Best be nice to Mr. @Kermit - no telling what he might have the ospreys rain down!
Super Cheap Yachting
- Thread starter fritz3000g
- Start date
My personal opinion is the best way to sail on the cheap is to not be in too much of a hurry to fixer up. Somethings can wait till you find the part used or free. Shop at Walmart or the hardware store for anything you can get away with. Most of my lines and cleats are bought from Menards. But you have to pay attention to what you are buying. Some lines can be just regular twisted line, while your sheets should be double braided. Make sure the core is double braided as well. Critical quick release cleats, you need to buy the good stuff. I made crab handles out of (Brazillion) Teak deck boards. Way nicer than what you can buy, yet cheaper. Plastic decking works as well, but not as nice.
The book is a bit dated now and there may be an updated version but when I was starting out in saling I found "Sailing on a Micro Budget" rather helpful.
https://www.amazon.com/Sailing-Micro-Budget-Larry-Brown/dp/0671552155
As for used part stores in the mid west there in short supply so craigslist, ebay, etc... Seem to work well. I too sail on a small budget and save up for thoes more expensive items. Stingy sailor has a list of cheaper online retailers for supplies and you can always compair defender marine with the other stores as well. Other than that plan your shopping around certain times of the year. WM has bulk line on sale twice a year so if you need a high quality line like a halyard wait until the sail comes on but be on the look out as it only lasts a day or so each time.
The best advice has already been given. Get out there and enjoy the boat. Don't fall into the trap that so many have (even some of us here like myself) that will spend extra $$ to make it "just right" and wind up missing a sailing day.
On a side note where do you like to sail and are you planning to trailer sail or leave the boat in the water?
https://www.amazon.com/Sailing-Micro-Budget-Larry-Brown/dp/0671552155
As for used part stores in the mid west there in short supply so craigslist, ebay, etc... Seem to work well. I too sail on a small budget and save up for thoes more expensive items. Stingy sailor has a list of cheaper online retailers for supplies and you can always compair defender marine with the other stores as well. Other than that plan your shopping around certain times of the year. WM has bulk line on sale twice a year so if you need a high quality line like a halyard wait until the sail comes on but be on the look out as it only lasts a day or so each time.
The best advice has already been given. Get out there and enjoy the boat. Don't fall into the trap that so many have (even some of us here like myself) that will spend extra $$ to make it "just right" and wind up missing a sailing day.
On a side note where do you like to sail and are you planning to trailer sail or leave the boat in the water?
^^ All of the above is lost on this naive little frog. Except for the not being a sailor part. I do get that.
Thanks Lakeshark I've read the updated version: https://www.amazon.com/Frugal-Yacht...g-Sailboats/dp/0070082472/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
His primary ideas seem to be keeping the boat on a trailer and using boom tents. I'm doing the first, but the second isn't really an option around here with our aggressive mosquitoes. He goes without a dinghy and just beaches his swing keel boat. That made me think I can deprioritize anything for the dinghy since I can prob. do the same most times.
I sail in Wisconsin. Learned on Lake Mendota, and have been to Winnebago and Geneva. Next year I hope to explore Green Bay and perhaps a little on Michigan. Once my daughter is a little older I'd like to go up to the North Channel and the Apostles.
Where do you sail?
I totally agree with you about needing something to do. When I sit still I vibrate
. I've always been an inventor, so I wouldn't be surprised if, 5 years in, I invent something and start a business around it. Tried Aquaponics (first part of video is me) for a while, but didn't pan out. Currently I work out of obligation rather than interest.
I live in SE MN and sail primarily on Pepin but next year im looking to try the lake in Lacrosse and the one in Clear Lake IA. I trailer sail so it's nice to hop around from lake to lake when I can. I also spend a week or so sailing on lake Chetek in WI while I help at a bible camp if I can. If you're ever near the state line with MN let me know and perhaps we can get out for a sail. I would love to do the Apostles as well but I think that is still a few years out for me.
King Gambit is preaching the gospel. You can ignore the facts, but you can't escape them. The recidivism rate for juvenile delinquent recreational therapy programs is abysmal. How does sailing relate to any kid? It is slow, boring, and old people do it. It is also impossibly expensive for kids from poor families.It sounds nobler than it actually is. For >95% of the kids I doubt the experience would endure to the ends you fantasize. When one knows next to nothing of what he speaks, anything seems possible.
A better altruistic use for your sailboat is to take physically handicapped folks out and allow them to sail.
As for super-cheap sailing, none of the ideas that you present in Post #1 are necessary and all are a waste of money. Find ways to sail within your budget. In your first year of sailing a new-to-you boat, your boat modification budget should be zero. Your first- and probably second-year's budget will probably be consumed by repairing things that break.
Regarding mosquitoes, go to the dollar store and buy a big bottle of generic-brand Listerine original flavor (gold). With a reusable terry washcloth, spread the mouthwash on exposed skin. Problem solved.
