Is there a powerboat in your future?

[Tim]

Slow Down

The whole point to sailing is to slow down a little bit and do something that is in harmony with the world around us. When sailing you work with the wind and tide instead of using brute force to fight it.We spend most of our lives hustling to get more done in less time, both at work and at play. Sailing is a conscious choice to take your time and enjoy the moment. I don't need to add something else to my life where I am just going to rush some more.I may have a small rowboat with an outboard someday to explore local rivers and lakes but I will always be a sailor and take pride in that.

 

[Robert Garrett]

Older

As I get older and the hands and knees hurt more and bend less, a trawler presents the ability to stay in boating. Line handling, docking, and general sailing requires a certain amount of dexterity and flexability. As I age, I am having more trouble moving, pulling and balancing. Therefore, a trawler will allow me to stay on the water. A sailboat is my preferred way, but I do not want to stay at the dock.

 

[Bob Camel]

Like Wine, Pick one that fits

How boring life would be if we never enjoyed all it has to offer.I love to sail, and I enjoy being out on the water. I have both a power boast, sail boat and even (dare I admit to it) a jet ski.For those of you who complain about the bone jarring and cost, have not enjoyed the comfortof a large Trawler or Motor Yacht.I have traveled the Tom-Bigbee waterway, and the intercostal to North Carolina. The Tenn-Tom is not the place for a sail boat. But yesterday I was in the Gulf of Mexico enjoying 10 knots of breeze, 75 degrees and sunshine, with no noice and great seas.My point is both have a place depending on what you are trying to do. I will always sail for the peace and quiet. I will continue to cruise on both the sail and powerboat.My son is trying to convice me that we could cruise on the jet ski and stay at hotels.Not ready to say yes to that yet, but I will not rule it out.I enjoy white wine with chiken and red with my pasta and meats, but I will drink what is available when we run out.I will continue to enjoy the water, both power and sail. I think that if all powerboaters spent a day on a sailboat they would get a better appprecaition for the issues we face as they pass us. I also feel those die hard sailors should cruise on a powerboat, and get an understanding of what happens to the fuel bills as they go on and off plane and how hard it is to pass if the sailor does not back off as he is being overtaken.Unforutunately there are a few rude inconsiderate individuals that give powerboating a bad name.But that is true with Jet skiers and a few sailors as well. Me I will enjoy the water with what ever the man upstairs and the admiral allow me to cruise on. Hopefully with multiple boats to find the one that fits the needs for the day.Bob

 

[Captain Kimo]

Sailing Voyage is the ONLY GOAL

I have a 96' Macgregor 26X which I purchased second hand in 97'. I had the name "FOREVER" many years before the purchase as it was the cheapest part of the purchase. Having sailed everything from a US Navy Lifeboat in 1960, Super Satillite (day sailor), and various charter sailboats, I never thought I would be able to afford a sailboat or as MacGregor calls them, a Power/Sailer. With the 50 HP O/B and 20 Gallons of fuel ($40 every three months), I can get out of the weather quickly. Looking, hearing, and smelling the cigarette boats and cabin cruiser whiz on by convinced me long ago, mine is the better choiceNow retired, my only goal now is to visit all the coves on Lake Mead. Many have coyotoes and mountain sheep coming down in the evening to drink the lake water, eat the shoreline tender grasses, or the coyotoes digging for fresh water clams at the water's edge. Save for the houseboats, there are no other boats on the lake at night. Sunup is when the polite bass fishermen come into the cove with their electric motor running. I notice the bass fish celebrate with a jumping back flip on the fishermen leave, LOL.

 

[CJ]

Speed???

Yeah, Probably.But not for getting anywhere faster. It's more like having a floating condo. Crusing rivers is a little different than saling on big water. Our C-30 is great to sail when the wind blows; however, most of the time it acts like a trawler with a very tall mast. The MPG is wonderful, but the cockpit gets a little cold during the winter months (we do still brave it though, just to be out on the water). There is still a lot of river that I want to see, and I'm at an age, now, that I can quit my day-job and go see it. Cigarette Boat, Express Cruiser, Ski Boat, none of these excite me, but a Trawler chugging along at sailing speeds is a very nice way to see the world--a home with a land view.CJP.S. I'll still sail every chance I get.

