Whatever goals and thoughts motivates you to sail solo, you have to choose a good boat that has good quality design and is suitable for solo use.
For this, the features and technical equipment a boat has is very important.
The Automation Systems
There will be a lot of different factors that you should not take for granted while sailing solo like power of wind an waves, physical exhaustion, boat moving by itself while you are resting/sleeping etc. These factors can be extreme while you are solo sailing. You can do a lot by yourself, but if you sail alone, you should have some automation systems.
Systems below will help you a lot in this matter.
Autopilot
Radar,
GPS (global positioning system),
AIS (Automatic Identification System) ,
EPIRB (Emercency Position Indicating Radio Beacon)
GRIP (The Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes) Forecasting
Iridium satellite communication systems
Wind vane, solar panels, WATT and SEA Generator
Water-maker
Roller furling
Lines running aft (running to the cockpit)
Liferaft
Survival immersion suit
Stability and Ease of Use
The best boats for solo sailing should have wide beams and short waterlines as these are vital in order to provide stability.
Boat Features
For the structure of the boat, when it is compared to wave height, boat you choose should be relatively small and close to water. As well as it should have a lighter ballast compared to the displacement ratio. These features provide advantages in order to increase performance.
Sails
It will be a good idea to choose easily operatable sailing gear. More importantly, you should be able to tuck a reef in quickly to be able to adjust the sheets easily alone. Therefore choosing a sail handling system has critical importance for maneuvers that are fast and controlled.
Main Sail
Square Top Mainsail the most advanced and preferred main sail form. It is also a preferred sail form in worldwide racing Grand Prix. The square top profile provides highly efficient progressive twist, reduced mast tip vortex and optimized sail area distribution, provides full power in light air and reaching, but twists easily upwind when overpowered. It provides a useful increase in sail area and can also reduce the heeling force.
The other sails that can be used are genoa, heavy-weather jib, storm jib, storm trysail, Code 0-5 (Code Sails are fast, flat, free-flying sails, designed for close reaching angles.) and gennaker.
Rudder
Twin rudders system should be chosen. Twin rudders are placed in an arragement that enables the lee-rudder remain its full steering capabilities even when the boat is heeled extremely. Also, if anonymous objects in the sea damages one rudder, second one will be a life-saver feature.
Standing Rigging:
Sloop rigging is the most widely used rigging type today. The sloop rig consists roughly of a single mast, single boom, single jib (genova or jib) and a mainsail. It has two types.
1- Masthead: This is the most traditional rig type. Forestay and the backstay are mounted to the masthead as a fixed standing rigging, which creates traction in opposite direction. The spreaders are vertical to the fore and aft axis of the boat. By contracting stronger, backstay can be used to increase the tension of the forestray in high winds.
2- Fractional Rigs: These rigs have swept back spreaders, they have been increasedly widely used in the last years. Both the forestry and the attachments of the shrouds reach up to only seven eights or nine tenths of the mast height.
The spreaders are not vertical to the fore and aft axis of the boat in this type, but rather swept towards the stern on the horizontal plane. This type of attachments of the spreaders ensure that the mast can stand up without the backstay.
Runners and Checkstays
Runners and checkstays provide additional support for the mast in a fractional rig. The provide the mast form bending or pumping by stabilizing it. Runner comes from the top of the mast while checkstay comes from around the point of 2/3 of the mast. They reduce the workload at the top of the mast, providing support and becomes partially structural.
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