My son asked me "Are you sure about getting a boat??"

[CrispyCringle]

Get it! Thats a great size boat to dip your feet in. Youve got the time to learn and get to know the boat and it will make you think. Sailboats are an exercise in problem solving, and things of beauty to (try) and master. And if you dont like it, sell it. Easy.

 

[Kings Gambit]

Easy.

Most of the time with sailboats it’s a buyer’s market. The only time in my 38 yr of boating on two coasts that I recall it not being so was during the COVID years. That sellers market ended abruptly and now it’s come back to a buyer’s market even more strongly, it appears. The same kind of situation as we’re seeing in housing real estate. That has forever been a seller’s but not today!

 

[Art12050]

This season will be our 28th year of ownership. We’ve honestly never had any regrets about buying our boat. We were working when we bought it and are now retired. Our sailing season here in New England is short, so we really enjoy spending time on our boat in the Summer.
I don’t subscribe to the “happiest days” expression. Whenever the day comes we have to sell, it’s certainly not going to be a happy day.
Good Luck with whatever you decide.

 

[Kings Gambit]

Catalina 30 is a popular model and there are many out there. I haven’t owned one although I know many folks who have. Yes. It is seen as a good “starter boat” but I do not know what about the model drives that opinion more so than for any other model except maybe its price, etc. We “started” with a Pearson 30, being in FL. Friends, respectively, owned a Tartan 30, Islander 30 (Bahama), Morgan 30, and Ericson 26 as “starter” boats. All are fine models.

The owner who sold us his Pearson 30 was very happy that day! So were we. But, I don’t think he was so happy with the boat he traded it for, a Cal35. I guess there were recurring problems with the boat, and then with his girlfriend partner in it. He (they) sold it with happiness, I believe, b/c (for him) that ended the girlfriend too!! Last I saw him he had a lovely new wife and a Catalina 22; lake sailing.

 

[dLj]

@Kings Gambit brings up another good point. We always keep ginger pills, ginger chews and dramamine on board. It's much easier to prevent than to treat sea sickness. Here's an excellent article about it

I'm not a fan of dramamine - for many reasons - but really it's the person taking it that has to decide what works best for them.

I much prefer stugeron (mentioned in your linked article) or meclizine.

The expression an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure comes to mind...

dj

 

[Kings Gambit]

Here's an excellent article about it

Good Article!

KG

 

[Hayden Watson]

I must be weird. I have owned three sailboats and for each, the day of purchase was one of the happiest days of my life. I have sold two of those boats and both of those days were a day of great sadness and loss. It was only endurable because it was coupled with the joy of knowing that I had a better boat on hand to move onto.

My current boat is a 1988 C30 tall rig / bow sprit that I purchased on Mother's Day and took possession of on Father's Day of 1999. The day that I have to yield Papillon to the hands of another will truly be one of my saddest days. The only softening of that blow would be transferring her to the loving hands of my daughter [and family] who has loved her since she was 7 years old.

 

[Foswick]

The only real problem with boat ownership is that it requires a balancing of realistic expectations, adequate means, and good luck. You are happiest if you have all three, you need at least two of those to sustain the lifestyle, and you can get by on a surplus of one of them, for a while.

People who regret boat ownership were deficient in at least one, but probably two.

The trick is to go into it knowing that it is a lifestyle - not something you spend time, energy, and money on when you feel like it. If you have ample financial resources, you can do this, but it also requires a bit of luck.

I think most people who regret it had unrealistic expectations going into it, and insufficient means or luck to satisfy those expectations.

But, you almost have to go into it with rose-tinted glasses. I think that if most people knew the realities, they would never buy the boat in the first place. You have to discover the benefits, first hand, before you are really able to consider them all worth it.

I think that those of us who have it baked into their bones have learned to love all of it - the good and the bad. But, you only get to that point by buying a boat and taking it out.

 

[MFD]

Your son is correct, and yes, you should also buy a boat.

 

[FastOlson]

A long time sailor once said that one needs three things to enjoy a boat: Time, Skill, and Money; any Two will do!