 

[Brad Newell]

power?

Power is not my first choice. However, at nearly 68, I can see that I will probably go to a twin-screw trawler in another 15 years. All the labor-saving devices that are appearing on sailboats is delaying the decision time for a lot of folks. Not really looking forward to it. We have made so many passages in conditions that yielded just a nice sail for us, that would have been scary in any powerboat. I don't hesitate to light up the engine when conditions require but I sure like the silence of sail.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Parallel Threads

Check out the Marine Fuel Cell thread currently running. Many good ideas also cover this one.Have had sailboats for 25+ years. It's not the strings and balance for me, it's going up and down the companionway steps! Will use a four part tackle if necessary to keep the sailboat.

 

[Rick]

When I can no longer sail...

...I will kayak. The only "power" boat I see in my life is a small dinghy to get out to my mooring when I move my sailboat to the ocean. Power boats simply have no appeal to me.

 

[Stan Galper]

Boring !!!

I once chartered a trawler to see if I would like it. Once you get going, there's nothing to do! The drone of the engine(s), with the autopilot steering, almost put me to sleep. I'd rather have a boat that keeps me involved. If I couldn't sail my boat any more, I'd probably try a smaller sailboat first.

 

[sail-bum20760]

The quiet would be gone

I don't think I could move over to the dark (loud) side. But they do have their uses. Like a beer run from the islands, when it would take hours under sail and only minutes under power.

 

[jr]

always had both

I've always had both a power and a sailboat. You can't go anywhere on the days with no wind, which oddly enough have been occuring on the cape on my days off!! I just recently picked up a 28' Predator that sunk that I am rebuilding. It's been a great project along with the 30' Catalina.

 

[Dick]

Chill, Friends

Can we just get along? Any boating experience, especially with family or friends, beats a day at the office. I've been boating for almost half a century, thirty of those include sailboats. I currently own a 30' Hunter, 19' runabout, a canoe, and an inflatable with outboard. Last year I helped take a pair of Nordic Tugs up the inside passage to Juneau where they now serve in a charter fleet. It was an "experience of a lifetime." I'm now thinking of adding a 45' twin screw to the mix. They're all good. Just different.To do this same trip on my sailboat would have been very difficult, parts would have been impossible within the bounds of safety. And I couldn't have shared it with as many friends as we had on the two power boats. I move that we try to tone down the "when they pry it from my cold dead fingers" rhetoric and strive to look for common causes to improve the boating life for everyone.

 

[Dreamshadow C 26]

70"s jet boat maybe

I want a backup, you know a 70's Jet boat with 454 blown to suck the gas that I don't burn in the sailboat. Oh but I do enough of that just getting to one of the great lakes. So until I get a boat to run on water as a fuel source I probably will stick to the cost of getting to the lake and look at those fuel sucking machines in there morring because they don't have enough money to run.

 

[Sailor Jim]

Trawler?

I have sailed since 14 years and am now 62. I have owned a Southcoast Seacraft, a Sabre, a Persson and now have a Morgan 323.I have sailed on the ocean, made trips to Bermuda from RI, sailed to Maine, and just completed a trip from RI to Ft Myers. I recently suffered a stroke and now am going about one thing, getting back in shape to go to the Keys, The Bahamas and if possible down into the Islands.My wife and I have considered a trawler, reralized we are not dead and looked no further. I am a sailor. When I am not able to sail they can bury me.

 

[Sailor Jim]

Trawler, I think NOT!

