1. Welcome to Harry_George_Sitemap: Nautical¶
1.1. Personal Context¶
After a lifetime of reading about the sea, I had the opportunity to get serious in May 2019. Joined Seattle Sailing Club and began taking classes, then taking out boats. Also joined crew of a racing boat.
1.2. Introduction¶
Earth is mostly covered by water (the World Ocean plus some very large lakes). Humans figured out early that seashores were good places to find food, grow a stable community, produce surplus, and begin to trade with others. They also learned a floating craft could a) get them to better fishing sites, and b) move more cargo easier than a land craft.
These insights have led to sea voyages since at least the Bronze Age. Further, such voyages brought humans from different cultures together, making for fascinating tales of far-off places. Fast forward a few thousand years and we have massive commercial shipping for cargo interspersed with recreational boating for “far-off places”.
All these floating craft are subject to the same natural forces:
- Physics: Gravity, momentum, kinetic energy, wind, wave, current, tide, UV radiation, heat dissipation in water.
- Chemistry: Galvanic reactions in sea water (corrosion), breakdown under UV radiation.
- Biology: Barnacles and drag-inducing slime on hulls, worms in wooden hulls, seaweed in raw-water-intake, mold in water and fuel tanks
This essay is mainly about the recreational side, specifically sailing. We drive 10 miles through traffic so that we can spend an afternoon going 0-10 kts in anything from dead calm to life-threatening sea conditions. The thrill for us humans is in
- Learning new skills: Flying a spinnaker, docking in heavy weather, making landfall in the predicted time and place, understanding/maintaining/repairing boat parts,
- Establishing dominance: Biggest boat in the marina, winning a race, adding a state-of-the-art gadget, completing an offshore voyage in record time.
- Meeting others: Hosting a flotilla, making new friends in a foreign port.
- Teaching others: Taking friends on an afternoon sail, running formal and informal classes for newbies, helping a fellow boater with a broken boat gadget.
1.3. Weather¶
The sea is a combination of liquid and gas, powered by solar radiation, constrained by rotation and gravity. We humans barely have the physics worked out, and can only do predictions of winds and currents a few days into the future by way of super computers.
Start with the math and physics needed to predict ocean current and large scale atmospheric weather. Implement as computable models. Tune the models based on observations from coastal stations, buoys, ships at sea, and satellites. Forecast winds, tides, and currents. Compare to reality a few days later. Refine models. See:
[vallis2006] Geoffrey K Vallis. “Atmospheric and Ocean Fluid Dynamics”. Cabridge University Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-521-84969-2. Appears to be the std text on the subject.
These models must of course be evaluated in light of historical patterns, reports from ships at sea, buoy data, and satellite imaging – generally known as oceanography. And then, given this insight into the ways of the sea, one needs practical approaches to how to safely and swiftly pass through (or around) those seas.
[vandorn1974] William Va Dorn. “Oceanography and Seamanship” Dodd, Mead & Co, 1974. (later edition available) ISBN0-396-06888-X.
Using the equations, use supercomputers to make predictions. Using the human insights, interpret those predictions. Publish the predictions ASAP (so they don’t go stale). E.g.:
[opc_Pac] https://ocean.weather.gov/Pac_tab.php
[noaa_ocean_forecast] https://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/nepacificbrief.shtml. “North Pacific”
[noaa_marine_forecast] https://forecast.weather.gov/shmrn.php?mz=pzz135&syn=pzz100. “Puget Sound”.
[noaa_ndbc] https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=wpow1. Seattle, “West Point”.
To understand the predictions, you need a solid background in weather analysis:
[burch2018] David Burch. “Modern Marine Weather”, 3rd ed. Sailpath Publications, 2018. ISBN 978-0-914025-58-0. Excellent technically and clearly written.
1.3.1. Offshore¶
These predictions are too short-lived to plan a multi-week passage. We use patterns gathered over centuries of reports from mariners, and then supplement these with up-to-date weather predictions. The patterns are captured as time-honored routes between ports:
[cornell2018] Jimmy Cornell. “World Cruising Routes: 1000 Sailing Routes in All Oceans of the World”, 8th Edition. Bloomsbury Pub, 2018. ISBN 978-1-9997229-4-4.
[opencpn_climatology] Plugin for OpenCPN. Using data from many sources, report typical wind on specific dates at specific places. All the sources are available elsewhere, but this is nicely consumable format.
