living aboard. 

What To Look For in a Long-Distance Cruising Catamaran

If you are planning to sail around the world, you need to be very careful about which kind of catamaran you decide to use. Many of the things you want in a boat really comes down to personal preference, so be sure you know what design preferences you want before you start shopping! 

Size and Payload

The most important thing to consider when buying a catamaran is how much space and cargo you need because the larger the boats are, the bigger the payload it can handle. Decide how long you want the ship to be and how much you’re taking with you. 

It’s vital not to overload a catamaran, this will reduce performance and increase risk of unwanted behavior in heavy seas.

Cabin Placement  

Most catamarans have options for a “Maestro” cabin placement, where one entire hull is the master suite, and the other cabins are located on the opposite hull.

Cockpit and Protection From The Weather

Is the cockpit on the boat you’re looking at covered or open? This can make a difference on the high seas, especially during rainy weather. 

The size of the ship also can affect how many people you need as a crew. If you’re traveling by yourself or with one other person, you don’t want to buy a boat that needs a larger crew. 

Buying Used? 

If you don’t want to spend the money on a brand new catamaran, I don’t blame you. Several of the ships on this list are out of production and can only be found used. However, for circumnavigation, you do want a boat of high quality to keep you safe and dry until you make it to your destination.  

When buying a suitably used catamaran, it’s essential to look at the refit history of the boat more than the year it was made. Catamarans are sturdy, and the general design has been the same for at least the past decade. 

If you find a newer, larger, cheaper boat, you should look into its history. 

Your best bet to save money while buying a catamaran will be to buy an older, probably smaller boat with an excellent refit history and no serious issues. It will still be an investment, and a sturdy used catamaran will serve you well. 

Final Thoughts

No matter which catamaran you decide to buy for your journey, you’ll be able to sail safely and comfortably. Catamarans are great yachts for long-distance sailing, and the ships on this list are the best of the best. These brands are time-tested and ready to accompany you on an adventure around the world! 

Here are Some of My Favorite Catamaran Cruising Resources

Thank you for reading this article. I hope you found it helpful as you hopefully start your sailing adventures. Here are some resources that I use as a sailor that I hope you’ll also find helpful. These are affiliate links, so if you do decide to use any of them, I’ll earn a commission. But in all honesty, these are the exact things that I use and recommend to everyone, even my own family. Sailboats: If you’re looking for the best boat to suit your needs, I would recommend a catamaran. If you’re interested, I can show you the differences between catamarans and other types of sailboats .

Books:  For getting started, I really like  Cruising catamarans made easy . It is actually a textbook from the American sailing association; it is used to get a cruising catamaran certification. There are some other great books, and I have compiled a list of books about cruising catamarans that you will find useful.

Communication:  Being out on adventures, whether it be sailing or climbing mountains, good communications are essential to being safe. I recommend two things Google fi (incredibly simple cellular data all over the world) and Garmin inreach mini (for text and voice in remote areas without cell coverage)

Sailing courses: Online sailing courses are great for beginners starting out their sailing career; it’s an efficient way of learning the basics of navigation, throttle controls, and maritime safety. I suggest starting with two free courses from NauticEd .

To see all my most up-to-date recommendations,  check out this resource  that I made for you!

• Wikipedia: Catamaran
• Cruising World: A-Z Best Cruising Catamarans 
• Dreamy Yacht Sales: Four Best Catamarans for New Buyers
• Atlantic Cruising: Good Cat/Bad Cat
• Yachting World: Catamaran Sailing Across the Atlantic
• Boat Affair: What is a Catamaran? 
• Nautilus Sailing: Catamaran Sailing

Owner of CatamaranFreedom.com. A minimalist that has lived in a caravan in Sweden, 35ft Monohull in the Bahamas, and right now in his self-built Van. He just started the next adventure, to circumnavigate the world on a Catamaran!

3 thoughts on “ 17 Best Catamarans for Sailing Around the World ”

I like the efforts you have put in this, regards for all the great content.

Thanks Elisabeth I really appreciate the kind words 🙂

I appreciate you sharing this blog post. Thanks Again. Cool.

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Baluchon is no toy, though. When Quenet sailed it back to Brittany in August, he had fulfilled his childhood ambition of circumnavigating in a tiny boat. Its simple appearance is emblematic of his philosophy. “I have loved little boats since I was a child,” he says, “and I am still a child at heart. Sailing round the world on a little boat is something I have dreamed about since I was a teenager.”

Quenet, now 51, has dedicated much of his adult life to designing, building and sailing microyachts. Whereas most of us progress in incrementally larger boats, Quenet’s craft have always been minuscule. He has created numerous self-build designs for plywood construction from a 9m gaffer to a 5m trimaran and a 6.5m gaff yawl (see them at boat-et-koad.com ).

In 2015, Quenet attempted to cross the Atlantic in a 14ft 1in (4.3m) plywood scow, but it capsized in a storm off the coast of Spain and he was rescued by a ship. After that experience he resolved to come up with a bulletproof self-righting microyacht suitable for ocean sailing, and went back to the drawing board.

His solution was a pram-style design that could be built in plywood in under 4,000 hours and would cost no more than €4,000. Baluchon is the result, a tiny boat to be sailed by one person for up to six weeks at a time and resilient enough to take anything the oceans throw at it.

Yann Quenet’s 4m long Baluchon

Smallest boats getting smaller

The history of sailing across oceans in the smallest boats is a surprisingly long one. With a few exceptions (of which more later), it is not about breaking records. This is about stripping away everything complex and extraneous – including other people.

One of the most famous small boat voyages was nearly 70 years ago when Patrick Elam and Colin Mudie made several ocean passages in Sopranino , which was only 17ft 9in (5.4m) on the waterline. Elam observed: “I would not pretend that Sopranino is the optimum size. At sea she is near perfect, but could with advantage be a few inches longer to give a slightly bigger cockpit and a separate stowage for wet oilskins below. In harbour, she is too small (for comfort) and too delicate and vulnerable.”

Also in the 1950s, John Guzzwell consulted Jack Giles about the smallest boat practical to sail around the world and Giles drew the 20ft 6in (6.2m) Trekka , which Guzzwell built and circumnavigated in twice. Smaller still was Shane Acton’s 18ft 4in (5.5m) Shrimpy , a Robert Tucker design which he sailed round the world in 1972 despite having very little sailing experience when he left.

Tom McNally planned to retake his small-boat Atlantic crossing record in Big C. Photo: Ajax News

In 1987, Serge Testa beat that by sailing round the world in his self-designed 11ft 10in (3.6m) aluminium sloop, Acrohc Australis . He broke the record for the smallest yacht to be sailed round the world, one that is still standing 35 years later.

This feat, together with Acton’s well-publicised voyages in the 1970s, ignited a lasting interest in small boat or microyacht voyages. Money is usually a factor in the choice of such small craft but overlaid by a streak of determined romanticism, the almost spiritual challenge of sailing a nutshell craft across a vast ocean.

Yann Quenet is not alone in creating self-build plans for aspiring micro-voyagers. New Zealander John Welsford also specialises in small boats such as the 18ft (5.5m) junk-rigged Swaggie – ‘a mighty, miniature long range cruiser’ – and a sturdy oceangoing 21ft (6.5m) gaff cutter, Sundowner (see jwboatdesigns.co.nz ).

As with Quenet’s little boats, Welsford’s designs are for plywood construction. The plans, he says, are detailed for “real beginners with very basic woodworking skills and a good attitude… the other skills will come as the project progresses.”

In his thinking, people can experience a deep sense of escape even through the process of building such a boat. “I anticipate a lot of builders will be people who find themselves trapped in a soulless desk job which condemns them to commuting for hours in heavy traffic, living in a thin-walled and crowded apartment and dreaming with longing of the freedom of the seas, golden sands and warm breezes.”

John Guzzwell’s Trekka. Photo: Historic Images/Alamy

Perhaps unsurprisingly the small boat community attracts a mixture of adventurers, inventors, idealists and eccentrics. One of the less successful was the self-styled ‘Admiral Dinghy’, a former Hollywood B-movie star and retired dance teacher from the US whose longtime aim was to sail round the world in a 9ft 11in (3m) boat. He had scant ocean sailing experience and no money. He’d been building and tinkering with his tiny junk-rigged boat since 1975 and began preparing for a circumnavigation in earnest in 2009. But he had problems with his boat, never went offshore and has since vanished from the radar.

A small boat living legend

A mixture of naïve courage and inexperience appears characteristic of many of the smallest boat sailors. It’s easy to imagine a dichotomy at the heart of it: many of the ideas could be perilous in hands of someone inexperienced, yet how many seasoned sailors would contemplate voyaging in a tiny craft?

