Looking to acquire my first sail boat

[Ross]

John , I think what your concern is that too

often "Boat Bums" will set up their "shanty" and have no regard for the aesthetics of the surrounding area. I have friends that lived aboard a 27 O'Day for about 5 years. They summered in Maryland and wintered in Florida. They are both college graduates, keep as nice a boat as you could ask from anyone and had less than 10,000 invested in the boat . That included purchase. new engine, some new electrics. Even a person that starts out with no boat knowledge but with an attitude of "I can learn" will be a better neighbor than the person with the attitude "I can afford to own a 150,000 boat and hire all of the work done by others."I see the same syndrome in home owners and know that you can get bums in business suits just as often as you can get saints in cast off clothes.That's my observation on this aspect of humanity.Ross

 

[letterman]

I should read better

Geez, I saw the part where he doesn't know much about sailing. Yes, definitely, buy or find a smaller boat, sail 12'er, and learn to sail on her. I did it with a Penguin and still have it! Then I moved up to a 37'er. My studies when I bought her indicated that 37' was the mean size boat for singlehandling, and that cutter was the boat of choice for most options. However, take into consideration where you will be sailing. On Lake Erie this summer the winds sucked. Not enough to push my boat. But for my Catalina neighbor it was a blast! His boat weighs 10,000 to my 20,000. Huge difference that requires me to have at least 10 knots to get going.As for maintnenece, it depends. Look at where you live. Is the furniture top rate or slightly used or well used? Is your car 1 year old or less and do you alsways drive new cars vs older ones? Are your the type of dresser that can walk in to a high end marina and be properly dressed for it 90% of the time you put on clothes? Me? I dress for comfort. I live for the line of inexpensive but good. My Caravan (most versatile machine made) has 180,000 miles on it and I bought it with 130,000 (for a song). However, all the lines on my boat are now new. I have three hand helds on board, a GPS, just rechromed the winches (like brand new at $35 each) etc. etc. I take care of the stuff that needs to be taken care of and last year I made $13,000.

 

[Ross]

Letterman, I think that you fit my definition of

success. It states that: if you have a lifestyle that pleases you and if you have the means to support that lifestyle, then you are completely successful. Annual income has very little to do with measuring success. Some people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

 

[Beija Flor]

Take it slow, Cullen ...

Yes, you've already heard that. Maybe you don't like it as an answer. But there are less drastic ways to test the waters than diving in without knowing if you can even swim.First - check your area for a sailing school. Go ahead and pay the couple-hundred bucks for a weekend on a day-sailer with an instructor, and probably a few other students aboard as well. Do everything, ask about solo-sailing skills, ask about sailing larger boats, share your dream, LEARN TO SAIL.Then get a boat you can afford even with your house payments ... something small, not a new one, possibly a "trailer sailer" in the 18-to-22 foot range. If it's scruffy, that's not a big thing, but make sure everything works and that it's seaworthy and sound. If it has cabin enough for you to spend the night aboard, so much the better, but don't expect stand-up headroom and a built-in, pump-out head; a bunk, a propane stove, and a porta-potty will do.This boat will be your "advanced classroom" for learning how to sail well and learning how to take care of a boat. Sail the hell out of it, fix it before it breaks, add anything you believe you need for your comfort ... try your dream on for size before you sell everything for a "one-way ticket". Keep it at a marina that's "liveaboard friendly," get to know your neighbors, hang out there a lot, offer to help if someone's working on their boat, bring beer, and ask all the questions you can dream up about the live-aboard lifestyle.After a year or two of this, you should have learned how to sail, you should have repaired or upgraded nearly everything aboard your vessel, and you'll be able to make "an informed decision". I also believe you'll have fun doing this ... and even if you don't move aboard, you'll find that even a little boat is a wonderful refuge from the cares of the world.By the way, I'm doing this myself. Bought a MacGregor 19 last June, and I keep it in the water at a marina five minutes from my office. I've really enjoyed it, even if I'm not ready to move all my worldly goods aboard a boat and "sail away".Good luck, and have fun whatever you decide!