Even better, get updated weather predictions while you are at sea. SatPhones and WeatherFax over HF radio make this possible, though with technical challenges. See [burch2018] above.
1.3.2. Coastal¶
Wind and current suffice for offshore passages. But near land, there are tides, shallow waters, obstructions, aides to navigation, human activities (cities, locks, marinas), etc. For these there are “pilots” and “cruising guides”, e.g.:
[USCP7] NOAA. “United States Coast Pilot 7, Pacific Coast: California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, and Pacific Islands”, 51st ed. NOAA, 2019. See also the updates in the form of “Notices to Mariners”. The official source for navigation regulations, stay-out zones, sanctuaries, hazards, vessel separation zones, etc. Used by commercial shipping and recreational boating.
[waggoner2019] “Waggoner Cruising Guide”, 25th ed. Burrows Bay Assoc, 2019. ISBN 978-0-9993560-6-7. Anchorages, local restaurants, which marinas have showers, etc. Used by recreational boaters.
[noaa_tides_and_currents] https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/noaatidepredictions.html?id=9447130 Per reference stations and offsets to secondary stations.
[deepzoom] http://www.deepzoom.com/ Animation of the NOAA tide and current data.
1.4. Sailing Vessels¶
How can a human travel across the seas from one piece of land to another? We need a vessel that can:
- Keep us afloat, even during storms. (So we can continue to breath air, and don’t die of hypothermia.)
- Make progress to the destination, in a resistant medium, in a reasonable time. Which means it needs a power source. For sailing vessels, that source is the wind. The vessel needs to somehow harness the wind.
- Carry enough supplies to keep us alive (and hopefully healthy and happy) on the journey.
Experimentation and evolution has led from canoes and rafts with crude sails, to assorted monohulls and multihulls, with square or various fore-and-aft rigs. Many are so successfull in their niche that they are still built and used in centuries’ old styles.
None of these vessels sails itself, so along with the lore of how to build them is the lore of how to sail them and how to repair them.
1.4.1. History¶
[anderson1963] R C Anderson. “The Sailing Ship: Six Thousand Years of History”. WW Norton, 1963. Per Howard Chapelle, “This book is a classic in the field”. Covers the world, but focused on evolution leading to massive ocean-going square riggers.
[chapelle1935] Howard Chapelle. “The History of American Sailing Ships”. WW Norton, 1935. Not merely general evoluton or plans of famous boats, but also the details of building a specific ship, and who cut the wood for it, how the ship was reworked after a battle, etc.
[chapelle1947] Howard Chapelle. “The Search For Speed Under Sail: 1700-1855”. Norton and Bonanza Books, 1947. How to estimate speed under various conditions, based on logs, reports, lines-as-designed, lines-as-built. Notice the influence of illegal activities. Blockade runners, smugglers, etc. needed fast boats to evade and escape, and the authorities needed fast boats to catch them. Evolution under competition.
[cunliffe2016] Tom Cunliffe. “Hand, Reef, and Steer: Traditional Sailing Skills for Classic Boats”, 2nd ed. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016. ISBN 978-1-4729-2522-0. E.g., how to sail a gaff-rigged schooner.
[lore1975] “The Lore of Ships”. Cresent Books, 1975. Inner workings of ships roughly 1700-1900 (sailing and motor-driven). E.g., lines on a square rigger, how to make an oar, how a ship’s steam whistle works, eye splices.
[harland1985] John Harland. “Seamanship in the Age of Sail”. Naval Institute Press, 1985. ISBN 0-97021-955-3. How to actually make a square rigger go.
[johnson1927] Irving Johnson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg1IR05PPB0 1927 home movies of life on square rigger Peking, including rounding Cape Horn. The weather, the ship, the crew, and most especially the captain are stunning.
[gardner2004] John Gardner. Reprint of “Building Classic Small Craft”, 1977 and “More Building Classic Small Craft”, 1984. International Marine, 2004. ISBN 0-07-142797-X
[herreshoff1953] L Francis Herreshoff. “Captain Nat Herreshoff: The Wizard of Bristol”. Sheridan House, 1953, reprinted 1974. After the age of commercial sail on the high seas, but still wooden boats in the yacht world. Nathaniel Herreshoff understood the sea and how to design and build wooden boats to thrive there.