Someone who has, numerous times, is Sven Yrvind. A Swedish sailor and boatbuilder, now aged 83, he has been designing and sailing tiny yachts for more than 60 years. He built his first tiny open boat in 1962, and decades of experimentation and voyaging followed.

In 1969, he built a 15ft 7in (4.2m) boat and sailed to Ireland. In 1971, he built his first Bris (or Breeze) in his mother’s basement, its size dictated by the dimensions of the cellar and the door it would have to be taken out through. He sailed this 19ft 8in (6m) cold moulded epoxy double-ender across the Atlantic seven times in four years and went as far as Argentina and Tristan da Cunha. (I highly recommend reading his fascinating and entertaining account at yrvind.com/my-life-texts ).

Yann Quenet completed a three-year world tour on his 4m Baluchon. Photo: Damien Meyer/AFP/Getty

In his next boat, the 15ft 9in (5.9m) Bris II , he went much further, sailing south to the Falkland Islands in 1980, before rounding Cape Horn and going north to Chile.

Over the decades, Yrvind (his birth surname was Lundin but he changed it to the Swedish term for a turbulent wind) has continually experimented with tiny yachts. In 1986, he built a 15ft 8in (5.76m) double-ender and sailed it to Newfoundland. In his most recent boat, Exlex (Outlaw), he sailed to the Azores in 2018, and in 2020 from Norway to the Azores and Madeira, returning to Ireland, a voyage of 150 days.

Right now, he is working on Exlex Minor , a glassfibre sailing canoe design of 20ft 4in (6.2m) which he intends to sail round Cape Horn to Valdivia in Chile. This new boat has twin keels and 12m2 of canvas split between three square sails on freestanding masts.

His food, water and all his possessions for up to 150 days at sea amount to around 1 tonne. He stores 111 litres of water on board as he “doesn’t trust desalinators. They can break down.” At sea, his diet is a simple mix of oatmeal and almond flour – “like muesli” – and sardines. “I eat the same every day,” he says, “and at lunchtime, not any other time.”

“I am a health nut. I believe in running and eating once a day for a long life.”

small-boat sailing legend Sven Yrvind. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty

Yrvind’s way of life divides opinion. Many casual followers think his choice of yacht slightly mad, but the tiny boat community reveres him as a living legend. To him, it just makes plain sense. “My boats are very functional. If you go back to old magazines from the 1950s and 1960s, boats were not much bigger. Back then, a 30ft boat was quite a decent size. The Hiscocks sailed twice round the world in such a boat. Now 40ft is too small; it must be 50ft.

“And what is big enough? With a small boat, you don’t have a lot of problems with money. You go back to first principles. You also have a boat you can tow behind a car. I have been doing that down to France and Ireland. Or you can put it in a container. So small boats are really handy.”

Yrvind in his 15ft 8in Exlex. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty

No room to stretch out

Smaller even than Sven Yrvind’s vessels are the record breakers’ boats, no bigger than a bathtub.

For many years, the record for the smallest yacht to cross the Atlantic was held by Hugo Vihlen, a former Korean War fighter pilot and Delta Airlines captain from Florida. In 1968, he crossed from west to east in the 5ft 11in April Fool . In 1993, his record was broken by Tom McNally, a fine arts lecturer from Liverpool, in his 5ft 4 1/2in (1.6m) Vera Hugh .

That prompted Vihlen, then aged 61, to go back out a few months later to recapture his record in Father’s Day , which was half an inch shorter than Vera Hugh . Vihlen crossed from Newfoundland to Falmouth in 105 days.

Andrew Bedwell intends to take former record holder Tom McNally’s modified 1.1m Big C to a new Atlantic record. Photo: Paul Larkin Photography

Not to be outdone, McNally designed and built an even smaller boat for the record, the 3ft 10in (1.1m) Big C . His plans were shattered when he was diagnosed with kidney cancer and he was unable to sail it before he died in 2017.

Next year, British sailor Andrew Bedwell hopes to break Vihlen’s 30-year record. As a sailmaker and experienced sailor, he knows exactly what he is getting into. Bedwell has previously sailed a Mini 6.50 to the Arctic and been round Britain in a Class 40 .

In 2018 he started reading up about small boats. “I had always had an interest in unusual challenges and things that were raw. I saw these boats and was amazed by them, and I started designing a vessel.”

He contacted Tom McNally’s daughter and was amazed to learn that Big C was still lying in her garden. “It had never been in the water, or fitted out. Sails had been made for it, but they had never been used.”

Lorraine McNally agreed to sell, and Bedwell worked out how he could modify it for him to sail across the Atlantic. He calculates that it will take him around 60-80 days to cover the 1,900 miles from Newfoundland to the Lizard, sailing at an average of 2.5 knots. It has twin headsails set on one furler, and external floats, or pods, that make it behave a little like a trimaran when heeled. Freeboard is only 35cm and “she really does bob like a cork”, Bedwell says.

The boat is so tiny he cannot stretch out in it. “When in there I have to sit. It is dead flat in the bottom and in calm conditions I can just about get into a foetal position – and I mean just. I’ve modified the hull so my hip can just fit into a recess.”

Big C is a tight squeeze for British sailor Andrew Bedwell, and he could spend up to 80 days in it crossing the Atlantic from Newfoundland to the Lizard.

With the hatch fully shut the boat is watertight and airtight, but has only 40 minutes’ worth of air, so Bedwell is making two rotating air scoops at the bow.

When conditions allow, he might be able to stand up, or even go for a swim, but mainly “there is very little you can do with the lower body at all.”

Muscle wastage will be a major issue. To offset this at least partially, Bedwell will use a manual desalinator to make water. “We looked at putting in a generator to pedal but there isn’t space.”

His rationed food will amount to only 1,000 calories a day, “so I will lose weight and muscle mass, but I want a slow, slow decline.”

The food will all be the same. “It is a protein food similar to Shackleton’s pemmican, a clever nutritional bar made of fat and protein, salt and honey, with a little bit of paracetamol to thin the blood and ascorbic acid to preserve it and prevent scurvy,” he explains. “I will eat that for at least a month before I go, to get used to it.”

All 12 of the boat’s watertight compartments will be filled with it. “It will be moulded in bags and pushed into the hull. I will take food from the external pods to start with and work inwards, so increasing stability as we go.”

Italian skipper Alessandro Di Benedetto returns to Les Sables d’Olonne in 2010 after a non-stop circumnavigation with his 21ft Mini Transat 6.50. Photo: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty

Bedwell’s planning sounds scrupulous. But… isn’t it the definition of suffering?

“Yes, very close to it,” he replies cheerfully. “If you said you were going to do this to prisoners, you wouldn’t be allowed to, it’d be against human rights.

“There’s not going to be any comfort in it whatsoever. Food and navigation equipment are the absolute keys. There’ll be no changes of clothes, for example, as there’s no room. It’s so tight. I can use some water to wash but it will be a flannel wash. l’ll do what I can to prevent saltwater sores but there’s not going to be any soap.”

When close to the finish of one of his voyages, Tom McNally was hit by a ferry. The hull of his boat split and he had to be fished out of the water almost by the seat of his pants. Bedwell says: “If I’m hit by a tanker I’m not going to survive that, but tech has changed. Tom didn’t have AIS but we have a standalone Class B transponder as well as a VHF with AIS receiver . I have a masthead light – the boat is so short it doesn’t need to be a tricolour.”

Bedwell says: “Planning this keeps your mind completely occupied as every single little detail has to be completely thought through.” He rejects any suggestion that he is ‘making a bid’ for the record or similar phraseology. “I am not attempting it. I’m doing it. My theory is if I’m just trying, I’m not really pushing myself.”

Matt Kent’s 2017 solo Atlantic crossing attempt in the 42in Undaunted ended in failure.

Smallest boats, smallest problems

The micro-voyagers seem to share a different way of looking at the world, a can-do attitude galvanised by their repudiations.

“Human beings are very adaptable,” says Sven Yrvind. “Lawrence of Arabia lived simply in the desert and said wine takes away the taste of water. It is the same with comfort. It depends on your mindset and how you think, how you look at life. Some people go on holiday on bicycles and put up a tent. Some want a car and a caravan. I think when they get back the man with the bicycle is happier and has more to think about.”

“You can get spoilt,” he argues. “If you get something without fighting for it, you’re not so happy when you get it.”

Returning after 31,000 miles and 360 days under sail in his little yacht, Yann Quenet insists that a small boat is the best. “Small boat equals small problems. When there is no engine, there is nothing to go wrong, just a simple boat that is simple to sail.”

