Land Cruising

I have spent lots of time cruising under sail. It's a pleasant way to travel, although the word "travel" barely applies to a rate of progress where a 30-mile day is a long, hard day. In cruising, the fun is in the passage rather than the destination (except perhaps to people of much more determination and masochism than I have, who are willing to cross oceans.) My expectations of cruising in boats is that I would be tied up, or at least anchored, each night.

In the last few years I have been exposed to travel by Recreational Vehicle (RV). I quickly realized that it has a number of things in common with cruising on a boat. The main ones are things in its favor: you have the food storage, preparation, and eating facilities with you, as well as the bathroom and sleeping quarters. Packing and unpacking is concentrated at the beginning and end of the trip, with no intermediate efforts required at every stop, as happens with travel by car. You are also "somewhat" more connected to the outdoors than you would be if you stayed at a motel. Since there is nowhere I've been so far where you can just park overnight in an RV, it's only "somewhat" -- in most places, boats may anchor wherever there is sufficient shelter and suitable bottom conditions, so a good anchorage can be private and scenic. A campground is more like a marina...however, you will still be outdoors as soon as you leave the RV. The "outdoors" at a campground will be a contrived imitation of outdoors, not wilderness, but that's just as well -- you can get an unlimited supply of water and electricity, becoming, therefore, quite a bit more comfortable than on a boat.

However, there are drawbacks. The biggest, in my view, is that an RV is a cumbersome great lump to drive, unable to safely negotiate some of the smallest country roads that are the most fun to explore, and a chore to drive even on Interstates. It is an ironclad law of physics that these large vehicles are lacking in performance and handle poorly; worse, they rattle and clatter as they drive, in addition to road and tire noise that's more pronounced than in cars. They are made using different technology than most cars, with the body a non-stressed member. This contributes to their weight, squeaks and rattles, although it allows a variety of bodies to be put on just a small number of chassis. The system resembles the manufacturers' relationship to "coachbuilders" in the early period of car production, so that the RV makers such as Winnebago start with a Ford or Chevrolet chassis. On the other hand, boats are made from scratch, generally speaking, by one builder. The physics of naval architecture results in better motions, more speed, and similar handling as a boat gets larger, except in docking. Therefore, there is little motivation other than economics to reduce the size of a cruising boat, but the driving part of an RV trip is easier with a smaller RV. Once parked, of course, a bigger RV, like a bigger boat, will be better.

One might think an RV would be a more stable "house" once it's parked. Not so. While it will not roll and pitch when the wind changes at 0300 and blows straight into your anchorage, or fetch up with a jerk at the end of the anchor line, it will bob and move around on its suspension when anyone rolls over in bed -- even more if he has to get up to answer the call of nature.

An RV can cover hundreds of miles in a day, just like a car. But, those miles don't come for free -- fuel economy is only so-so. In a recent trip to Florida in one of the most efficient RV's, a diesel powered Winnebago View, we got 13 to 14 mpg in high speed cruising (60 to 70 mph) and 16 mpg at lower speeds -- 50 to 60. This would be in accord with theory; anything as boxy as an RV would be up against a huge increase in aerodynamic drag as speed increases, with maximum fuel economy happening at maybe 40 mph, and getting very rapidly worse as speed increases. In addition, campsites cost on the order of $30 a day, while motels, in most non-congested parts of the country, can be under $100 for quite a comfortable room. In short, the economics of RV travel may be almost as bad as cruising by boat: what you save on accommodations will be quickly consumed in fuel and the capital cost of the RV, which is considerable. And since it's a road vehicle it should wear out quite a bit faster than a sailboat, although maybe no worse than a powerboat in that respect.

Travel by RV is somewhat like land cruising, with the additional ability to open the door and exit the vehicle any time it's stopped. A huge advantage is you can drive it into a supermarket parking lot to re-provision straight into its refrigerator -- no dinghy or car trip from the store to the boat, house, or hotel with the groceries. I think it's the convenience, comfort and the feeling of security that comes of having your home along with you that is the main appeal.