1.4.2. Construction¶
Current practice includes monohull and multihull. Hull materials are wood, fiberglass, steel, and aluminum. Wood framing may be sawn, bent, grown, or laminated. Wood planking may be carvel, lapstrake (clinker), strip-plank, plywood-hard-chine, cold-molded-rounded, stitch-and-glue. Fiberglass may be barely adequate to quite stout, with or without core. Steel, and aluminum may be hard-chine (DIY) or rounded (requires more professional skills).
Of all these, real wood planking (carvel or lapstrake) is the most “romantic” in the act of building – so often the choice of dedicated one-off DIY’ers and professional craftsmen. Since it is hard to do, there are quite a few books on the subject.
Fiberglass is vastly easier/cheaper for mass production. So nearly everyone actually sails (coastal and offshore) in “plastic boats” with all their pros and cons.
As a compromise, stitch-and-glue and glued-lapstrake use wood (mostly plywood) but require modern adhesives. It is a wooden boat with a lot of plastic. Kits made of plywood pieces cut at the factory on automated CNC tools bring construction in range of normal DIY’ers.
[greene1984] Danny Greene. “Cruising Sailboat Kinetics”. Seven Seas press, 1984. ISBN 0-915160-69-2. If you are going to build (or buy) a boat, you ought to have some idea of what dimensions work best for your task. What hull shape gives desired mix of heel, pitch, yaw? Which sailplan gives adequate power to the boat but is still manageable by a single-hander? How wide should a settee be as compared to a berth?
The last half the book is analysis of various well-respected cruising boats, with reports on at-sea performance. Given the publication date, those boats are now available in the “senior” used boat market – thus very relevant to a potential buyer today.
[chapelle1941] Howard Chapelle. “Boat Building”. WW Norton, 1941. This is THE classic for wooden boat building. Chapelle was recording and clarifying techniques from a vanishing breed of traditional wooden boat builders.
[pardey1999] Larry Pardey. “Details of Classic Boat Construction”, 2nd ed. Pardey Books, 1999. ISBN 0-964-6036-8-3. Filling in the things chapelle1941 didn’t make clear.
[roosel2007] Greg Rossel. “The Boatbuilder’s Apprentice”. International Marine, 2007. ISBN-13: 978-0-07-14605-5. Covers practical mechanics of small boat building in various framing/planking styles.
[brooks2004] John Brooks and Ruth Ann Hill. “How to Build Glued-Lapstrake Wooden Boats”. WoodenBoat Publications, 2004. ISBN 0-937822-58-2. Glued-lapstrake is more applicable to a tender than to a full-sized cruising boat. Still, it is a detailed and clearly written text with insights useful to all wooden boat building.
[mcintosh1987] David C (Bud) McIntosh. “How to Build a Wooden Boat”. WoodenBoat Publications, 1987. ISBN 0-937822-10-8. This one is for full-sized boats (e.g., 40’). Again, the classic carvel style, but with unusually clear treatment of aspects typically glossed over. E.g., spiling, and making interior templates. Well illustrated.
1.4.3. Seamanship¶
Given a good sailboat and knowledge of weather and regulations, actually go somewhere.
“Somewhere” is the world of navigation. Know where you are, where you want to go, and how to get there. This comes in 3 major forms:
- Piloting: You see the shore and navigation aids, recognize them, and steer among them.
- Coastal: You plan a route with waypoints and follow it with dead reckoning and nav aids and bearing fixes to guide you.
- Celestial: You plan a route with waypoints (e.g., around storm systems) and follow it with dead reckoning and celestial fixes to guide you.
Piloting is considered part of seamanship, but Coastal and Celestial are in the topic “Navigation” (see below).
[chapmans2006] “Chapman’s Piloting and Seamanship”, 65th ed. Hearst Books, 2006. ISBN 13: 978-1-58816-232-8. For both motorboats and sailboats. Coastal seamanship from docking to crusing to regulations to etiquette.
[seidman1995] David Seidman. “The Complete Sailor”. International Marine, 1996. iSBN 978-0-17-174957-2. If you read only one book on sailing, this is the one. Poetic, informative, and well illustrated.
[rousmaniere2014] John Rousmaniere. “The Annapolis Book of Seamanship”, 4th ed. Simon & Schuster, 2014. ISBN13: 978-1451650198. I’ve had a couple of different editions. Well organized and well-written. Not super detailed on anything, but you could learn a lot about sailing/racing/cruising just from this one book.
[asa101] American Sailing Association. “Sailing Made Easy”. ASA, 2010. ISBN 978-0-9821025-0-3. Text for ASA 101 class. Learn enough to be useful crew instead of just a passenger.
