Single Handing a Cruising Boat | Part 1

In this article, Captain Maria Langer shares her hard-earned insights from cruising over 8,000 nautical miles (mostly solo) on her journey around the Great Loop. Whether you're planning your first solo adventure or looking to improve your single-handing skills, this guide offers practical, firsthand advice to help you cruise confidently and safely on your own. Stay tuned for Part 2 - coming soon!

Single Handing a Cruising Boat | Part 1
By Maria Langer

Back in 2022, when I first started getting serious about cruising the Great Loop in my own boat, a lot of people wondered who I was going to do it with. I’m single and none of my friends were interesting in taking a year off from their lives to join me in my travels. Although I did have a few friends who joined me for parts of the journey, I wound up doing at least 75% of it on my own. Along the way, I learned all kinds of tips and tricks for solo cruising safely and relatively stress free. That’s what I want to share in this article.

Single-Handing Means Doing it All Yourself

It’s important to start with an understanding of what single-handing means. When you single-hand a boat, it means that you do everything required to cast off, maneuver away from a dock (or ball or anchorage), cruise from point A to point B, maneuver to a dock (or ball or anchorage), and secure the boat on arrival. It means doing all of this without any help, usually because no one else is on board.

Sure, if you go to a marina there’s likely to be dockhands or other boaters there to catch a line. If that’s the case, take any help you want. But you must be prepared to do it alone, with no one else there to help. Wanting help is fine, but needing help is not.

My Tips

That said, here’s my advice for solo cruising. These are the things that I do that make it not only possible, but easy.

1. Choose the Right Boat

The most important advice I can give to anyone contemplating solo cruising is to have a boat well suited for single-handing. Size definitely comes into it, but so does the ability to get around the boat quickly when you need to. I bought a boat perfectly suited for solo cruising: a 2019 Ranger Tug R29 CB. Only 33 feet LOA with a 10 foot beam and 30 inch draft, the boat is small and nimble, yet tough enough to go anywhere. With a powerful 300 hp Volvo Penta D4 engine, bow and stern thrusters, and chartplotters with autopilot at both helms, it has all the features a solo cruiser could want or need. I was single-handing it on my second day out after buying it, despite the fact that my previous boat had been a little 17 foot jetboat.

But that doesn’t mean that single-handing isn’t possible in a larger boat. It is and I know many people who have done it. It all depends on how well you can maneuver your boat in close quarters and how quickly you can get out on a dock with a line if you find yourself docking with no assistance. If you have a large boat you’ve been cruising in for years, there’s a good chance you could single-hand it if you had to.

2. Know Your Boat

And that brings me to the second piece of advice: know your boat. Yes, I did a 50-mile solo cruise on my second day of ownership, but I single-hand a lot better now, after 8,000 nautical miles of cruising. That’s because I know my boat inside and out. I know how it will react in most conditions and can prepare myself to react accordingly. Or even prevent problems from happening.

For example, I know that in windy conditions, my bimini top acts like a sail. If I have to come into a marina in a stiff wind, I take the bimini top down before I arrive. I also know that my stern thruster is wimpy compared to my bow thruster, so I turn to starboard for all turns that require backing up. This way, prop walk from my right-spinning prop can help push the stern to port.

There’s only one way you can learn about your boat, and that’s to take it out in as many challenging conditions as you can. You don’t have to do that solo; you can take friends who can help when needed. As you gain more and more experience in your boat, you should take on more and more responsibilities of handling it in marinas and anchorages.

When I started the Great Loop in 2022, I had two different friends on board for the first six weeks. It was during that time that I really got a handle on most of my boat’s operations. So when my second friend left and I continued from Mobile on my own, I was better prepared than I’d been on that Day 2 solo cruise months before.

3. Rig for Solo Cruising

One of the things that make my boat easy to dock solo is the fact that I have it rigged for solo docking. That means having lines and fenders ready on both sides of the boat at all times.

My boat has eight cleats; I have a 25-foot line on each one. I’ve rigged up bungee cord loops on nearby rails so I can easily coil lines up and secure them in place when not in use. To release them, I grab the coil of rope with one hand and release the bungee. Because the bungee is fixed to the rail with a zip tie, it doesn’t get lost. This is a lot quicker than tracking down a stowed line or moving a line from one side of the boat to the other. I’ve also got them positioned so someone on a dock can reach them when I come in; this is especially important for the bow line, which I can’t quickly get to while on the boat.

