Yachts spend a lot of time on land

For devices designed and built to sail, yachts spend an awful lot of time on land. They also spend a lot of time shored up in marinas, but that’s a different matter altogether, probably deserving a separate post.

The reason that yachts spend so much time sitting in dry docks, hanging from hoists, or resting on trailers is that they require disproportional amounts of maintenance for their mileage. Or, as is perhaps more often the case, repair caused by lack of maintenance.

Catamaya on slipway in Valletta, Malta

Compare a yacht to a car for instance. I would guess that a new car these days can easily run for 12,000 miles without ever seeing a garage for new tires or even an oil change. That’s half the earth’s circumference. Just add gas, and off you go. Try that with a yacht.

There are of course some good reasons that yachts don’t behave like cars. For starters, yachts are manufactured in much smaller volumes. Dozens versus millions. This means that the process of building a Beneteau is not nearly as sophisticated and controlled for quality as the one for building a Toyota. Next, yachts are used for other things than cars, and in different conditions. Even when Hummers are driven off the road instead of on Sunset Boulevard they do not nearly get exposed to the pounding of the high seas like yachts do. And then there is the effect of salt. Anyone having lived close to the ocean knows the devastating impact of salt on anything metal (like… your car). Before you know it, even the best paint job or stainless steel starts showing signs of rust when exposed to salt waters.

What this all means for planning to sail a yacht from one port to another is that by definition you need to take into account plenty of idle time, and lots of waiting. Waiting for the sail maker, waiting for the hoist operator, waiting for the engine mechanic, waiting for customs, waiting. All this waiting does generate interesting stories though, more of which to follow soon.

Coming soon, stories of waiting:
Waiting in Port Grimaud, France
Waiting in Valletta, Malta
Waiting in Terneuzen, the Netherlands