Andrew Bedwell explains how he gradually dismissed fripperies. “I’d had plusher boats, but hated it – all the cushions and wiring hidden behind panels. It’s just not me. I kept coming back to the simple things.” Like Sven Yrvind and Yann Quenet, he made the realisation that his sense of achievement might be in inverse proportion to boat size.

When people ask now about what he is doing with Big C , he tells them, without a hint of irony: “Everyone is different. I need something really big.”

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Choosing the right boat to take you across an ocean or around the world can be confusing and exasperating, particularly with a tight budget. Vigor sets out to remedy that in this book. He compares the designs and handling characteristics of 20 different boats whose secondhand market prices start at about $3,000. Interviews with experienced owners (featuring valuable tips about handling each boat in heavy weather) are interspersed with line drawings of hulls, sail plans, and accommodations. Vigor has unearthed the known weaknesses of each boat and explains how to deal with them. He rates their comparative seaworthiness, their speed, and the number of people they can carry in comfort. If you have ever dreamed the dream this book can help you turn it into reality.

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7 Best-Known Routes for Sailing Around the World (with Maps)

Route planning is among the most crucial bits of preparation, especially when it comes to circumnavigation. This article will give you seven of the most commonly used routes for sailing around the world. Some routes have been sailed many times by many people, others are obscure or even dangerous.

• The Fast Route - for the minimum time
• The Pleasure Route - for the maximal pleasure
• The Traditional Route - the road most taken
• The Arctic Route - for the rough ones
• The Dangerous Route - without regards for piracy
• The Cheap Route - with a budget in mind
• The Coast Lover's Route - never going far from the coast

Since circumnavigation is quite a complex matter, let's go through this list one by one below.

On this page:

How to choose a route for you, route for speed, the pleasure route, the traditional route, the arctic route, the dangerous route, the cheap route, the coast lover's route.

What route you will take depends on what kind of journey you are looking for. If the goal is to do it in the least amount of time possible, you will be choosing a different path than if you don't care about time and put emphasis on sightseeing.

Similarly, if safety and convenience are at the top of your priority list, you will choose a route that might differ greatly from that of a person ready to spend more on security and cut corners through tricky territories.

If you have specific locations in mind, you will take turns that are, logistically speaking, quite impractical, while if efficiency is what you want, there are certain places it would make little sense to visit.

And finally, if you are after comfort, you will avoid some bumpy places and times of the year, as opposed to somebody who won't mind venturing into the corners of the oceans that require a hell of a warm jacket.

There is no right or wrong answer here; don't feel some approaches are better than others. Just look at what you want from the journey, read through this article, and then choose what best suits you.

21 Places to Avoid Sailing Around the World (In Order)

Let's kick this off with a racing spirit. This is the route taken by those competing in Vendée Globe, a circumnavigation race. It takes a bit under three months...

...that is if you are a racer and so is your boat. If you are a cruiser kind of person, it will take more time, but the point is that this route is as straightforward as it gets.

So what waypoints does it touch? Vendée globe racers start in France, then head down towards the Cape of Good Hope, circle Antarctica as close as the rules allow, and after getting to Cape Horn, head up to France again.

Of course, based on where you start from, your route might differ. But the idea is as follows:

• head south towards the Southern Ocean
• sail around Antarctica through the Southern Ocean
• after reaching the point where you met the Southern Ocean for the first time, head back up

The Southern Ocean is not a breeze, the cold waters mixing with the warmer ones coming from the north, plus the danger of icebergs, as well as the cold temperature, isn't how your typical holiday dream looks. That being said, it's up to you how close to Antarctica you will want to be when going around it.

This route doesn't touch down at any land, so you must be prepared for months on the sea as far as provisions, spares and mental capacity goes. Of course, this is variable, you can easily make landfall in Azores, South Africa, South Australia, or South America, and some of the South Pacific islands, if you need to. Either way, it is demanding logistically, so be sure to have your checklist in check .

It is among the most straightforward routes. Not just because it is probably the shortest one or the fastest one, but all the hassle with visas, check-ins, going through canals, and other lengthy land creatures' business will be foreign to you.

If you make it through the Southern Oceans unharmed, you will certainly have one hell of a story to tell.

Now let's go on the opposite side of the specter.

Let's suppose you theoretically have unlimited time. Instead of doing things quickly and efficiently, you want to take it at a leisurely pace while admiring all that there is to see.

This route will begin and end in the Mediterranean, but that's just because that's where I am based, sailing-wise. Wherever else you are, just pick the point of the route closest to you and begin there.

We will begin in Croatia, because it has beautiful shores and islands, travel around Greece with even more islands, the south around Italy, through Gibraltar. After that:

• head south to the Azores
• west to the Caribbean and through the Panama Canal
• west to Hawaii
• south to French Polynesia
• west to New Zealand, then Australia and Papua New Guinea
• northwest to Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, India
• south to Madagascar, then along the African coast to Cape of Good Hope
• north to the Azores and then through Gibraltar back home

This route takes time since it aims to explore all it can even remotely touch. It's not just that the route is long, because the aim is to visit pretty places. You might also find yourself having to wait months at some places for the bad weather season to clear before you can make your next crossing. Have a look at our article about things to think about when planning for a long trip .

Because of that, this route is more demanding when it comes to planning, visa hassle, check-in research, more ports and anchors, more provisions planning. Also, your boat will need to be a solid liveaboard , since you will spend so much time on it. Logistically, it will be demanding.

But for all that hassle, you will literally get to see the world. You will visit many fantastic cultures, get to taste the cuisines from all over, and the long times waiting for the winds to calm down will be spent on exploring the place you are 'stuck' at.

What more does one need...

...except perhaps some middle ground. Now that we've been to two extremes, let's look at something in the middle: the route most commonly taken when circumnavigating.

It is rather similar to the Pleasure Route above except for skipping the Mediterranean, Pacific, and Southeast Asian stops.

Thus it goes as follows:

• From Europe, head south to the Azores
• west to Australia
• west to Cape of Good Hope

This route accomplishes the circumnavigation while stopping at beautiful places but doesn't necessarily explore everything that happens to be around. Its strong suit is the variability. If you like the Caribbean, you stop and cruise around there. If Australia excites you, you do the same there. If you want to see Madagascar, well, it will be almost on your way. And so on.

It has been a traditional route to take because it is relatively painless and does not go through any hazardous areas.

It has been traveled by many before you, so there is a lot of info floating around if you want to do your research on specific parts of the journey.

On its own, it has a lot of long legs where you will not see anything but the ocean on the horizon. So for those of you who mind this, you gotta make it your own, customize it a bit, so that you spend more time at places that you like.

This planning really is important. Some of those legs can't be made during certain seasons if you want to be careful, so to make sure you don't get stuck somewhere you don't particularly like, you should plan well.

With that, let's get crazier.

For those who want to do things the hard way. Perhaps you really like the scenery, perhaps you want to test yourself, or maybe you've done every other passage, and now it is time for the icy one.

There is a circumnavigation route that leads through regions so far up north you mostly don't encounter them even on a map. Because why would you look up there.

Now I don't know how long this article will survive on the internet, but note that this route is rather climatically contextual. Given enough time, it might freeze over and become unavailable.

For me, it would begin in one of the northern ports of Norway and then:

• continue west to Iceland
• west to the south of Greenland and then up its western coast to the Baffin Bay
• south of Devon Island and through the archipelagos to Beaufort and Chuchki Seas
• west along the northern coast of Russia under the Lyakhovsky Islands
• west under the Yuzhny Island to the Barents Sea and back to the north of Norway

To this, you will have to add the most straightforward route north from wherever you are to any point on the route above.

Cold. Thus this requires clothing, equipment, and a boat that can withstand the polar temperatures along with chunks of ice floating around.

How much more adventurous can you get? Circumnavigation has been accomplished by plenty of people. This, not so much.

With the above, the major sailing routes have been covered. So what follows are mostly variations. Important ones, though.

Imagine this one mostly as the Traditional Route, except with a few twists. One of them leads through the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, and the Suez Canal.

Why take it? Because if you look on the map, you will see that when going from the general direction of Australia or Southeast Asia west, meaning you are probably aiming for the Azores or further for the Caribbean, it will save you a lot of time.

Money, not so much. You will have to pay for security. Because although you will save yourself the long southern route around the whole continent of Africa, which is nearly a 10,000-mile detour, you will have to go through the aforementioned areas that are famous for piracy and require professional armed company if you want to be on the safe side.

Not that it hasn't been done without it, but you know… Furthermore, many insurances won't cover you there since the risks are just too high.

Similarly, the area around Malaysia and the Philippines, which you might encounter during your Southeast Asia travels, bears the same story. No coverage by many insurances for piracy reasons.

