Although our business has been based on building large yachts for couples, we’ve always advocated going cruising as soon as possible, rather than waiting to accumulate the resources to go in a larger boat. Sure, the smaller boat will be less comfortable, slower, and will carry less gear, but when you’ve got the ocean as a back yard and the world to choose from for destinations – this is still a lot better than life on land.

From our own experience we can tell you that the younger you go, the easier it is. As you age and accumulate more assets, life gets more complex, and there are more attachments to land from which it is hard to break away. Which brings us to four examples of cruising in small boats.

We met Darryl Berg at Isla Partida. He decided two years ago that he wanted a change from life as an engineer in the San Francisco Bay area. He had no cruising experience, but was a surfer and diver and so had a feel for the water.

His Liberty Call is a Morgan 33, a nicely proportioned design from the early IOR design days, with the volume of a modern 30-footer. Its longer waterline and less beam (as compared to a more modern, shorter design) will help Liberty Call behave better in the waves – and it costs less.

Darryl has simple systems, carries 30 gallons (117 liters) of fresh water and 27 gallons (108 liters) of diesel. His British Aerogen wind generator with its six-blade prop is very quiet and starts to charge in just seven knots of wind, putting out one amp. Having been anchored close by in a fresh afternoon breeze we can vouch for the quiet. The performance of this little wind generator is much better than that claimed by some other, noisier units with bigger blades. Combined with three medium-sized solar panels over his dodger he is electrically self-sufficient without using the engine.

Darryl is a single-hander, and has been debating whether to head right to the South Pacific, or left through the Canal to the Caribbean. He’s leaning right.

This is the Lenard family – Jim, Ziti, Brenda, and Brendan (from left to right), originally from Boseman, Montana. They’ve sailed a Catalina 25 (trailerable) throughout the Pacific Northwest, along with several other small boats. Wanting to get a bigger boat to see if they’d take to the full time cruising, they found this lovely Rawson 30 on E-Bay.

Escapade came to them very well equipped for a price you would not think possible. They’ve been out since Thanksgiving – four months now – testing the cruising life. So far it’s a go for a longer time frame and further distances. At some point, if they still like the lifestyle, they may go for a larger boat.

Wren is an Albin Vega, a late 60s design which was built in 1973. She is 27 feet (8.4m) long with a deck-stepped spar, and is easily trailered.

Jim Elder had just sailed over from San Carlos to Bahia Concepcion (80 miles) when we met him at anchor. Jim is from Oregon, and has used Wren for cruising in the San Juan Islands in the Pacific Northwest of the US. This was his first crossing of the Sea of Cortez, and he was a bit worn out – but very glad to be where it is warm and dry.

We’ve seen these boats (the last of which were built in the late 1970s) in many parts of the world. They have nicely balanced lines, take well to self steering, and are very affordable.

We saw this interesting trailer sailor working its way into Ballandria Bay on Isla Carmen, opposite Loreto in the Sea of Cortez. She is a San Francisco Bay Great Pelican, 16 feet (4.9m) long by eight feet (2.4m) wide.

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It is a "pram" design, like a large Optimist or Sabot. The advantage of the pram shape, with its blunt bow, is lots of room and initial stability. The negative is shoving that blunt bow into the chop. Note the deck-stepped mast sitting in a tabernacle, so it is easy to lower for trailing.

Rick Sobel is a retired Canadian Coast Guardsmen, so you would expect he knows the sea. That’s his crew, Night Train (a skipperkee) alongside. Rick told us there are hundreds of these boats around, and thousands of the smaller 12-footers. She has a "junk" rig that is easy to reef – important because this centerboarder will capsize. She is also water ballasted.

This motorcycle tire is a simple boarding ladder, and way to get back aboard if the captain were to fall overboard.

Rick usually takes one anchor ashore and a second to hold him off the beach. He can beach the boat for a walk ashore, and then pull himself back out when finished. This eliminates the need for a dinghy.

And then there is the kayak as cruiser. You will see a lot of kayakers in the Sea of Cortez, British Columbia, and Alaska, all great cruising areas with protected waters.

It turns out Gareth spends his winters based in Puerto Escondido, and periodically takes five to ten day kayaking journeys. He was amazingly well prepared and has a number of concepts which make sense for dinghies being used for exploration as well as small boats in general.

All of this gear comes out of that skinny 18 foot (5.5m) kayak. This includes food and water for five days (20 liters of water carried in a single bag) plus emergency supplies (food + water) for another five days.

Everything has its place in the kayak. Supplementing water, Darryl carries several plastic containers of fruit juice (which supplies needed liquids as well as energy).

He is head of a local search and rescue group, so is acutely aware of the problems of finding lost campers, kayakers, and small boat operators, As a result, his kayak and gear are festooned with 3M reflective tape. In this photo you can see his spare paddle with one tip and various parts of the handle taped in orange. The hull to deck edge also has reflective tape.

Even a small band like this one inch (24mm) of reflective tape makes a difference.

Here is another interesting 3M product – polyester line with a reflective cord running through it.

All of this makes him a lot easier to spot, especially in white caps, and makes it less likely he’ll be run into by other boats.

Darryl also carries this small strobe. We’re going to add some of this tape to the oars and edges of our two dinghies, and get a strobe for our dinghy emergency kit.

Have we got you thinking?