I also have eight fenders on my boat. Almost all of them are installed on the rails with adjustable fender lines. (I use the Taylor Made Quick Draw Fender Hanger, but there are other similar solutions available.) Most of them rest on the gunwales when under way. I can quickly reach out and drop one right from the helm window, and another with a quick dash into the cockpit. With careful maneuvering to the dock, those fenders are usually enough to protect the boat. Once the boat is secured with at least two lines, I drop the others on that side and make necessary adjustments.

4. Be Prepared for What’s Ahead

While it’s always a good idea to have your day’s cruise planned out in advance, with all the details known before you cast off, it’s even more important when you’re doing it on your own. The fewer surprises and last-minute changes you need to make, the better off you are. Here are a few examples.

• Knowing the weather will warn you if there’s a chance you might have to detour to another destination. What will that destination be? Always have a Plan B. And be prepared to stay put if you have any doubts about weather conditions.
• Knowing the tides or current will help you determine what kind of docking setup is safest and easiest. For example, I’ve docked at Thunderbolt Marine near Savanah several times and I know how the current runs hard through there. The transient docks are parallel to the current. Knowing that the current is running south tells me I need to point north to dock.
• Knowing if I’m going to be on the inside or outside of a dock tells me whether it’ll be a port or starboard tie. (Arriving before the marina staff goes home for the day so there’s someone there to catch a line is always advisable at that marina.)
• Knowing what slip you are assigned to and seeing that slip on a marina map or satellite view helps you know how you’ll navigate into the marina and which side you’ll tie up on.

There are plenty of places to get this information and you don’t need a crew to get it. In fact, it’s your job as skipper to get as much information as you can to make sure your journey and arrival are safe. You should already know the resources you can consult to get all of this information.

5. Make Use of All of Your Tools

I’ve mentioned a bunch of equipment I have on board to make solo cruising easy: chartplotters, autopilot, thrusters. I also have AIS transmit and receive, radar, sonar, and a rudder position indicator. I also keep an iPad on the dashboard, running chartplotter software with the day’s route programmed into it and the ability to check weather or look up marina details any time it has an Internet connection. These are my tools and I use every single one of them.

The one I use most is my autopilot. No, I don’t usually have it drive the boat based on a route I program in — although I have done so. I usually just use the Heading Hold feature to point the boat in the right direction while cruising. (I manually steer like a drunken sailor. What I can I say?) Sometimes I use the Go To feature to cross large, open bodies of water where currents make Heading Hold less effective. These two tools greatly reduce my workload while under way, making it easier for me to keep my own lookout for other traffic and floating objects in the water.

And I’ll admit this right here: if I need to use the head, what do you think I do? I make sure I’m in an open body of water with no concerns about traffic or obstacles, use the Go To feature to pick a spot up ahead, and throttle down to forward idle, which is about 2.5 to 3 knots in my boat. Then I take a good look all around me for traffic or floating objects, dash down to do my business, and hurry back up. I can usually get things done in less than a minute; I bet a man could do it faster.

The other tool I use a lot while docking is my thruster remote. It gives me the ability to use the bow and stern thrusters when I’m away from my helms — for example, in the cockpit preparing to step off onto a dock or on the dock holding a midship line when the wind is trying to take the bow away.

6. Don’t Take Risks

My boat does not have a Life Sling — you know, that rail-mounted package that contains a throwable flotation device? The way I figure it, I’m cruising solo most of the time so who is going to throw it to me? (Also, there isn’t much room on my boat to install one anyway.)

The point is, when you are by yourself, there’s no one around to rescue you. So why would you even consider going out on the gunwales or bow without a life jacket on or if the boat is moving under power? Although many people wear life jackets at all times while on board, I’ll admit that the only time I do is when I’m up on the command bridge or need to go out on the gunwales or bow. This is the absolute least you should do to protect yourself if you fall overboard.

Not taking risks also applies to cruising in questionable weather conditions or if the boat is not working properly. If there’s any question at all about the safety of your trip, don’t go.

And finally, it’s always a good idea to send a float plan to a friend or family member who you can contact when you arrive safely. Float plans are a whole other topic I should probably discuss in another article here or on my blog.

How It Works

Wondering how this all works for me? Well, you’ll have to wait for Part 2 of this article, being shared in an upcoming edition of Dockwa's newsletter series!

About the Author

Maria Langer is an OUPV Captain and mostly solo cruiser. In addition to cruising in her Ranger Tug, she also teaches boat handling skills, single-handing techniques, and chartplotter/autopilot use on her own boat or in client boats. She’ll be leading a five day “Cruise and Learn” class for San Juan Yachting on a Nordic Tug in May 2024; call 360-671-8339 to see if you can join her! Her book about her Great Loop experiences, My Great Loop Adventure, will be published in June 2024. You can contact her through her blog at www.MyGreatLoopAdventure.com.

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