Then again, exploring Southeast Asia while avoiding these regions means a few detours and no-go zones.

So if you want to explore the world on your sailboat and don't mind the risk, add these to your route plans.

Obviously, the risk or costs related to security. You will find plenty of sailors arguing that there is no real danger unless you are a cargo ship or a kidnapping worthy target. You will also find plenty who would rather travel in a fleet through there. And plenty who would never set sail towards those places.

Then there is the insurance issue.

With Suez, the upside is the saved time as well as not having to go around the treacherous South African cape waters.

With the Philippines and Malaysia, it's the convenience of being able to go wherever you want to in one of the most beautiful regions worldwide.

See this one as a variant of the Traditional Route and the Pleasure Route.

Some places are cheaper than others. And some places straight up make very little sense to go to.

Going through the Panama Canal is at least a $1,300 expense. Or, there are countries, like Ecuador, where check-in can cost you a $1,000 fee. And last but not least, prices of resources, like food, vary too. The Caribbean is famous for its steep prices in the provisions area.

The prices change, so it would not be bulletproof to give you a precise circumnavigation route exclusively through cheap places. Still, the moral of the story here is that when planning your route, do have a look at the local prices when it comes to check-ins and visas, food and various passes.

The result should be a route you are comfortable with financially. Avoiding the Panama Canal means a detour around the whole of South America, so it rarely pays off. Avoiding Ecuador, on the other hand, won't hinder your progress and save you money. Stocking up on food before getting into the Caribbean is also a sound logistical choice - unless you plan to stay for longer than your stocks can take you.

Saving money can mean detours, inaccessibility of various places, and more thought put into logistics. So it can result in a less elegant route.

On the other hand, being smart about it can result in a much lower bill overall.

Let me start this one by admitting that I don't believe anybody will actually take this route in its entirety, as delineated here. But it serves as an inspiration to those who are perhaps a bit unsure or simply like to combine two different sailing styles.

Some like to cross vast oceans and love to see nothing but the horizon for months. And then some like to stick to coastal waters for most of their journeys. Nothing wrong with that; at least it gives you something to look at any given moment.

And then there is the benefit of relative safety, a port or an anchorage close by most of the time, the ability to resupply whenever you like, to pick up and drop off people, and last but not least the lack of need for a really ocean-worthy boat and equipment.

I'm talking about the coastal cruiser's dream of circling all the world's continents, whereby effectively circumnavigating the globe. Eventually. This is the longest route ever.

The idea is pretty simple. You can go around the world sticking to the coast with no crossings, except for the Norwegian Sea and a few short stretches in Southeast Asia.

Or, if you feel up to it (and want to avoid the freezing northern places), you can cross the Atlantic, the Pacific and keep close to the coasts otherwise.

As mentioned in the beginning, not many will actually take this entire route. But it is not uncommon for circumnavigators to have weeks or months where they do exactly this - stick to the coast and enjoy the country.

Lots and lots of time and resources are needed.

You will constantly be checking into countries and solving visas.

Understand the required paperwork for sailing the world This is an article on the topic of check-ins and paperwork, so have a read through it Read up on global licenses

Some areas are arguably less hospitable than others - the coast of Yemen as an example. So you might want to skip a few.

You don't need a proper ocean exploring boat - an island-hopping model will suffice. Many of the modern ones are capable of long crossings if needed here and there.

You don't need as much equipment as power, water, food, and all that jazz will be available most of the time.

The logistics will suddenly become a whole lot easier. Fewer provisions planning, less spare parts planning, broken stuff won't be a disaster… you get the point.

This is the true world tour.

I liked your article; it raised a lot of good points. I think the article could have benefitted from some maps.

I also think that, throughout the article, you have confused the Canary Islands or Madeira with the Azores. The Azores are not south from Gibraltor or France or Europe. They are 1/3 the way across the Atlantic Ocean, almost due west from Lisbon. The Canaries are south from Gilbrator, France and Europe and most people turn west there for the Caribbean.

Again, I liked the article.

Best wishes.

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Planning a Circumnavigation

THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS. PLEASE READ OUR DISCLOSURE FOR MORE INFO.

Last Updated on September 13, 2023 by Amy

Plotting world circumnavigation routes is a lot easier than it sounds.  There are cruising boats LITERALLY all over the world.  There are boats in the Northwest passage (up and over Canada), in the Antarctic, and everywhere in between.  There are a few key things to take into consideration, but 95%* of circumnavigation routes follow the same general course.

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Insurance Restrictions on Circumnavigation Routes

There are two major restrictions put on us by our vessel insurance; stay out of highly pirated areas and stay out of named storm zones.  Insurance restrictions come with the option to ignore them.  You can always go to these restricted places, BUT if something happens, your insurance will not be covered.  Another option is that you can pay significantly more to be covered in these places as well.  We have made the choice for ourselves to follow the restrictions set by our insurance.

By definition, piracy is the act of attacking and robbing ships at sea.  By that main definition, the Caribbean is one of the worst places for piracy.  Petty theft of boats and their tenders is a major issue in some parts of the Caribbean, and steps should be taken to protect yourself and your assets.

However, the piracy of the biggest concern is murder and kidnapping.  There are two main hotspots where our insurance will not cover us;  the Philippines and the Red Sea/Suez Canal (hereby referred to as simply Suez).   Again, people cruise literally everywhere in the world, and there are people who cruise the Philippines (2015 reports state 200 yachts).  The other side of the coin is true too.  Just because you avoid the Suez or the Philippines does not mean you will avoid being kidnapped or murdered.

It’s up to you to decide the level of risk you are willing to take when planning out a circumnavigation route.

Tropical Storms

In North America, it’s a hurricane.  South of the equator, it’s cyclones.  In Asia-Pacific, it’s typhoons.  Either way, your insurance probably has a word or two to say about where you spend tropical storm season.

Our insurance requires us to avoid certain parts of the world during storm seasons.  This is why there is a mass exodus of boats from the Caribbean every year.  Our insurance requires us to be north of roughly the Florida-Georgia line.  Now, that doesn’t mean we are safe from hurricanes, but it does mean if something happens, we will have the  privilege of consoling ourselves of our losses by applying for an insurance claim.

For those moving quickly, your primary concern is systems in the southern hemisphere.  Just make sure you are moving from east to west quickly enough to pass through the storm zone.

World circumnavigation routes, like ours, usually have you dipping out of these storm zones for the season. It’s a great time to haul your boat out for annual maintenance, like we did in New Zealand, Australia, and Thailand.

Tradewinds for Circumnavigating

Around the equator lies the doldrums.  This is typically an area with very little wind.  However, each ocean has a wind pattern.  In the northern hemisphere, winds circulate clockwise.  In the southern hemisphere, winds circulate counterclockwise.  This means that on either side of the equator lies a band of wind flowing from east to west.  This is why 95%* of cruisers plan their circumnavigation routes to sail from east to west.

Factoring the Wind into Outfitting Your Boat

Knowing where you will sail will help you determine what kind of sail performance you are looking for in a boat.  For someone doing a typical circumnavigation route, sailing east to west, you’ll be sailing downwind a lot.  Some monohull owners have complained to us about how uncomfortable their boat is sailing dead downwind.  Catamarans, however, typically perform best downwind.  We have a very smooth ride when we are traveling with the wind and waves.

Outfitting your sail locker also factors in where you are sailing.  For a downwind circumnavigation, spinnakers are highly useful – or so we hear.  We’ve not had terrible success with our spinnaker, but find our screecher to be very useful.  That could possibly be because we deviate enough from the standard downwind route.

For more about sail configurations in a cruising catamaran, read our Sail Trim blog post.

Those Who Sail West to East Circumnavigation Routes

There are a few who do sail the “wrong way”.  It can definitely be done and done fast.  However, you need to have a boat that sails well to wind.  While most catamarans sail well downwind, we do not sail well into the wind.  However, if your catamaran has daggerboards, you’ll sail much better to wind than a catamaran without daggerboards.

Circumnavigation Routes & Bottlenecks

This is why most circumnavigations follow the same basic route.  There are major bottlenecks to passing around the continents, so again, we’ve got the 95%* of boats funneling into one narrow part of the world.

Panama Canal

We paid $1300 to transit the Panama Canal because the only other option is to sail against the wind and waves around either North America or South America.  Taking one of the high latitudes routes is pretty dang extreme, takes a significant amount of time, and a toll on ship and crew.  Ushuaia, a port of call in Argentina, reported 64 boats in 2015, versus 1,079 boats transiting the canal – 95% transiting the canal*.

Torres Strait

The Torres Strait occupies the space between Australia and New Guinea.  It’s fairly small, just 650 nm between Thursday Island and Indonesia’s first port of clearance.

