Prefer to trailer

[SteveHughessails]

We rented a buoy for the summer, we’re not liking it and won’t do it again. The largest reason, it takes a lot of effort to pack things up and get ready to go. Once we’re done, it takes a lot more effort to pack things up and leave. Once we lost one of our kayaks. Luckily it was right when we got up and we watched it disconnect, lol. I jumped in the other kayak to retrieve it, took me 30 minutes to get back to the sailboat in the waves. It’s quite arduous to paddle out and back with gear. There’s four of us. Have you tried securing 4 boats to a buoy to go sailing? Neither have we, kids haven’t joined us this year. Not to mention fear of things getting stolen. Our boat is quite dirty now. I can’t perform simple repairs. I completed a diy roller fuller. Ya, not dropping the mast out there lol. I miss loading up the boat and pulling it to the lake with the fam.

I’m a trailer sailor.

My best experience, waking up, opening the hatch to be greeted by a group of kayakers and me asking what day is it LOL.

 

[Project_Mayhem]

Most people feel the opposite. It takes about five minutes to grab my dingy from the rack and paddle to the boat. Once on board, it takes about 10 minutes to get everything ready to head out. Trailer sailing involved prepping everything for towing, towing time, about an hour of rigging and then the reverse afterwards

 

[Timm R Oday25]

We've been on a mooring for almost 20 years .
I wonder at times if we shouldn't money up the cash and get a slip . About $2400 a year on the western shore of lake Michigan.
A mooring definitely has is advantages and disadvantages . We use a Watertender dinghy . Wide ,very stable and has the ability tto have a small outboard . Beats rowing ,although I enjoy rowing at times . I can understand the frustration of kayaking out to your boat . Very unstable getting in and out of one . We really enjoy the solitutde of a mooring .
We don't hear conversations of early risers or the music and loud conversations of folks who are still up enjoying the lake time
If we had to step the mast and launch the boat every time we wanteed to sail , I'm pretty sure we would give up sailing.
We've trailered our boat to Kentucky Lake ,some 300 miles each way . Worth it when we were able to stay onboard for a week .
Same for our trip to Door County several years back .The summer of 2025 looks like we will be sailing the Apostle Islands .
All boats are a trade off to some extent .
We can easily and safely drop any of the stays to replace or fix or install a furler . It's a matter of technique and safety

 

[Tedd]

Once in a while I muse about having a boat in the water, especially when my trailer needs some work. But then I remember all the down sides.

• The nightmare that maintenance (or even washing the boat) is when it's at a marina or, even worse, on a buoy.
• A filthy boat virtually all the time, no matter how much you work at it.
• Bottom scraping. Sailing with crap all over the hull below the water line.
• The nightmare of any job that needs to be done below the water line, no matter how small.
• Rot. Corrosion.
• The nightmare of something on the mast or rigging above head height that needs work. Even a tiny amount of work.
• Worry. All the time, but especially during bad weather.
• UV damage. (My boat is under a canopy 90+ percent of the time.)
• Being restricted to local waters.
• Marina neighbours.
• Cost.
• Uncertainty. What's going to happen to my slip fees? Will the marina still be in business next year? Will the local first nations council decide to close it? Will there be some new environmental law that will up my fees or force me to relocate?

I'm sure there are others I've missed but those are the first that come to mind.

In some cases people's life situation precludes trailer sailing--if they live in an apartment, for example. But I suspect that a lot of people who aren't trailer sailors don't even realize that they don't have to put up with those things.