[asa103] American Sailing Association. “Coastal Cruising Made Easy”. ASA, 2012. ISBN 978-0-9821025-1-0. Text for ASA 103 class. Learn enough to skipper a day sailing outing on under 30’ boat, in fair weather. Of course you need time on the water to hone the skills.
[asa104] American Sailing Association. “Bareboat Cruising Made Easy”. ASA, 2014. ISBN 978-0-9821025-2-7. Text for ASA 104 class. Learn enough to charter a large (> 30’) boat for overnight voyage, with mooring, anchoring, engine maintenance, emergency services, etc.
[robinson2009] Robby Robinson. “The International Marine Book of Sailing”. International Marine, 2009. ISBN 978-0-07-053225-0. Text for ASA 106 Advanced Coastal Cruising. A hodge-podge of information. They claim the material is presented in the order in which one learns sailing, but that is highly questionable. Nevertheless, the material is solid – often copied (with permission) from other highly regarded sources. Useful as a treasure trove for quiet evenings, not as a reference when under stress.
[coles1981] K. Adlard Coles. “Heavy Weather Sailing”, 3rd ed. John De Graf, 1981. ISBN 8286-0086-4. The classic on heavy weather sailing – what works, what doesn’t, and what to try if all else fails. Based on reviews with those who have survived, and analyses of those who didn’t.
[hinz2001] Earl Hinz. “The Complete Book of Anchoring and Mooring”, 2nd ed. Cornel Maritime Press, 2001. ISBN978-0-87033-539-6. Excellent technically and well written.
[poiraud2008] Alain Poiraud, Achim Ginsberg-Klemmt, Erika Ginsberg-Klemmt. “The Complete Anchoring Handbook”. International Marine, 2008. ISBN 978-0-07-147508-2. Based on both real-world experience and controlled tests. For example: Pick a type of bottom (e.g., shallow sand over rock). Try setting representative anchors with a range of weights and rode lengths. Have a diver watch as a powerful motorboat pulls on the rode from various angles, with and without wave bouncing. See especially their arguments and conclusions on all-nylon, all-chain and nylon-chain rodes. Includes recommendations on specific anchors and rodes for various displacement and types of boats.
1.4.4. Racing¶
Around-the-buoys racing is just an intense form of daysailing. All the laws of physics still apply (wind, wave, current, momentum), as do the laws of man (safety regulations, right-of-way). Plus special rules to make racing safe and even-handed.
You need to know tactics to take advantage of how the rules play out in a race setting, how to respond to the other guy (who is responding to you), etc. And you need superior boat handling to make your boat respond better and faster than the other guy.
[cort2013] Adam Cort and Richard Stearns. “Getting Started in Sailboat Racing”, 2nd ed. International Marine, 2013. ISBN978-0-07-180826-2. Intro the strategy and tactics.
[gladstone2013] Bill Gladstone. “Trim”. North U, 2013. ISBN 0-9724361-1-1. Every nuance of boat handling for Bermudian rigs (main, jib, genoa, spinnaker). Trim for maximum Velocity Made Good (VMG) around the course. Even if you are a confirmed cruiser, you need to read this to see what is possible.
[perry2017] Dave Perry. “Understanding the Racing Rules of Sailing through 2020”. US Sailing, 2017-2020. These are the detailed rules as used to make and defend against protests. NOTE: This was recommended by an experienced racer. Personally I have neither obtained nor read the book… yet.
1.4.5. Short-handed¶
Short-handing is the same as fully-crewed seamanship, with some adjustments.
“Short-handed” is 1 or 2 experienced people (i.e, not counting pure passengers) on board. “Double-handed” is 2 experienced people. “Single-handed” is 1 experienced person.
Double-handed is do-able even on large boats (> 40’) though it requires careful boat setup, and specific techniques. Single-handed is do-able (with more attention to setup and techniques) but it means there is no “backup” in case of injury or illness or exhaustion.
People typically get into double-handed because it is convenient – a sailing couple, or some fishing buddies – and it is reasonably safe. People typically get into single-handed because they can’t find crew, and they accept the risks. A few people get into single-handed because they prefer the solitude.
It has been noted that many sailors are effectively single-handed when they take out family and friends who barely know where to sit much less how to secure a dock line. In that case a prudent skipper spends some time at the dock on basic lessons, and keeps the outing low key (no high winds, narrow passages, or tricky docking).
All that said, where do you learn how to single-hand? Let’s assume this includes double-handed where either of the people can single-hand if the other is injured.