I have sailed since 14 years and am now 62. I have owned a Southcoast Seacraft, a Sabre, a Persson and now have a Morgan 323.I have sailed on the ocean, made trips to Bermuda from RI, sailed to Maine, and just completed a trip from RI to Ft Myers. I recently suffered a stroke and now am going about one thing, getting back in shape to go to the Keys, The Bahamas and if possible down into the Islands.My wife and I have considered a trawler, reralized we are not dead and looked no further. I am a sailor. When I am not able to sail they can bury me.

 

[Mike D.]

Forever in a Sailboat: Priceless

The whole purpose of sailing, for me, is to get away from the internal combustion engine and enjoy the thrill and satisfaction of making the boat sail. I have an airplane that burns 20 gallons per hour. I don't need a power boat to do that. I would be interested in a larger sailboat. Perhaps a runabout when the grandchildren are teenagers. But for now I hope to bring them up on sailing; introduce them to the satisfaction of navagation, dead reconning, and boat control.

 

[Dick Chudley]

Environment a consideration???

Strange that so few comment on the environmental damage that powerboats cause. Huge fuel consumption from a dwindling world supply, how can one enjoy such an irresponsible form of recreation.

 

[steve hunter]

I Think I'd Rather Give It Up Entirely

I believe the expression is to "never say never" but I think never. I am 56 years old with chronic diabetes. I work hard at staying as trim as the sails on a well sailed sailboat and activity not dormancy saves my life every day. Lack of physical activity is what ages all of us regardless of chronilogical age. If we think old we act old. I know sailors in their eigthies! One is a woman who first learned how to sail at 79. She had never even set foot on a sailboat before. One trip and she was hooked. She now sails and lives aboard a 32' Cat she singlehands! She is spry, alert, adventurous and full of life. She is younger than many twenty somethings that I know. Her sailing skills put me to shame. She could dock a boat blind folded.I like the action on a sailboat which is mostly pleasure and a bit challenge. I hope that I do not allow myself ever to get to the point where I am content to be a cockpit potato swallowing cocktails and listening to the drone of and smell of a constant engine(s) running. Challenging oneself and taking risks is the only sure test that you are alive and not just existing. I'd rather die doing what I like than compromising for a few extra years of a less satisfying existence. I am not content to merely be alive but to live life. I think I like the person's earlier suggestion that he'd take up kayaking first!Besides...with the onerous predictions of the "oil merchants" I have heard as of late, we will be soon be facing gas prices of $5 plus per gallon here as they already are in Europe now that we have to compete with the Chinese for oil. I think we will see many more power boats spending more and more time at the docks...what's the point, buy a time share seaside condo. Winds may sometimes be unpredictable and light but they are still free, not to mention that they are quiet, calming and don't smell bad.

 

[Tumbleweed]

I have both...

My Mac26X with a 90hp Honda on it gives me everything I want in a boat at this time in my life....a fast cruiser/ski boat/shallow draft fishing boat/reasonably-performing sailboat. I can go fast, I can go slow, I can go shallow, I can cut the engine and enjoy the solitude of sailing, and best of all I can throw it on a trailer and change the whole venue. If I had a powerboat, though, it'd be a big, comfortable steel-hulled trawler I could navigate the IC from Maine to Key West....just as long as someone else paid for the fuel! Sign me, "Satisfied"

 

[Ben16737]

One of each would be nice...

but I certainly don't have the money for two boats, and I really don't have the money for two boats when one of them is going to suck down hundreds of gallons of fuel. I love boating of all kinds, sailing, kayaking, canoes, and motoring. But if I have to pick just one, it's sailing - I don't even have to think hard about that decision.At the moment, I have the best of both worlds anyway. I own a sailboat, and my in-laws own a powerboat that they love to use for taking us skiing and going out to eat. Maybe someday I'll have the resources for multiple boats, but for now I'll just enjoy their company when I want to be on a boat that planes.Also, I just noticed Dick's comment about the environment. That is a huge factor in my decision to sail. My boat only used 2 gallons of gas last summer, and I STILL feel guilty about it simply because those 2 gallons got poured through an old 2-stroke that leaves a sheen of oil behind me as I approach or leave my slip.