There are some cruisers (like our friends on S/V Field Trip) who are going over the top of New Guinea to get to Southeast Asia.  Getting any further north than that requires dealing with the Philippines – either through or around the top of the Philippines into the South China Sea.

Cape of Good Hope

Traveling around South Africa requires tackling the Cape of Good Hope, which is not to be taken lightly due to the challenges in the winds and currents.  The alternative is the Suez.  There used to be a rally passing through the Suez.  The other alternative is to hire private security, but that’s pretty complex.  Reports show 358 boats sailing through Cape Town verses 19 through the Suez – again, 95% choose Cape Town*.   I know the Mediterranean is a great cruising ground, but we decided if we want to cruise it, we’d rather cross the Atlantic twice than go through the Suez.

How Long Should a Circumnavigation Take?

Barring racing yachts who are smashing world records, it’s not uncommon to complete a circumnavigation in a year and a half.  This is a fairly straightforward and quick route.

The World ARC is a one and a half year rally that circumnavigates the world.  They have a fantastic route and schedule on their website.

Longer circumnavigation routes still use the same general track, but add on detours.   For example, we extended our South Pacific portion into two seasons by sailing south to spend cyclone season in New Zealand.

We’ve met sailors who have taken 15 or more years to circumnavigate. That’s a lot of detours!

Our Circumnavigation Route

Our sailing circumnavigation route took us four years and three months to travel all the way around the world. You can read the summary of our world circumnavigation for more details.

Book: World Cruising Routes

This is LITERALLY the bible of sailing around the world. If you have ever asked yourself (or, god help you, asked on a forum) “I wonder when the best time to sail from X to Y is?” the answer is in this book.

Even though we know our route, I’m still pulling out this book every so often to look up possibilities. It’s a great guide to planning your circumnavigation route overall and planning each individual passage.

Buy Jimmy Cornell’s World Cruising Routes .

Book: Cornell’s Ocean Atlas

This handy reference book is full of windgrams  – “a summary of wind direction and strength derived from the individual windroses along a specific ocean route “. Basically this means you can open a chart for a particular region and month and you will be able to tell where the wind “usually” blows from.

Buy Cornell’s Ocean Atlas .

Book Review: How to Sail Around the World Part-Time

• Who: Linus Wilson and his wife, Janna
• Available: Kindle, Kindle Unlimited or Paperback
• Published: January 2016
• Editing (scale of 1-10, 10 is best): 10

Linus Wilson has been cruising part-time on his 31-foot Island Packet. This is his second book, and in it, he details how one could sail a circumnavigation part-time. I agree – it is possible and might be the solution more potential cruisers should consider.

Wilson pulls a lot of statistics about sailing. Did you know fewer people complete a sailing circumnavigation every year than climb Mount Everest? An hour spent above base camp on Mount Everest is 264 times more dangerous than an hour sailing?

One question unanswered is how long it would actually take to sail the world part-time. Of course, it depends on how much time you dedicate every year, but hypothetically:

• Year 1: the Caribbean to Panama, store in Panama
• Year 2: Panama to French Polynesia, store in FP
• Year 3: French Polynesia to Fiji, store in Fiji
• Year 4: Fiji to Australia, store in Australia
• Year 5: Australia to South Africa, store in SA
• Year 6: SA to the Caribbean

Of course, you’d see a lot less than you would on a 6-year circumnavigation like ours, but you get it done in a fraction of the cost and less risk.

Bottom line: it was a short, interesting, and informative read. If you don’t want to full-time sail, or can’t convince your partner to full-time sail, consider how fulfilling a part-time adventure could be.

*Jimmy Cornell is the foremost expert on tracking cruising boats, and the statistics for this blog post were pulled from his article Where do all the boats go?

23 Comments

Wonderful article. I am from Goa, India. I wish you had come to Goa. I would have happily looked after your boat, and you could have travelled through India and enjoyed its majestic and diverse cultures and sites. I am 67 years old grandfather. I have been coastal and competitive sailing for the past 50 years. I am now planning to go on a circumnavigation on a Leopard 39 sailboat starting from Goa. Hoping to do it in 2 to 3 years. Your article and videos have inspired me. All the best. Thank you for your well written and detailed articles.

Wow, great to hear from you! It is amazing to us when we hear from people like you all over the world! We have some friends who visited Cochin last year on their boat, I think that’s a popular stop for cruisers. I know that formalities in India are complicated.

I have never been, but I love the food and the culture that I’ve experienced so far! I hope we get to visit someday.

Do sail down to Goa anytime you want. I will sort out all you entry formalities. Wish you all the best. Keep inspiring us with your wonderful sailing and videos.

Hi, how many miles is it when circumnavigating around the earth please? Captain cook did it in 60k, but is this because you cant just sail direct around the earth due to islands and storms etc?

Hi! Our circumnavigation was about 34,000 nm. You can read more about it here: https://outchasingstars.com/world-sailing-circumnavigation-summary/

Amy, when you and David are on a long passage, what kind of watch schedule do you keep? Assuming you’re both healthy (unlike your passage to St. Helena), what do you find to be a comfortable limit for the number of days at sea before exhaustion begins to set in?…or does it ever set in for you guys?

We do a soft 7-hour watch. The only actual watch is I do 7 pm to 2 am. Then David goes on watch while I sleep. When I wake up we switch, and he naps. Then when he’s up, I nap. By then it’s time to do the whole thing all over again! The worst night is the second. You’ve been tired, but not tired enough to sleep off your normal routine yet. But after the second night it gets a lot better. Exhaustion does not set in long-term – boredom does!

I really enjoyed reading your article, it’s very informative although that I don’t have a boat, it’s too expensive where I’m from, and it would take a fortune to be registered if it’s allowed in the first place, as authorities put a lot of restrictions for civil citizen to do so after military took over in 60s, for example we can’t camp as a first without a security permit bla bla bla that it raerly issued or thread fishing without a license and permit bla bla bla….etc, there isn’t a proper Marina for docking not even mention the amount of visas that it required. I love to sail one-day but till that time I’m really enjoy reading and watching. I’m from Egypt, and it makes me sad that sailors stop passing by, as we have a great shores, great diving spots, the Suez canal, and the right wind, but to be considered as unstable area for the Somalian pirates acts, and all the Egyptian governmental claims about fighting terrorist and repel ghost they imagine, this is horrible. It’s really tearing me that after around 8000 years on Earth people couldn’t yet handle their conflicts. I’m sorry to make it very long. Glad that some people had the privilege to try and be able to chasing stars and wind. Godspeed

Sarah, thank you for your comment! It’s amazing to us that we have someone reading from Egypt!

I recently read a memoir about a yacht who sailed through the Suez, and it sounded like they had a lot of difficulties, not just with pirates and corruption, but it’s hard sailing too! Egypt is very high up on my list of places I would truly love to visit because of its amazing history and culture.

We hope that somehow you get to enjoy sailing, even if it’s just continuing to follow us along.

You are amazing, all the best in your upcoming, and hopefully everyone can enjoy sailing in Egypt one day, and be able to see you here in the future.

Hi Amy, first, what a nice simple but very informative blog. I have run a ‘sailing for disabled people’ organisation for the last 25 years and as part of our 25th anniversary are planning to build a 20m cat for a round the world adventure. Planned for start in 2025 I need to get people to understand the real dangers and risks of such travel as well as the good things, would you mind if I used your blog in this matter, I would of course say that is yours. Details of us are under the ‘new projects button’ at http://www.disabledsailing.org

Hi Mike! You are welcome to link to our blog post. If you need anything beyond that, send us an email and we can talk more!

Excellent and informative article. I’d just like to point out the following statement where it states: “Ushuaia, a port of call in Chile, reported 64 boats in 2015….”

Please note that Ushuaia is not located in Chile, but rather within the Tierra del Fuego province of Argentina.

Thank you so much for the correction! I will fix it right away. Geography lesson of the day. 😉

Now you can completely delete my comment 🙂 It’s all sorted. Happy and safe sailing to you and your family. Antonella

Nice write up. Very helpful. Keep up the good work. However sailing through the suez is not really that dangerous. My friends Ingo and Maya sailed through from turkey to India and onward to thailand and had no probs with pirates.

I do hear that the piracy situation is improving. I do think there are a lot of good reasons to go around South Africa though, and I am glad we did.

Great informative article, thanks for sharing.

Where do you store your bladder when it is full? Also, thanks for all the info and videos. It has helped us a great deal in preparation for purchasing our boat,

Thank you! I’m glad you’ve found it helpful. We store the duel bladder in the cockpit.