 

[Brian M H23]

I, too

One day, sitting inside in a 55 degree room, as the summer was ending and the AC not yet turned off in the office, had the urge to sail with no prior experience or anything. I purchased a hunter 23 for about $3500 and brought it home - before I even knew what to do with it!I have to say, the first fall I probably broke more than I learned. numerous groundings (in soft chesapeake mud), busted off the bow pulpit, tore a batten pocket off of the main on the spreaders (apparently, the sail can't go up downwind; ) , broke my roller furling extrusion, ripped the clew out of my jib (well, it hapened when I was away from the boat, but it got loose on the furler)Well, I was pretty frustrated by wintertime, especially after a disgruntled marina manager locked the boat ramp and left in between me pulling up to the launch dock and walking up the street to get my truck. (I ended up driving 2 hours home, and 2 hours back the next morn, as I had no nav lights (or pulpit), or skill that qualified me to sail in the dark to find a new ramp) I stuck the boat outside my parents house, emptied anything with water out to prevent freezing, and put the unused portapot inside. It sat untouched, uncovered, and when spring came and I decided that I missed it, i had a lot of work to do!This summer went quite well. Every weekend, and at least 3-4 times a week, I got out. Some days, I would just go out on lake ontario and heave to and read. I'd go out in the shallow bay in higher winds, and struggled for hours trying to figure out how to actually tack the boat in 25 knots. I rebuilt the carb and fuel pump and water pump on the outboard, put new nav lights on, bnew marine radio antenna, sewed my jib back together on my own, replaced the traveler car, repaired the furling extusion with an aluminum piece I designed (hasn't broken yet!), spent quite a few nights about (note that a lady friend is better than any heater ) It's been a great experience (and i got carried away on this post), but point is I am very glad this was a 3.5k boat, not a 35k boat, because i probably did about $1000 worht of damage in the first 2 months, which on an expensive boat could have very easily been $10,000. Start small!

 

[Joe]

Cullen, Please listen

to your heart and your soul. Life change unknown is complicated enough yet to be cast into the seas of sailing the world! Get you a daysail boat and go to extremes learning everything you can of sailing. Walk docks talking to every hand, take advantage of each boarding or voyage to find a mentor setting you straight on your capabilities. Then your plan will mature more than one who first joined the circus, hopped a freight or "cashed out his worldly pocessions" to sail the sea. Maybe you will be one of the lucky ones who will go west.Never put a price on any ship as a limit to measure worth. Never go unprepared anywhere. You'll learn sailing to destination rather than sailing easy winds. You will steady a course. Hold direction. You will not search for anything. Even adventure. You will value new knowledge with confidence, accomplishment and pride. You will discover your questions far from reading answers via internet advisors. Your answers lie in handling a beginning course, sailing out of your first storm, acquiring a boat and understanding homefires waiting in your favorite port. Good Luck. Your dreams. Your future.

 

[higgs]

After all is said and done

You have heard all the does and don't. If yu are still going to make a boat your home you do want to have hot water on board and refregerator and a shower.

 

[cephius (Dave)]

Sail or Live aboard

Cullen,I've been sailing since I was 8. A couple of times I've considered moving onto my boat. I talked with others who had and in each case they told me that they stopped sailing when they moved aboard. It seems its now too much effort to prep their home for sea.I love sailing too much to give it up, so I never moved aboard.I agree with the consensus, get out and go sailing. Home ownership and boat ownership are not exclusive. Almost all of us have both, some with very meager budgets.It will still change your life!

 

[higgs]

Another thought

Cephius makes a very good point. At the slip, when the boat is your home, your stuff will be all over and to go out for a sail will take a lot of cleaning up and eventually it won't be worth it.I have seen good, albeit older, Catalina 27s sell for under $5000 even with an inboard. One can comfortably cruise these boats for several weeks at a time - not offshore yachts, but good coastal cruisers with stand up headroom that will teach you what you will need to know.From there, keep working for a while and build up to the boat that can take you anywhere. If you are really determined do not get involved with a woman who does not share your dream. Living abvoard and cruising was my dream in my 20's, but wives (not plural in the same space of time) didn't want to go. I decided, and do not regret it, to build a life with the 2nd wife and abandon that dream.One reason I am glad I gave up the dream is that now, in my late 50s, it is sure nice to have a good pension coming in with health insurance - something I would have not been able to accomplish living the dream. I have a L Ontario waterfront home, nothing fancy, but good enough, and my offshore boat is 5 minutes down the road. I am free to cruise whenever I choose, but I no longer want to do it full time. Had I been the live aboard cruiser I dreamt of in my 20s, I would, at some point, have had to give up that lifestyle due to age. If one, at say 80 yrs of age, has no pension, no health insurance, no social security, no place to live, what would one do? Fifty years from now, what will that $35k be worth? Just a thought.