I have found the perfect boat!

[justwannadoit]

I have found the perfect boat! At least I feel she is perfect at this point in my life and to accomplish the things I want to accomplish now. She is a 22 foot O’Day with the shoal keel. She is complete and in good working order with a reliable outboard motor. As a fresh water day sailor only I hope and feel that this small boat will be an appropriate learning platform. I am in the process of replacing the standing rigging (I am adding backing plates also) and running lines, and I have begun acquiring the responsible safety equipment (I just received my new West Marine hydrostatic offshore PFD with harness). I will be mounting a strong point through bolted for tether attachment. I have begun planning my first ocean sailing adventure from Gloucester, MA to York, ME that I hope to do this August. I plan to use my boats 2 foot draft and hug the coast. Besides being more scenic, I feel it will be a better learning experience overall due to the more varied conditions encountered sailing closer rather than further off shore. I have 2 danforth anchors and a 10 inch SS cleat to mount at the bow to augment the 2 smaller cleats already there. I am open to other advice (hopefully specific, sincere and not sarcastic) as to what more experienced sailors would bring and do to prepare. What are the best places to see and take shelter if things get dicey? My family is renting a house at York Beach for a week and the plan is to sail there, (and maybe beyond) drop the hooks off the beach for the week (and enjoy day sailing) and then sail back to Gloucester. If the weather pipes up I can have her taken out of the water and then trailer her home. After I upgrade the rigging I will be splashing my boat to water test her. What say ye old salty dogs?

[Teknav]

Woof! Woof! Follow your plan, but start slowly as there's a learning curve in mastering her. It definitely is a good training sloop! Don't forget to carry with you some electronics toys; GPS, phone, VHF radio...you get the idea. Sail away! Mauritz

[Neo]

Don’t hug the coast too closely. Seeing that you’re a fresh water sailor, you may get a false sense of security being close to shore. You’re much safer a good 10 miles off shore which gives you to give you time to trouble shoot problems with engine, rigging and sails.

We purchased our first boat in Harpswell, ME, and sailed her down to Salem, MA last April. It was our longest cruise and a step up in boat size for both of us. We were on a lee shore in small craft advisory weather and my mate wanted to stay within a mile of shore, which put us much closer to shoals and the like. White knuckles for me all day long. Depending on the weather, give yourself a good 5 to 10 miles. We finely ended up ducking into Kennybunkport for shelter.

You have the right attitude in terms of safety and preparation but a word of advice from this relatively inexperienced sailor, get time on the water with an experienced sailor. If you need to take an ASA or US Sail basic cruising class then do it.

Do you have a VHF antenna mounted on the mast? That will give you much more range.

Practice reefing underway, and reef early and often.

Get very familiar with an online weather app so you don’t get caught in conditions you can’t handle. You''ll be close enough to shore to receive info over your smart phone.

Have a back-up hand held vhf and know the proper terminology and usage.

Have a backup chart plotter or backup charts.

I'm excited for you. Good luck.

[letsgetsailing3]

"At least I feel she is perfect at this point in my life and to accomplish the things I want to accomplish now."

Good move. You managed to skip the B.S. and learn the most important lesson of cruising: you'll save a lot of time and money by getting the boat you need NOW. Congrats.

[Whaubner]

Keep the boat for the week in York Harbor.

The town has moorings (may be a 48 hour limit) there is a nice marina, and a couple private docks.
Much more protected the the beach and quick access to the beach.

For the trip up. Head up the annesquam (sp) if you haven't done it.
Newburyport and Portsmouth and isle of shoals are other good stops. A tide/current app is handy for timing your entrances to the rivers for slack time. note York harbor is also on the river so there is a small current there as well.

It will be a great trip. Enjoy!

[zeehag]

dang ....all that build up and no pix....may i cry now please.....wanted pix....or is that a girl thing....

[GrowleyMonster]

Not just a girl thing, Zee. On my straight razor forum, we always say, "Pics, or it didn't happen" lol!

Wannado, that is a very good first boat and it will teach you a lot about sailing, and you will have a lot of fun with it. I advise getting LOTS of inland experience before venturing outside, though.

Neo is spot-on about the reefing. Before you ever consider going to sea, you need to be able to do a few things quite well, without having to think much about the doing. One is reefing. Your O-Day won't like taking a knockdown and you could find yourself in a serious situation in one at sea. Reefing early will help keep you out of trouble. Learn to heave to, also. A valuable skill when singlehanding a small boat at sea.

Initially you really ought to at least take the Power Squadron course. You will learn a lot of safety and legal stuff that you MUST know before being in charge of any vessel. The ASA courses are good too but a bit pricier. The PS basic course is cheap as beans. USPS - America's Boating Course 3rd Edition for the basic course offered by the Power Squadron. You can even take it online. They have more advanced courses available too.

You can also learn a lot by crewing on other boats. Get your face known at your local marina or sailing club. There are usually informal races on Sunday or on Wednesday evening, and a lot of skippers will take you on as "rail meat", and all you got to do is scramble over to the other side of the boat when told or when everybody else does. Meanwhile you gradually get a good understanding about what makes the boat go, and how it is made to go in different directions. You might find someone willing to go out with you on your boat the first few times you take her out, and give you pointers specific to your boat and correct your mistakes.

Good luck, keep it legal, keep it fun, and BE SAFE.

[tropicalescape]

I too would not recommend you staying to close to shore,only reliable thing about an engine is that it will cut off...

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and congratulations on your new to you boat.
You should be able to pick the boat up nicely by the 10 inch cleat as long as you have a good backing plate! I know its for anchoring but dang that's a lot of cleat. Very beefy and you should rest assured that it won't be the weak link.
kind regards,