On the longer passages, how much extra fuel do you carry in your blatter tank. What motering range do you think is sufficient for your longer passages?. I’m thinking the Helia goes about 750 miles on 125 gallons of diesel. Thanks Jon

Our fuel tank holds 125 gallons, plus four 5-gallon jerry cans, plus the 50-gallon fuel bladder, to total 195 gallons. If we motor at 1800 rpms with one engine it’s roughly .8 gph. Theoretically, our tanks should take us about 900 nm. Of course, we go months and thousands of miles without using all of our diesel.

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Home » Blog » Travel » So you want to sail around the world. Now what?

So you want to sail around the world. Now what?

By Author Fiona McGlynn

Posted on Last updated: November 20, 2023

Sailing around the world is a major undertaking, but you don’t have to be super rich, athletic, or have salt water running in your veins to do it.

I know bluewater cruisers and round-the-world sailors from all walks of life: young couples,  single women ,  families with kids , and an  85-year-old Reverand .

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When I was in my late twenties, my husband, Robin, and I spent three years sailing 13,000 nautical miles from Vancouver, Canada to Mexico and then across the Pacific to Australia in our 35-foot sailboat.

We didn’t complete a full circumnavigation of the world—our goal was to reach Australia—but that’s pretty common for cruisers our age (I’ll talk more about routes and timelines below).

I grew up dinghy sailing and Robin had no sailing experience at all. We had office jobs, average incomes, and knew almost nothing about bluewater sailing when we started. 

It was two years from buying our boat to casting off the dock lines and setting sail. However, we did 95% of our preparation in the year before we left. This just goes to show how quickly you can go from “dreamer” to “doer”.

How to sail around the world

For every bluewater cruiser I know, I can think of dozens of “armchair sailors” who dream of sailing around the world but never get out and do it.

Why? There are some big hurdles to overcome before you set sail: getting offshore experience, finding the right boat, outfitting it with all the right gear, learning how to be self-sufficient, and fixing things that break. 

Not to mention finding a way to finance it all.

There’s also a strong psychological and social element: “What will my parents, friends, and colleagues think?” “Will I be able to find work again with a big hole in my resume?”

Going bluewater cruising is a radical departure from the norm and an entirely new way of living. You’ll be faced with challenges, but that’s what makes it such an incredible experience.

If you want easy travel, get a camper van. Sailing around the world is a life-changing adventure. 

So, I wanted to share how we made our transition from landlubbers to bluewater cruisers and share a few resources to help you on your way.

1. Get some offshore sailing experience

Sure sailing around the world sounds romantic—the freedom of the open ocean, sunsets on a beach in Bora Bora, sipping fresh water from a coconut you picked yourself (words of caution: climbing a palm is much harder than it looks!).

But are you willing to put up with  the not-so-fun stuff  that comes with it?  Seasickness , scary conditions, sleep deprivation from  sailing at night , repairing your boat when it breaks (which it will), and being thousands of miles from friends and family?

Some of the best moments in my life were on the boat, but I’ve also had experiences that put me way out of my comfort zone.

It’s not simply a matter of being  mentally tough  (though that helps), some people are just never going to enjoy the sailing life.

The question is: is it right for you? What about your partner, your kids, or whoever else is coming along for the ride? 

Bluewater sailing can blow up relationships. I’ve heard many stories about sailing couples investing tens of thousands in their boats, only to set sail and discover that one or both of them hate it. 

So, before you buy a bluewater boat, quit your job, or give up your studio apartment, you (and your crew mates) should  go and get some offshore sailing experience . 

Spending a week on an offshore passage will not only teach you valuable skills, but it will also give you a taste of the challenges and joys that come with bluewater cruising.

There are plenty of ways to get experience if you don’t already own a boat:

• Take a course at an  offshore sailing school
• Try  sailboat hitchhiking
• Look for crewing opportunities (or pay for a spot) on a rally boat in the  ARC  (Atlantic Ocean crossing),  Pacific Puddle Jump  (Pacific Ocean crossing), or  Baja Haha  (San Diego to Cabo). 
• Become a crew member on a friend’s boat 

2. Find your community and immerse yourself in cruising culture

If you want to go cruising, you’re going to need a support network of people who’ve been there and done it.

We received so much help leading up to our trip (and along the way). Our liveaboard friends and neighbors in Vancouver helped us fix up our engine, rewire our boat, and find a great deal on a new set of sails, just to name a few. 

There are lots of ways to  find your sailing community , either online or in person. I highly recommend mooring your boat in a  liveaboard marina , where you’ll likely be surrounded by other bluewater cruisers.

You can also learn a lot from other people’s stories. Immerse yourself in bluewater cruising culture: read the  classic sailing books , subscribe to a magazine like  Good Old Boat  or  Cruising World , listen to  sailing podcasts , and follow a few  sailing Youtube channels  or  sailors on Instagram .

3. Make a plan

There are many different routes for sailing around the world. Most cruisers sail the easier legs—following the trade winds across the Atlantic and Pacific, transitting the Panama Canal —and spend their time exploring beautiful places and cruising grounds like the Galapagos Islands, French Polynesia, and New Zealand. 

Only a few cruisers take on the harder routes—transiting the Northwest passage, Southern Ocean, or Indian Ocean (perhaps you’ve heard of the infamous Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope?).

For route planning, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Jimmy Cornell’s  World Voyage Planner  which shows you how to sail from anywhere in the world to…well, anywhere in the world.

How long does it take to sail around the world?

The current world record for sailing around the world is 40 days, 23 hours, and 30 minutes (IDEC 3, skippered by Francis Joyon). But unless you’re going for the speed record, you’re going to want to visit the different countries you sail to.

I know cruisers who’ve circumnavigated in as little as five years and others who spend decades making the big loop. 

In my experience, it doesn’t pay to be in a rush because inevitably things don’t go to plan.

Your boat will break down and need repair which often means spending time in a boatyard. 

You may find yourself waiting weeks if not months for crucial parts. 

You may need to fly home in the middle of your cruise (as we did) when a relative is ill or dies. 

Or, you may just fall in love with one of the remote places you visit and want to stay for a while.

Bad weather and hurricane season will dictate when and where you sail. For example, we had originally planned to cross the Pacific in 2016, but we didn’t feel ready. So, we waited a whole year for the right conditions and crossed in the spring of 2017.

My recommendation is to give yourself a minimum of three years to trial the cruising life . Make a plan but don’t be disappointed if you have to throw it to the winds.

4. Make a cruising budget

When people learned that we were traveling the world on our sailboat, they often assumed that we were independently wealthy, which couldn’t have been further from the truth!

We’ve cruised for as little as $1000 a month, but when it comes to cruising budgets, the sky is the limit. It all depends on:

• Your boat . Smaller boats cost less to buy and maintain.
• Destinations . We found places like Mexico and Fiji very affordable, while places like French Polynesia and Australia were quite expensive. 
• Your timeline. Most of the young cruisers we knew were on three-year timelines (because that’s what they could afford). The retirees and families we met often had the financial means to cruise for longer (sometimes indefinitely). Some had houses that they rented, and others would take breaks in places like New Zealand where they worked regular jobs.
• Whether you’re willing to work along the way. We wrote for sailing magazines while we were cruising, but it wasn’t enough money to fund our trip. We mostly relied on savings. With technology like Starlink and the post-pandemic remote work boom, it’s probably easier today to  earn money while cruising . However, cruising is a full-time job. It can be challenging to cover ground while keeping up with work commitments
• Your lifestyle. As I mentioned, it’s possible to  sail around the world on a budget . But we lived pretty rough: no air-conditioning, no freezer, no hot water—at one point, we hadn’t taken a shower for 8 months!

When making your budget, I’d suggest perusing a few  sailing blogs  where cruisers post their monthly expense. 

Also, there are plenty of  creative ways to finance a sailboat . Some people even manage to  travel the world for free by buying and selling their boats in the right markets . 

5. Buy a bluewater boat

You can’t sail around the world in any old sailboat.  Bluewater boats have specific design characteristics  that make them appropriate for offshore sailing. 

I love data, so I made a list of the  best bluewater sailboats  by looking at 2,000 boats that were entered in the Pacific Puddle Jump, a cross-Pacific rally, over the last decade. We also have a list of  smaller boats  which I recommend if you’re on a budget.

Once you have your list, you can get busy searching YachtWorld, Craigslist, and these other  great places to buy used boats . 

Keep in mind that a bluewater boat isn’t necessarily a seaworthy boat. It may have structural damage, unsound rigging, or need an expensive retrofit. Uncover any lurking issues (and know what they’ll cost to fix) before you sign on the dotted line.

We had a very in-depth  boat checklist  that we used to inspect every boat we considered buying. We also hired an accredited marine surveyor, twice, to survey every detail of our boat. The first time was for the purchase, the second time was when we were preparing to go offshore.

