USA to Germany Sail
Edit: Seriously, thank you all for the feedback. I'm a sailing enthusiast but a novice regarding the technicalities, so I'm relying on your expertise to keep this story authentic. Keep the critiques coming. I'm all ears.
Hello!
I’m writing a historical sailing novel and want to make sure the voyage is technically believable.
The summary of the premise is a solo sailor departing coastal Louisiana in late December, bound for northern Germany in the late 1940s.
The boat is a 32-foot double-ended wooden cutter, built of white oak over cedar, with a full lead keel, heavy displacement, and a high ballast ratio. She’s patterned after the old North Sea rescue boats: not fast, but designed to survive ugly weather.
A few questions for those with sailing experience:
- Is a boat of this type realistically capable of a transatlantic passage?
- Would departing the Gulf Coast in late December be considered outright suicidal, or merely a very poor decision?
- Assuming the skipper is competent but sailing single-handed, what would worry you most about this voyage?
- What route would you realistically take? Gulf → Florida Straits → Bermuda → Azores → English Channel → Germany? Or something different?
- What equipment or preparations would absolutely be required for a passage like this in the late 1940s?
I’m aiming for historical realism rather than a Hollywood movie. I’d much rather have experienced sailors tell me what I’m getting wrong before I write 100,000 words.
Thanks in advance.
Here's the first chapter, to get a feel of the book. Chapter 1 Draft