 

[william24424]

My advice, go slow, bring an experience person along for the first few trips, learn docking, sail short trips in pleasant weather, always put the main sail up even if there is little to no wind - have a debriefing often, talk about working boat together (hand signals) for docking, anchoring, take turns @ the helm. Enjoy sitting on mooring/anchor, making coffee. Here's a video I made of how simple sailing is.
How to sail in 5 easy steps.

 

[dlochner]

My advice, go slow, bring an experience person along for the first few trips, learn docking, sail short trips in pleasant weather, always put the main sail up even if there is little to no wind - have a debriefing often, talk about working boat together (hand signals) for docking, anchoring, take turns @ the helm. Enjoy sitting on mooring/anchor, making coffee. Here's a video I made of how simple sailing is.
How to sail in 5 easy steps.

Learning to sail is easy. Mastering the art of sailing takes a lifetime.

 

[madmax]

Awesome. Thank you for your suggestions and advice. I took a sailing course (only one) last year, and I have learned a lot from that (a total of 12 hours of sailing). I am pretty familiar with tacking, heaving-to, trimming the sails, and how to save a guy that fell off the boat, etc. I was going to purchase a Catalina 30' last Friday/Saturday, but during the haul-out (with a surveyor), I saw hundreds of blisters. I decided not to purchase it. The owner of this boat had it painted (hull bottom) in 2020. That was SIX years ago. He should get it painted every 2-3 years. Anyway, I am looking for another boat, hopefully I will get one in the Fall-Winter of this year. I'll have to save up $$ to get a better and newer boat.

 

[Foswick]

I had a ski instructor when I was a teen who used to say, "If you're not falling, you're not learning." Over the years, I have waffled back and forth about whether this applies to sailing. While I do think that you should get yourself in slightly over your head, every once in a while, I also think that happens organically whether you seek it out or not.

That is, I don't think it is important or even a good idea to intentionally push past your comfort zone. These tests just happen. What is way more important is to maximize opportunities for it to happen, and you do this by just getting out as often as possible. There really is no substitute for trial and error.

I have taught many people to sail and the one thing I have noticed is that it doesn't do much good to teach a skill or principle until the student has directly experienced the need for it. I think the best way to learn is:

1. Learn the minimum required to safely set out for a given outing (considering conditions, sail plan, distance, traffic, etc.) Take a friend, if necessary.
2. Go out
3. Have a mixture of successes and failures
4. Learn what you need to overcome some of those failures
5. Repeat

 

[dlochner]

We always learn more from our failures than our successes.

 

[High Current]

Awesome. Thank you for your suggestions and advice. I took a sailing course (only one) last year, and I have learned a lot from that (a total of 12 hours of sailing). I am pretty familiar with tacking, heaving-to, trimming the sails, and how to save a guy that fell off the boat, etc. I was going to purchase a Catalina 30' last Friday/Saturday, but during the haul-out (with a surveyor), I saw hundreds of blisters. I decided not to purchase it. The owner of this boat had it painted (hull bottom) in 2020. That was SIX years ago. He should get it painted every 2-3 years. Anyway, I am looking for another boat, hopefully I will get one in the Fall-Winter of this year. I'll have to save up $$ to get a better and newer boat.

Sorry to hear your dream fell through for now. Happy to hear you have realistic expectations! You’ll be a better shopper next time around.

I found my dream boat, a Catalina 34, listed for what I now know was a suspiciously low $15k. Survey was a bit of a disaster - evidence of a hard grounding with lots of tabbing failures, among many things, and I withdrew my bid - but not without some hesitation about letting go of the dream boat.

Then another showed up at auction 2 weeks later. Everything I learned from the first survey enabled me give the boat a thorough check-out. It was in (mostly) great shape, but the auction and “as-is” condition kept other buyers away, so I was able to get a much better boat for just $13k with no surprises.

Sometimes a little patience pays off.

P.S. to be fair, I did have to put some extra money and effort in. But as I said there were no surprises. One always needs to remember that the boat itself is just the price of admission.

 

[john6206]

I'm sorry your dream boat fell through. Good news is that boat shopping is fun.

