Reasons and methods to go across:
1. Delivery: you need the boat on the other side of the ocean. Add a liferaft and EPIRB and go. Fix anything that looks defective. This is what a paid crew would do. Pick time and route to avoid "perfect storms". The boat will remain on the other side and not used as a trans-ocean commuter. Avoid extensive mods by picking a good time of year to go. 2. Stunt: You want to prove that YOUR boat can make it across. We all know the bigger C&Cs can do this, but who will be the first 27 or SR21 across? I know someone who crossed the pond in a Cal 20 along these lines. Pay up the life insurance or be really good with weather routing. 3. Conversion to a passagemaker: You want your boat to be equipped for ocean crossings as a routine trip. This will cost some $$$ to do right and most of the smaller C&Cs will have near-unfixable handicaps compared to boats made for this. To take my own 35 as an example, the boat surely can sail across the ocean as easily - or not - as she has made Bermuda. What will get to you is lack of fuel, lack of water, lack of dry storage, lack of storage that isn't under a bunk, wet ride, and quick motion. Like most shallow-bilged production fin keel boats, my bilge is shallow enough that water is all over the place in rough seas, not trapped down in a deep bilge sump. This can be quite annoying. Steering in big seas at speed is HARD. It is really fun to hit 15 knots, but it is also HARD work. Might be a lot for a small crew. I could buy a Landfall 38 easier than I could make my boat a Landfall equivalent and that isn't even straying outside the C&C family. I'd rather be in something like a Pacific Seacraft 38 if it were just two or three of us. Joe Della Barba Coquina C&C 35 MK I
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