For more on how to search,  understand boat values , and close the deal, check out our series on  how to buy a boat .

6. Live on your boat

The next big step on your cruising journey will be moving onto your boat.

We lived on our boat for two years before we set sail and it taught us so much about the boat (read: what needed to be fixed) as well as ourselves (and whether we could handle close-quarter life).

By moving aboard you’ll learn if living on a boat is right for you  and your family. You can also save a bunch of money for your trip. After two years of living aboard, our rent savings paid for the purchase of our boat.

7. Prepare yourself

Preparing yourself for going offshore is a major undertaking. You’ll need to learn advanced navigation, weather, and excellent seamanship, among other things.

It’s not enough to know the theory. Get out and practice with your gear and become comfortable with maneuvers like reefing,  heaving to , sailing downwind with a pole out genoa , and  anchoring under sail .

In addition, you should become intimately familiar with your boat’s systems. Sailboats break down at sea (here are the  most common problems ). So, you have to be capable of fixing your boat when you’re hundreds of miles from shore. 

Become an expert in your boat’s electrical system , propulsion, rigging, sails, and plumbing, before you go.

When the pandemic hit, a lot of sailing education moved online. Now there are plenty of great  online sailing courses  covering everything from learning the parts of a sailboat to celestial navigation.

That being said you can’t beat on-the-water instruction and offshore experience (see #1 for offshore sailing courses). 

8. Outfit your boat

Preparing your boat for offshore will take dedicated effort and money, especially if it’s an older boat that’s not been previously equipped for bluewater sailing.

In addition to fixing existing issues and replacing old equipment, you’ll want to add offshore gear like a  watermaker , a boom brake , downwind sails , self-steering wind vane, life raft,  satellite phone , AIS, solar panels, and inverter. 

Not to mention all the spare parts you’ll need to keep these systems running. 

Needless to say, outfitting can get pretty expensive but you can save money by buying used boat parts and second-hand sails .

We spent six months in the boatyard, working full-time on our 1979 Dufour 35 to get her ready to sail. We built a solar arch , installed panels, replaced our rigging, added a roller furler, replaced our anchoring setup, removed 30 years of antifouling paint, and much much more. 

9. Do a shakedown cruise

Next, it’s time to test your boat (and yourself) by taking it on a shakedown cruise. The idea of a shakedown is to test your boat’s performance after any major changes or repairs. The goal is to find any issues (and fix them) before going farther afield. 

We circumnavigated Vancouver Island for our shakedown cruise. It took us a little over a month and allowed us to test our systems in a variety of conditions including ocean swell, fast currents, and light and moderate wind speeds.

Despite checking and fixing every system on our boat over the preceding months, we still had issues. Our engine quit, we struggled to get our wind vane working, and we had to make a few adaptations to our brand-new sails. But that’s the whole point of a shakedown cruise!

10. Go now!

“Go small, go simple, go now” is a popular cruising philosophy and one that we adhere to.

Life is short and we’ve seen poor health and other life situations bring cruising adventures to a halt.

There’s no ideal time to go cruising. You can be young or old, with or without kids, retired or working. 

Certainly don’t wait until you can afford a larger boat. A  small boat  was our ticket to cruising early in life because it made it more affordable. 

If your dream is to sail around the world, start working towards your cruising dream NOW. You won’t regret it.

Let us know how we can help you on your bluewater journey and what topics you’d like to learn more about by leaving us a message in the comments.

Fiona McGlynn is an award-winning boating writer who created Waterborne as a place to learn about living aboard and traveling the world by sailboat. She has written for boating magazines including BoatUS, SAIL, Cruising World, and Good Old Boat. She’s also a contributing editor at Good Old Boat and BoatUS Magazine. In 2017, Fiona and her husband completed a 3-year, 13,000-mile voyage from Vancouver to Mexico to Australia on their 35-foot sailboat.

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Szymon Kuczynski World Record for the Smallest Yacht around the Globe Solo and Non-Stop

Szymon Kuczynski secured a new world record for the smallest yacht to circumnavigate the globe singlehanded and unaided, when he returned to Mayflower Marina in Plymouth on Thursday 17th May.

Szymon, who set sail last year from Plymouth on August 19, completed the circumnavigation in 270 days, 10 hours and 29 minute. The World Sailing Speed Record Council recognizes a similar feat by Alessandro di Benedetto (FRA/ITA) in 2009-10 who sailed a 6.5m (21ft 3.9in) Mini yacht around the world in 268 days, 19 hours, 36 minutes, 12 seconds.

The solo sailor took a classic route round the three famous capes of Africa, Australia and South America . Szymon had been living in a space of just four square metres for over 9 months and accomplished this trip without ever making any stops to ports.

In 2013, he sailed back and forward across the Atlantic Ocean on his self-built, 5m long yacht, “Lilla My” as part of a ‘Call to the Ocean’ race.

And in 2014, Szymon finished his round the world trip- “Maxus Solo Around”- taking the Pasat Route, making stops at ports along the way.

About the boat

The sailboat was manufactured in the Northman shipyard in Poland. The Maxus 22, which is normally used for in-land sailing and close-shore waters, has been adjusted for such and ocean challenge, by changing most of it’s construction.

The hull and rigging have been strengthened and the interior of the yacht has been limited to the essential appliances. The cabin can be hermetically closed, and the hull can still remain floating on the water, even in case of an accident and a complete water flooding inside.

Szymon Kuczynski Journey Statistics 

Time:  270 days, 10 hours, 29 minutes. Miles travelled: 29 044. Average speed:  4,5 kt. Maximum speed: 14,9 kt. Books read: 143.

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Small yachts for round the world race

Published on August 17th, 2024 by Editor -->

The McIntyre Mini Globe Race (MGR) will commence on February 23, marking the beginning of a 13-month round the world race for Class Globe 5.80 yachts. Home-built from plywood on timber frames and coated in glass epoxy, 5.80 refers to its length in meters (19-feet) which is compact enough to fit in a 20ft container.

Conceived by Australian adventurer Don McIntyre, the idea emerged during his 2010 adventure sailing 4000-mile across the Pacific in an open timber whale boat with very little food, water and no charts, recreating William Bligh’s Mutiny on the Bounty journey.

McIntyre, in collaboration with Polish designer Janusz Maderski, launched the one-design class in 2019, offering simple construction plans for €300. Builders can also opt for a CNC pre-cut plywood kit, supported by an active online builder’s community. Currently, over 80 yachts are in various stages of completion, with about 20 in the water and another 140 builders with plans.

“The MGR, like the Golden Globe Race, will be a voyage of attrition,” said McIntyre. “I have great faith in the sailors, the boats, and the meticulous planning that has gone into this event over the past five years. The Globe 580 yachts are robust, safe and fun to sail, offering an affordable challenge.”

In an age where technology and Euro 20 mill can send a solo sailor around the world in 40 days, a fleet of courageous mini sailors will show it can be done for less that Euro 50,000 over many days! Sixteen men and two women from 11 countries will navigate 28,000 miles solo around the world in identical, cramped plywood mini yachts, pushing the limits of what many believe to be possible.

Before the main event, participants must complete a solo 3,600-mile qualifying race, solo across the Atlantic. This journey begins on December 28, 2024, from Marina de Lagos in Portugal, continues to Marina Rubicon in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, and concludes at the National Sailing Academy, Antigua.

The race begins and ends at the National Sailing Academy, Antigua. The first leg takes sailors to Shelter Bay Marina, Panama, where yachts will be transported overland to the Pacific Ocean. The second leg, starting on March 23, 2025, covers 6,500 miles to VUDA Marina in Fiji, with mandatory pit stops in the Marquesas, Tahiti, and Tonga. Each pit stop requires an eight-day minimum stay, allowing sailors to rest and make repairs.

The third leg spans 10,000 miles to Cape Town, South Africa, with stops in Darwin, Mauritius, and Durban. Given the challenging weather conditions and the notorious Agulhas current, an additional ten days of pit stops are allowed. The fourth and final leg of 7000 miles begins on December 22, 2025, with stops in St. Helena and Recife, Brazil, before the final sprint back to Antigua, expected by late March 2026.

This McIntyre Mini Globe follows in the footsteps of John Guzzwell, who set off in Sept 1955 to become first person to sail a small yacht, his home-built Laurent Giles designed 20’ 6’ “TREKKA” solo around the world. McIntyre has great confidence in the Class Globe 580’s capabilities. He built and raced a Class Globe 580, named “TREKKA”, solo across the Atlantic in 2021, proving the yacht’s endurance and suitability for such a demanding race.