"Regarding mosquitoes, go to the dollar store and buy a big bottle of generic-brand Listerine original flavor (gold). With a reusable terry washcloth, spread the mouthwash on exposed skin. Problem solved."
@jwing wonder if that works for those nasty flies that love to bite on the ankles
@jwing wonder if that works for those nasty flies that love to bite on the ankles
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You don't need much for a dinghy. If you already have a kayak or can get one at a yard sale, buy a spray cover or not, tow it behind. If you have to anchor but want to spend time on shore, drop you're family off at the dinghy dock, anchor or moore and take the kayak back to meet them. No need for something that holds everyone or groceries in a boat that small.
The fly from an old tent will work for a boom tent. A 5 gal. bucket, a 2 gal. Ziploc and an old toilet seat will usually do for a head. You certainly don't need more than 4hp to push that boat.
Ground tackle, as has already been pointed out, is important. 2 anchors, min. Especially for beaching; one on shore, one in the water. Everything else, just as you would for camping without the tent. Of course, USCG regulated equipment and first aid and a repair kit.
I'm outfitting a newly acquired 19' mariner for just this sort of sailing too. No 3 year old. They are all grown.
- Will (Dragonfly)
Works on all bugs in my neck of the woods, including the ankle-biters. I learned the trick from an old woman in Louisiana who sprays Listerine on her door frames and screens to keep bugs out of her house. That worked on my house, so I tried it on my skin. Works just as well as DEET, but without the nasty chemical side-effects.
Boring. I'll make you a deal: Don't preach your religion in the sailing forum and I won't sail in your church.
definition of gospel: an unquestionable truth
It always amuses me when newbie folks come to this forum to receive advice from people who collectively possess many years of experience over a multitude of sailing-related activities, and then wish to debate if it disagrees with their "opinions." Debate is good I suppose; if the debate is between people with similar levels of knowledge about the subject. I don't see how someone with his first boat that evidently (?) has not been sailed much can claim to have a "reasonable opinion" of what it's all about teaching kids how to sail or taking them out for sailing; or, for that matter, trying to recruit kids from disadvantaged families into youth sailing programs, etc. Some of us might know b/c we might have done it--and we might know the likely, most probable, outcome of such efforts--at least locally.
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"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." G.B. Shaw
"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." Buddha
"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." Buddha
To recap the good advice offered on the topic of super cheap yachting:
- Be patient and save. Stuff has a way of showing up if you pay attention and wait for it.
- Go without. You can make do without stuff like motors and dinghys if you limit your sailing destinations for now.
- Keep watching craigslist, ebay, consignment stores, auctions, garage-sales
- Make sure you know your goals are achievable till you get in too deep, and don't expect other people to go along with them.
while the OP may not know what he's doing with regards to kids and sailing, it sounds like he knows something about kids and is well on his way to learning about the matchup between them and sailing, good or bad. Many effective people started just like that.
I took an Outward Bound Course when I was 14. Youngest kids out of 14 of us (well, 28, if you include both boats). I was one of the only ones there voluntarily. Most were there as part of a juvenile punitive program from NY, Boston, etc. They did not like getting up with the Sun, running, jumping into Penobscot Bay, rowing, the solos. The first week was all complaining. I was assigned the captain's position by the watch officer on day one, to be reassigned by election every 2 days or so. They decided that since I was the only one who knew how to navigate, set the sails, and tie the knots, I would remain captain until the tough kid complained that I never had to row. I loved to row. I gave him and one other kid a quick lesson in navigation (how to sight on landmarks and estimate location on the chart, determine the compass heading we needed to take then went and took a bench. It took 2 hours before he came forward to ask me to find them because they were lost. He was just a little farther off-shore than he thought, otherwise, heading in the right direction. It was the eyes. He hadn't developed the eyes for markers. He could barely see them if they were pointed out to him, much less tell what color they were. He decided that was enough of captaining and went back to rowing. These kids were not taken with sailing. They hardly learned a thing about sailing by the end of the course. I bet they even forgot how to tie a square knot two days after returning home but, that wasn't the point of Outward Bound. They were put through some hard things that they over-came, worse than an early morning run, for them, was being challenged when they were unsure, lost or a little scared. They did not like to face the possibility of failure. In the end, they were proud of their sailing trip, the rock climbing, even having jumped in to that cold Maine water every morning. I don't know, but I'm betting they still talk about their course 30 years later.
I was also enrolled in a master's in education-mathematics program. I've taught and subbed for about 6 years prior. I had to develop a lesson and teach it to my peers as part of a class. I did it on vector mathematics and used dead reckoning navigation to teach them how to add vectors. I showed them how to plot speed and direction of boat, current, wind drift. My students (admittedly adults but, I was the only Maths student) were pretty engaged and particularly interested to know if that was really how you navigate.
I feel very strongly that application is the best way to teach and using examples that are meaningful for those applications is the only way to do it. Sailing has a lot to offer as a teaching aid.
- Will ("John Dewey", Dragonfly)