[meisel1981] Anthony (Tony) Meisel. “A Manual of Single-Handed Sailing”. ARCO Publishing, 1981. ISBN 0-668-04998-7. General purpose sailing.
[evans2015] Andrew Evans. “Singlehanded Sailing: Thoughts, Tips, Techniques & Tactics”. International Marine, 2015. ISBN 978-0-07-183653-1. Lots of insights on the psychological/emotional aspects of long-distance single-handing. Deals with racing round-the-buoys and trans-oceanic. Many quotes from single-hander Jeanne Socrates.
[wells2015] Duncan Wells. “Stress-Free Sailing: Single-handed and Short-handed Techniques”. Bloomsbury, 2015. Excellent on docking, anchoring, mooring.
Common threads:
- ALWAYS rig jacklines and be clipped in on a tether. Even on calm summer days.
- Think ahead, and practice your techniques
- If you sleep on the open seas, set an alarm for 20 minutes – a commercial ship invisible when you go below may be fast approaching when you next look. In coastal waters, get used to 5 minutes below (force yourself not to look).
1.5. Adventures¶
Adventures are the result of going to “far off places” (maybe just across the bay), meeting new people who become new friends, and planning yet more adventures. Historically these were written up (based on ship’s log) after the voyager returned home, and sold to eager armchair-adventurers. In the age of the internet, many adventurers “vlog” (video web log – it all comes back to logging) real-time or next-day and are viewed by (again) armchair adventurers.
Famous adventures:
[homer800bc] Homer “Odyssey”. There are many translations. I read it in the original (Loeb) Greek edition. Despite being famous as a voyaging tale, it says almost nothing about sailing. Odysseus spends his time building rafts, sailing them out to sea, falling off in a storm, washing up on a remote shore, and being discovered by yet another beautiful young princess or goddess…. and then crying about his fate.
[mavor1809] William Fordyce Mavor. “A General Collection of Voyages and Travels”. Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, 1813. (Available as PDF from Google Books) 28 volumes of voyages from Columbus to about 1750. The writing is informative but hardly inspiring (the deeds however are inspiring).
[horwitz2002] Tony Horwitz. “Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before”. Henry Holt and Co, 2002. ISBN 0-312-42260-1. Inspiring story of Cook’s life and voyages.
[slocum1900] Joshua Slocum. “Sailing Alone Around the World”. (Originally published 1900). Barnes and Noble Classics, 2005. ISBN-13 978-1-59308-303-8. A retired clipper captain restores a broken down boat and sails alone around the world. This story has inspired generations of solo and short-handed voyages.
[long1938] Dwight Long. “Seven Seas on a Shoestring”. (in England as “All Seas in the ‘Idle Hour’”) Harper Brothers, 1938. 20 yr old with no offshore experience leaves Seattle on a refurbished 32’ ketch and sails the world. This was before the South Seas were “discovered” and touristed to death.
[hiscock1949] Eric Hiscock. “Cruising Under Sail, and Voyaging Under Sail”. (Originally published 1949). International Marine, 1981. ISBN 0-87742-215-X. Nominally about the techniques of cruising, but conveys the romance of the sea.
[hiscock1956] Eric Hiscock. “Around The World In Wanderer III”. Oxford University Press and Sheridan House, 1956. ISBN 1-57409-040-2. Eric and Susan did it all, and rather politely. To make sense of the book you may need to view:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_RHHIV4u1k Film from the voyage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxWc6OyNixs The Pardeys remember the Hiscocks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSvOKCBXdmY Kiki and Theis (new owners of Wanderer III) discuss the boat.[chichester1967] Sir Francis Chichester. “Gypsy Moth Circles the World”. Sir Francis Chichester, 1967. ISBN 0-07-136449-8. 65-yr old on fastest (to that time) solo circumnavigation. Famous among other things for piping beer to the cockpit, and “Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk”.
[pardey1976] Lin and Larry Pardey. “Cruising in Seraffyn”. Lin and Larry Pardey, 1976. A small-but-sturdy couple sails a small-but-sturdy wooden boat (built by Larry to Lyle Hess’s plans) from Victoria BC and cruises the world. This book inspired many couples to “go small, go simple, go now”, and go keep going “as long as it is fun”. One of the appeals was that Lin and Larry didn’t try to heroically brave vast storms – they just stayed in the harbor until conditions suited their easy-going style. The Pardey’s went on to (slightly) bigger boats and became a cruising publications powerhouse, but this book started it all.