Sailors must undergo survival and medical training, comprehensive medical checks, and stress tests. Safety equipment adheres to world-class standards, detailed in the official Notice of Race.

Restrictions include the prohibition of electronic wind instruments and logs, limited 200-amp battery and 200-watt solar panel capacity, and only electric outboard motors. Hydro generators and desalinators are not allowed. Sailors can make unpenalized stops, but the race clock continues to run, and YB3 satellite trackers provide 24-hour monitoring for everyone on the MGR website.

Unlike other solo races, MGR entrants sail as independent voyagers, with each sailor responsible for their voyage plan, logistics, and safety management, overseen by individually appointed safety managers. These managers’ report to MGR event management but maintain primary responsibility for their sailors around the clock.

“Ten years ago, I set out to bring back affordable, human around the world racing that was truly sustainable for all sailors, where money and speed at all costs is not the driving force. All three events – Golden Globe Race, Ocean Globe Race, and now MGR – are epic human stories.”

Event information – yacht details – Facebook

Source: MGR

Tags: Class Globe 5.80 , Mini Globe Race

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What Size Catamaran To Sail Around The World

Last Updated by

Daniel Wade

August 30, 2022

Catamarans are generally longer than monohulls, but their accommodations and handling vary widely between sizes.

The best size catamaran to sail around the world is 45 to 50 feet. The smallest catamaran with space for long-term provisions and a cabin is around 30 feet in length, and a 55 to 60-foot catamaran is the largest that can be accommodated at most marinas.

In this article, we'll go over the different sizes of catamarans and how they handle in the open ocean. Additionally, we'll cover each size category and the best sizes for traveling the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

We sourced the information used in this article from marine design guides and the consensus of experienced catamaran sailors.

Table of contents

‍ What Sizes Are Catamarans?

Catamarans come in all shapes and sizes, but the smallest models don't have the accommodations required to sail around the world. Most catamarans under 30 feet in length don't have a cabin at all, which is a stark difference that they have with monohulls.

Small monohull sailboats often have cabins, as there's plenty of room below on a wide single-hulled sailboat. Monohulls can be as small as 16 to 18 feet and still have a cabin, but catamarans must be much larger to have suitable accommodations.

The smallest catamarans are about 12 to 15 feet long. These are small recreational craft used primarily for racing, and they aren't designed for the open ocean. Larger catamarans in the 20-foot range can (and have) been used on the ocean, but they're usually classified as day boats.

Catamarans become practical for longer excursions once they hit about 30 feet in length. A boat of this size is large enough for a cabin and can usually accommodate between two and four people comfortably. Catamarans commonly stretch beyond 50 feet, which is where they're the most useful and comfortable.

Smallest Catamaran to Sail Around the World

So, what's the smallest catamaran you could use to sail around the world? In theory, any catamaran can sail long distances—but you need one that's large enough for shelter and storing provisions. Generally speaking, 30 feet is the bottom limit for an ocean-crossing catamaran.

Let's take the ME Cat 30 (Maine Cat) as an example. This small and nimble 30-foot catamaran makes use of its limited space and provides comfortable accommodations for a few adults. The ME Cat 30 is a split design that houses the basic accommodations in either hull, with an open seating area between them.

Inside the ME Cat 30, there's barely enough room for all the living spaces. It features a head and a large bed in one hull and a galley and a smaller berth in the other. With that, all the useful cabin space is filled—and this is considered a very good design for the size. As you can see, the best catamarans for sailing across the world are usually much larger.

Typical Ocean Crossing Catamaran Size

Based on what we discussed above, a 30-foot cruising catamaran is really pushing the limits on size. However, it doesn't take a whole lot more length to make a catamaran exponentially more comfortable and suitable for long journeys.

The typical ocean-crossing catamaran is usually about 40 to 45 feet long. With the addition of 10 feet in length, designers can fit an enormous amount of additional accommodations in the hulls.

This is because adding a little extra length allows designers and boatbuilders to widen each hull significantly, which makes room for luxuries like private bedrooms, multiple bathrooms, and entirely separate dining and cooking spaces.

Cruising Catamaran Floor Plans

A 40-foot to 50-foot catamaran usually comes with a mirrored floor plan. The traditional catamaran has an identical layout in each hull. That means if one hull has a private berth in the bow and a shower and a toilet in the stern, the other hull will have the exact same layout except opposite.

This is usually because spaces like the galley and sitting area are kept in the center console, where there's much more space to move around. Spaces that are used at night or only occasionally are kept in the narrow hulls, as this has proven to be a more comfortable layout for crews.

Storage is usually kept deep in the hulls as well, as there's extra space to work with when the only other design purpose is for sleeping in bathing. Catamarans in this size range can also have separate hull layouts, but the mirrored design is by far the most common.

Best Catamaran Size for Pacific Ocean Cruising

Catamarans are very versatile craft, but some function better in the Pacific Ocean than others. One of the main considerations when choosing a catamaran for Pacific Travel is that the Pacific usually has greater distances between ports and stopping points.

This is especially true on the US West Coast, where there are only a handful of ports and safe anchorages. The best Pacific cruising catamaran size is between 45 and 50 feet in length, as you're likely to need more space to store provisions for extended cruising.

If you're starting in San Francisco or Seattle, even a 'short' trip along the coastline could mean you'll pass hundreds of miles of steep rocky cliffs and no stopping points insight. When crossing the Pacific, you may travel thousands of miles before you encounter a port or island with any infrastructure at all, let alone stocks of provisions and a full-service marina.

The Pacific is a huge ocean, and the last thing you want to do is run out of food or fuel a thousand miles from your destination. Larger boats store more supplies, and they also give you more breathing room when you're surrounded by empty blue water for months on end.

Best Catamaran Size for Atlantic Ocean Cruising

The Atlantic Ocean is smaller than the Pacific Ocean, and the coastlines of many countries that border it tend to be well-developed. This makes it easier to get away with owning a smaller boat, as you don't need to store as many supplies, and your voyages will be shorter.

Another factor to consider is that not all marinas on the Atlantic can accommodate extremely large catamarans, or it may be prohibitively expensive to dock a 55-foot or 60-foot double-wide vessel. That's why the ideal size for an Atlantic-crossing catamaran is between 40 feet and 50 feet. Today, 45 feet seems to be average.

The boat of this size will fit in at most marinas in developed countries around the Atlantic, and its draft is shallow enough for island hopping and exploring the coral reefs that the Atlantic Islands are known for. Additionally, 40 to 50-foot catamarans are usually just as seaworthy as the larger boats, and they're less expensive to maintain.

Unlike the US West Coast, where ports are few and far between, the Atlantic in the Gulf of Mexico is littered with marinas and safe anchorages. You can travel for weeks along the coastline of the United States and parts of South America and never be further than a hundred miles from a full-service marina.

There are also hundreds of islands, tourist destinations, and service locations that reduce your need for large stores of provisions aboard your catamaran. This gives you a lot more flexibility in choosing a size and a floor plan, as your needs are different than that of a Pacific sailor.

Best Catamaran Size for World Cruising

If you're planning to go on a world tour or a circumnavigation, you're going to need a catamaran that's large enough to fit your crew and your provisions comfortably.

You'll also need a boat that is small enough to be serviced and accommodated in most locations but also seaworthy enough to whether anything you're likely to encounter out of the water.

For most people, the sweet spot seems to be around 45 to 50 feet in length. A 50-foot catamaran is more than large enough to store enough provisions for many months of sailing. It's also roomy enough to house two to six people comfortably for many weeks at a time.

Catamarans between 40 and 50 feet in length are also extremely seaworthy and have been known to make circumnavigation frequently. You're almost guaranteed to find a 50-foot catamaran in almost any remote anchorage in the world where sailors are known to frequent.

Also, almost any marina can accommodate a 50-foot catamaran, and most boatyards can perform at least basic repairs on a boat of this size. Most marinas have fee schedules for boats based on size, and the cutoff for large boats is usually 60 feet. This keeps you in the 'medium' boat category, which can save you thousands.

How to Choose a Catamaran Size

Choosing the right size catamaran can be challenging, but there are a few things you can do to narrow it down. First, examine how you plan to use the vessel. You can travel the oceans in a catamaran between 30 and 40 feet long, so if you have a small crew, you may want to consider a compact model.

Larger catamarans can sleep eight or more people comfortably. This is large enough for most people, though some charter captains may need additional room. A 40 to 45-foot catamaran is usually large enough for a small family, though a 50-footer would be more comfortable, especially if there are kids running around.

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I've personally had thousands of questions about sailing and sailboats over the years. As I learn and experience sailing, and the community, I share the answers that work and make sense to me, here on Life of Sailing.

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