We were exactly there a year ago. We looked at several Catalina 30's and most of them had an awful lot of water in the decks. We found one that was in GREAT shape and I didn't make the offer on the spot - two hours later it was gone! We ended up with a 1995 Catalina 320 and I couldn't be happier with it.

At one point in the process I confided to my daughter that I thought my wife wanted the boat FOR ME, and that what I really wanted was more sailing days on my Capri 18. That led to a lot of heart to hearts with my wife about what I really wanted and what she really wanted. Ultimately she said she wanted to go with me on my sailing adventures, and that she loved sailing on the Capri - but she was not a fan of sleeping on it.

So we got a good price on our boat - BUT we went into it with our eyes open - 30 year old sails, 30 year old standing rigging, running rigging of unknown vintage but it wouldn't surprise me if much of it was original, none of the electronics worked.... etc etc etc.

I think we have the next three years worth of boat upgrades plotted out - who knows if something will end up jumping ahead in the queue.
This year was the big honking investment in standing rigging, running rigging and electronics - and a whole bunch of little stuff. Hopefully the next couple winter investments will be more reasonable.

In hindsight it was a great decision. We had an amazing adventure last summer and are deep into planning for this summer. The biggest thing that tells me that I made the right choice is that when I'm not on the boat - I miss it.

I'm kind of the king of over-thinking things - when I was hemming and hawing about buying this boat last year, I posted on this forum that I just wasn't sure it was a good idea.

Someone (wish I could remember who) responded, "Let me set your mind at ease. You are buying a boat, of course it's not a good idea."

Keep us posted on your boat shopping adventures.

 

[Foswick]

Yeah, not a lot of ideas in sailing hold up well to much scrutiny. As they say, fortune favors the bold. But, disaster favors the foolish. Sailors walk a fine line between the two, as represented in this Venn diagram:

 

[FastOlson]

2026 minus 1995 equals about 31 years. More or less, depending on month finished out. From experience I know that factory sealants (that seal ALL thru-deck fastener penetrations, have a reliable life of about 25 to 30 years at best. Then you can expect water to start invading the core. Best way to counteract this oft-neglected problem is to re-bed ALL the fasteners. i.e. core rot is NOT inevitable.

The "gold standard" is to overbore, epoxy fill, and rebore every hole before reattaching all the tracks, cleats, blocks, rails, and a lot of etc. Use new best quality sealant.

I did this on our boat, and it's tedious but not too technical for a determined amateur. And, I was truly an amateur! In our situation we were also motivated by the need repaint the hull and deck, and restore the old nonskid to safe function again, so that was additional motivation. That, and having nothing better to do with our boat during the worst year of the Pandemic.

Hardest part of the project is probably going to be access to the nuts and washers on the inside. Ask, and I can link your to some photos in my blog.
A further upside is that now we have a "new" sailboat for a fraction of the price of an equivalent new vessel.
Further trivia: I and a buddy just visited the Seattle Boat Show and viewed a new Bene___ 34, and it was less well finished out than your boat and was priced at almost $400K. Cheap-o iron keel, too. Yikes.

Best of luck with your boat! I know several happy owners of that "hull design series" of Catalina (309, 310, 320).
Just opinion, but I believe your model will out-sail a Cat 30, handily.

 

[Foswick]

The advice to rebed is good, but doesn't just apply to boats of a certain age. Unless the boat is pretty new and/or you have reliable information about how it has been maintained, it isn't a bad idea to just start systematically rebedding hardware anytime you get a previously-owned boat. This does a few things:

• You now know how the hardware is installed and what was used.
• You know what is under that hardware.
• You know that the fasteners and surrounding area are in good condition - no hidden problems.
• You have a good opportunity to replace pieces you might not otherwise bother to.
• You are more likely to remove, inspect, and rebed in the future.
• When leaks develop, you have a better idea of where the problem is/isn't.

I have gotten to the point where this is just something I do when anchored out or motoring along on a lazy day - just rebed one or two items. The more you do it, the easier it is. I don't like any hardware I haven't removed in about the past 5 years or so. Just don't know what is lurking.