[leonard2007] Beth A. Leonard. “The Voyagers’ Handbook: Essential Guide to Bluewater Cruising”, 2nd ed. International Marine, 2007. ISBN978-0-07-143765-3. Highly recommended, well-informed, and well-written. A must read for those considering offshore passages.
1.6. Maintenance¶
You’ve learned to sail the seven seas, on a good boat…but something is broken or jammed or malfunctioning. What to do? You of course need to handle emergencies at sea, but that is so problematic that you REALLY want to do top-notch maintenance in port or even “on the hard”. Given willingness and skill and funds, what do you need to do?
[nicholson1994] Ian Nicholson. “Surveying Small Craft”, 3rd ed. Sheridan House, 1994. ISBN 0-924486-58-9. Before purchase or after a wreck, have a pro examine the boat stem to stern. This book will not make you a professional surveyer, but it will help you a) winnow down candidate boats, b) intelligently interview candidate surveyers, c) understand what the pro is reporting.
[calder2015] Nigel Calder. “Boat Owner’s Mechanical and Electrical Manual”. International Marine, 2015.ISBN 978-0-07-179034-5. This is THE book on maintenance. He has done it all, with most brands and models of equipment. It is significant that roughly half the book deals with stray electrical currents causing hidden corrosion, leading to catastrophic failure at sea.
[larsson2013] Thomas Larrson. “The Big Book of Wooden Boat Restoration”. Skyhorse Publishing, 2013. ISBN 978-1-5107-0476-3. Deep insight about wooden boats, how to maintain, what breaks, what to do.
[rosenow1977] Frank Rosenow. “The Ditty Bag Book”. Sail Books, Inc, 1977. ISBN 0-914814-05-2. Sail repair, splices, parcel-and-serve. Includes the classic ditty bag exercise.
[marino2001] Emiliano Marino. “The Sailmaker’s Apprentice”. International Marine, 2001. ISBN0-07-137642-9. Theory, fabrics, design, construction, repair of sails. Includes the classic ditty bag exercise (I did it from this book).
[toss1984] Brion Toss. “The Rigger’s Apprentice”. International Marine, 1984. ISBN 0-87742-165-X. Standing and running rigging, classical and modern. Splices on wire, twisted Manila, twisted Dacron. Double-braided is mentioned, but no splicing instructions. [2nd ed (2016) is available, with more modern topics covered.]
[ashley1944] Clifford W Ashley. “The Ashley Book of Knots”. Doubleday, 1944. ISBN 0-385-04025-3. THE book of knots. Originally focused on maritime knots and fancy rope working, but scope expanded to cover all knots. Each has a story, and recommended uses.
[graumont1952] Raoul Graumont and John Hensel. “Encyclopedia of Knots and Fancy Rope Work”, 4th ed. Cornell Maritime Press, 1952. ISBN 0-87033-021-7. Compared to Ashley, more focused on fancy and ornamental rope work.
[sampson2019] https://samsonrope.com/resources/how-to-splice-rope. Excellent instructions on splicing wire, twisted, double-braid, single-braid.
Knowledge is a safety factor. People who build their boat from keel up know all the systems, can make them sturdy in the first place, can maintain them, and can repair them as needed. Similarly, people who thoroughly refit a tired old boat will learn and can maintain and repair.
People who buy a boat, have the boatyard fix a few items identified on the survey, and then sail away may be ok. But they haven’t learned the boat’s systems or the skills needed to fix them. So they will be paying others to do later fixes as well.
On the other hand, maintenance on boats is cramped, damp, dirty, too hot or too cold, and distracts from the romance of the sea. Repeatedly in cruising vlogs, you will see the owner/skipper staying aboard to unjam a plugged head or repair a sail, while the rest of the crew goes ashore to see the sights and have a fine meal.
This tyranny of the broken gadget leads some (not all) voyagers to simpler, non-gadgety systems. Bucket for bailing, leadline for depth, dutchman’s log for speed, paper charts for navigation, etc. For a small boat, maybe oars or a sweep for propulsion in the harbor.
Speaking of small boats, below 30’ you can’t even fit in all the possible gadgets so there is enforced simplicity. 26’-30’ is the realm of a “pocket cruiser”. If well designed/built/fitted it can be offshore-worthy. See Pardey’s Serrafyn and Taliesin. But it will be slower than a megayacht, so you have to plan more carefully for weather on extended passages.